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If you have “Marketing” or “Public Relations” somewhere in your title or job description, this eBook is for you. I will show you how to develop a compelling brand story that resonates with your prospects and customers. Next I’ll walk you through the Seven Steps to Brandtelling Success. Then it’s your turn to go out and tell those stories.

How to tell your brand story and boost sales

What is Brandtelling® & Why Should I Care?

Have you ever noticed how, at some companies, everyone from the receptionist on up to the president seems to be able to tell you all about the company, its products, services, customers, employees, and place in the community? While at other companies, it seems like no one can tell you anything? Yeah, we’ve noticed that too. In fact, we spent a lot of time as journalists trying to squeeze anything resembling information from many of the people we were interviewing. And these were people who wanted to tell us about their companies. They just didn’t know how.

Brandtelling (Brand + Storytelling) can show you how.

If you have “Marketing” or “Public Relations” somewhere in your title or job description, this eBook is for you. I will show you how to develop a compelling brand story that resonates with your prospects and customers. Next I’ll walk you through the Seven Steps to Brandtelling Success. Then it’s your turn to go out and tell those stories.

Just one small favor. If you find this eBook useful, please share it with someone else.

Thank you!

Arthur Germain
Principal & Chief Brandteller
Communication Strategy Group

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction
• What’s in it for me?

2. Brandtelling Defined
• Brand + Storytelling

3. Brandtelling Deconstructed
• The Ingredients

4. Brandtelling Reconstructed
• The forms it can take

5. Brandtelling Made Easy
• Seven Steps to Brandtelling Success

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Introduction

What’s in it for me?

Working in any marketing position, you probably find your days filled with tactics. Tactics like:
• Creating and placing online ads
• Sending email blasts to prospects and customers
• Developing and distributing news releases
• Updating status messages in various social networks

But at the end of your day, you often feel like there’s something missing. You have metrics to measure the success of your tactics. But you often feel like you may not have really connected with the people you were trying to reach.

And that’s a problem. Because you were trying to connect with people in order to establish confidence and trust, and eventually, help them to purchase a product or service from your company. But nobody is going to buy from you when you haven’t really connected with them.

Brandtelling, at its core, is very simple. It’s about making a real, authentic and personable connection through stories with the people you are trying to connect with through your brand.

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Brandtelling Defined

Brand + Storytelling

Brandtelling uses a series of brand stories to make your brand relevant to your target market or audience. Brandtelling is built on the foundation of connecting people through a story that is relevant, real and repeatable. These can be stories about:
• Your company – how it was founded, why it was founded, who founded it and what it means to your industry.
• Your technology or approach – how it works, what it does, why it’s useful, how it can benefit people.
• Your employees – who they are, what they know, what they have done.
• Your customers – how they have benefitted, what they have achieved, where they are going next.
• Your community – how you contribute, how you benefit, how you are part of the fabric of everyday life.

See? It’s not a mystery. Even as I describe these types of stories, your mind is racing to add ideas, to create stories. You can’t help it. It’s how we’re wired. We love stories.

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Brandtelling Deconstructed

The ingredients

The key to good brandtelling – just like good story telling or cooking – is to break down your story to simple ingredients and make sure that they are assembled the same way every time.

Use this eBook as a guide for the types of questions you should be asking when collecting information and developing your brand stories. Ask everyone connected with your brand. Everyone has some ingredient that can become part of your stories, including:
• Customers
• Salespeople
• Executives
• Communications people
• Partners
• Suppliers

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Brandtelling Deconstructed

The forms it can take

Good Brandtelling is comprised of a number of elements or ingredients that combine to form a strong story or stories. These stories can take any number of forms, including:
• News releases (e.g. PRWEB)
• Blogs, social media and microblogging (e.g. Brandtelling.com, Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed)
• Presentations (NOT necessarily a PowerPoint)
• Case studies
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Feature articles
• White papers (good ones, not boring ones)

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Brandtelling Made Easy

Seven Steps to Brandtelling Success

1. Make it Desirable.
2. Make it Clear.
3. Make it Relevant.
4. Make it Real.
5. Make it Memorable.
6. Make it Repeatable.
7. Make it Rewarding.

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Make it Desirable

Does your story inspire? Does it make your audience want what you’ve got? People desire things that they perceive will make their lives better.

Lots of brand stories sound like they’re about interchangeable commodities. But people don’t want commodities. They want something different, unique.

So, you’re not selling a heater, you’re selling a warm room. Your audience has to want your story or it won’t stick.

What makes your story desirable?

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Make it Clear

Why do some marketers (not you or me) take a perfectly good idea and mess it up until no one can understand it? PR and marketing professionals get a bad name for the ridiculous way we describe things.

Why do we think it’s such a great idea to use nonsense terms, business jargon and acronyms? Is it an insider thing? “We’ll only sell to you if you can figure out what we’re saying!”

A simple, clear statement beats a load of BS every time.

Ask yourself this next time you’re making a presentation: “Would my mother understand what I’m saying?”

What would make your story clear?

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Make it Relevant

Think about the typical person who uses your brand. How do they use it? Why do they use it? Where and when do the use it? Does one of these matter more than the others? A seasonal product is usually used one time a year.

The more you can put yourself in the place of the person who ultimately uses your brand, the more relevant you can make your story. And the more relevant your story, the more it will become personal for the prospect or customer you are trying to reach.

What would make your story relevant?

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Make it Real

Why do you think it’s difficult to remember a single math formula, but easy to understand a practical math example? Because the example is real. You can relate to it. The same must hold true for the stories you tell.

What are you promising? What are you delivering? Be as specific as possible. Help people visualize themselves using your brand. Your stories must be authentic. Avoid abstract phrases and buzzwords. Use concrete examples. Use all your senses. Tell your story in full color.

And tell stories about how people benefit from your brand.

What would make your story real?

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Make it Memorable

If I ask you to tell me the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, immediately, all the facts and dialog comes to mind. You recall the porridge and the chairs and the beds and the bears. And, of course, Goldilocks. Why is that? I mean, the porridge is always especially interesting to me, because when do you ever hear that word outside of this fairy tale?

Anyway, we recall the story components because they are so memorable and vivid. Your story can be this memorable too. You just need to find the right elements that are strong enough to remember, yet simple enough to describe.

What would make your story memorable?

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Make it Repeatable

Repeatability is key. Your story needs to be clear, understandable and something that can be easily repeated by your prospects, customers, partners, employees and others.

The key to repeatability is simplicity. KISS is an acronym used in every industry for a reason. Complexity is the foe to repeatability. If you’ve got to tell a complex brand story, look for ways to break it down. Make it more digestible.

What would make your story repeatable?

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Make it Rewarding

Make telling your story its own reward. Think about how people love sharing stories, jokes and the latest viral video. That’s because the teller is rewarded by the retelling (or sharing) of the story. Look for ways to reward those who will retell or share in your story.

This isn’t easy. To start with, it means that your brand story MUST actually be worth sharing. But if your brand is truly making a difference for your customers, look for ways they can share that experience with others. This is why owner clubs and VIP memberships and exclusive offers are so appealing. They make the brand story rewarding to share.

What would make your story rewarding?

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