Telling brand stories is easy if it’s done in the right language
Telling brand stories is easy if it’s done in the right language
The first step to talking about your business is to discover your brand language, which is easy if you listen to what you're already saying about it.
Marketers love to talk about brand storytelling. And while I believe every brand does have a great story to tell, the prospect of storytelling can be challenging for many business owners. Even if we help them craft the perfect brand story, will it sound too scripted? Will anyone outside of the content marketing team—if the company has one—know what to do with it?
The key to good storytelling is to start by defining a brand language. In addition to creating fully-formed messages and histories, establishing a brand language is about crafting a vocabulary of key words and phrases that can be just as easily injected into everyday conversation or on social media as they can on the “About” section of your website.
A brand language is built by engaging in conversation about your company’s values and sharing anecdotes from your everyday that illustrate them. Rather than sitting in a boardroom trying to come up with abstract, vague language to represent who you are, you should sit in that boardroom discussing the moments of triumph, adversity, or plain ol’ silliness that occur daily at your company. Capturing these moments builds a brand language that is truly authentic because it’s created in the first person by the people who use it.
The great benefit of defining a brand language for your company is that its flexible nature allows your story to adapt as your company and product offering evolves. With a brand language system in place, the ongoing stories of your brand are shareable by anyone within the organization and each person can easily adapt and use it for their specific, local need. And, as your organization changes, your brand language stays relevant. It’s true you may make small additions along the way—just as the official dictionary introduces new words to the English language every year—but if it is built right, your core brand language will remain as you grow.
Telling great brand stories should be easy, and what’s easier than telling them in a language that everyone at your company already understands?