Nowadays people are seemingly getting tired of the too much noise in the market. Customers are looking for genuine connections with brands. The big question is how to cultivate that genuine bond with your customers. One of the impressive ways you can achieve it is by telling a captivating brand story.
Through the brand narrative, you will communicate to your audience about who you are and how you are going to help them. The story humanizes your business. The better and touching your brand story is, the better your chances of standing out and conquering the market.
Science Behind Brand Story
You may wonder why storytelling is strong. Storytelling is known to trigger the customers’ biological response. A story will elicit emotions, grab attention and engage your audience. That is not just in business but it cuts across all platforms. A good story will capture people’s attention and elicit some of their emotions.
A good narrative could trigger the release of oxytocin (feel-good chemical) or cortisol (stress chemical) from your brain. That is the reason why you feel overjoyed when lovers get together after a long struggle in a movie or feel anxious watching a horror movie. These are only examples to show how stories impact our emotions and feelings.
Crafting a compelling story will draw in more customers naturally. Whether the story is about how you created the business over years or how your product enhances people’s lives, having a unique brand story encourages people to create a positive relationship with your business.
Features of a Compelling Brand Story
To curate a captivating brand story, you need to know what are the attributes of a spellbinding story. What makes it impactful? There are five impeccable elements that your brand story ought to have to thrill the audience.
- It’s personal – personalize your brand story to accommodate the customer. The customer has to feel personally connected for the story to hit the right spots and trigger their emotions. They will not pay attention if they don’t feel any connection to your story.
- It’s meaningful – the internet is full of millions of articles, stories, brands, all aiming at grabbing the customer’s attention. Save the customer’s time by creating a relevant and interesting brand story.
- It’s emotional – a great brand story should stimulate empathy and emotion. The goal should be to bring out how you will affect people’s lives rather than what you do. If you have an automation software for emails, you want to ell people how you will make their life easier and save their time.
- It’s authentic – your brand story should actually be your story. It has to be transparent, open and honest depicting your personality.
Here are some few hacks to tweak your brand story to what customers actually want to hear:
- Let the story come first, product second
By telling your story first before selling the product, you are already answering some pain questions by the customer. What value are you giving them? What problem will you be helping them with? It will save you some resources especially from aggressive advertising since the consumers are already aware of the brand.
- Find Your Audience
Creating a compelling story is great but you have to know who is your audience. You have to pick the appropriate demographic for your business and learn their fears, needs, dreams and wants. Look for what they value most and get them a story that shows you have them in mind for the long run.
- Design a shareable brand story
A lovable brand story has to be shareable. People share content because it made them think of something or smile, to define themselves to other people and to get some positive validation. Make sure you curate a brand story that consumers will engage with and relate to. It strengthens the relationship between them and the brand as well as bringing in more prospects through sharing.
- Keep it simple
Experts recommend that a compelling brand story ought to be simple. You do not want to create a complicated story with so many hidden meanings. You want it simple to understand and one that everyone can easily relate to. Look at the big successful brands and observe their brand stories. They are simple to understand stories that everyone contemplates what it is all about immediately.
- Be Human
For you to connect easily with your audience, your brand must sound and look human. Your brand story should be a human trying to interact with other stories, symbols, users and discourses. Package the brand as a human, possibly conservative, agile, young or experienced for you to connect on a higher level with your customers.
Your brand story could make or break your business. You want to come up with a compelling brand story that engages the customers and relates to their everyday life. The story should be able to evoke emotions as research has it that humans will make decisions based on their emotions. Also make the brand story simple and easily comprehendible by virtually anyone.