The Strength of Storytelling: 7 Ways to Articulate Your Story and Make Your Personal Brand Stand Out from the Noise

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With more and more brands and content bombarding audiences, it’s a challenge for brands to stand out and gain the attention of their customers.

So, what gives some brands loyal followers while others blend into the background? Story.

Storytelling isn’t new. Humans have been telling stories for millennia, from the earliest cave drawings to the current content we see on our Facebook newsfeed. When we hear a great story, we experience the action of the story and become invested in the conflict or problem our hero faces.

As brands, we can use this powerful storytelling to create compelling stories for our followers. Sure, our storytelling methods may have changed, but we’re still working with the fundamentals of what makes a great story.

Here are 7 ways you can use storytelling to make your personal brand stand out in the noise.

1. Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience is a fundamental aspect of all marketing. Some brands forget this key ingredient, however, and get lost in their own ambitions and merit. They forget they need to identify and understand their target audience to engage them.

A brand story may seem compelling and interesting to one audience and unremarkable or even offensive to another. The key is finding the right story for your audience. People only care as far as it relates to them.

2. Show Authenticity

With so much information online, consumers have become savvier than ever. They can tell if a brand isn’t authentic or their words aren’t lining up with their actions.

Social media gives consumers an opportunity to connect with their favorite brands and learn who they really are, but remember that they’re not looking for perfection. They want authenticity. They want to see a genuine brand making an effort to build a trusting relationship, and this is where professional struggles and behind-the-scenes content can really resonate.

3. Start with Why

The viral Ted Talk “Start with Why” from Simon Sinek has become a must-have for brands. In this talk, Sinek asserts that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” According to Sinek, this is how brands like Apple developed such loyal customers and brand advocates.

So, start with your own why. Sure, you started your business to make money, but that’s not why. Think about what problem you’re trying to solve, what change you’re trying to make in the world with your products or services. That’s your why and the foundation of your storytelling.

4. Harness Emotion

Facts and figures have a lot of value in marketing, but they’re not what help people connect with a brand. You need to balance the data and the narrative to captivate people’s minds and their hearts to make them care in an authentic way.

Creating stories with an emotional component will improve the likelihood that your customers will take the action you want.

5. Focus on Simplicity

We’ve all heard the phrase “keep it simple, stupid.” This refers to a design principle that states that design and systems should be as simple as possible to guarantee the best levels of acceptance and interaction.

This idea can apply to brand marketing and storytelling. Avoid industry jargon (unless appropriate for your audience) and follow classic storytelling structure – a beginning, middle, and end. Making the story too complicated will only lose your audience, so try to keep things simple.

6. Begin with the Problem

As mentioned, brands need to know their audience, be confident in themselves, and what’s important to them to connect. You can make sure this happens by starting with the problem your product or service solves, which will attract the attention of the audience who has that problem.

Naturally, these people have this problem and they’re seeking solutions, so they’ll be interested in what you have to say. Opening with the problem will automatically capture attention and showcase what your brand has to offer.

7. Make Things Visual

Stories can be told with words, but we are visual creatures. Many humans are visual learners, and visual content is processed up to 60,000 times faster than text. Using videos, images, animation, or other visual content will have a greater impact on your audience than simple text.

Furthermore, some people are auditory learners, so visual content with auditory components, like a video with sound or a slideshow with audio speaker notes, have a greater impact on the audience than an article or blog post.

Elevate Your Brand with Allison Todd

Brands will continue to pop up and share their content, so the competition won’t slow down anytime soon. Using the power of storytelling, you can leverage your unique strengths to help your personal brand make an impactful statement with your audience.