Consumers are growing less patient for commercials and sales pitches. But they want to hear or read a story. Sharing a compelling brand story can be difficult if you’re looking to improve your brand image – maybe it’s time to start at the foundation and build up. It starts with where you and your customers spend the most time. We wrote about managing your professional brand on LinkedIn – you may want to start there.

They are interested in brands’ stories, but only if they are entertaining or compelling. If the story is strong enough, your viewers won’t care that it’s an ad.

The best stories are universal, enduring, compelling, and organized. If you create stories like this you’ll notice that they are relatable to everyone (within your target market), are easily passed from person to person, keep the reader’s attention, and have a clear and direct message.

Update How You’re Sharing Your Brand Story

The following are a dozen tips to help you tell a brand story that your customers may enjoy reading:

Who Wants To Know About Your Brand?

1. Know your audience. Tell a story that is compelling, by learning more about them. HubSpot released some helpful research when it comes to creating compelling brand content.

2. Focus on the customer. The customer must be the hero in the story, not your brand. Your brand is the guide that helps the hero accomplish the mission or goal. But the focus must be on your customer. User-generated stories are more trusted and more shared than brand-generated stories. Create a platform that encourages your customers to tell a story about their experience with your brand.

3. Use emotion. The ancient Greeks called this Ethos. Think of the stories told through advertising that have caught your attention and affected you. They probably evoked strong emotion, including humor, fear, loyalty or patriotism.

How Will They Hear Your Brand Story?

4. Make it entertaining. Give consumers a reason to come back for more.

5. Show, don’t tell. Develop characters and set the scene. Don’t tell the audience what to think or feel. Let them draw that conclusion on their own.

6. Keep it simple. Don’t pack too much information into a single story, advertisement or marketing piece.

7. Keep it succinct. You’re not writing a novel. Make it a quick in and a quick out.

8. Make it interactive. Generating a strong emotional response is interactive in and of itself. You also can ask for readers to share their own stories or experiences, take a poll, a quiz or give them something of value to download for free.

Share How Your Company Stands Out

9. Make a connection. Build a connection with your audience by finding out what matters to them, and then speak to this need.

10. Catch them quickly. The first sentence should catch the readers’ attention. Make it compelling.

11. Make it visually stunning. Did you know humans process images 60,000 times faster than text? That’s part of the reason why messages with strong visual elements catch our attention and are more likely to be read and shared. For a sleek new advertising design, take a look at our Guide For Improving Your Display Advertising.

12. Consider using video. According to recent research, companies actively using video have 41% more web traffic than those who don’t. Mini-ads are gaining popularity. The short, 6-10 second ads you see in YouTube (pre-roll ads) are a great example.

A Solid Brand Story For Strong Marketing

We want to hear how you are sharing a compelling brand story! Also, if you don’t know where to start, let’s talk. Undeniably, every company has a story to tell, but getting creating content for your brand is a whole other animal. Check our blog for ways to improve branding on your website, blog, social media platforms, digital ads or other digital marketing channels. Feel free to reach out to us at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com and ask for a free consultation.