“Once upon a time…”. The principles of strong brand storytelling.

The customer journey is a complicated, though remarkably consistent process, which starts before the first interaction with a brand representative even takes place. At the awareness stage, customers examine brands closely and it is vital to make this acquaintance a milestone for a relationship that will evolve over time into long-lasting cooperation.

According to a recent study by Deloitte, 60% of long-term customers use emotional language to describe their connection to favored brands. Thus, in a highly digitalized world, a human touch that adds emotion and demonstrates shared values is crucially important in the process of engaging customers and leading them through all stages of the sales and marketing funnel. When a brand connects on a human, empathic level, people are more open to trusting its intentions and believing that their needs are truly being addressed.

Just storytelling will not buy you customers, of course, but it is sure to be a good start on your way to wining their hearts. Establishing a bridge between your product and prospective customer with your brand story is invaluable and should not be underestimated.

For businesses who want to engage in brand storytelling, combining creative prose with the core elements that make a brand unique is fundamental to success. When prospective customers read about a business, they want to be taken on a journey that truly shows them who you are, where you come from, and what you stand for.

Peter Senge, an American systems scientist and a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, once noted: “All great things have small beginnings.” Don’t be afraid to reveal the history of your brand, like the first office in the neighborhood and awkwardness in gaining clients back to the times you were just starting These minor steps are all a huge part of who you are, and sharing them with the world shows the hard work, determination, and passion that has brought your brand to where it is today.

Excellent brand storytelling is unimaginable without a clearly articulated brand philosophy. Why you are in business and what you stand for should be transparent throughout all external communications. Strategy, mission, and vision are the fundamental foundations of any brand story and essential for aligning that story with truth and reality.

Finally, yet importantly, make sure that a set of brand guidelines is available to every employee in the company.

Brand guidelines help explain to those that work within your brand how you should be talking about it and presenting it to the public. This includes everything from favored fonts and text sizes to which color logo to use and what words to avoid. Setting your brand guidelines in stone will save a lot of time and effort, especially when your brand grows.

In a highly turbulent environment, businesses must reconsider the way they interact with their customers, moving from being just a logo or a name to fostering a human relationship through authentic storytelling. Powerful connections will help to create loyalty and trust—two of the most important brand building pillars that money cannot buy.