Trust is a huge factor when attracting your ideal clients, and most creative business owners hate the selling part of their business. What’s a great way to attract your ideal clients and not be “salesy”?

Creating stories is fantastic and I thought it would be a great topic for a blog, so here goes!

• First, I’ve got 4 things you can incorporate to create instant trust with your brand.
• Then, I’ll go into the ways you can incorporate these ideas. Let’s dive in!

1. Share Stories

First of all, story telling is a huge part of a brand, without it, you’re simply showing your products and services. Furthermore, relatable stories build trust and stick in people’s brands longer than mere facts. People will always remember the way you made them feel, not necessarily all the information you present to them.

2. Don’t try and be the Hero, be the Guide.

If we are talking about stories, movies are a perfect example. So which character in the story should you be and which character should your audience be? There’s always a hero and a guide who shows the hero the way to go. The hero is usually a weak character in some regard. A good example is Lord of the Rings. Bilbo was weak but Gandalf was strong. In Star Wars, Luke was weak for most of the series, but Yoda was strong. You must be the guide to show your audience how to solve their problem!

Once you have your story in place, to establish even more trust, it helps to incorporate the following:

3. Show Empathy.

First, if you want people to identify with your brand, let them know it’s not about you, it’s about the audience. They will trust someone sharing what they can do for the audience way more than you merely talking about your accomplishments.

4. Be the Authority.

Second, not only do you want them to know you are aware of their problem (or pain point), you also know how to fix it.

Now that you have some ideas about how to create stories in your brand, how do you apply them?

• For starters, the slogan in your business can be a great opportunity. For example, since I was getting many clients coming to me because they weren’t happy with their previous headshots, I ended up with the slogan, “This is Your First Impression… Make it a Good One.” I recognized the frustration (pain point) of people settling with bad headshots for their business. I remind them headshots and branding images are often the first thing people see, so make sure they’re done right.

 

• Also, your bio page is another great avenue not many people use for creating trust with their brand through story telling. Instead of simply having when a business is started, favorite color, how many pets, etc, try sharing personal things people can relate to and how that story positions you as an authority to help your audience.

 

After seeing this opportunity, I changed my Bio to the following:

I’m Melissa, lead photographer at Melissa Raelynn Photography. I officially launched this crazy business in December of 2015 after 12 years of faithful service in our United States Air Force.

 

After I started my business, I knew I wanted a brand that showed me as the fun, working professional I am. In the beginning, however, I only showed my work and one picture of me on my Bio page. Because I hid behind my camera, I wasn’t attracting much business in general, much less my ideal clients.

 

After showing my face a lot more in a cohesive way across my website and social media, I noticed a huge difference in the quality of clients I was attracting. Finally, I’m attracting other fun, kickass ladies who are ready to focus their branding!

 

I  then knew I wanted to use that same collaborative spirit I learned in the military to empower other women to take their branding into their own hands.  Now I get to create images to show the world how badass other women owned businesses are. (Still have to pinch myself every now and then to see if I’m dreaming!)

Using your bio to show both Empathy and Authority

Through my bio I have shown empathy, in that I know it can be tough showing your face a lot on your social media and website. I also touched the pain point that when you’re starting a business it’s hard to attract the people you want to work with. I then explained that with my experience in the military and the experience of building my own brand, I can help others do build theirs effectively. Did you catch that? I told them I get you, and I’ve been there. Let me help you to the next level too.

Other Avenues for story telling

Lastly, other avenues a story can be used in blog posts, social media posts, about me page, etc… YOU WILL MOST LIKELY HAVE A DIFFERENT STORY AND MESSAGE to relate to a different audience, so get creative and keep elements of your personality in the copy.

Bio pages and websites in general are always a work in progress and will get tweaked as time goes by. But remember, always try to incorporate stories for your audience to establish trust. This will grow your brand in a direction that will attract more people you want to work with and who want to work with you, and you won’t feel “salesy” when telling stories!

 

So what do you know about this topic? Please leave comments or questions below about branding and story telling, I’d love to share ideas to make us all better!

Badass business women included in this blog:

Micaela Bowers

Jessica Henning

Amber Guyton: Blessed Little Bungalow