How Telling Stories Translates to Brand Marketing Success

by | Jan 26, 2017 | JFG News

The foundation of any brand’s image is the story it tells — and how. Here’s how you can use storytelling to catapult your brand’s marketing to the next level.

Create A Cohesive Narrative

A brand narrative is an important strategic statement about a company and includes its origin, history, and identity; its values and goals; and what makes it special. Successful brand marketing initiatives are built upon the principles outlined in the narrative. The narrative should be robust enough to inform and influence every piece of marketing collateral.

Identify A Target Audience

With a brand narrative and positioning document firmly in place, the next step is to identify target audience members and segment them into full, fleshed-out personas. The personas will be of the most use if they include details such as age, income level, interests, and potential challenges. To identify the target audience, you’ll need to use tools like social listening software and website data analytics. This step can seem superfluous, but these personas will help you tell a story that resonates.

Leverage the Power of Video

Video is a powerful way to tell a story. It can convey a great deal of information in a colorful and succinct way. But most importantly, video allows you to tell your brand’s story in an accessible and entertaining way, creating a lasting impression.

Testimonial videos are a great way to humanize a brand and create an emotional connection that can only be cultivated by peer-to-peer recommendations. But don’t stop there. Find a way to touch on what makes your brand special by giving it larger meaning.

Consider User-Generated Content

Like testimonials, user-generated content can create a very personal, emotional investment in a brand. By inviting your customers to be brand ambassadors, you’re demonstrating interest in their opinions and, most importantly, gaining their trust. Video is one of the most compelling formats for user-generated content, but it can take other forms, too.

Market Across Channels

Consumers are adopting an ever-increasing number of digital technologies and are active on a growing number of devices at any given time. For example, many consumers watch television with a smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device in hand. The most successful brands are those that pull social media, search, and offline marketing activities together into a cohesive strategy.

If you’d like to see examples of how brands made these strategies work for them, click here.