We live in an era of unprecedented market competition, which means brands are fighting for attention like never before. In a world oversaturated with new brands, it's more important than ever for your company to have a memorable brand story.

People who love a brand story are 44% more likely to share it with others and buy from the brand. So, whether your company is big or small, you should start thinking about your brand story strategy and how to improve it. Doing so will help you nurture loyalty and drive more powerful communication with customers.

This brand storytelling guide explores creative storytelling tips for improving your brand storytelling marketing strategy using research, direct mail, and postcards.

What is Brand Storytelling?

Brand storytelling is about using stories to connect your clients to your brand. The brand story tells more about what the company stands for, how it appeared, and its values.

Good brand stories connect with the customers at an emotional level. Your brand story strategy should resonate with your ideal customer and give them a reason to choose you over your competitors. A great way to start is by running marketing research to analyze your brand's current positioning and public image.

What Makes Up an Inspiring Brand Story?

When you think of an inspiring brand story, what comes to mind? Maybe it's a sports team that never gives up, a tech company that keeps going even when everyone else has called it a failure, or a local business that values the community around it.

Brand storytelling marketing is more art than science, so it's not surprising that many companies have different ideas of what makes up an inspiring story. However, some common elements are found in almost every inspiring brand story strategy.

Generally:

• Brand stories should be pure truth
• Brand stories should capture the brand's purpose
• Brand stories should clearly state the organization's vision
• A good brand story should lay out the organization's values
• Brand stories should be unbiased and straight to the point

The best way to reach customers is not by pushing your products to them. Brand storytelling requires actual engagement with customers that share the same values as your organization.

Importance Of Market Research In Brand Storytelling

Modern brands need to constantly stay relevant and connected to their consumers to maintain sales. To do so, marketers need to tell stories that resonate with their target audience.

Market research is an integral part of creating these stories. It allows marketers to understand the customers, their needs, and expectations from your brand. These insights help create engaging content that connects with your audience.

Here's why market research matters in brand storytelling:

1. Strengthens the brand story

Without proper market research, your brand storytelling strategy will have no depth. You won't know why you are telling the story or even what stories to tell. You also won't be able to come up with the right answers to customer questions about your brand's purpose in their lives.

2. Puts focus on customer needs and demands

Market research enables the company to understand its customers better. The information collected includes customer likes, dislikes, experiences, problems, interests, and more. Organizations can craft compelling stories that demonstrate a high level of care for the customers' needs by interviewing different customers during initial research.

Customers appreciate brands that take the time to understand their demands and meet their needs.

3. Helps to communicate the brand's purpose in customers' lives

Storytelling marketing is not just about sweet words. With data collected from marketing research, an organization can explain its role in customers' lives in a language they understand best. After all, brand stories will never make an impact if customers don't see the value the company brings.

4. Captures customer expectations

Brand story marketing must show customers that you can solve their problems when others fail. However, this is impossible if an organization does not understand what customers expect.

The market research gives organizations a chance to communicate with their clients using personalized messages. This further boosts the impact of the brand story marketing strategies by targeting customer expectations.

5. Helps win the competition

During research marketing, organizations can identify what other companies are unwilling to (or can't) do to ease the customer's pain. For example, some companies fail to offer excellent support after a purchase, which sends the customer to the next competitor they can find.

With such flaws evident in the competition, the marketing and sales teams can use a brand storytelling marketing strategy to their advantage. Focus on how far you're willing to go to meet the client's demands.

Tips on Crafting a Brand Story with Postcards and Direct Mail

In the digital age, many companies have shifted their focus to digital marketing to reach their customers. While online marketing is effective, your company may still be missing out on the opportunity to tell your brand story to customers.

Hence, you may want to consider using other forms of marketing to tell the best brand story, such as direct mail. Explore a few storytelling tips using postcards and direct mail below.

• Add a Fun and Fresh Twist to Your Marketing

Your marketing strategy is only as good as the stories you tell with it. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you'll need to incorporate fun and engaging brand storytelling examples into each piece of your marketing.

For example, send a few postcards with a retro image. Or, send postcards that encourage your target audience to send "Save the Dates reminders" to their friends. You can also send postcards that feature your product or your company's 'How We Work.'

• Send Personalized Postcards

The best brand stories connect with customers at a personal level. Personalization is key to email marketing, but it's even more critical when sending postcards.

Your postcards should feature images relevant to your brand and encourage your customers to take action. For example, you could send postcards that feature your products or fun facts about your industry.

• Use Automated Direct Mail

Mail automation tools like Inkit Send allow you to ensure the mail piece reaches the recipient at the necessary moment. This way, your brand storytelling marketing won't look obtrusive and is more likely to get a positive response.

Besides, mail automation enhances personalization, eliminates routine tasks, and significantly increases productivity.

• Incorporate Postcards Into Existing Marketing

Use postcards to power existing marketing efforts. For example, you can send postcards that feature your latest blog post or event invite. You can also deliver postcards that feature your social media posts or your company's values. Such a marketing approach reminds your audience of your brand and incentivizes them to take action.

• Draw Inspiration From Others

Borrowing a few brand storytelling examples should point you in the right direction. Look at what key players in your industry are doing and replicate it. Remember, however, different companies have different customers, and what applies to them may not necessarily bring an impact on yours.

You can now incorporate postcards and direct mail into your marketing strategy with these storytelling tips. Direct mail isn't just for old-fashioned brands anymore. Today, people open 80 to 90 percent of direct mail, meaning that the chances that someone reads your brand story are still high enough.

Inkit Send for Automating Direct Mail in Your Multi-Channel Storytelling Efforts

Inkit Send is a direct mail automation API you can use to boost your offline brand marketing strategy. Once integrated, it prints and delivers communications based on specific customer actions or events. These communications are sent and received automatically, reducing overhead costs and reducing human error. Inkit Send also ensures compliance with industry standards by tracking when your printed messages have been sent and received.

Start your free Send trial now to automate offline brand storytelling marketing.

Final Thoughts

We hope that this brand storytelling guide will help you get started on your new journey. Companies with a good brand storytelling marketing culture are more likely to succeed. When done well, stories have the power to captivate, inspire, and connect. Focus on developing a straightforward narrative around your brand, and you'll be better equipped to articulate its value proposition to your target audience.