Tell your brand story

The way Lucy harnessed her story was a big part of what made her marketing effective. Initially, Lucy shared with friends, family, and other business owners that she was starting a business but didn’t explain what her product was.

By the time she revealed the product, there was a sense of anticipation among her followers which helped to get the business off the ground.

Her side hustle took the next step when one of her TikToks went viral. It was a simple video, explaining how she started her business and it resonated with people instantly.

Lucy credits the success to her storytelling: “The basis of any good marketing is storytelling.

“When I launched, people were excited because they got to see the end result of the storytelling I’d done over such a large period of time,” she said.

The goal of telling your brand story is to connect with your audience so they understand more about your business than just what you sell. Think about ways you could explain how and why you started your business in a compelling way.

Lucy shared that your business’s community is made up of people that relate to your story and like your product, but you should reach out to other small business owners too.

She said the goal of starting a community is ‘to make people feel connected to your business’.

“You want people to support you however they can, whether that’s buying your product or liking your posts.”

She added that to grow your community you should ‘make content that makes people feel something, whether it’s entertaining, inspiring or educational’.

Here’s an outline of the journey you should aim to take your customers on to build a community:

• step one: create content that makes people feel something (entertained, inspired, or educated)

• step two: people will use those feelings to explain your story to other people because it’s easier to relate to

• step three: shared stories that people relate to will be shared further than the internet and this is where a community begins

Lucy also outlined that there are many benefits of building a community for your brand, including:

• trending products

• a stronger relationship with your customers

• becoming a household name

• building partnerships through your community