In the era of content marketing, few skills are more important than the ability to tell a great story. When you can connect with your audience on a fundamental, emotional level, you’ll draw them in and get them invested in your brand.
Communicating your message clearly and effectively in a way that resonates requires business owners and leaders to hone their storytelling skills in order to best act as stewards of their brand to the public. To help you do this, we asked a panel of Forbes Agency Council members to share their preferred methods for approaching this kind of challenge. Here are some ways leaders can become a better advocate for their brands:
Members discuss a few ways leaders can better tell their brands’ stories.
Photos courtesy of the individual members
1. Share Your Brand’s Journey
Most business owners are too aggressive in pushing their products and services and forget a valuable asset of storytelling to build a bigger brand influence. Business owners should write and speak about everything from how they decided to start the brand, what it took to get it started, how they took it to where it is now and what are their future plans with the brand. Stories make the customers personally connect with your brand, which is the most valuable asset in marketing. If they know you like their neighbors, they are more willing to buy from you and recommend you to their family and friends. – Vishal Jain, Sunshy Group Of Companies
2. Discuss Your Mistakes And Setbacks
The power of storytelling lies in authenticity and telling people not what you think they want to hear, but what you’ve learned. Tell them about your mistakes, your failures and your setbacks, and how you overcame them. People have an innate sense of when someone is being genuine—and it’s more powerful than you think. – Paul Blanchard, Right Angles
3. Be Honest Above All Else
To become better storytellers, brand owners need to be honest. They have to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their service or product. Otherwise, their story won’t be well received. But they also need to remember that they are not talking to a board, an engineer or a sales committee, but to a consumer. – Pascal de Decker, The Unknown
Read more in Why Honesty Is The Best Way To Market
4. Start With The Right Headline And Data
A good story has three parts: First, a compelling headline. Have a statement that is more than a platitude. Think of a way to make a listener go, “Gee” or “I didn’t know that.” An example of a so-so headline is a trucking company saying that they are committed to reducing pollution and improving gas mileage on their trucks. That’s true, but competitors can say that. Second, offer facts and data that provide credible proof. Having one customer like a new product or one patient improve on a drug in development is part of the story. It’s the numbers that give credibility. Finally, give an anecdote, example, analogy or third-party endorsement that illustrates the headline, backing up the data or proof. – Andrew Gilman, CommCore Consulting Group
5. Promote Your Brand Consistently Across All Channels
Business owners can be better storytellers and brand stewards by thinking strategically. Brands are built over time, via multiple data points—not only via websites, taglines and logos, but in every tweet, news story quote, Glassdoor review and Instagram post. Now more than ever, business owners need to clearly define their brand and messaging, gain alignment within the company and ensure that the brand is reflected consistently through all of these touchpoints. – Nicole Osmer, Health+Commerce
6. Focus On Your Values And Purpose
Make the stories all about their brand values and purpose rather pushing for the products or services. You need to tell the right stories in formats and places that match with the audience you’d like to win. – Fayçal Hajji, THE UNKNOWN Agency
Read more in Why CEOs Must Own Corporate Brand Values
7. Always Know Your ‘Why’
Know “the why” behind every action you take as a brand and business. A good brand isn’t just about the surface and doing the motions. Storytelling starts from doing internal work, taking the time to ask yourself and dig into the layers of why your business matters and why you care to commit to this impact. Knowing that “why,” even if you don’t say it out loud, will reflect how your business breathes and moves on the outside. – Jason Parkin, Compose[d]
