With this article series, we’ve been having a conversation about the power of storytelling for food businesses large and small. About how you can stake a unique claim to that power. (After all, how psyched can you get about the story behind laundry detergent or televisions?)
See Creating a Powerful Story For Your Food Brand, Part 1 — how to identify your story. What about you do people want to know?
Read why story is such a powerful marketing tool for food brands: Storytelling is Dead. Long Live Storytelling.
I’ve been referencing the writing of Southwestern Ohio farmer Drausin Wulsin, whose regular blog shares his insightful and moving writing about life on his livestock farm. (You should check it out, and subscribe to Drausin’s newsletter.)
Last month, I helped you get started by identifying the roots of your brand story. Now we’ll get into more of the nuts-and-bolts of writing and sharing that story.
5) Create a story structure
Think of this in terms of classic narrative structure: The protagonist (that’s you) sets out on a mission or quest (that’s the work that you do), encounters hurdles along the way (these are important, as we’ll see below), overcomes them (this is where the value of your work and product come in) and perseveres. Every story you tell can follow this framework.
6) Make space and time to write and share your stories
Ahhh … this is the challenge, right? Writing doesn’t come easily to most people (it’s laborious and time-consuming even for those of us who do it for a living). My best advice here is to just. get. started. Let momentum take over. Keep a digital or paper notebook of story ideas, and fill in the details over time. Use your smartphone to snap photos as a reminder, or its voice recorder to capture ideas in the moment.
7) It’s about you, but it’s not about you
Always—always—keep your customers’ needs and interest in mind when you’re telling your story. Content marketing—and that’s what storytelling is—has three rules, particularly in the online space: Be nice. Be relevant. Be helpful. “Content must provide entertainment, education or utility. Stop focusing on what you want to say and start listening to what your audiences want to talk about.” — The 10 Commandments of Content, via FastCompany.com
8) Connect the dots
Use your story to establish links among your mission, your product and your customer. Help them understand what it means to buy from you. Again, I’ll quote Drausin: “The power of your pocket-book to affect change is profound. When purchasing foods from us, you are: addressing climate change, by storing carbon in soils through grazing methods; addressing rural unemployment, by providing meaningful jobs on farms like ours; creating health for you and your children, by investing in grassfed foods; and helping us run a business, by providing revenues and cash-flow. You are critical to much that happens way out here in the country, as well as in your own homes. You should feel good about that.”
Ready to feel good about your story — and about sharing it with your customers? Give me a shout, let me know what you need and we can chat about how I might be able to assist you.