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What is brand storytelling?

Amanda Hoyer
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It’s said that nearly 90% of customers are loyal to brands that share their values. Building this kind of loyalty takes careful strategy and accurate marketing. Communicating your business values to customers takes consistent and clear messaging.

With marketing’s precision sharpening all the time, it stands to reason that your strategy needs to change, too. How can you keep consumers loyal or draw in new long-term customers without loyalty? The best way to connect with your consumers, in tandem with market research, is through strong branding.

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Crafting a strong brand allows you to communicate those values which inspire loyalty in consumers. How you communicate these values is determined through brand storytelling. Read more to learn why telling your brand’s story benefits your business.

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Logically appealing to emotion

Research shows that messages carried out with narrative style are 22 times more likely to stick than facts alone. Although there’s no denying the impact of logical appeal, you can’t ignore that emotional appeal helps cement valuable information, too. The human brain is hardwired to follow patterns, and keeping in line with common narrative patterns helps, too.

Brand storytelling allows you to capitalize on this emotional appeal, tapping into how people think. With the need for targeted, personalized marketing campaigns, a strong brand story improves any ad. Using AI to get to know your audience, you can craft compelling messaging to connect with audiences on deeper, more personal levels.

Constructing a narrative shows customers what your business stands for. It communicates professional value and the human element(s) behind your business operations. The more consumers see the voice and personality of your brand, the more they’ll trust what you sell them.

Inherent, undeniable standout factor

The best way to communicate your brand values means sharing everything you can about how and why your business operates. Giving consumers an in-depth look at these factors to build that standout factor:

  • The history of how your business was founded or created
  • Your company mission, vision, purpose, and values
  • What motivates your people (including you) to operate
  • Who you serve and why you enjoy serving them

Connecting with consumers isn’t just about knowing every personal detail about them. No matter the benefits of market research, the inherent value of authenticity is more than enough. Although knowing who you’re advertising to matters, your business stands out on its own when you share essential, compelling truths with people.

Think about the biggest, oldest brands around. Titans of industry like Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and so on all have a strong brand story. The benefit of being a small business is that you can more immediately communicate the unique whys and hows of what makes your business one-of-a-kind.

Creating a digital community

More and more, people desire connection when they follow or favor brands. It might be witty slogans and social media captions that bring a quick laugh and demonstrate your business’s offerings. It could be a heartfelt campaign about the good work your company does. Or, it could be about the types of people who best reflect your company’s values.

Tapping into any one of these paths allows you to generate genuine interest in the story of your business. When you capture the attention of consumers through emotion, you compel action. That action may be building a following online, purchasing your products, or spreading the word about your business.

These actions help cultivate a digital tribe or online community. When company values align with consumer values, it’s easier to communicate empathy for customer pain points. In turn, customers trust and value your brand more than your competitors, increasing the likelihood of long-term client relationships.

Empathy is the key to mirror experiences

Finding the most success through brand storytelling happens when you accurately convey empathy. Consistently communicating value and messaging sparks an emotional mirror experience. Mirroring occurs successfully through three key elements:

  • Identification: when target audiences recognize shared values between a brand and themselves
  • Subconscious switch: audience replaces the brand “character” with themselves and their own desires
  • Reenactment: audiences mirror the experience within a narrative and are motivated to act

Making a path for empathetic interactions and the resulting mirror experience isn’t that difficult. Your priority is to start with a clear picture of your target audience. If you don’t know who you’re telling your brand’s story to, you can’t successfully advertise.

Getting to know your audience isn’t impossible. With different types of market research and testing varied marketing campaigns, you’ll discover when your brand story truly hits the mark.

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Amanda Hoyer
Amanda Hoyer
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Degreed in Psychology and English, Amanda fell into copywriting and blogging when she discovered an innate gift for narrative…
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