A brand story is a key element of any marketing effort, particularly when selling products or services online. It’s not enough to describe what your business does and why it’s better than the competition. You also need to paint a picture of who your company is and how it can improve your customers’ lives. These details are necessary for potential customers to see themselves buying from you or recommending you to others.
If your brand has no history or backstory, you should consider creating one as soon as possible. This doesn’t have to involve hiring an expensive marketing agency. Sometimes all it takes is taking some time every day for a few weeks to give your customers an inside look into how you started, what you hope to achieve, and how your brand differs from the rest.
Why? Well, because people buy with their hearts and minds first. They won’t care about what you offer until they know why it matters to them personally. If your product doesn’t speak directly to the needs of your potential customers, then why would they ever choose yours over another’s?
Why is a Story Memorable
A story is a more memorable way to communicate with customers. It can help them make decisions, relate to your brand, and connect with you emotionally. This can help you stand out from the competition by being memorable and unique, which means that people will want to buy from you rather than someone else.
A good story will also be more interesting for your target audience because it’s something new – not just another product description or advert. Think about something simple like someone catching a home run ball in a baseball arena. If it is just a pop-fly foul ball caught by an adult with a glove, there isn’t much of a story there.
However, have a dad holding a baby catch that ball with bare hands, then pass it to the young boy with an arm in a cast two rows down, and you have marketing gold. Giving your products greater context by telling a story is a sure-fire way to improve your marketing campaigns.
Top Reasons to Focus on Storytelling for Your Ecommerce Brand
When you think about it, the best way to sell a product is by telling a story. The most successful brands are those that have built emotional connections with their customers. The reason is simple: when you feel connected to something or someone, you’re more likely to buy from them.
An ecommerce product isn’t just something that gets thrown into your shopping cart. It becomes part of who you are as a person.
Storytelling should be at the core of every ecommerce brand’s marketing strategy. It helps build personal connections between customers and your brand through compelling narratives that share core values or highlight key features of each product in an engaging way. You can do this with:
1 – Brand Story Boosts the Value Proposition
If you’ve ever tried to sell a product or service, then you know that telling a good story is critical. A brand story can help you sell your product, but it also has the added benefit of boosting the value proposition for both your products and services.
A great example of this is Apple’s “Think Different” campaign from 1997-2001. It was an attempt by Steve Jobs to change how people viewed Apple products. He wanted to demonstrate these tech toys weren’t just computers but part of something bigger.
The goal was to create an experience that would enrich their lives in unexpected ways. The campaign succeeded brilliantly. It attracted new customers and reminded existing ones why they loved Apple so much in the first place.
2 – Emotional Connection Leads to Increased Brand Memory
Think about the last time you bought something, and then think about how much of the product’s story stuck with you. Was it because of its features or benefits? Or was it because of some emotional connection?
If we were selling a vacuum cleaner, would it be better for us to tell people that our vacuum has more suction power than other vacuums on the market, or would it be better for us to tell them why our vacuum makes their lives easier by helping them clean up after kids without getting out of their chair?
Attaching some form of emotional connection, especially when related to convenience or direct customer impact, builds trust, leading to higher memory recall the next time a customer needs something from your WooCommerce online store.
3 – Passion for Your Brand Helps with Differentiation
You may have heard the term “differentiation” thrown around in business circles. It’s a word that gets used a lot, but what does it mean?
The basic idea is that if you can stand out from the crowd by offering something unique or different, then you’ll have the edge over your competitors. Differentiation is vital to your success in an increasingly crowded marketplace with more products.
However, if your products are similar to your competitors, you only have so much you can market to try and differentiate your brand. The easier route is to build a story around your brand that directly appeals to your target market.
This creates a mystic around your ecommerce business that will attract potential customers looking to connect and trust a company.
4 – Brand Loyalty that Transcends Logic
There is no better way to build a loyal customer base than by telling a story that resonates with them. Your brand’s story is the reason people buy from you, and it’s also what keeps them coming back for more.
People connect emotionally with brands because they want to feel like part of something bigger than themselves; they want to feel like their purchase has meaning and purpose, which is why creating this kind of emotional connection through storytelling can be so powerful in building loyalty among your customers.
That kind of emotional connection supersedes logic. Even when they know there are cheaper alternatives, they will still purchase from you because of the trust capital you have built through storytelling. That kind of loyalty is priceless. It is the foundation for arguments like Apple vs. Samsung, Marvel vs. DC, or the Red Sox vs. the Yankees.
5 – A Story Lends Credence to Your Authenticity
Authentic brands are more likely to be trusted and, therefore, more likely to be retained. Consumers want to know that the products they’re buying are made by real people who care about them as customers. When a brand has an authentic story behind it, it gains credibility in the marketplace and increases its chances of acquiring new customers.
Again, you want to connect with your customers on a personal level. It is a lot easier to borrow sugar from a neighbour you know than from someone you have never met.
Want to know more about brand strategies? See this article here
Where to Promote Your Brand Story?
- Create content on social media related to your story
- Build an extensive blog around your company history
- Send out emails about company updates
- Do live video answering emails or online comments
- Utilize influencer marketing
- Share user-generated content about your brand
- Put customer testimonials everywhere on your ecommerce marketing and brand
Make Sure Your Customer Support is Efficient
Once you develop a vibrant story around your ecommerce brand, it is time to reinforce that authentic trust capital with a robust customer support option. That is why we suggest you check out the Customer Support Plugin for WooCommerce.
You’ve already done the hard work of reaching out and connecting with your audience. Now it is time to ensure potential shoppers receive the 24/7 support needed for their questions and concerns, so you get more ecommerce conversions. With this easy-to-use plugin, you get chat options for guest users, subscribed users, and automation key to improving your future success.
Conclusion
Now that you know the importance of selling a brand story over just a product, it’s time to get started. Begin creating an engaging narrative for your brand. Make sure it’s not too long or complicated, but instead, keeps things simple and easy to understand for customers.
Then, share this story with everyone who touches your products, from employees to partners like distributors or manufacturers all the way to your key target market. You’ll start to see a change in the community surrounding your brand that you can leverage in actionable sales.
Download Customer Support Plugin today
With this easy-to-use plugin, you get chat options for guest users, subscribed users, and automation key to improving your future success.
