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Michelle Knight, founder and CEO of Brandmerry®, is back to discuss the impact of brand storytelling on business growth. She shares her insights on creating a brand that embodies authenticity, intentionality, and profitability. She also explains how digital storytelling can be strategically integrated into business funnels to enhance relatability and increase conversions.
Watch the previous episode ‘Six Figures Teaching Brand Strategy (While Homeschooling Her Son) Featuring Michelle Knight’
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Speaker 1:
Welcome back to the Art of Online Business podcast. Have you ever been curious what brand storytelling is and how it can help grow your business, and how you could even fit in something called digital storytelling into your funnel to increase conversions? And if you have, like I’ve been curious, I don’t know about you, jamie.
Speaker 1:
This is going to be a good episode for you. One, because right across the screen from us. If you can’t see, please go to the show notes below on whatever audio platform you’re on right now and click over to YouTube. But Michelle Knight is here and she’s going to share about this, of course, and who is she? She’s the founder and CEO of Brand Mary, a brand strategy and marketing company that helps small business owners build a brand that is authentic, intentional and profitable. I love the P word. Michelle’s dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and small business owners create a brand that reflects their unique personality, values and mission. And today, along with my wife Jamie, thanks for being here too. Today, along with my wife Jamie, Hi, Thanks for being here too, Michelle, thanks for being here, and thanks for helping us figure out how to work digital storytelling into our funnels so we can be more relatable.
Speaker 2:
It’s my pleasure. I love talking about this topic, so I’m jazzed.
Speaker 1:
Sweet, sweet. Well, I kind of asked you this question before we hit record for our previous episode, but I think it goes right here at the beginning of this episode, which is what do your clients think brand storytelling is, and then, what is it actually, and what’s at stake if we don’t get this right?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so storytelling in general when it comes to business like let’s call it business storytelling, overarching right. Comes to business like let’s call it business storytelling, overarching right. Business storytelling, like you mentioned, is how we make ourselves relatable. Storytelling in and of itself relies on two pillars, and these are pillars that Donald Miller, who is an amazing business storyteller and educator, teaches as well. It’s empathy and authority. Okay, and storytelling is a way for us to tie in empathy and tie in authority. And so when my clients are coming to me and they’re like I need to tell more stories, they instantly brain goes their brand story Right.
Speaker 2:
And I think when we think about business storytelling, we always think about our brand story. It’s one of the first things we write, it’s our about me page. We feel like we got to have a clear brand story in order to move forward with our business. And while that is true and I’m a huge advocate for your brand story being established in the branding process a lot of people stop there and they’re not focused on integrating storytelling or digital storytelling into their content. And so a lot of people will you know again clients coming to me and they’re like, okay, well, I have this brand story now, but how do.
Speaker 2:
I use it and I say, all right, these are kind of our foundational places. We’re going to pop one in the funnel, right. We’re going to let people know who we are. We’re going to put it on our about me page. We can cherry pick some pieces out, but like that’s only going to get you so far. And the demand for empathy, authority through storytelling is at an all time high, this year specifically, and we’ll just continue to grow because of what we’re seeing with short form video and because of what we’re seeing with an increase of people in the coaching, consulting and course industry.
Speaker 1:
We got some questions, I feel like if you break this down a little more. How about you go first?
Speaker 3:
So you said brand story is kind of your origin story.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so yeah, exactly. You might’ve heard it as your origin story, your founder story, your heroine’s journey, your hero’s journey, your brand story. They’re all very much interchangeable, and it is one of the very first things that I encourage my clients to create when they are going through the branding process. It’s a fantastic way for you to articulate your mission, for you to articulate the kind of work that you do and why you do the work that you do. This is huge and fundamental. And then we also know, when we start tying into marketing and things, your about me page is one of the most important pages on your website and so if someone’s on, it’s your second most visited page on your website. And so if someone is on that page, they’re not I say this and this is so controversial but they’re not on that page to learn about themselves. They’re on that page to learn about you, the brand, why the brand exists, and I have signed so many clients from my About Me page, clients who have said I read your About Me page and I too did this, or I have felt this, or I want to do this, and it goes back to that empathy, that relatability that really helps drive the purchase decision, which we know is emotional, right. 90% of purchase decisions are made on an emotional basis. They’re not made because of logistics. So, to go back to kind of what you were saying, your brand story really is the beautiful way to tie those things in there, so someone kind of gets an idea of who you are and why they should ultimately trust you with whatever it is you’re selling them.
Speaker 2:
You can do that with just the brand story, and there’s a lot of different frameworks that I teach with brand storytelling.
Speaker 2:
I would say one of my most popular is definitely the hero’s journey, which I did not come up with, joseph Campbell did. I didn’t make that up, it’s in every movie, but helping my clients kind of break that down in terms of their business. And then something else that I have become known for and have talked about in many podcasts is called the three transition story, and that’s something that I developed with and it’s on my website now, but it essentially is what are three pivotal moments in your life that you learned something you changed course, you were forced to or you did it on your own that kind of changed the trajectory of your life, and then how does that ultimately lead you to where you are today and a lot of my clients really love that, especially in the coaching industry, course creation industry. If they share a lot of similarities with their ideal customer, that can be a really great framework to follow. And then, if you can cherry pick each of those transitions out to better create more digital stories or social media stories for your business as well.
Speaker 1:
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3:
Because people are always looking to connect right. They want to find, like, what do we have in common? And again, they want to buy from people they know, like and trust. So if they connect with you on something, then I think that that’s really important, right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and I think too, you know you mentioned know, like and trust, which is something I feel like I should have tattooed on my arm because I say it all the time. But there’s also this other aspect that I think a lot of people forget about with consumers that they want to be seen, heard and understood, and that is the empathy part. Right, there’s a way to tell your story that, even though you might not share the exact moment in time, I tell people when you’re sharing your story and you’re speaking about the experience, it’s I’m getting nerdy now it triggers neuro coupling in the brain. It releases dopamine and that’s a feel good hormone, and that’s why we know that when storytelling is integrated into our content, it’s more memorable, it makes our content more memorable, and so I think that all goes back to like. People just really want to know that you get them at the end of the day, and that’s what’s going to build trust.
Speaker 3:
Right, right.
Speaker 1:
Okay, you said something that I believe is going to be super educational for the listener and you went so quick by it, but you mentioned dropping. I forget your words, but they’re approximately dropping the brand story into certain places in the funnel and my mind was like what are the best places to put the story in the funnel?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah. So the first place, I believe every landing page, every opt-in page, whatever you want to call it, needs to have a segment of your brand story. So, like I said, the full brand story. You might feature that on your about me page, let’s say, but you can condense certain sections to be used throughout the funnel or in different areas. So having that condensed story section on your landing page is fantastic for those individuals who aren’t sold with the headline, they’re not sold with the bullets, and they’re asking themselves wait, who is this person? Why should I trust them? And you’re in the business of advertising and so we know we want those landing page conversions to be above 30%, and so we talked about that and this added piece of storytelling.
Speaker 2:
I think positioning it near the bottom is for that individual. If they haven’t clicked the button yet, what’s probably keeping them from doing so? It’s probably because there’s a little bit of trust that hasn’t been built. And if you can show up and share, this is who I am. This is the kind of business that I run. This is the type of person that I serve. This is why I do what I do. I’m happy that you’re here Now. Click this button.
Speaker 1:
You can increase conversions so that’s the first place. A sales page or opt-in page without a bio or brand story is fill in the blank.
Speaker 2:
Underperforming missing the mark.
Speaker 3:
How long does it have to be? Or should it be? Are we talking just a few sentences? Three to five sentences or so?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that’s a great question. Yeah, I call this type of story a bio blurb, so think of it as like a blurb, like a condensed. I usually aim for about two paragraphs, two to three paragraphs. So the first is positioning who are you, who do you serve? Cause we know that this ideal customer work is so important. You know people want to know that you’re actually speaking to them and you’re going to support them. So who are you, who do you serve?
Speaker 2:
And then I love to add in a lot of the personal aspects in there. I’m a mom, so I always say that on my landing pages. I share, because I’m in the business of consulting and coaching. I share what I’ve been able to do with my business. I don’t focus a great deal on money, although I do say I make money, but I talk about how I lived in an RV and how I travel and how I homeschool, because I know that these are things that are very important to my ideal customer. They want time and freedom.
Speaker 2:
So, again going back to the ideal customer work, and then I like to add in that authority piece at the very end. You know I’ve been featured in entrepreneur and fast company right. I’ve been in business for eight years I’ve served X amount of clients, because now you’ve blended together in just three paragraphs empathy and authority, you’ve positioned yourself as the person that can ultimately help your ideal customer. And I think with storytelling too, it piques interest right. And so you don’t want to give it all away, because throughout the funnel as I’m sure we’ll talk about there are opportunities for you to expand on your story, on your process, on the work that you do, and if you can pique interest and create what is called open looping in storytelling, you can keep somebody engaged throughout the funnel.
Speaker 1:
Jeez, all right, so you didn’t know this was coming up, but it is here. There is our website and there is the about page and there is the little bio section right there. Yeah, on the fly, with no preparation, what are the two things that jump out to you that you’re going to change?
Speaker 2:
Is this the whole page?
Speaker 1:
It’s not the whole page no Well, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Speaker 2:
No, no, I’m curious. Can I see the whole page?
Speaker 1:
No, this is not the whole page, can you scroll?
Speaker 2:
it and let me see it. Okay, yeah, got it.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so this is the top of the page.
Speaker 2:
And then it goes to what could be it’s okay to tear me apart, but a very bio, and are we a match? Some figures and then some customer client testimonials. Okay, great, okay. So I love the boxes where you put in those quick numbers and that authority. That’s so good, right, like for a synopsis. My biggest takeaway from this page is that I don’t actually know who you two are.
Speaker 2:
Oh, okay, I know how you can help me, which is great. I probably already knew that from the homepage. I probably already knew that from a landing page. So if I am on this page, why am I here?
Speaker 1:
Okay, to know about us to know about you.
Speaker 2:
So you do have this section, which I love, but I do think that it could be expanded on, like why do you love running ads? Why is it so important for you? I know when you were on my podcast, we talked about authentic advertising. You know, and you care a lot about your clients. I know you have you told me that on my podcast. You know, like, why did you get into ads? I know your story, cause I made you share it on my podcast. That would be what I would really kind of tap into here, because you know, at the end of the day and I know I’ve said this about storytelling there are a lot of people teaching branding. There are a lot of people who can help you run your ads. Why would they choose your company over another one when, at the end of the day quote, unquote the results or the outcome is the same?
Speaker 1:
I like it All right, thank you.
Speaker 2:
You’re welcome.
Speaker 1:
Very impromptu, put you on the spot.
Speaker 2:
Let’s see what you’re going to do with the bio blurb.
Speaker 1:
We were talking about that, but okay, so let’s take it back to what you were sharing about as far as where something you had said was micro stories, and I know we got here by me asking about where in the funnel these go. What else would you feel like the listener must hear?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so you know, we talked a lot about brand story, which, of course, is the first thing that we do, but often where people stop, and there’s this whole other world of digital storytelling that exists, or micro stories, again, I feel like all of these things have 1700 different names.
Speaker 2:
So people might’ve heard them as a lot of different things. Social stories those are a big one as well, and this demand for micro storytelling, or digital storytelling as I call it, I believe, really came about with social media. That’s where we really saw the uptick, because social media isn’t older than me. However, I remember when Instagram and Facebook were really taking off for small business owners and online entrepreneurs, and so we started to see this uptick with, like, creating micro content. You only had so many characters, you only have so many seconds to share a story, and that’s really where this idea came from.
Speaker 2:
But people don’t want to hear the same story all the time, like that, your content is just going to. You can’t say the brand story five days a week, every single week for a year, so what kind of stories do you share? And this is where, like, the digital stories, come into play, and so one of the things that I teach my clients is to create a story bank, which essentially is I love ClickUp for this, or Trello or something where you have boards right and you have boards that are one could be personal experiences, so things that have happened in your life that you know would connect with your ideal customer. We talked about relatability. We talked about empathy. Also, client stories.
Speaker 2:
Right Like gone are the days, in my opinion, of sharing like a one line testimonial with a name and a picture. We can make that with AI, okay. So you know like we need to be able to tell the story of our ideal customer. Call it a case study, call it whatever you want. I call these client stories, before and after turning points, how a specific product influenced or made their life easier working with you, what it life easier working with you, what it’s like to work with you, what your client said about that experience. And then to kind of there’s a lot of categories, but to kind of keep it short, we also have specific product categories as well, and so this is where I think the brand story comes into play, and I think where we’re going to also talk about funnels is you might have a brand story for your brand as a whole, but your product or your service probably has its own story as well, like why I?
Speaker 2:
created my membership. I shared that in the last episode. There’s a reason why I created my membership. I was seeing a need online and those are the types of stories that work so beautifully in funnels and in sales pages and you can integrate, you know, all of these different things into into a funnel. I knew you were going to ask me this question, so I came up with a little cheat sheet. Hey, so and and I know, in terms of funnels, obviously these are the kinds of things. That is an example of a storytelling funnel, if you will, the very first piece being what is your brand story, that bio blurb that we talked about? Why are you in business, really thinking about your ideal customer? What do they want at the end of the day?
Speaker 2:
I often say it doesn’t matter what you sell. You could be selling a frying pan and you want to tell the story about why you designed the perfect frying pan, where your egg sticking to your pan every single morning and it was driving you nuts and your husband was like I’m going to lose it. The pan always smelled like it was burning. Tell the story of why you created the frying pan. So I say that because sometimes people will say well, I sell a product, it doesn’t work. It does work.
Speaker 2:
And so the first one really is the why. What is the why behind your business and what you’re selling? Then a client journey, before and after. Before my client came to work with me, they felt this way. Before my client bought this product, they felt this way. Then we helped them feel this way right, and this is how we ultimately help them, which is a great segue into your product.
Speaker 2:
And then a personal story, and I love personal storytelling because it allows you to just go a little bit deeper into a specific moment in time where you had a realization about something that you were doing and you did it differently, and maybe now you teach it. Going back to your business, maybe you worked with a client and there was something that you discovered when it came to messaging and advertising, and now you’re obsessed with it and everyone has to use it. This is a really great opportunity for you to highlight a very specific moment in time, rather than a larger journey like your brand story might ultimately do, rather than a larger journey like your brand story might ultimately do, and so I like to interchange those three types of stories in my funnel in various spots.
Speaker 1:
Three. I have five. I messed up in my notes. I’m like fiercely typing over here.
Speaker 2:
No, you’re good. I talked about I think I talked about some containers. I talked about the brand story container, I talked about the client journey container and I talked about the product specific story.
Speaker 3:
Gotcha.
Speaker 2:
And then I was just kind of sharing within a funnel itself Definitely make sure that you’ve got the why, you’ve got a client and you’ve got a personal micro story in there.
Speaker 1:
Look at me trying to be student and host at the same time. I’m just going to have to read let’s have to listen again.
Speaker 3:
I’m just going to have to listen again, you’ll get a transcript.
Speaker 1:
I’ll get a transcript. Ai will give me a transcript. I love AI. What is the last one or two things that you want?
Speaker 2:
the listener to leave this episode with Number one. I think I want more entrepreneurs and business owners to know that their story really does matter. There are a lot of entrepreneurs, especially when they’re starting out, that feel like they don’t have anything to share. They haven’t had crazy successes, they haven’t maybe even worked with a client yet, or maybe they’re pivoting into a new direction and they have all this background and history but not testimonials for this specific direction. You really can start with sharing and building trust via your story, via your experiences, via why you’re doing what you’re doing, your mission, your values. These are things that connect people.
Speaker 2:
Authenticity is, in my opinion, a fundamental for all businesses online.
Speaker 2:
We know that around 77% of people will make a business decision based on how authentic the brand feels to them, and we also know that millennials and Gen Z say that 85% of their purchase decisions are based on how well they feel connected to their audience or how they feel connected to a brand. And there’s a lot of fun stats about values and all of those different things, but it really just goes to show that there are a lot of people out there doing what you do, like it’s naive to think you’re the only one that ever created something or run that type of business. Even I know that. So what makes you different? What differentiates you? It really is your story, and so, number one, you have a story to tell. And number two, tell the story, don’t just share it in one spot. Make sure you’re using storytelling tactics on social media, on your blogs, in your YouTube videos, on your podcasts, in your emails and your funnels, because it really is a powerful business tool that I don’t think enough people are utilizing.
Speaker 1:
Oh geez, we got some work to do. Yeah, thank you, michelle, for sharing this. I know if the listener is going to take away one thing, it’s time to put their story throughout their funnel, and I know for us, it’s time for me to give my wife some more work to do.
Speaker 2:
No, sorry, thanks, Michelle.
Speaker 1:
No it’s both of us that need to do it, because it’s our story.
Speaker 3:
I appreciate you sharing this I think it’s good what you said.
Speaker 1:
Need to do it because it’s our story.
Speaker 3:
I appreciate you sharing this. I think it’s good what you said, that that your story does matter, because I think a lot of times people get really focused on you know, whatever it is that they’re selling, what they have to offer, and it’s just you know, get this offer, get this course, get this product, and, yeah, people I guess forget that that people do want to know about them, and especially in the online space, because you’re not actually walking into a store, you’re not meeting the person you know live, you can’t shake their hand or smile at them or whatever. So you’re right, I think in the online space, it’s incredibly important.
Speaker 1:
Well, here we go. We’re going to sign off for now. Take care, Michelle. Thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. It was a delight and listener. Thanks for listening or watching. Definitely thanks for watching, if you’re watching on YouTube, and until the next time we see each other, take care, be blessed and we’ll see you in the next one. Bye, bye.
