How to really stand out: 4 amazing brand story superpowers

Raise your hand if fall is your favorite time of year! Those fresh mornings with a hint of cool crispness. The mad rush for all those fun new school supplies. The scent of pumpkin spice wafting in the air. And, yes, sigh, budget spreadsheets!

While budget building is not on my own top 10 favorite things to do list, I do love this time of year because it’s a very good time to talk about building support in your budget for your brand story.

Why should you find a way to squeeze something more into the already crowded brand and marketing mix you’re managing?

I’m glad you asked. You may have seen all the great research showing that a powerful brand story, especially when it’s infused with a strong purpose, can do amazing things like help you stand head and shoulders above everyone else. With purpose and story, you can outperform other companies, increase revenue, add jobs, improve engagement and so much more.

As you roll up your sleeves and dig into your budget for next year, consider how these four incredible superpowers might help you achieve success and stand out in all the noise.

Superpower #1: Shape business strategy

As Jeff Swystun, author of Why Marketing Works says, “Brand strategy brings business strategy to life.” And your brand story, which brings it all into focus, gives people the narrative and emotional connection they need to get how you can help them. This makes your brand story a powerful tool for shaping and leading business strategy.

 When you think about your marketing strategy for next year, ask yourself these questions:

• Does your current brand story match your current business strategy? 
• Do all key stakeholders agree? 
• If your top business priorities don’t align to your story any longer, what needs to change? The story or the strategy?
• What is the purpose of your business—your mission, vision and values? How has that changed over the last year?

Having an overarching purpose that goes beyond profit can have significant impact. The proof points on purpose are piling up. Consider, for example, that companies with a strong, clearly articulated purpose (purpose + story) outperform the stock market by more than 200 percent (Havas).

• Does anyone outside of your business care about your purpose? 
• Who are your customers? What do they care most about now (maybe that’s changed in the last year)? What do they aspire to do or become?
• How does your business empower customers to overcome challenges and realize opportunities in a way that no other company can?
• What about your employees? What kinds of employees does your business need to innovate? How does your business attract and keep those kinds of employees?

A review of the brand story and business strategy of a professional services business I advise revealed a major disconnect with rapidly shifting customer needs. The result was a pivot of the business and brand to an adjacent market that was vastly underserved and with deeper pockets. The shift in focus also enabled the company to impact a much higher number of people with its purpose-driven approach.

If your story and your business strategy don’t align, it’s time to refresh, and you should build this into your budget for next year. As the owner of the story, you can lead the initiative to gather input, analyze data and recalibrate to new and possibly better opportunities as needed.

Superpower #2: Rally the troops

Your brand story is a highly motivational rally cry. It tells everyone—customers, employees, investors, advisors, partners--why you’re doing what you do and why that matters to them. Based on the story, everyone should be able to align their own actions—and goals—to the story and understand the impact of their efforts in the context of the story. When this happens, you see a much higher level of engagement, and that drives better performance.

In fact, companies that articulate and act on this type of clearly stated purpose consistently outperform their peers. Companies with highly engaged employees experience 2.3 times the revenue growth of companies without them (Deloitte)

Consider your brand and marketing strategy for next year. How might you use your brand story to excite and motivate your different groups of stakeholders to speed progress on your business goals? 

Superpower #3: Supercharge customer connections

No one buys what you do; they almost always buy the story behind what you do. And that story gives you a powerful framework to fully engage across your buyer’s journey.

At the beginning, your story helps buyers get to know you. If they like you—your personality, your values—and if they believe you, they are much more likely to become your customers. 

This isn’t just feel-good marketing speak. 64 percent of consumers who had a relationship with a specific brand did so because of shared values (HBR). Customers who like your story are 55 percent more likely to buy in the future, and 15 percent will buy immediately (Headstream). And, they may be willing to pay up to 64 percent more for your product or service! (Hill Holiday, via AdWeek).

What’s just as compelling is the fact that your story can keep you laser focused on your customers over time. Have you changed personally in the last year? Have your challenges and opportunities at work evolved? I’m willing to bet that the answer is almost always, “Yes!” Yet, as much as 75% of marketing leaders fail to understand or respond to shifts in customer behavior (Adobe). Imagine the impact that this failure to stay in touch might have on your business goals.

Your story shouldn’t be a one-way monologue—it should be an ongoing give-get, free-flowing conversation. How your prospects and customers respond to your story over time can give you important clues about emerging issues and trends that in turn feed your strategy and fine-tune your story.

Opportunities for investments in deeper customer connection include: social listening programs, customer advisory boards, user groups, events and more. What programs might help you stay connected with the day-to-day world your customers live in?

Superpower #4: Launch an army of brand champions

Great brand stories evoke strong emotions, and help turn your customers and employees into an unstoppable force for sharing your message. Customers that consume your story-infused branded content via social media are 90 percent more likely to recommend your company to someone else they know. (WE Worldwide) And that word of mouth advertising is powerful—92 percent of people trust referrals from people they know over all other forms of advertising, versus just 58 percent for owned media. (Nielsen)

Then—added bonus—you can capture all that good will in a customer (or employee) success story program, shining the spotlight on your customers as the story heroes, sharing the lessons they’ve learned and the outcomes they’ve achieved. One client I worked with struggled to staff a lucrative tech services business in a very competitive job market. An employee success program helped show how some of the stars they’d already landed were doing amazing and impactful work that they were very proud of—and the program was wildly successful at bringing in new consultants.

What’s in your budget for next year that helps you create and keep your army of superfans? How can your brand story shine a light on the ways in which you have transformed your customers and employees?

In the end, story stands above it all

When you invest in your brand story, you’re investing in a long-term program that complements your marketing strategy. The gains you make may be more challenging to quantify directly than other programs, and often take longer to realize (More on this in a future article). With time and planning, though, your brand story empowers you to rise above all the noise. 

What superpowers does your brand story give you? How are you investing in brand story next year? Share your brand story powers below!

Want to discover how your brand story can give you superpowers and drive business growth? Visit getyourbrandstory.com to learn more and schedule a free consultation call.