Telling your brand story.
Your passion has got you here, you have a great idea for a business, you might already be underway, but how do you capitalise on your ‘story’?
When telling your brand story there is an awful lot to talk about. The trick is narrowing your message down and distilling it to really what you (or your business) stand for. Saying it in an engaging and cohesive manner so your customers get to ‘know’ you and are happy (and know what to expect) to hear from you.
Always worth remembering is that ‘people buy from people’. The purpose of your various platfoms should tell your story in slightly different ways, that fit the platform, whilst remaining cohesive. The platforms I’m going to cover are:
Websites
Social Media
Digital Marketing
What are these platforms and how can they work together cohesively to tell your brand story? Let’s take a look.
Website
Your website, in today’s world it behaves as your shop window, your port of call for most customers. Your google search, advertising, social media accounts and ‘real world marketing’ all point to your website. This first (and possibly last) interaction with your customers needs to be strong. Cohesive and ‘on brand’. What they have seen on their ‘search’ needs to be reflected on that first landing page or you will find they ‘bounce’ away and look at your competitor. Just like in the real world, if a bricks and mortar retail experience doesn’t measure up to the advertising or customer expectation, they will leave and never return.Things to consider for your website when building your brand as well as your website:
Seamless Customer Journey
Clear navigation, what do you want your customer to do? Are they contacting you or completing a purchase. Make it easy! And quick!
Personable
Don’t miss this opportunity to talk to your customer. Engage with them, they seeked you out!
Cohesive branding
Wherever your customer found you, they have read or seen something they like. When they land on your website make sure it looks like what they expect. Cohesive branding will help them on their journey and engagement.
Relevant content
While your customer is there, help them on their decision journey with relevant content (blogs, information, e-books, video, photos and much more). Make it easy, interesting and engaging with a clear Call To Action. Help them feel confident you know what your talking about and they want to talk to you.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
This is a largely over-looked and easy and free way to increase your chances of appearing in 'organic’ searches. Most DIY websites have the ability to build in SEO with tags, metadata, alt-text (and more) as well as having relevant content so all those SEO bots can find you!
Responsive to mobile and desktop
Most DIY websites (Squarespace, WordPress, Weebly, Rocketspark etc) will have built in responsiveness which will ensure your customers can see your website at it’s best where ever they are.
2. Social Media
Today’s market spends A LOT of time on social media in all it’s forms. This is a huge (and cheap) opportunity to build a community and conversation with your customer. Once they find you (and follow) they have agreed to talk to you and want to listen / see what you have to say. This is amazing! But also means you need to deliver what they expect, always remember they can just remove themselves from your communications! Points to remember when crafting social media content:
Personable
This is the platform where your brand and story is king! People engage with people and building a strong community and a two way conversation is all important. Learn from what your community like, don’t like and what you can do to further engage.
Cohesive Brand
This can be the way your posts look (use Canva or similar to help build posts that fit your brand and website), or the tone and content of the message. Whilst it’s great to have a personable brand story, this does not mean that every part of your life needs to be on display. Keep the tone in line with your brand values and your message clear.
Regular (not too much) Posting
There is a lot of talk out there about when to post, how often and what to post. And there is anything from 3 times a day (what?!) through to once a week. Obviously, this depends on your brand, what you’re saying and how you’re saying it. Be sure that what you have to say makes sense and adds value. Frequency is weekly at least, and beyond that depends on what your brand.
Loop Engagement
Once you have nailed your brand story, tell it, and tell it often! Contact your favourite podcast and see if you can work together to be featured on their podcast. They have new content and you now have content to feature on your website and post on your social media (and don’t forget to transcribe to a blog). Win, win!
Write a piece for another website, a blog for your favourite travel site, foodie, ski site, wool enthusiasts - you’ve featured in front of a new audience, increase your following (potential customers) - and new content to talk about to your own audience.
3. Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a whole other beast and needs investment through strategy and time. This includes:
Google Ads
Those paid ads at the top of your Google Search don’t land there by accident. By placing Google Ads with relevant keywords and relevant content / SEO in your website you can appear at the top of searches (ideally above your competitor) and you don’t pay unless you are clicked.
Online Advertising
These come in the shape of banner ads, highly targeted advertising to your customer demographic that you determine. They can be triggered through a search or when your customer visits your website (and even if they don’t complete a purchase).
Social Media Advertising
With the advent of Facebook ads and the ease of placing / relative low cost these are an effective way to add to your exposure and targeting competitors pages or your ideal customers demographic, these mean you are in front of an already engaged audience.
eDM’s
You’ve got a fantastic following, and an engaged group of customers that have signed up to your eDM list and now you can talk to them! Fantastic! There are many programs out there that can generate cohesive and engaging eDM’s at low cost and time investment. Just make sure that they add value or you will quickly lose subscribers and your ability to engage.
Your brand story is awesome, and totally worth telling.
Don’t hold back from your customers. Be bold, shine a light on your reason for being in business and your passion will shine through. If your brand story, message and look is cohesive and the customers journey is seamless your business will thrive. Always remember that all of these are layers to your overall marketing and the end goal is engagement and ultimately, sales. Always, always, talk to your customer as people and with care. Help them through your journey and make it easy!
If you want any help with building (or shaping) a great brand story, let’s talk!
Jess x