You're struggling to build your brand. Can storytelling help you achieve your goals?

Storytelling is the art of crafting a compelling story that engages emotions, captures attention, and resonates with the audience. As a company founder, storytelling matters because it helps me communicate my brand's mission, values, and vision in a way that hopefully connects with my audience on a deeper level. It humanizes me and my brand, creates authenticity, and fosters a sense of trust and loyalty among my partners and clients.

Storytelling humanizes a brand and makes your audience feel like you’re reading their diary. The more you can illustrate their problems using stories and offer solutions to those problems, the more likely they are to create an attachment to your brand, and remember it next time they are in the hunt for something you offer.

Other than having a great product or service, storytelling is arguably THE most important aspect of your brand. People are generally in their own heads thinking about a million things. To cut through all that noise you need not only grab their attention, but to maintain it. You need to make an emotional connection. You may want to entertain, or teach, or persuade, but none of that can be done without establishing a connection. Think about storytelling as a shared experience. You will want to bring your audience to your world. They will want to go there only if your storytelling is compelling enough. So first things first, get to know your audience and what they want.

Storytelling is all you have. You have no choice. You either author the story or don't. We are spontaneous story-generation machines. All it takes is a nanosecond to create one. I saw a disheveled guy with long, greasy hair shuffling down my street dragging a bath towel behind him. It took me less than a second to conclude "homeless crackhead." I was curious. I walked up to him and asked a few questions. Turns out, he's a neighbor. He was looking for his lost cat and was creating a scent trail to lure his cat back home by dragging a towel. My story was WAY off until I investigated. Stories will happen. The better question is: Do you like the story that's being told?

Humans have been telling stories since caveman days. Today there are many more ways in which an "author" can share his or her story. But whether you speak, write, paint, shoot stills or video, it's still storytelling. With regards to business and marketing, the challenge is finding clients that value and appreciate the way you creatively tell a story. Find a really good one, and it's a win-win scenario.

Your Brand story is *your* story, as the founder. Why did you start this company in the first place? Why did you decide to forgo a steady salary, health insurance, benefits, perks, etc for this dream? Why are you grinding day in and day out, facing failure and uphill battles at every turn? Connect with that emotion, with the story that got *you* this passionate about your business, and you’ve got the essence of what you need. Then, swallow your pride and get ready to fail a TON as you experiment with content pieces that tell this story. They won’t be great at first. But the more you test, the more you learn, slowly you’ll uncover the right way to tell this story and help your audience feel that same burning passion that you do.

Incorporating archetypes into the process of finding and shaping your brand story can add a powerful dimension to your narrative. Archetypes are universal symbols and characters that resonate with human experiences and emotions, making them a compelling tool for storytelling and brand communication.

Start by the customer concern, the need gap, the unsolved problem. It will create an insight with tension. Everything else in your story will be to explain how every facet of your brand is articulated in a way to address and solve those issues.

Find your brand story by identifying your origin, values, challenges overcome, and impact on customers. Include elements that humanise your brand, such as personal anecdotes, relatable struggles, and triumphs. Highlight how your brand adds value and resonates with your audience's aspirations, emotions, and experiences. And then find the perfect Storyteller to tell your story...

Beyond these points, look for milestone moments that can resonate with your audience. Examples of these in a business include: - Innovative products that redefine your market. - Overcoming challenges that showcase resilience. - Customer success stories highlighting real-world impact. - Pivotal partnerships that expand your brand's reach. - Initiatives that reflect commitment to social responsibility. - Celebrating company anniversaries that mark your longevity and stability. - Achievements or awards that underscore your excellence and industry recognition. - Expansion into new markets, illustrating growth and ambition.

Structure your brand story by beginning with a compelling hook to grab attention, followed by a narrative arc that unfolds your brand's journey, challenges, and successes. Use techniques like vivid imagery, relatable characters, and emotional appeal to captivate your audience. Conclude with a strong call-to-action that reinforces brand connection. Then find the perfect medium to tell that story. These days, video is one of the most effective ways to tell a brand story.

Products are created to solve a pain point, the villain. The product is the hero, the liberator, fighting against what the villain stands for.

"In Media Res," or starting "in the midst of things," is a powerful narrative approach that can significantly enhance your brand storytelling. By plunging your audience directly into a pivotal moment, you create an immediate hook, capturing their attention and curiosity. This technique mirrors the way we often experience life — not in a linear fashion but in moments filled with action, emotion, and significance. For brand development, employing "In Media Res" means opening your story with an engaging scene, challenge, or achievement that defines your brand.

Ein grunds?tzliches Werkzeug ist der SCOM-Ansatz und das Losl?sen von Kanalbetrachtungen. Es geht nicht darum, was auf auf Facebook, LinkedIn oder TikTok publiziere - sondern um die Aussagekraft und die Qualit?t der Inhalte. Plattformen sind hierzu lediglich Distributionskan?le für Informationen - kein Ziel der Content-Platzierung. Die erste überlegung muss immer die Fragen "Was habe ich zu erz?hlen? Welche Themen behandle ich?" behandeln. Aus den Themen entwickle ich Geschichten, die sich verknüpfen lassen und so eine durchgehende Geschichte erz?hle. Die Geschichten müssen die einzelnen Touchpoints der Customer Journey nebst zugeh?riger Kundenfragen abdecken. Nimm Menschen auf eine Reise mit und stopfe sie nicht als Lead in einen Funnel!

I think one of the best (and most fun!) ways to look at structuring a brand story, especially a "hero narrative," is by looking at the #1 source of hero narratives: classic comic books. There is a reason these iconic characters have been popular (and equally important) profitable IP for over a century! Characters (are they compelling?), Plot (can it move the narrative forward?), Theme (what actually IS the narrative?), and Language (messaging is important). The great Stan Lee was just as great as a marketer as he was a writer: "No matter what you write, it’s a matter of putting words in a certain order so that the reader will be interested in what you’re writing."

your brand story is a foundational element that distinguishes your brand from competitors and resonates with your audience on a deeper level. It goes beyond short-term campaigns or promotional messages, offering a cohesive narrative that reflects your brand's identity, values, and purpose over the long term. To effectively communicate your brand story, it's essential to leverage a multimedia and multichannel approach that engages your audience across various platforms and formats

Sometimes, a stream-of-consciousness approach is a great way to deliver your brand story if you're active on social media channels like TikTok or Instagram. You can narrate your experience in a heartfelt manner and just "wing it" as you go along, mixing authenticity with spontaneity and swag. The key thing here is to avoid being too scripted as that may not be viewed as real by your audience.

I think that many brands still can explore new frontiers by creating captivating and timely podcast content. Branded podcasts allow companies to craft their narrative and showcase their personality authentically. By sharing unique insights through (high quality!) audio content, brands can create a distinct voice that resonates.

Engagement, website visit length, video watch time, CAC, and direct conversions should all be tracked individually as hard metrics, but developing unique methodologies like surveys, targeted A/B tested email promotions (merch works great here), A/B testing in funnel conversions, and feedback projects through direct or event marketing can help gauge other factors like Brand Recall, Loyalty or Net Promoter Score.

Consider these additional metrics and insights: Sentiment Analysis: Evaluate the emotional tone of conversations and mentions about your brand. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Measure the total value a customer brings over their relationship with your brand to see if storytelling boosts long-term loyalty. Conversion Rates: Track how effectively your brand story turns prospects into customers. Content Performance: Analyze which parts of your story resonate the most, using data from website page views, time spent on content, and bounce rates. Social Listening: Monitor discussions around your brand and industry to see how your story aligns with or diverges from current trends and sentiments.

Before you open up your Joseph Campbell and plot your brand’s “hero’s journey”, consider this: Perhaps it is wise for your brand not to be the hero of the story. Perhaps the consumer should be the hero. Consider the role of your brand in helping them in their journey. What gift do you bring to help them heal the broken world? Park the brand ego, and embrace the role of Obi-Wan or Gandalf. For most brand’s, this is more true and more powerful.

Sometimes consistency and longevity are what is needed for that final breakthrough. Many brands came SO close to ultimately failing (Marvel, Apple, Nintendo and IBM come to mind) and then finally hit upon that correct brand story that set them up for future success. Marvel was near bankruptcy and tried one last time to utilize their amazing IP in a whole new way. But this time, the world (and tools like the web, social media, and mobile) was ready. If they hadn’t started their own production studio, Marvel truly wouldn’t have achieved a fraction of the success it has today. it all came down to one character / idea / product / game that they released at the perfect moment!

Do the OPPOSITE of what everybody else is doing! That’ll give you a distinctive and disruptive story angle. Look at Liquid Death in water, Airbnb in hospitality, Virgin in airlines, Brewdog in beer, Tesla in cars, Patagonia in outdoor fashion.

We needed a story when we re-introduced Jack Daniel's back into the Latin American market. JD was seen as a "less quality Whiskey" than Scotch (because of Diageo's great work with brands like Johnny W and Buchanans). We revisited the legends and stories behind the man, Jack Daniel's. We told tales of authenticity, entrepreneurship, and uniqueness and emboldened an audience that had never heard the tales. The project became so successful that BF built 7 global best practices around the efforts, and the brand grew exponentially in the LATAM market.

Telling stories can always help, but you've got to have stories to tell. And if you do happen to have stories, you've got to tell them well. I don't think a lot of this is rocket science.