BSK: Story
In this session, we will talk about your Story, also known as your messaging.
Why does a Story matter?
People remember stories. Facts are boring, and numbers can be made up. But stories—relatable, emotionally engaging stories—stick.
People don't just buy the product or service; they buy into the attached story. Thanks, Seth Godin, for teaching me that one.
The Story card [found in the Brand Strategy Kit] covers two types of messaging.
The first is your brand's core identity, and the second is the content you put out regularly as content marketing, as part of a campaign, or content plan. This is the stuff you talk about after you've set the foundational Story of your brand and want to keep people informed about your business and engage your audience in a conversation.
One is a Bio on the About Us page, and the other is what you'd discuss in a blog.
1. Let's start with - your Brand Story.
We're looking for a description of who you are as a brand, what you promise, and how you got here. Your brand Story is what represents you whenever a passerby might find you. Whether in the middle of the afternoon or the middle of the night, your Brand Story will represent who you are and why you’re in business.
The point of a good Brand Story is that they (the Audience) have what they need to suss you out. They have something to find - something they can learn about you.
Prompts to help you write your Brand Story:
Why did you start? Why did you take on this project?
Who inspired you to try doing this?
What problem does your product solve?
Where did the idea for this venture come from? What was your experience that gave you the lightbulb moment?
Where are you on the journey so far? What are the highlights and milestones you've already covered? When did you start?
Where are you hoping to get to next? What’s your dream?
If money was no object, what are you trying to achieve? What are you passionate about?
How do you want to serve people? How do you want to do business? What makes the way you serve customers special and unique?
Who have you helped in the past - what type of work have you done?
What are you trying to do to the industry? What change are you seeking to make?
Who is on your team helping?
Things to keep in mind about your Brand Story:
Presentation of your brand story should reflect your Values and how you want to operate (for example, you value being candid and approachable).
Your Positioning - how you compare to others offering the same thing.
The tone you want to set for your brand.
Your Audience - what do your customers expect to learn from your story, and what do they care about? Remember what type of content your audience is looking for and what information they need.
For example, if you're a new-age bank, you might want to discuss how you prioritise technology because that's how millennials and Gen Z do banking.
If you're a bean roaster, you might want to talk about how your guava-fuelled journey through South American coffee fields inspired the coffee you now sell to specialty baristas.
2. Conversational Stories.
Conversational stories are the continuous prompts you put out there that fuel a conversation with your target audience. Speaking about topics they can relate to and find relevant.
Examples of conversational Stories are:
Updates to your workplace like moving offices or installing a pin pong table.
Updates on your people and new hires to the team.
Telling people about a new charity or initiative you’re sponsoring.
Returning to the banking example, where your Brand Story focuses on how much technology you use at the core of your offering. The bank’s continuous content can discuss how interest rates impact customers and the latest fee structures.
For the coffee roaster, you might want to tell people you're doing a single-origin-batch-brew-special-one-off-experimental-blend, and only the first fifty DMs (Direct Messages) on Instagram can buy a bag.
Helpers Hint—Find your Brand Voice: Building a brand takes a long time because it takes a while for people to register what you’re saying and for you to explain what you do well enough that people care.
In building your Brand, you’ll develop a Brand Voice. This is what it sounds like: it’s the voice your Brand uses when presenting content and participating in client-facing conversations.
The shortcut here is that looking at your Values will speed up finding and understanding your Brand Voice. Meaning you can share it with others in your team, build a consistent approach for the company and, in turn make sure your Brand is being represented well in all settings - especially the one that really matters
Helpers Hint—Plan Ahead: It is possible to brainstorm, produce, and schedule your stories in advance! But be careful not to go too far ahead because the world constantly changes. If you invest too heavily in content planned three months ahead, the world and what you need to say could change so dramatically that whatever you had planned becomes irrelevant or out of touch.
This is an important point because your Conversational Content helps you find Content-Audience Fit. This is a concept were you have a clear understanding between what you need to say based on what the audience wants and needs to hear.
Finding Content-Audience Fit is extremely valuable because it helps you know how to structure an effective content-based marketing message as well as how to invest resrouces in producing that message.
A big part of finding the ‘Fit’ is responding to people when they reply to the converstaional prompts you put out to stimulate that conversation.
The point is, planning is great and good and saves you time and money, but planning too far ahead can leave you out of touch with what’s happening and this can be a danger to your Brand.
How active you are in that conversation depends on your interest, availability, and the other factors mentioned, like Values, Positioning, and your Audience's expectations.
To look more into content planning you can review our post on Content Planning.
Helpful Hint - Plan your Pitch: When talking about conversations, you might want to plan how to pitch your idea and explain it to others. A ‘Pitch’ is a labelled way of saying ‘“short explanation” versions of pitching can look like this:
The elevator pitch - how would you explain your idea to someone in the time it takes to ride an elevator (i.e. about 20 seconds, you could say)?
The slogan - what’s the line attached to your Brand Name?
What’s the short story of how you got here and how you help clients?
That's the Story - see you on the next one.
Last Updated: 23/May/2024