5 Steps to Write your Brand Story
By: Stanley Ship
Tags: Branding, Personal Branding, Marketing, Brand Story

What is a Brand Story? A Brand Story is important when it comes to marketing your business. It helps create a sense of uniqueness to what you’re trying to sell to potential clients and relate to your audience. It is an advantage as it helps with the process of content creation, such as the videos you make or the article you put up on your blog. Most of what you produce can be revolved around your brand story. Once you’ve had that as part of your business, your audience can easily recognize the underlying message in your content that is your brand story.

Your introduction

Now, the first step to write out your brand story is to think of how you would introduce yourself. Whether it be for your business or personal brand. Also, you could include your belief if you have one. For example, when I introduce myself to potential clients, it goes like this, “Hi, my name is Stanley and I believe in possibilities. I am in the real estate industry-or in a training and workshop business (depending on whom I’m speaking to), where I conduct training to help people to focus in possibilities so that they can achieve what they what to achieve.

Your background

Next, you need to write down your background story, let your audience into a part of your life. Include things like what was it that made you decide to start your own business, and the stories behind how the business started. When you’re jotting down your thoughts, be as detailed as possible and include as many events as you can that relates to what caused you to build this business or personal brand from the ground up.

Your struggles & successes

Thirdly, include the dark side too. Write down the struggles you’ve faced and are facing. All the challenges and difficulties that you face in your business journey are part of your story too and your audience should know that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to starting your own business. However, they should also be informed that with every problem, there will be a solution. Explain on how you’ve overcome these obstacles, and these will be the success stories that you make a part of your brand story.

People will want to related to your struggles and you want to show them that you also start somewhere before. That is the “human” part of the personal brand. However, you don’t only want to dwell in the struggles and also share your success stories. Talk about how you succeeded and why these success matters to you

Your mission statement

Last but not least, write out your mission statement (this can also be included in the first step, but you would want to reiterate it at the end as well). A mission statement is what you would like to do with your business. What is your mission statement in starting your business or personal brand? What do you hope to achieve and impact you wish to create for the people who does business with you?

Your brand story should be one that is carefully and seriously thought out. I have a worksheet available for those who wish to have a guideline to work through as they write out their brand story, it includes the 5 steps mentioned above, the thought processes and examples on “How to Create Your Brand Story”. Here’s a suggestion, create a simple video of you talking about your brand story, or if you’re uncomfortable in front of a camera, you can also write it in an article and post it on your website. And there you go, good luck in your writing process!