When it comes to building relationships and winning new customers, one of the most effective methods is to share your brand story.
A lot of small businesses don’t think of themselves as a brand. Many people think of Nike, Amazon and Google as brands. But every business is a brand, no matter how small.
What is a brand Story?
Your brand is so much more than just a business name, colours or logo – that’s branding in my opinion. Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. It’s how customers feel about you, it’s your reputation, and it’s how your business is perceived by those who interact with and experience it. It’s more about the feeling than the transaction.
Your brand story is how you portray your business in the world – it’s how you engage, connect and build relationships with your customers. Your brand story can help you attract with your ideal prospective clients and deepen the existing relationships you have with your current clients. When your brand story is genuine, you’ll attract they type of customers you love doing business with.
If you want to succeed in business, everything you do must always reflect your brand story. Consistency is key: From your marketing to your emails, to your blog posts, to the way your staff greet and speak to customers – Every. Single. Touchpoint.
Why Share Your Story?
Sharing your brand story helps people to know, like and trust you, as your story helps prospects connect with and relate to you and your business. People want to be inspired by what you do.
Your story can help set you apart from your competitors. It’s your story, so it will be your own, unique version, told in an honest and authentic way.
Tips for Writing Your Brand Story
As with any good story, it’s important to show, not tell. Your story needs to detail why you exist and demonstrate how you make the world a better place through your products, services or solutions.
The first thing is to consider: What’s the purpose of your business? Why do you exist?
Story ideas to consider:
- Showcase your business history and how you got started in business
- Share the scope of your industry experience and knowledge
- Inform readers about the solutions you offer and how you overcome their problem, so your ideal prospects feel like they’re part of your story
- Share your USP – Unique Selling Proposition – it’s what sets you apart from your competitors
- Profile the challenges you’ve overcome, how you’ve innovated or the ways you’ve adapted to a changing market – show how you’ve tackled adversity
Build on Your Business’ Story
Once you’ve formulated your foundational story – and shared it with your audience – you can continue to expand on it:
- Profile your team members, their stories and their role in helping customers
- Share how you won your first client
- Think about your company values – what’s really important in the way you operate as opposed to working for someone else doing the same thing? Prospects with similar values will relate to your business
- Client success stories are a brilliant way to share your brand story – show how you’ve helped one or two of your clients, including their problem, your solution and the outcomes you produced for the client
You can also build on your brand story through internal processes for dealing with customers, templating email responses, guidelines for social media content and much more. Again, the key is to be consistent in the story and image your business projects.
Final Tips
When writing or sharing your brand story, always:
- Be authentic
- Be consistent
- Reinforce your business offering – the problems your clients have, the solutions you offer and the outcomes delivered
By sharing the story of your business and brand, prospective customers and current clients alike can relate to you, making them more likely to be engaged and want to do business with you.
We can help tell your brand story through website content – especially your About Us page, client success stories, a series of blog posts or a business award submission.
If you have any questions about putting together your brand story, feel free to get in Contact.
