How Storytelling Can Grow Your Brand

Are you wondering why your brand is not getting enough attention, in spite of having excellent products? Simply promoting your product or services is not enough today, to grab people’s attention. By developing an authentic story around your brand, you can increase the engagement and interest of your potential customers.

Consumers of today demand storytelling. Because stories sell experiences rather than just products or services. If done right, brands can reap many benefits from storytelling. It is a great way of connecting with audiences because a good story appeals to their emotions. Being a storyteller also helps your brand stand out among other brands in the market.

As a matter of fact, 45% of brand perception depends on what the brand says and how they say it. So storytelling plays a very significant role in the success of your marketing. In this article, we’ll take a look at some interesting ways in which storytelling can grow your brand.

1. Work With Influencers

Using influencers to convey your story to your audiences is a great marketing strategy. The followers of influencers can easily relate to the stories shared by them. And as a result, the story stays with them for a long time. Influencers also help brands expand their reach by putting their story in front of new audiences.

One of the greatest advantages of leveraging influencers is that they share their personal experiences of using your products. These stories are authentic and genuine. Which is why, as a customer, it is easy to relate to their stories and trust them.

The challenge with this strategy is to identify and connect with a suitable influencer for your brand. But with the help of tools and platforms available today, you can easily find the right influencers. Platforms like Grin can make the job of finding the right influencers really easy. Using their built-in filters, you can search by niche, engagement, follower counts, and more.

Amber Fillerup is an excellent example of an influencer who has a huge following (1.3 million). Brands like Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom have collaborated with her. She has mastered the skill of sharing her stories using images and captions.

Image Source - Instagram



2. Use Stories that Reflect your Mission and Values

Your stories should not only focus on selling your products and services. They should help you develop a deeper connection with your audiences. You can use stories as a medium to showcase your brand values in front of your audiences. If your audiences are able to understand your mission and values, they can relate to you better.

The Scarecrow,” a movie by Chipotle, is a great example. This short film beautifully communicates the brand's values and commitment to their audiences. The mission of this brand is to promote hormone-free livestock produced locally under sustainable and humane conditions. If your audiences can relate to your brand's core values, they are likely to become loyal towards your brand.

Image Source - YouTube

3. Present a Relatable Character

Developing a character or personality for your brand is important for the success of your storytelling. Develop characters which audiences like and can relate to on a personal level.

There are many ways of creating a character or personality for your brand’s story. You can create a fictional character.

For Example, Vodafone created a character called ZooZoo, which was fun to watch and easy to relate to. With egg-shaped heads and balloon shaped bodies, these ZooZoos were created to promote Vodafone’s value-added services.

Image Source - Pinterest

But developing characters doesn’t mean you have to necessarily create a mascot or a fictitious character. You can also select some of your employees and feature them your brand story.

Trivago, a hotel search engine, is one such brand which features their India Country Manager to tell their story. Be it a brand mascot or an employee, there needs to be a face and personality to your story.

Image Source - Youtube



4. Make Emotional Connections

As a brand, if you want to strike an emotional chord with your followers, then storytelling is the best strategy. But make sure you always share stories which are real and authentic. Present them in a way that from the very first minute, audiences are emotionally connected to it.

This strategy might sound easier than it is. There are few things which you need to take care of when implementing this strategy. First, do not use fake stories to evoke feelings. And second, if the story is not emotional, do not try and forcefully add an emotional quotient to it. Your audiences will automatically get connected with the brand if the story is real, authentic, and honest.

For example, Google doesn’t really need to use any brand marketing strategy. All they are doing now, is keeping their audiences and followers happy. Their stories are developed to promote Google search engine and they are very moving and convincing. The narration is so rich that it immediately builds an emotional connection with viewers. See it for yourself.

Image Source - Youtube



5. Use Customer Testimonials for Creating Stories

Creating stories using customer testimonials can be really beneficial for brands. It helps your audiences get connected to you at a personal and emotional level.

You can use and generate content from your customer’s feedback or opinions. This will also help you build and strengthen the trust of your customers. Additionally, you don’t have to worry about running out of content ideas. And you can focus and use your budget on other marketing and brand-building aspects.

Coca-Cola is well known for their smart and clever use of customer feedback. The campaign “Happiness is Movement” is a perfect example. The thought behind the campaign was to show and promote how an active lifestyle can bring happiness in life. Coca-Cola smartly collected and used the videos created by their customers which supports the idea of having fun while moving.

Image Source - Youtube

Final Thoughts

Brand storytelling is not a new concept. It’s been out there for quite some time. Because of huge growth in social media and content marketing, storytelling has now become a vital part of marketing. The above examples are not the only ones, but definitely some of the best ways to create stories for your brand.

The main objective of storytelling is to reach out to and engage as many as potential followers and customers as possible. Try out these strategies to develop a story for your brand and achieve your marketing goals.

Are you practicing other ways or strategies to create stories for your audiences? Share your experiences in the comments below.