The central and most important dimension to your brand is your origin story.
Think about the websites you visit. How many are full of tedious material lifted from their business plan? Do they tell you in great detail about their mission statement, aims and objectives? How do you react? Many businesses have learned this lesson and don’t info dump from their filing cabinet onto their websites. Third sector organisations are perhaps prone to this mistake, often because they do not have access to examples of good practice common in the business sector.
There is a place for this type of material on your website but that place is deep within it, where anyone interested can find it and where most people, not interested, can ignore it. Someone intent upon making a purchase may wish to study the details. For some the fact it’s there is reassuring, even if they don’t read it!
Your purpose at the front end of your website is to charm your visitors, so they may opt to stay in touch with you and ultimately make a purchase or support your cause. If you are not trying to reach people and stay in touch with them, what exactly is the purpose of your site?
What is Your Origin Story?
Your origin story can be central to your message. What is an origin story? It is the story that explains why you’re in your business. What experience led you into this business?
Why have an origin story? If most of your customers meet you in person before purchasing your services, you may not need one on your website, although you might for public speaking. If your website visitors don’t know you, your origin story can be the best way to help them know you better.
- It should be a personal story that happened to you because, especially when starting out, you are your brand.
- The story should include sensory information. How did the experience feel, taste, sound, appear to you? This sensory data is what makes your story compelling.
- It should include some sort of call to action. This can be difficult if, like my origin story, it happened 20 years ago and getting to where you are now has been a long journey.
Your origin story can be presented in different versions. Shorter and longer versions can be used in different places on your website or in social media. It can be recorded as a video or audio account and of course it can also be presented in real life meetings. As you tell and retell the story you will receive feedback and so your story will evolve. You will get better at telling it!
Transformation
Your origin story need not necessarily show you in a positive light. If it is a story of transformation, it is likely to show you making a mistake. It doesn’t even need to show you solving the problem, just that you understand it. My origin story is about an experience that was a professional triumph for me and a personal defeat. Many development workers have been in that situation (or at least the personal defeat part of it) and I want them to know I’m familiar with the territory. I know the toll this work can take on your health, your relationships, your self-esteem. I know how long it can take to recover from such setbacks. Many entrepreneurs know the same feeling.
When events go wrong are you going to be crushed by them or bounce back? Sometimes the bounce back can be painfully slow and this is when you need support. The entrepreneur (social or business) is perhaps someone who keeps going despite the pain of failure.
The best origin stories go beyond accounts of transformation and touch something deeper in the heart of its readers or hearers. These are the stories that go viral. A story passed on will bring visitors to your site. This is why the call to action is so important.
