3 tips for building your brand story

Written by michelle on Aug 16, 2018

How do you tell your brand story so that it benefits your organization is a question I get regularly so I thought I’d share a great example.

I’m currently working with an agency around crafting their brand pillars and we’ve gone through both the internal and external interview process. They have a substantial size agency with many, many employees. The one thing that came up in the interviews over and over and again was the STORY of the company. How it came to be and more importantly how inspirational it is. Every employee knew the story and had great respect for it. Coincidence or no? No.

In my experience, Brand story is a crucial piece to employees engagement and overall brand success. Here are three benefits and tips for building your brand story.

1. Stories are forever. Perhaps, your legacy is to leave this world better than you found it. Stories have been told over and over since the beginning of the world. They change, morph but they never leave our minds. They are timeless. They have made us feel a certain way that makes us remember. Tip: Your story should be the first thing that comes to mind in the conversation. A way to ensure this is to list your story in your onboarding and training materials, even have a dedicated room named after the story or origin. The main purpose to have to the story be seen and in front of everyone’s eyes.
2. Stories build trust and sell, without being sold too. People buy from organizations they know, like and trust. After a great story, how can you not feel like you know that person? Tip: Make sure your story is on the organization’s website and can be easily found. Craft your many touch points to the site to read/ hear the story.
3. Your employees. The greatest human need is to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. That’s why branding is so crucial to the success of a business. Tip: Ask your employees what does the story mean to them – let them express themselves that way it’s authentic to them. 

As Gallup has repeatedly shown, nearly 70% of employees do not feel engaged by their organization. Fortunately, a well-designed program that involves employees in telling the brand story can actually help boost their engagement, while promoting the brand.

Bake the story into the brand – Give meaning to how the organization came to be.

In a world where customers are ever more difficult to engage, a well-thought-through brand story and engagement program can add tremendous value to your organization. How can your organization tell its story? 

To learn more about how to level-up your branding without spending 10’s of thousands in my past blog post click here.