Humans crave stories. Stories are how we connect, learn, and grow about ourselves and others. And while dedicating time, effort, and budget toward storytelling might seem like an overhead expense, think again.
Brands whose stories resonate with audiences enjoy stronger, more loyal customer bases, even in saturated markets. Dig into your company’s origin story to develop a brand story that customers will gladly listen to. Then, present it in the best way possible.
1. Dive into Native Advertising
Pop-up ads are today’s cranked-to-eleven commercial breaks, interrupting an otherwise pleasant viewing experience. Today’s revenue models practically require websites to wallpaper every pixel of white space with advertising. The result can drive advertising engagement down, the over-exposure to campaign messages shifting into background noise.
However, all advertising is not dead. In fact, strategic advertising, and thoughtful messaging, delivered through the right channel can be effective and even enjoyable for customers. Leverage your blog content by partnering with a native advertising agency to secure premium placement in front of your customers.
If you think the concept of native advertising is new, it may be more familiar than you might think. If you’re reviewing a recipe, you may see content suggestions at the bottom of the webpage. Sometimes these are from the site owner, but other times, they’re targeted native ads.
Through contextual targeting, your native advertising agency can help ensure your messaging reaches the right customer. If your recipe search was for a quick weeknight family dinner, you might also be interested in fast, healthy snacks. Native advertisements would show results relevant to the viewer’s primary search.
Beyond just presenting similar products and categories, this tactic allows you to layer your messaging. Sure, you’re offering quick, healthy snacks, but that’s not enough to be memorable. Share your company’s passion for healthy snacking, your goals, and how your product will help customers achieve theirs, too.
2. Reformat Content for Social Media
This isn’t another plea to sign up for yet another social media channel. However, it is a reiteration of industry best practices to meet your customers where they are. Media markets are saturated, customer attention is distributed, and distractions abound even when engagement metrics count page hits. Modern society has an attention problem, with alerts, pings, alarms, and notifications constantly tugging at customers from every angle.
Combat messaging fatigue by engaging authentically on social media, and adjusting your strategy for each channel’s style. Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, heralds back to the early days of the 140-character app, prioritizing text over dance videos. Use this platform’s words-first style to pose questions, engage in conversations, and provide tips.
As one of the newest platforms, its primary user base is full of early adopters. Take advantage of this early engagement and less competition by devising your Threads storytelling style. Develop a storytelling strategy for each platform, and commit to revising how you show up on each.
While it may be tempting to replicate the same message everywhere, customers know better. Instead, break down a piece of existing content, like a long blog post, to inspire social conversations. Create a carousel for Instagram with your manifesto, origin story, or achievements. If your company shares profit with charities, recycles returned packaging, or is transforming a category, use social media to share.
Follow best practices for top engagement across platforms, striving to become an expert on the most effective calls to action. In the end, drive traffic back to your primary post or into your sales funnel. Get company leaders and individual contributors on camera to improve human connections across social media. You don’t have to be perfect, and you shouldn’t be. Lead with authenticity, laugh, and slough off overly-corporate language to bring your brand story to life.
3. Engage Your Audiences Through Public Relations
At its core, public relations is all about creating relationships. And it’s those relationships that can help tell your story for you, even when you aren’t around.
Often wrapped in marketing, corporate communications, and other communication disciplines, public relations has lost its placement within organizations. No matter your organizational structure, it’s smart to dedicate your storytelling efforts to relationship building.
Engage with the community where your company does business, has workers, and manufactures products. As an active player in your community’s economic landscape, it’s wise to do so, even without considering your brand story.
Connect your company’s purpose with topics relevant to its public. Think back to your principles to identify connection points and then seek out brand advocates. Sometimes, this may be a member of the media whose beat may cover business or something outside of your products.
If community volunteering is a tenet of your organization, there are many ways you can share that story. Share how you structure your program with HR leaders through business media. Celebrate your team through traditional media with all-access to your latest volunteer day. Reiterate your company commitment to giving back on your boilerplate, through talking points, and website. Celebrate your brand story through every angle, even the most unexpected ones.
Create Authentic Connections With Your Customers
When you know someone, you’re more likely to trust them, and the same tenet holds true for brands. In an ocean of off-brand options, your brand story can set you apart from others sharing your category. Dig deep to articulate your company’s purpose, what drives your organization, and what you want to help your customers achieve.
Share your passion, align it with what matters to your customers, and create an authentic connection surrounding these shared goals. When you do, you’ll earn customer loyalty, reinforce your purpose, and solidify your legacy thanks to your compelling brand story.
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