Using Storytelling to Scale Your Brand
Stories are a compelling way to connect with others. When it comes to scaling your brand, telling your brand story is crucial. Finding opportunities to showcase your personality, passions, and work ethic can help potential clients connect with you and build lasting relationships with your brand—working with you for years to come and encouraging their community to do the same.
In this webinar, Circle members Allie Astell of Manage My Website, Sharece O’Neal of Sharece O’Neal Creative, and Promise Tangeman-Wurzell of GoLive provide guidance on telling your story in a way that resonates with your target audience. Your web design clients can benefit from compelling narratives, too. You’ll learn proven strategies to help your clients build successful businesses powered by narratives that move customers to action.
Watch the full webinar above. You can also view some highlights below:
What is brand storytelling?
Our panelists define storytelling as sharing your brand philosophy, personality, and background. Sharece alludes to stories’ ability to drive interpersonal connections, which solidifies an emotional tether and increases brand affinity among potential and existing customers alike.
Your brand’s story can also incorporate elements of your personal experience. Your history, your team’s history, and the history of your community all inform the work you do. Allie mentions that it’s easy for her clients to get caught up in the day-to-day of running a business instead of remembering how they got started or why clients created their businesses in the first place. She elaborates, saying that thinking through clients’ origins in an industry can be incredibly helpful to identify what’s unique about their offerings.
Be careful, though—Promise warns attendees that a brand’s story can’t only be about its founder or cover star. It’s important for a brand’s story to reinforce the purpose a company serves for its customers, not just stating who’s at the helm.
The narrative should be a ‘golden thread’ woven throughout every element of your brand, delivering purpose and a consistent tone across every touchpoint.
Once you’ve established your story, it should reach beyond your website’s about page. Promise says the narrative should be a “golden thread” woven throughout every element of your brand, delivering purpose and a consistent tone across every touchpoint. This includes visual storytelling through imagery and design choices, email copy, and even extends to offsite experiences through social media and in-person interactions. For some inspiration on how to weave a consistent experience through your branding, check out the guide on creating a solid brand identity.
The more specific, the better
In an industry crowded with talented web designers and developers, our panelists encouraged entrepreneurs to be specific with their stories and services offered. It may seem counterintuitive, but narrowing the scope of your offerings and marketing can help grow your business with a cleaner, more memorable story.
Selling specialized services with a clear purpose will help clients better understand your work and enable them to easily refer your services through invaluable word-of-mouth referrals. In addition to streamlining your workflow, defining a web design niche can help you find and attract clients in your ideal industry, specialty, design aesthetic, and more.
Learn more about the benefits of defining your web design niche.
Design aspirationally: Identify the long term goals of your business and the type of clients you want to work with.
A tactic for making your brand story more specific is to do what Sharece calls “designing aspirationally.” This means identifying the long-term goals of your business and the type of clients you want to work with. Don’t simply focus on the clients and services you have currently—design your brand with the ideal customer in mind. This will help you attract the clients you’re looking to reach by aligning with their preferences and clearly indicating the goals of your business.
The rest is still unwritten
As your business evolves, so will your brand’s story. All three panelists agree that writing a brand story is an ongoing process, each providing anecdotes of how their businesses’ stories have changed over time. Since change is inevitable, go into the process of creating a brand story knowing that the work is never done. By sharing your story and maintaining an intentional narrative, you’ll be well poised to own your story. Plus, the practice of writing and owning your own brand story can help you create compelling stories for your clients’ brands.
To learn more about establishing your brand story, watch the full webinar above. You can also view the following guides and resources:
Special thanks to Allie Astell, Sharece O’Neal, and Promise Tangeman-Wurzell for their participation.
Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional web designers, developers, digital entrepreneurs, and creatives. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from all across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.