Hey Reader.

How important is it for a pet brand that you buy from to have a great story?

For many of us, the answer is very.

We like to know who and what is behind the brand, regardless of what generation we belong to - see last week's email about Gen Z.

In the pet industry, brands have no shortage of inspiring and heartwarming stories to share, along with many avenues to share them through.

An About Page is prime real estate for sharing a story and connecting with an audience. But are brands really capitalizing on the skill of choreographing their stories?

Btw, everyone is a storyTELLER. We all TELL stories all the time.

The real skill with weaving together the important pieces of any story is in what I call story choreography.

Blame the dancer in me who spent many years choreographing dances, which meant making choices - and testing and trying and retrying, over and over, until I figured out what worked best for whatever I was aiming to achieve.

Stories are no different.

A good story is never a first draft.

Back to pet brands, stories, and About Pages.

As someone who has coached hundreds of speakers, leaders, and brands on their stories, I’m often asked what the ingredients are for a great story.

I wish there was a simple answer, like a recipe for baking chocolate chip cookies. Alas, there is not an easy answer.

What I can say is that there absolutely is a story to share.

Three Tactics Brands Use to Share Stories On An About Page:

1. Use a familiar format. Once upon a time…It’s not only a familiar beginning to stories, especially fairytales and folktales, which means most of us have heard it all our lives, but it also helps to put us right into story mode.
2. Immediately call out their beliefs. When you state a belief that allows people to opt into (or opt out of) right away, you help lift the curtain of the brand. It’s like you expose the wizard immediately, and those people who are your people will immediately know it.
3. Go straight for the heart. And by straight for the heart, we mean emotion. Get right into making someone feel an emotion. You get to choose what emotion – happiness, nostalgia, love, etc. – and then use words and photos to bring that emotion to life.

Plus, The Biggest Mistake I See.

Across the board, people tend to lean into WHAT happened - this happened, then this, then this - like it's a reiteration of a timeline.

What is more effective is to share the inner monologue - what you felt, what you thought, what you considered, etc.

It's much easier for people to connect with feelings than facts.

I found some examples of the points above and shared them in this post: Tips To Share Your Brand Story On Your About Page.​

There is way more to choreographing a story than just these points. Plus, there is way more to consider on a website than just your story - like SEO and your CTA.

And, as a content creator, these tactics are also valuable to help you in choreographing your own story.

What is your story? Hit reply and give us the three sentence version.

We're interested!

Chloe and the BlogPaws Team

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