Brand Storytelling and Digital Publishing to Guide Your Audience

Do you know where you want your audience to go?

It isn’t enough to tell your personal brand story all over social media to get followers, if they don’t know or aren’t interested in what you are selling you won’t get ahead. Many influencers are busy trying to build a bigger following and in the process tell all sorts of stories that get ‘likes’ and comments because they tug at heartstrings, look cute, or are a trending topic.

But do they know what you sell?

Know What You Want to be Known for

Do you even know what you want to be known for? or are you chasing the trends and coming up with new ideas that will be the “Next Big Thing.”

If you suffer from shiny object syndrome, you have a brand storytelling problem because no one knows why they should contact you, let alone how you can help them.

Decide what you want to be known for and then talk about that problem and your solution everywhere you go. Go deep into the topic to become the expert everyone looks up to when they want to be a part of the industry. “But Shannon, that is narrow and no one engages with my content when I post about what I do.” There are some things you need to know about brand storytelling.

First, you don’t know who is lurking over your content and who is talking about you. I was just visiting with my mom who told me, that someone told her that I am connected to a lot of interesting and important people. Hey - I come from a town of 2 000 people and my mom’s bubble is only her lifelong friends on the golf course. I never see any of them commenting on my social media or following me even… but someone is paying attention, now if she could just remember who that is.

It is better to have a smaller engaged audience who knows what you are about and wants to be a part of your community instead of being a part of the crowd of people following each other for no reason than to get bigger numbers. If you have 100 people all trying to create content and get followers so they all follow each other, how many customers do you have? If you answered zero - you are probably right.

This is why it is important to know what you want to be known for and to craft your stories around keywords to stay on topic and on point.

MarketAPeel hosts a Free Webinar to help you know what you want to be known for

When you are clear about who you are, what you do, and understand what your ideal customer experiences when they need your services or product, they will find you when they need you when they Google the keywords you are known for. Oh no - you forgot to write good copy on your website or blog posts about what you are an expert at… Well, it’s time you expanded beyond social media.

How you craft your story matters. If you are telling your brand story from the ‘I’ perspective and not the ‘you’ perspective, your ideal customers will not be as engaged or care as much. When you craft your business brand stories, figure out what your ideal customer’s story is and then tell them their story.

I don’t mean their life story. That would just be creepy. I mean what do they experience when they need your product or service? Tell that story.

Once you know what you want to be known for, you can start creating the right content … but you still have to find the right audience and you do that by engaging with content similar to yours. Search out keywords and hashtags and then leave thoughtful questions or comments to start a discussion on the post. As you do, people will go to your profile to learn more and those who are interested in what you have to say, will follow you.

• Is your message getting lost in the crowd and fractured by social media sound bites?

• Ever have a prospect or social media follower ask, "What is it that you actually do?"

  
  

If so, you have a brand storytelling problem.

What is Brand Storytelling

Brand Storytelling is the story you tell about your brand, plus the story others tell about your brand, added to how others perceive your company's behaviors, choices, and values. In other words, your brand story is your reputation told using traditional storytelling techniques. Using story structure to share your message with your audience attracts the right customers because they identify with your brand.

Storytellers connect to a brand's market on a deeper level as they pull at the audience's heartstrings and spark a fire in their bellies. We used to call the approach advertising, but that term is so Mad Men of the 50s, we created a new term to sound trendy and cutting edge. Contemporary marketers and advertisers would have you believe brand storytelling is new, but it isn't. If you ever saw Apple's 1984 commercial or the commercials playing on our TVs during the Cola wars, you'd know advertisers have always told emotional stories to impact audiences.

Today, the story isn’t told one way and brands do not control the narrative like they did back in advertising’s hay days.  Now, brands are a part of a dialogue about who they are and what they provide to the marketplace, the other side of the conversation is the customer, who has a lot to say about what a brand means to them. Brand stories told in the digital realm have evolved as technology has changed and the process will continue to evolve. However, don't let the name change fool you.

Is Your Brand Story Fractured?

You know what you want to be known for and you are telling brand stories to let your audience know what you do, when they need you, how you help others, and your business’ own story, the ups and the downs. Things seem to be going well and then you encounter a new problem.

As you tell your story and build out your digital footprint, it becomes fractured and your audience will only see bits and pieces as they move through their customer journey. Imagine trying to figure out the whole story of a movie, with a complex story line, when all you see are the trailers.

When your ideal customers start saying, “Oh, I didn’t know you did that too.” You know that you have a fractured brand story problem and you need to bring it together in a way that will guide your ideal customer from brand awareness to brand advocacy. There are a number of different ways you can solve this problem.

You can create an explainer video that guides the audience through all your services or products. The more information you need to put into it, the longer it will get and the less likely your audience will get through the whole thing because they haven’t had to do anything to stay engaged while watching.

You can write an FAQ page, which is a great idea to help your audience find the answers to their questions about their problems and their frustrations.

You can create a downloadable PDF explaining everything you do with links for them to get more information.

Or you could have MarketAPeel create an interactive customized digital magazine that will enable you to personalize the audience’s experience as they move through your story from beginning to end and interact with all the multimedia features along the way. This keeps them engages and enables them to consume the content in the manner they find most interesting.

Which ever method you choose, you will need to ensure they understand what you do, why they need you, and how you can help solve their problem.

Use a Digital Magazine to Guide Your Audience

Many brand stories are fractured sound bites spread out over the Internet leaving the marketplace wondering who the business is and what they actually do.  A customized digital magazine brings all the pieces together to guide the audience through the business' story from beginning to end.

Interactive magazines are digital publication with features the reader must engage with to get the full experience. These actions could include: clicks, swipe, or touch to perform different operations. Some examples of actionable elements would be links, videos, lead forms, photo slideshows, pop-up frames, buy buttons and so much more. Take a look at the embedded template below to see how enriched this digital magazine example is, after the added interactivity.

When crafted with the customer journey in mind, it will guide your audience from awareness to advocacy. Here are some of the benefits of a custom digital magazine for your brand story:

• Quick access
• Cost-effective
• Digital Subscription
• Monetization
• Editing is easy
• Portable
• Convenient
• Global Presence
• Interactivity
• Analytics
• Sustainability
• Virality
• Faster Publishing and Distribution
• Content Flexibility
• No Revenue Loss from Unsold Copies

Our publications are designed for how people read on their digital devices and interact with digital content. They are designed to engage the reader along the  to move them from one stage to the next:​

• Awareness:  Creates Brand Awareness of products and services. PLUS each publication comes with a social media package
• Interest: Creates interest in the brands offering by informing the reader of options and educating them on the benefits
• Decision: Helps readers make decision to purchase by guiding the reader through a decision making process
• Purchase: Readers can take buying steps within the publication
• Retain: Brand stories can increase customer loyalty with regular issues to keep the brand top of mind

​ MarketAPeel Digital Magazines are interactive and use multimedia features to connect with the readers in their preferred content consuming method: ​

• Text stories: Written by our writers after interviewing the stakeholders and personalities to be featured
• Video: Brand videos can be embedded or we can create new videos to add to the story
• Audio Voice: We can embed podcast interviews or record voice overs for readers to play
• Photos: We have access to the best stock photo gallery or brands can supply their own imaging

​ MarketAPeel Digital Magazines engage the audience by adding interactive features to entertain readers and collect data: ​

• Subscription forms
• Polls and Quizzes
• Instagram Galleries
• Games and Puzzles
• Comment boxes and more

Our publications are interactive, multimedia digital magazine designed for digital device readability and an improved experience for the reader. This is NOT a print magazine made digital, it is a digital magazine designed for the digital experience. A print version can be designed specifically for the print experience.  We utilize flipbook technology to provide a different experience for readers. Publish using multi-media features, allowing the reader to choose their preferred method of experiencing your brand story.

The Brand Storytelling Podcast

The BrandAPeel: Brand Storytelling Podcast is MarketAPeel's platform to talk to branding experts, marketing experts, and business owners about how to tell a brand story in the digital age. Find those special gems of knowledge that create an idea for your brand storytelling efforts.

Your time is valuable, and you want to use it wisely, that’s why you listen to podcasts, you don’t want to waste time on fluff and mindless nonsense. You might even be sick of social media for that very reason and are looking for communities that hold more value to help you get ahead. It's why people become MarketAPeel members, they want a deeper learning experience that challenges their higher intellect. They want to know how they can become ‘The Best’ by learning from the best – Not just the most popular with the mindless masses.

Did you know studies show that 3 out of 4 people listen to podcasts to learn something new? This tells me that lifelong learners and smart people listen to podcasts. What do you think?

How to find Good Podcasts to Listen to

As a podcaster, or marketer, you must understand why people listen so you can create what catches their eye and helps them make a decision. To discover what people look for when choosing a new podcast to listen to, I asked people how they find good podcasts to listen to and why they choose to listen or to pass. I received over 30 insightful responses that gave me an insight into what people look for when making a choice.

"This information is helpful for both podcasters and anyone marketing a product or service."

Being a podcaster isn’t easy. It’s a lot of work. And I don’t just mean the booking, interviewing, and editing – Trying to get people to take notice and give you a chance by listening to what you have created is time consuming and like a slow leak in a tire, can leave you feeling flat. Which is why so many podcasters quit and go onto doing something else, like social media marketing, that is less time consuming with quicker results.

Now that I have well over 100 podcast episodes, I decided to figure out why people choose to listen to some podcasts and pass others by. Yes I know, it’s a little backwards but hey – at least I finally got to researching the podcast listener market and what catches their attention. – Better late than never!

I put out a query and received over 30 responses about what catches people’s attention.

"Grab a pen and paper, you’re going to need it."

Podcasting is a growing medium and better shows are produced because more people are joining the podcasting community. The younger generations have an insatiable need for content, to learn, and to be entertained. Many in our society abhorred silence and need the noise of a conversation, music, or story to fill the void. Podcasting is one medium that helps people to multi-task by learning while running errands or doing housework.

The Podcasting Magazine

Topics Inside APeeling Digital Magazine - The Podcasting Issue

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Podcasting: This section contains articles on why people follow podcasts, why they choose to listen to them in the first place, and BrandAPeel episodes about podcasting.

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Personal Branding: This section contains stories and BrandAPeel podcast episodes about how to create a personal brand. Experts in this section talk about social media platforms, strategy, defining your brand story, and attracting the right audience.

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Marketing: This section contains an article about why brand storytelling is the future of marketing, stories about experts and BrandAPeel episodes talking about how to market your brand in the digital world.

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Writing: This section contains expert stories and podcast episodes about copywriting and creating content for your website.

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Professionals and Careers: This section contains expert interviews and BrandAPeel podcast episodes about professionals, business, job search, career planning, and leadership.

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Brand Stories: This section contains brand interviews and BrandAPeel podcast episodes about brand stories, how they got where they are, why they started, what they learned, and how they tell their brand stories to the marketplace.

As you can see MarketAPeel has a lot to offer anyone who is interested in telling their brand story to build authority and credibility in the marketplace. Whether you are looking for someone to do it all or you want some guidance as you figure it out for yourself, you’ll find it. If you want to know more about the brand storytelling and digital magazine publishing services MarketAPeel offers, visit MarketAPeel.com today.

Shannon Peel is a Brand Storyteller who helps people craft their stories and tell them to the marketplace while building out their digital footprint. She designs, writes, and publishes the custom digital magazines seen on MarketAPeel and is the host, producer, and editor of the BrandAPeel podcast. Yes, she does it all…