When I started The Content Lab a few moons ago, I thought I did all the right things. I built a website. I launched social media pages. I wrote blog posts.

It wasn’t quite *crickets*. But I didn’t make the impact I was hoping for.

That’s because I was trying to do everything for everyone. I wasn’t clear on who I served. I wasn’t even sure of who I was or what problem I solved.

I even avoided talking to friends and family about my business because I wasn’t totally confident in what I did and why it mattered.

The problem was, I hadn’t built my business upon my story.

Storytelling is my greatest strength and yet I’d neglected it by doing all of the things I thought I was supposed to do.

Rather than the one thing that mattered most.

This is a common mistake that small businesses make.

We chase after the bright and shiny things, we seek attention, but we skip the most important step.

After making this mistake myself and seeing many other businesses do the same, I’ve come to this rather bold conclusion.

A crystal clear brand story is the #1 missing ingredient in small business marketing today.

What is a brand story?

Let’s start by defining what a brand story isn’t.

  • It’s not the about page on your website
  • It’s not what you say online or on social media
  • It’s not your tagline or mission statement
  • It’s not something you “make up”
  • It’s not a marketing strategy

A brand story is much deeper than all of those things.

Amazon founder and billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos describes a brand as, “What people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Based on that definition, your brand story is the story that people tell one another about your business.

But even that doesn’t go far enough.

I think of brand story as a shared story between you and your ideal customer.

It’s a world that you occupy together where a problem they’re experiencing in their lives intersects with a solution that you provide.

I also describe it as: “A compass for your business and marketing decisions and an anchor for your purpose and values.”

I realise that it can be a hard concept to understand, so I’ll break it down for you.

Your brand story contains the three core elements needed for your marketing to work.

  • Customer: Who you serve
  • Solution: How you serve them
  • Story: Who you are (and what you stand for)

When you are clear on these three elements in your business, it leads to greater:

  • Clarity: Your messaging and marketing become clear
  • Confidence: You are confident in what you do and the value you provide
  • Connection: You naturally attract your ideal customers

When you dive deeply into these elements in your business, a story emerges.

It’s not a story about you. It’s not a story about what you do. It’s not a story about your ideal customer.

It’s a story that captures all of those things in a coherent and compelling way.

Why is brand story the #1 missing ingredient

I think most small businesses give some thought to this process when they’re starting out, but most skip over it entirely.

The world’s best-known brands spend millions of dollars a year on this stuff, whereas small businesses don’t have big marketing budgets.

So they let their brand story slide.

They jump straight into marketing – the telling of their story – without knowing exactly what their story is.

They post on social media, write blogs, create videos, send out email without having a true understanding of:

  • Who they’re talking to
  • What to say
  • The solution they provide
  • What they stand for
    + a whole lot more.

When businesses start marketing without a brand story (compass and anchor), their efforts usually fall flat.

They lack confidence, they’re unsure about what to say, they don’t see the results they were hoping for.

This is why I say brand story is the #1 missing ingredient in most small business marketing.

Why your business needs a brand story

I’m going to use my muffin mixture analogy to help you understand why brand story is essential.

Think of your brand story as the flour in the muffin mixture that is your business.

What’s the flour’s job?

  • It binds all of the essential ingredients together
  • It creates a strong foundation and ensures everything rises as planned
  • It adds volume and texture without trying to steal the show
  • It sits back and lets the fancy stuff (chocolate chips, blueberries, icing) take the credit

Your brand story does the same in your business.

It contains the core elements that are essential for effective messaging and marketing.

You could look at it like this.

The blue circle in the image above represents your marketing efforts.

The three triangles represent the core elements of your brand story – customer, solution, story.

The thing is, most small businesses start here:

They start with the blue circle and they wonder why their marketing isn’t working.

However, when you get really clear on what the three triangles above represent in your business, the blue circle naturally comes to life.

  • Your marketing and messaging will become clear
  • You’ll know what to say on your website and social media
  • You’ll develop a high-impact online presence
  • You’ll naturally attract your ideal clients and customers, and
  • You’ll have greater confidence in your business

All because you started with your brand story.

It sounds like some kind of secret marketing hack, but it’s actually really simple.

When you understand who your customer is and what’s going on in their world, and you deeply understand the unique solution that your business provides, and you know exactly who you are and what you stand for as a business, everything else falls into place.

This is why brand story is so important. And I’m only just scratching the surface.

Living and breathing your brand story also helps with things like:

  • Company culture
  • Recruitment
  • Retention

Because when you’re clear on your purpose, vision and values – and you put them at the centre of the day-to-day running of your business – it gives your team something to believe in.

How to craft your brand story

You don’t need to add anything new to your business to craft your brand story.

You simply need to rediscover the gold that’s already buried within your business.

If your business is a dysfunctional mess then, obviously, this is difficult.

But if you run a small business that’s having some success and you genuinely care about what you do, crafting your brand story is a fairly straightforward process.

However, it’s not always easy.

I sometimes refer to the process as “brand story surgery” or “brand therapy” (although I think it’s more fun than that) because it requires you to let go of some baggage or beliefs about your business and consider new ideas.

I’ve distilled this process down into a simple framework called Brand Story Blueprint.

Brand Story Blueprint has been designed with small businesses in mind.

It’s a journey that helps you to identify the three core elements of your brand story – Customer, Solution, Story – so that you can have greater clarity and confidence in your business.

We then work together to implement your new brand story across your website and social media so that you can develop a high-impact online presence that naturally attracts your ideal customers.

Rediscovering my story

At the start of this post I shared that I neglected my brand story when I first started my business and you might be wondering how things are now.

Since creating Brand Story Blueprint and applying it to my business, I’ve seen significant changes.

My messaging is clearer. I have much greater confidence in what I’m doing and the value I provide. My marketing is much more effective. And the service I provide to my clients is on a whole other level.

My clients have had countless lightbulb moments as I apply the blueprint to their business and they rediscover the power of their story.

It’s awesome.

That’s why I’m so excited about Brand Story Blueprint. I know it’s valuable. I know it works. And I know every business needs this ingredient for their marketing to work effectively.

If you’re interested in learning more email me to set up a free 30-minute brand story strategy session.

During this session, we’ll talk about:

  • Where you’re at now
  • What your main challenges are
  • What you’re hoping to achieve
  • How I can help you to get there

I’ll share everything you need to know about Brand Story Blueprint and how it can be applied to your business.

Then it’s up to you whether you come on this journey with me, or continue going it alone.

Learn more about Brand Story Blueprint here.