What’s Your Story? The Importance of Your Business’ Story to Your Marketing Efforts

Once upon a time… you started a business. Not just any business - your unique business. It has an origin, mission, goals, drama, highs, lows, comedy, interesting characters… who wouldn’t want to know all about it? Telling that story is an impactful way to make an impression on potential customers because, at its core, marketing is about making a company’s story known. The big corporations leverage their backstory in their marketing. We know the origins of the Colonel’s chicken, that tech brand started by those geniuses in a garage and the countless recipes that have turned home cooks into household names. The public is drawn in by the allure of the story of their corporate trajectory.

There are a number of sound reasons to incorporate your company’s story into your marketing because it raises your business’:

• Familiarity - be an open book so customers feel they know who their doing business with
• Trust factor - when you’re willing to talk about yourself, it builds a foundation of trust
• Likability - it’s hard not to like someone who is open and honest about themsellves
• Relatability - your candor is likely to strike a "yeah, me too!" response in others
• Recognizability - you’ll gain notoriety as the company that does, is or makes "that thing" in the marketplace.

Incorporating your business’ story into your marketing

Identify the story of your business

You may never have considered that your business does indeed have a story so it’s worth taking the time and effort to discover it and put words to it. Consider why you started the business you did. What interests, passions, talents or skills led you? What was your initial mission with your business? How did entrepreneurship enter the picture? What were your struggles? Your early victories that propelled your growth? Who were your allies? What mistakes did you make - and ultimately learn from? How/when did you know it was time to expand? What’s your business’ impact on a community or demographic it serves? The answers to questions like these will help clarify the story you want to tell. I suggest literally writing it out as if it were a story you were telling someone.

Now, tell that story!

Once you have the story, it’s time to get it out there where people can hear it. Your company website’s About page is a great place to post it. A format like this could work well:

Tell your origin story - Mamma Zee Pizza Cucina opened in 1989 when Mamma Zee decided it was time to share her recipe for authentic Italian pizza with the greater Harris Township area, instead of just her well-fed family and friends…

Express your big why - (mission statement) - In a world of inauthentic, corporate and boring pizza, Mamma Zee wanted to preserve the legacy of her family’s traditional pizza recipe and share it with the world, less the true taste of Italy be lost to the ages…

Articulate your business’ goals - Mamma Zee started in her kitchen and now she proudly operates 7 restaurants in the area and she’s looking to expand into neighboring towns with another 3 locations within the next 5 years, further spreading authentic Italian culinary delights…

Explain how you do what you do - physically, organizationally, morally… - Mamma Zee Pizza Cucina locally sources only certified organic ingredients for her pizzas. Crusts are hand tossed, in the traditional fashion and baked to perfection in brick pizza ovens. Mamma Zee’s family has worked in the restaurants throughout the years and the business has employed scores of under-resourced high school students from the area for generations. We donate pizzas to the local food bank in hopes that everyone, like Mamma Zee’s family and friends, are well-fed.

Discuss the impact and legacy you hope your business to have - Mamma Zee’s strives to be a good neighbor and is proud to have provided accommodating restaurants at which to be well-fed in a friendly, relaxing and pleasant atmosphere for our customers. We hope you have wonderful memories of meals enjoyed here with family and friends and that you allow Mamma Zee’s to continue to open her kitchen to you for many years to come.

Now, live that story!

Don’t let your story languish on the shelf - use it to guide all your marketing efforts. Promote your story to demonstrate that you "walk the walk." Post content to social media that reflects those company values and efforts. Mamma Zee’s could tell the heartwarming story of when the pizza got delivered and the driver and the homeowner ended up getting married. Or the story of how one amateur poet would write poems on the pizza boxes. Or the story of the time a father and son had a reconciliation over an extra large sausage and pepperoni pie. Out in the real world, send representatives to local events to talk about how your business is making a positive difference in your community or with a demographic you serve.

Your business’ story is like a company guidebook that will help you stay on brand and authentic to your identity. Write it, read it and tell the world the story of your business!

What’s your business’ story and how do you use it in your marketing?