Storytelling is a powerful tool – but where do you start?

You’ve come up with your idea, your perfect brand, and set up your business. What’s next? A key part of building a brand is your story. You may have the story to tell but you need to make sure that you know how to tell it, and more importantly, where.

Storytelling is a powerful tool but with so many channels, it’s hard to know where to start. A brilliant website, engaging social media channels, print brochures, videos and news articles; all great avenues for telling your story. Your website is a great place to begin, everything you do can link back to this and convert into sales or new clients.

When telling your story, you need to foster connection, empathy and understanding, and most importantly, bring it to life. Not only does this help raise awareness of your business, but it can also help you bring in new leads. A cold sales pitch disguised as a story will ultimately put people off. You need to show personality and a human side to your brand, this will draw people in and then give you the opportunity to reinforce your brand as a leader in your sector. Draw from past experience and use your story to highlight how your product or services will benefit people.

It’s all about execution; it’s worth getting the detail down and then fine-tuning it. Too many people fill their story with detail that the audience just doesn’t need to know. When it comes to sharing your story, there are five key factors:

• Make sure you’ve researched your audience and that they’re able to relate to your story in some way

• Build tension either through curiosity, intrigue or danger

• Offer the right amount of detail – too little or too much and you’ll lose your audience

• Make it real and human

• End with a satisfying resolution. You want to leave your audience satisfied that they understand your journey, while making sure they want to come back

Your overall goal with storytelling is to introduce people to your brand. However, you still need to make sure that, while your story is personal and real, you’re also giving your audience something they can walk away with. This can be insights, actionable information, perspective, help or hope. If your audience can take something from your story and learn from it, then they’ll keep coming back and you’ll be able to capitalise on these leads and make a real impact.

Begin with your website and then create a variety of content that links back, from blogs and social media posts to podcasts and webinars. You could write thought leadership from your past experiences, comment on industry news while sharing what you’ve learned. You could share your story with some compelling video content. Videos are gaining popularity due to them being quick but engaging ways to get your story in front of your target audience. You can also reach out to various journalists to tell your story that way.

Do you think you need help telling your story? It can be overwhelming. Start your journey with AMG professional writing, our team has a significant amount of experience in securing press coverage, creating compelling content and sharing powerful stories. We’ll be able to listen to your goals and your story and find the perfect way to share it. Find out how we can use compelling storytelling to raise awareness of your brand and bring in new leads.