What’s Your Brand’s Story?

It’s storytelling month at Converge, and all of us are excited to share our higher education stories with you! But what’s your story? Everyone has one. In fact it’s your story that led you to read this blog. Your path has led you to right here right now. Our culture has evolved from telling stories over a fire to reading stories on Facebook or watching stories on YouTube. No matter what the medium is, stories relate to our core and are what inspire us to take action. Today, it’s vital for your brand to tell a good story.

Is your University telling a good story, one that someone would want to be a part of? What’s your story? Why do students choose to go to your University? What makes one University a better choice to one person but not the next?

Most of the big brands are investing millions of dollars in storytelling through marketing. They are not just selling a product or showing statistics, they are making us feel a certain way.

Take these two ads for example. They are for very different companies, but both commercials follow the same pattern. They do not mention the product or brand at hand. They just make us feel, and make us relate to them on a very emotional level.

You don’t need million dollar advertising budgets to create great stories. Tell your story through creative and relatable content. One of the first things we do for our clients for almost every project is create personas. Personas allow us to create profiles for your ideal students. We find out everything from demographics to what they like to do for fun. We find out what their story is. This way we know what kind of stories to tell hem. For example if we are working for a University focusing on traditional undergrad enrollment we could create content like:

• The first week of college ultimate survival guide
• 10 Tips for Freshman From Recent Grads
• Really Get to Know Your Roommate with These Three Questions
• Meet Nick: The True Story Of My First Week On Campus

A great way to come up with content that tells a story is to research what type of questions your potential students might be asking themselves, then answer those questions through a blog or email.

Universities with high enrollment and a buzz about them aren’t necessarily the best educational institutions, they’re the one’s telling the best stories. They tell stories about athletic dominance, amazing culture, and give students the tools to imagine how their story will change after attending their great University.

Want to learn more about the enrollment journey and how you can create stories and great content to connect with your potential students? Sign up for a Website Assessment and we can help you tell your story!