BY SARAH AYLWARD, OWNER & PRINCIPAL, STORYWORTHY STUDIOS
At Storyworthy Studios, we love a good story. That goes without saying. But we do, so we're saying it!
Sharing compelling stories is what helps us learn, grow, and source inspiration that propels us forward.
Great storytelling also makes meaningful connections between your target customers and your brand. It's an important part of growing your business.
Telling your brand story helps people discover your products and services, differentiates your offerings from competitors, learn how they can deliver success — and ultimately, turns customers into ambassadors that grow your brand reach further.
But, how do you create a brand story? We've put together a list of questions to get you started.
Step 1: Define your founding story.
Before you kick off your brand story development, we like to work with client partners to understand what inspired them to launch their company, product or service. This grounds the process by adding the human element — you and your team — and this exercise gets us to your unique value proposition quickly.
By the way, this exercise isn't just for startups. Even established companies with existing products or services benefit from focusing on their founding or product development story.
- What inspired you to launch your product, service or company?
- How did your personal or professional experiences lead you to build this brand?
- Do you have a professional background in the industry? If so, how did you identify a problem in the market?
- If you're not an industry insider, how did your experience as a consumer inspire your approach?
Step 2: Defining your unique value proposition.
Next, let's focus on the product or service you're offering to customers. We want to capture key information that should be included in your brand story, and your product or service messaging.
- What problem are you solving? Is your customer aware that it is a problem? If not, let's pause to describe the challenge.
- How does this problem impact your customers? Does it impact them personally? Professionally?
- How is your team uniquely positioned to offer this product or service? Do you have in-house expertise? Are you building from your own customer experience?
- Describe how your product or service solves a problem, or creates an opportunity for your customers. Make sure to center your customer in this exercise.
- Is your product or service scalable? If so, what impact will adoption have?
- Is your product or service tailored to each customer? If so, how does this level of customization drive value?
- Let's explore the market, how is your product or service different from your competitors. (If you have not yet done a competitive analysis, this is a great time to do so!)
Step 3: Map your customer personas.
Now that we understand the key messaging for your brand, let's take a deeper look at your target customers. We'll start by creating customer persona maps. We'll capture their demographic details, challenges, desires, and how your product or service supports their success.
- Are you positioning your product to companies (B2B), individuals (B2C), or both (B2B2C)?
- Are you launching a two-sided marketplace? If so, let's explore both audiences.
- Who is the decision maker when it comes to purchasing your product or service? Is it an individual? Is it a professional? If so, what role or title do they hold?
- Are you offering a technical product, or a business service?
- Are you focused on specific geographies or demographics?
- What attributes might your target customers possess?
- Do you have customer data that we can use to develop your target customer personas?
- What challenge does each target customer face?
- How will your product or service support their success?
- Can you now define three key customer personas?
Step 4: Don't forget to incorporate your mission, vision and values.
Another key differentiator for your brand story are the ways in which your team communicates, collaborates and creates. Add your brand mission, vision and values to this document, and look for opportunities to incorporate into your brand story. They don't need to be woven into your brand tagline per se, but they should be incorporated early within your branded story, as well as threaded throughout your website and digital channel strategy.
- Does your company have a mission statement? If not, pause here to reflect on your overall mission. If you have a suite of products and services, let's define a mission statement that encompasses all offerings. Then, we'll develop messaging to support each product or service offering.
- What is your vision for the future of your company? How will your vision impact your industry?
- What positive impact do you hope to have on your customers?
- What are the values your team has agreed to in order to get work done? How do these values differentiate your team from your competitors?
- What inspires you to do better for your customers?
Now that you have answered all of the questions, you can distill the most important messaging for your brand story.
Need help developing your brand story? Contact our team to kick off a conversation.
hello@storyworthystudios.com
