For every brand online and offline today, telling captivating stories is an essential part of differentiating from competition. As competition for new online customers continues to intensify day after day, more and more business owners, management teams, and marketing directors are spending time thinking about how to effectively tell their brand stories online. In the following post, we’ll outline a few ways you can tell your brand story on your website in order to help prospective customers understand what makes your business, products, and services unique.
On Your About Page
Most people think of this page first when it comes to deciding where to highlight a brand story. Your About page is a great place to include information that will help visitors understand what it is you do, why you do it, and why they should care. Your About page is likely the first place new visitors will go if they are looking for more information about your business, owners, employees, and history. In order to tell a captivating brand story on your About page, your content should answer the following questions:
- What problems does your business help solve?
- Who created the business and why?
- Who else is involved and why (i.e. your employees)?
- What makes your business, services, or products different (and better) than other businesses, services, and products?
- Can you provide a general timeline for your business?
In Photos
Consumers want to be able to connect with brands on an emotional level. It’s important that you take time to humanize the content on your website. One great way to do this is through the use of photos. If the only visuals you include on your website are obvious stock photos, your customers will have a hard time connecting with your brand and your products. To tell your brand story using photos, consider including the following:
- Photos of employees on the job, working with products or interacting with customers
- Photos of employees off the job, highlighting their other passions and hobbies
- Photos that illustrate how your business, products, or services have evolved over time
- Historical photos that help visitors understand what your business was like in year one, year five, etc.
On Video
This strategy goes hand-in-hand with using photos to tell your brand story on your website. Video can be a powerful communication tool. Instead of only including promotional videos on your website that highlight your products and services, consider also creating videos of:
- Your employees talking about why they love working for you
- You and your management team talking about why you created the business
- Your customers talking about why they use your products or services
- “Behind-the-scenes” videos that give prospective customers a glimpse into how your business operates
With The Help of Loyal Customers
Most owners who have websites for their businesses today have taken the time to scatter a few simple testimonials from their most loyal customers in various places on their site (home page, product pages, about page). While these testimonials are helpful for consumers, they aren’t enough to convince prospective customers that your products and services are worth buying. In order to really connect with online consumers and new prospects, you need to take it a step further by asking your most loyal customers to help tell your brand story. Your prospective customers don’t just want to read what your current customers have to say about your business and products—they want to actually see and hear from them too. As you begin to develop plans for incorporating your brand story into your website, consider including messages from loyal customers about your business and products in your videos, photos, blog posts, and other pages on your website.
In Blog Posts
If all you’re doing on your blog is sharing monthly or quarterly press releases about your business and products, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with current and prospective customers. In addition to sharing relevant and helpful information about your industry for your blog readers, you can also take the time to create and publish blog posts that help tell your brand story. Here are a few general brand story post ideas you might use on your blog:
- Flashback Photo Post: Include photos from the first year your business was in operation
- Behind-The-Scenes Post: Include a video of an employee introducing readers to your team
- “Our Passion For _______” Post: Include messages from owners about why you do what you do.
In Product Descriptions
Have you thought about including more brand storytelling photos and videos directly on your product pages? More and more businesses are implementing this strategy on their websites each day (for a great example, see the video on this product page). It’s a great way to remind prospective customers who have made it all the way to your sales pages and are making a final decision on whether or not to go through with a purchase. By including content that tells your brand story, you can help prospective customers feel confident that they are making the right decision in buying a product or service from your company.
