How to tell your brand’s story – part two

In January I talked about how one of my clients was having some trouble finding a story that would deeply connect with their customers. They didn’t immediately see that the things they were doing day-to-day already served as an inspiration to others. They suffered from what most business owners suffer from – being too close to the business. Thankfully we found their unique point of difference.

But how do you find your brand’s story?

My client and I talked a lot and mapped out many angles before coming to a conclusion on what makes them unique. If you want to discover your own brand’s tale, here’s a short exercise you can do:

#1. Go back to when you started your business. What struggles did you face as a budding entrepreneur?

#2. Reminisce your first successes. How did you achieve it?

#3. If you already have customers, who are they? Families? Children? Single professionals?

#4. Have you gotten any customer feedback about how your business has affected their lives, especially how it made them happy or feel important?

#5. And lastly, is there any one thing only your business can offer? If there is, how did you come up with it?

This will certainly make a good start… but how can you tell if your story is good enough so that you can use it to get customers?

Well, for starters, it should have one or two of the following traits:

• It should be relatable meaning many people have experienced similar success or struggles
• A lesson or two can be learned from it
• It brings up certain emotions in you and the listeners to whom you’ve shared it with

If your story has these qualities then the next steps would be to choose the medium on how you can tell it. Two easy yet effective options are through your website’s copy and through photos.

Ford is a great example of a brand that does a good job of telling their story. They even made a dedicated website for this, aptly named “Ford Social.” It’s a combination of online media which engages almost all the senses of viewers. They even called on their customers to share their experiences using their Ford cars, making the site more engaging because real-life events are shared almost every day.

Another brand which combines both copy and images to convey their mission and hopefully influence many people to share in their vocation is Zady. Just two years old, their website is not only an online fashion shop but also a platform where the founders, Maxine Bedat and Soraya Darabi, profoundly fill the readers in on the stories behind every product they carry, especially the people who created them.

Chat Thai,  a restaurant in Haymarket, on the other hand, chose to communicate their brand’s authenticity, tenet, and history by using vivid and meaningful images. Their website is actually brimming with more photos than copy.

These are all starting points towards successful storytelling. However, finding and publishing your brand’s story is just one of the first steps to making that deep connection with your customers. Making your story reach them is the next stage.

Do you have any tips for how you found your brand’s story?