Why Your Startup Brand Needs a Story to Tell

 

The world’s biggest companies have caught on to the idea of advertising through storytelling, but it’s the small startup that has even more to gain by marketing themselves in narrative format. Supporting a startup, whether that means buying a product or hiring your company to perform a service, means taking a risk on an unproven company. Polishing your story and presenting it in the best possible way helps convince others to take that risk.

The Power of Narrative Marketing

Narrative marketing as a whole has become one of the most powerful and popular ways to get your product or service out to the people who need to know about it. 

Why you ask?

This is because attaching your marketing efforts to a story helps bypass the filters most people have developed to help them avoid outright and direct advertising. No one wants to hear about how your product or service is better, faster, and cheaper than the competition.

However…

They are interested in learning about how your founders worked long nights after coming home from their day jobs, how the product idea came up by complete accident, or who’s got the weirdest hobbies on your startup team.

Narratives capture attention in a way that direct marketing materials never do. Of course, you can’t just make up any old story and expect it to work as a marketing tool. Narratives for startup brands need to be related to the customer’s story too, and they must ring true rather than seeming like a story just created to get attention.

Relating to the Customer’s Story

Just because you choose to emphasize your startup’s story over other forms of advertising doesn’t let you off the hook for approaching the same basic focus as all other marketing. Your story still needs to address the customer’s need in some way and relate back to it.

For example, a startup focusing on personal assistant services should include the customer’s need for help with a busy career. You might discuss how the founder had a problem themselves finding the right help or approach the topic from the service provider’s point of view.

A startup offering a distinct product should at least work in a mention of how the product solves the consumer’s problems while still staying true to the story.

Sounding Authentic When Storytelling

All the narratives in the world won’t make your startup popular if readers feel like you’ve made the story up for their benefit. Unfortunately, many startups struggle to sound authentic even when telling a story that occurred to the founders personally.

Hiring a storytelling expert, or at least a professional copywriter, can help you polish your narrative so it sounds as natural as it would be told at a party to a friend. It won’t sound forced or overly constructed, resulting in a narrative that really grabs the reader’s attention and convinces them to give you a try.

Don’t struggle with your story when you already have a lot on your plate as a startup. Pick something simple that relates to your customer’s pain point and build on it as you grow.

If you’re looking to spice up your startup’s narrative, contact the experts at OneIMS today.