Why A Strong Brand Story is Vital for Marketing Success

If you’re not so happy with the results of your marketing lately, it might be time to dial in your brand story and use more storytelling in general. 

Listen, I get that having a strong “brand story” might sound like a trendy catchphrase but the fact is: storytelling is as old as time and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. Not to mention: it works. 

And the reason it does is all in the brain. It’s literally science!

I know, I know. If you’re thinking to yourself “science doesn’t really sound like your thing,” you’d be right. I was NO science major. But, as an intuitive, highly creative human, I did find myself obsessing over storytelling in the nerdiest of ways. Devouring Joseph Campbell and Aristotle like it was the latest Sweet Valley High novel and I was thirteen years old on summer break.

Trust me, when I chose to make “Dramatic Storytelling” my major at NYU’s school for individualized study, I had NO idea that focus was going to make me so exceptional at marketing and sales. Honestly, I just wanted to nerd out about stories all day. But don’t the best things always happen by simply following your bliss?

I believe they do, and I’ve since learned that my story superpowers are even cooler than I realized.

Here’s why stories work so damn well and are VITAL for your marketing –

1. Stories make you feel those warm, connected feelings. 

Yup. When someone experiences a story, it can increase the production of the brain chemical oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone which is associated with social bonding and trust. Fun fact: it’s the one that gets released after an orgasm, or when you fall in love. POWERFUL FEELINGS, AMIRITE? 

When people feel a sense of trust and connection and bond with a brand, guess what happens next? Ding ding ding! They are more likely to buy from that brand. And wouldn’t you love for that to be yours?

2. Memory, baby.

“I just wanna give ya something to remember me by.”

So this is fun – a study by the Harvard Business Review found that stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone. TWENTY TWO MORE TIMES. I’d venture a guess that this is due to the production of all the neurochemicals that a story elicits (like epinephrine, dopamine, etc) but either way — when people remember your brand (and YOU), of course they’re more likely to buy from you too. You need to remember a brand to buy from them, after all. And lord knows, I have a hundred saved Instagram ads of things I keep meaning to buy but don’t. Do you think they got me with a story? Nope. Retargeted me with content that inspired trust? Nope. But those that do secure my dollars.

3. Emotions create results, and well-told stories are the ultimate emotion generators.

Did you know that ads that evoke emotions are more effective than those that don’t? It’s true. This is precisely why my approach to storytelling is all about the EMOTIONAL ARC of experience. I’d much rather make sure your brand, story, content, photography, all of it – triggers BIG feelings. The bigger, the better. Even if they don’t seem like positive feelings, they’re still doing the job of building memory and then, eventually, a trusted bond.

So, if you don’t have a strong brand story that’s hitting all these marks, I’m sorry to tell you – but your marketing is not going to perform as well.

The good news is, simply by understanding the ways in which storytelling can impact brain chemistry and influence customer behavior, you’re put in the position to create more effective marketing campaigns and drive sales! 

To get started, all you gotta do is tell more stories.

To grow beyond that and really develop your brand story, getting clear on the Golden Thread™ is your next best step. 

You don’t need every piece of content you create to be a masterpiece, but starting to become clear on the foundational DNA of your brand story will help. And a lot of that information is already there, just trapped inside your brain right now. This is why when I work privately with my clients, I put them through an extraction process that allows me to mine for those gold nuggets of story magic. That’s how I pull out the Golden Thread™ and develop the Story DNA.

What is “Story DNA?” It’s a term I learned from one of my Hollywood mentors Bobette Buster, and it’s how I now describe the foundational “tension point,” of your brand story. This is the most important component of your brand, and it’s what most brand strategists easily overlook.

It’s not their fault, they’re simply not trained to be a storyteller in the same way a screenwriter (like me) is.

But here’s why knowing your Story DNA puts you in the driver’s seat –

When you know how to create tension, you know how to generate emotion – and that’s how that gorgeous cascade of brain chemicals comes a-running.

If you’re wondering how to start uncovering your Golden Thread™ of Story DNA, there are a few ways you can get started —

1. Download my free guided meditation to Uncover the Golden Thread™  of Your Brand here. 

2. You can work with me privately (details here). This is my favorite way to help clients create massive results, quickly.

3. You can follow me @scribeandspirit on Instagram for more helpful free content.

Remember, storytelling is HUMAN. You got this!