There’s more to successful marketing than sharing your product or service with an audience and hoping they bite. There’s more than just announcing the brand, posting a few blog articles and sending your sales representatives out to do cold calls. In fact, the goal behind marketing goes much deeper. The driving force responsible should be brand storytelling.

Stories have an immense power to transform a brand’s presence and identity. Look at legendary brands like Disney, Coca-Cola and Apple, and what do they have in common? An incredible story that propelled them forward and impacted the world. Every brand has a story, including yours. The key is to dig in and figure out how to share it. Take a look at how to successfully tell your brand’s story.

Define your purpose.
Before you tell others your story, you have to discover it for yourself first. Sure, you might know how the business started, but have you ever actually thought through the story? Take time to define the purpose of the brand. Get a team together and walk through how the business was founded, what its intentions were and how it has grown over time. Once you define the core purpose of the brand, the other facets of the story will fall into place.

Incorporate personality.
Every brand has a unique personality which sets it apart from competition and catches consumer attention. Your brand story is more than just marketing; it should incorporate the entire persona you want to be known for. This means that as you expand the story, consider the people who participate, create and develop the brand’s personality. You’re not writing a biography; you’re writing a novel with a full plot, character development and climax.

Keep it simple.
Of course, you don’t want the novel to get too complicated. Otherwise, you might lose customers’ attention. Keep the brand’s story simple: beginning, middle and end. Most companies follow the same storyline: problem, solution, success. For instance, explain the problem you wanted to solve, describe how you solved it and share about the success this created. Then, close with a continuation of how the brand hopes to grow.

Connect with customers.
At the core, your brand’s story isn’t really about the company. Even though it shares the business beginnings, the true goal of the story is to connect with customers. For this reason, share your story in a way that tells customers you relate to them, understand them and have things in common with them. When you connect with customers, you reach the true power of storytelling: establishing trust.

Establish trust.
The best brand stories build a profound trust with their clients. They let customers into the “behind the scenes” of the company and create a sense of confidence with them. In fact, stories are an influential tool in human communication. When humans read a story, they can literally feel an experience and synchronize their minds with the story’s subject. By sharing your brand story with customers, you establish a status of trust and encourage customers to do the same.

Marketing means more than just selling a product. It involves creating, sharing and connecting with others through powerful storytelling. Keep these tips in mind as you develop your brand’s story and share it successfully with others.