Key Elements to a Compelling Brand StoryThat Wins Over Clients

The more engaging the story, the more memorable it is. While in a B2B organization you may not think that a brand story is applicable, it is. In fact, 50% of B2B buyers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand they can emotionally connect with. Taking this into consideration, here are a few elements that are essential to crafting a compelling brand story that wins over clients.

1

Understand your audience

Understanding your audience is the first step along the path to developing your company’s brand story. To understand your audience means knowing what matters most to them, and that will enable you to communicate your value in a way that best speaks to their needs.

As a firm, adopt a client-centric attitude, making sure everything connects back to the ways you add value for your clients. Make sure to speak to your customer at each stage of the buyer’s journey — starting with awareness, when they first hear about your company, through purchase, when they make the decision to select your firm for their needs.

Your story should be compelling enough to spark interest in a prospective client at the awareness stage and create a desire in them to want to learn more. Once on board as a client, the story has not ended yet. Your firm should continue to ensure that the client experience is meeting expectations and living up to what’s described and communicated.

2

Identify internal strengths

When crafting your company’s brand story, it’s important that the story is personal and communicates why your firm is unique. No matter your industry, there are competitors in your space. Know what makes your firm different so that you can communicate this to your clients and prospective clients.

In some instances, your specific offerings may not differ from those of the competition but the way you deliver them might, and your customer or prospective customer is probably not aware of those differences. You cannot truly speak to what makes your firm different until you know what those differences are.

Consider appointing both an internal advocate and an external third-party to help you identify your “uniques.” The internal advocate can help gather internal sentiments and the external third-party can help with client research such as surveys and interviews. These combined can help form a more complete picture of who you are as a firm.

3

Connect the dots

After identifying what your audience cares about, what internal associates think about the company, and how clients and prospective clients perceive it, your firm is armed with the data needed to tell a compelling brand story. It’s time to look at all the research and insights side by side and identify key themes that stand out. What are you hearing your clients say time and time again about their experience with your firm? Where does that match up with what internal associates are saying? This will help pinpoint the themes and elements that will communicate your brand story.

4

Tell the story

In order to craft a story from the insights you’ve uncovered, start by placing a framework around all of the identified themes. Some of the ways to do this are through the development of messaging, value propositions, and positioning statements. These are all tools that can help your internal teams better communicate what your firm does and how you do it differently than everyone else.

How your story is communicated matters because it’s how your clients will come to think of your brand. Consider using a case study to show your story in action. Like any good story, with rises and falls in the plot, your case study should demonstrate a time when there was an issue, the process of handling it, and the ultimate solution. This demonstrates your firm’s approach, and it speaks to the potential challenges for which clients are seeking help.

A compelling story resonates with the client journey

These insights about your firm and communication tools are all elements of a powerful brand story. This story, told throughout your website and other marketing assets, will resonate with clients and prospects in a way that disconnected or impersonal messages cannot. Narrate a journey that they can be a part of and one that also compels these firms to bring you into their own journeys.