If you’re building an online personal brand your brand should tell a story. It should be a true and authentic representation of you and your business so that you visually communicate the right message to the right audience.
Your end goal should be to bring your mission and message to life through your strategy and identity. You want your brand to tell a story and connect with your audience. You want it to tell who you are and what you are all about. But the question is how do you do that? How do you get your brand to tell a story?
Why your brand needs to tell a story
Every successful personal brand has a clear story and message that directly connects with its ideal audience. It’s what attracts the right person to them. It’s how they build a relationship with their clients and customers.
Defining why you do what you do is crucial for brand development. It gives you that foundation to build your brand and business. It sets the tone for everything you do and how you portray your business to your audience.
By defining your story, you can establish what exactly it is that you need to tell the world, and then translate that into your brand. That story is where the magic happens. Once you find the story of your business, you can tell it.
How to define your brand story
The first thing to do is dig deep and gain more clarity about your business and brand. You can do this by asking yourself questions like:
- What is the story/meaning behind your business?
- What sets you apart from competitors? Why do people like working with you?
- Why are you in business? (what keeps you motivated + what drives your heart?)
- What are your business core values?
- Who is your ideal client? What is their most basic problem that you have the solution for?
Write down your answers and study them. Work towards the best clarity that you can get. Keep it simple and clear so that you can easily translate that into a visual design and communicate your story well with your audience.
How to bring your brand story to life
It won’t do you any good to have a brand story if you don’t tell it. And that comes by bringing your story to life through your brand messaging and identity. This is where you take all of that groundwork and translate it into a verbal and visual identity that communicates your message. If that sounds complicated, working with a brand designer who can do this for you may be your best bet, but there are things you can do on your own too.
While the visual identity of your brand is key in telling your story, it involves more than just the visual design. Making your brand tell your story includes your overall style, voice, and message. I’m sure you’ve heard me preach before that your brand is more than your logo, and that applies here too.
If your brand encompasses all of the touchpoints you have with potential customers and clients, then each of those things needs to be working together to tell your story and the same story. This is done by a consistent and well-established design, cohesive content that relates to your story and your audience, and using the right language to communicate your story. It might help to work with a strategist to get your story and message clear, but once you find your style and voice, it all comes together.