How to Make Your Brand Story Resonate with Your Audience
Get to Know the Audience You Are Speaking To
If you’ve ever watched an actor deliver lines in the wrong tone or a writer use the wrong word, then you know that even great stories can be ruined by poor execution. The best way to avoid being plagued by storytelling problems is to be thorough and diligent with your research.
When it comes to writing a brand story, one of the most important things you can do is get to know your audience. If you want to make your brand story resonate with your audience, it’s essential that you understand what they want from it. So ask yourself these questions:
- Who is my audience? How do I know them?
- What are their needs and wants? Why should they care about this particular brand story?
- What are they looking for? How can I give them something unique and interesting enough so that they’ll take time out of their busy lives to listen to or read my words?
- Why should my audience listen to me?
Find the Right Tone
The tone is the attitude you are conveying to your audience. It is the feeling you want to create, the mood you want to set, and how you want to be perceived and remembered by your audience. The tone should always be consistent throughout a piece of writing, whether it’s a tweet or an essay.
Make Sure Your Audience Knows How to Find you
If you’re putting yourself out there as an expert, it’s important to make sure your audience knows how they can get in touch with you. You can use your website, social media accounts, or even a newsletter to keep people informed and up-to-date on what you have to offer.
Make it Clear What Your Brand Story is About
If you want to tell a brand story that will resonate with your audience, make sure it’s about something. This might sound obvious, but many people try to build their stories around events or problems without defining what the brand story is actually about. If you’ve ever been confused by a movie plot or wondered why someone was acting out of character in a book, chances are good that the writer didn’t make this key decision.
Check Your Sources
Check your sources.
Before you start writing, make sure you’ve double-checked the source of the image you are using. As part of that, make sure that the image is relevant to your brand story and appropriate for your audience. For example, a children’s book about how to make homemade ice cream might be better served by an image of children playing on an ice cream truck than one depicting people eating junk food in front of a television set.
Convey Visual Information in Other Ways as Well as Through Images
You can make your stories more interesting by conveying visual information in other ways as well as through images. For example, if you have an office or shop, use text to describe the space. If you’re at a party or event, take a video and share it on Instagram or Facebook. Think of creative ways to add text and graphics to your brand story so that readers can see what’s happening in their mind’s eye — even better than just seeing it with their eyes!
Make Your Audience Feel Something
- Emotional connection is important.
- Use emotion to connect with your audience.
- You can use positive or negative emotions or both.
- Emotions based on familiarity are easier to generate than those that are novel or surprising.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to write a powerful brand story, it’s time to learn how and when to use it! As you can see from the examples above, there are many different situations in which storytelling can be used. Whether you’re trying to convince your boss of something or selling a product, remember that people respond best when they feel like they’re being heard. Don’t forget to have your visual assets captured for your brand story!