Are you frequently frustrated by the lack of order in your marketing arsenal? Are elements of your marketing and advertising scattered about from computer to computer, without anyone really having full knowledge about what’s up-to-date and available to use?
You have that short bio you sent in an email a while ago, but you have a long version somewhere… maybe in your Documents folder?
If members of your team don’t know what materials are available or where to find them, you’re leaving them to produce their own. And that’s not a good thing, because every piece written will have a different brand voice.
Your social media posts, digital communications, website copy and all other media advertising should all reflect your brand personality and voice. By creating a Story Toolkit, you have all the necessary tools your team needs to create marketing communications that are ‘on brand’.
A Story Toolkit will help everyone in your marketing team sing from the same song sheet, and it will also make producing new marketing content easier and faster.
So, what is a Story Toolkit?
It’s like a brand standards guide (you have for the visual side of your brand), but it focusses on the language, words, stories, phrases, tone and sentiment that are unique to your brand.
What should be in your Story Toolkit?
In your toolkit you should have:
- Your mission statement and core values – these are really like the north star of your business, not only guiding your marketing but your business decisions too.
- Your core brand story in two lengths, plus an elevator pitch – we recommend a 400-600 word version for use throughout your website, a shorter version for social media and community messaging, and an elevator pitch of around 100 words for your sales team to use.
- Your company origin story – your heritage and why. An engaging 300-500 word story about the company founder, why it was created and what purpose you serve.
- Tone of voice guide – the style of language that you should use in all your communications and the personality that you’re expressing.
- Customer testimonials – a range of nice reviews from recent projects, important to provide social proof of your capabilities, quality and service.
- Messaging house – a one page overview of your key messaging.
We’ve left the Messaging House to last, because it’s one of the most important parts of your toolkit.
It’s also one of the most popular frameworks with our clients. Clients love it because it’s a concise overview of your messaging strategy on one page – an overarching primary message to infuse into everything you do. Under that you have secondary messages that are linked to key customer insights, supported by proof points. The foundation of your house is your personality – five or six words that personify your brand. Alongside is your elevator pitch – a short, punchy summary of your brand story.
The Messaging House is an excellent tool to have in your Story Toolkit. We have worked with many clients on creating theirs. If you’d like help with yours, or anything else for your Story Toolkit, give us a shout.
