Brand
Creating Memorable Brands Via Visual Design & Delightful Experiences
February 6, 2021
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5-Min Read
Who doesn't love a good story? A good story can make you laugh or cry. They even have the ability to galvanize people behind a particular cause. Stories are so effective that they've become a crucial tool in the marketing world to connect brands to their audience.
When you consider the findings of a study that revealed that 55% of people will consider buying a brand if they love its story, it's not surprising why brand storytelling has become more than a trendy buzzword in the marketing world. Especially since 44% of buyers will share a brand's story that they connect with and 15% will be moved to purchase the product immediately. This shows that buyers are looking for more than just a purchase, they're looking for human connection. One way to foster this connection between an audience and a company, even for the most technical of companies, is by telling stories - interesting, engaging, entertaining, educative, funny, satirical and sometimes even sad stories.
Brand storytelling is "a marketing method that uses a creative narrative to connect a brand to its customers." Storytelling helps your customers remember information more vividly than when you present them with a bunch of facts. Because everyone loves a good story, customers are engaged and focused on what you have to say. This helps brands build a long-term connection with their audience. In a digital era that can very quickly get noisy and overwhelming, if you want to break through the noise, capture attention, build loyalty, and drive sales for your brand you can no longer afford to be a faceless mechanical or robotic entity. Companies have to become adept at tugging at the heart strings of their audiences and weaving together a cohesive emotional narrative about their brand, about the products, about their people (both customers and employees) and why all of it matters.
But it's not just about telling any story. A brand must tell an engaging story that hooks its audience and achieves its aim - increase sales or CTA.
There are many ways for brands to tell their story. There are even many stories that a brand could tell. But how do you know the appropriate story to tell that will capture your audience? The following tips will lead you towards a compelling story for your brand that will appeal to your audience:
The average buyer is just focused on their wants and needs, especially when it comes to spending their money or time. Therefore, at the core of your brand's story, you must speak to the needs or wants of your audience. Your audience is the hero of the story and you should never lose focus of that in your brand's story.
One way to do that is through User Personas. User Personas are fictitious characters used to represent a real target audience. Although hypothetical characters, the attributes are based on real-world data that accurately reflects the thoughts, feelings, and intent of your audience. A user persona helps you to better understand your user’s needs and desires, which helps you create a more compelling story.
Your brand may have hundreds, thousands, or even millions of customers. Writing a story that meets all of their needs and desires is impossible. With the use of data, you can create a persona that best reflects much of your audience. Write a story that speaks to that persona.
Don't just tell a nice story. Tell a story that makes your audience feel something. Make them laugh or cry or get mad. Stories that evoke emotion are more effective at compelling your audience to take action. Research has revealed that even TV ads that create an emotional response in viewers are three times more likely to result in purchases.
Kraft Kids, a non-profit organization that produces affordable items of clothing and accessories, uses emotional storytelling to tell their story and the stories of the people who work for the company. Each item that the company produces comes with a label signed by the person who produced it. Customers can then find the person’s profile on the company's site, look at their picture, and read their story. To further strengthen the connection to the organization, customers can leave a thank you and share a bit about the life of the item after purchase. Kraft Kids used the emotion of empathy to pique the interest of their customers and tie them to the success story of a community of people living in Northern Uganda.
No one enjoys being sold to. Even if the product might help solve a problem we have, we are naturally wary of salespeople. Your brand's story must be authentic. When telling your story, be open, honest, and transparent. Let your brand story reflect your values and be consistent across your organization. Otherwise, your customers will not trust your brand.
I especially like how Zendesk exemplifies this in their brand communications - they get into the mind of their target audience and speak directly to how their users can get close to their own customers with their product.
Effective brand storytelling is a long-term marketing strategy that helps your audience connect and build a relationship with your brand. Every brand has a story to tell. But a great brand story should be able to win over customers, create connections, and keep them coming back for more. This is how brands like Nike get more than just customers but build lifelong fans.
To summarise and for the skim readers (I know, I know, we are all guilty of that) here are some of the KEY takeaways from this article on brand storytelling for SaaS companies;