Every business has a story. As the owner of a small public relations firm, it’s our job to first recognize that story, and then help you share it.

It’s human nature that people love hearing stories, and they’re more likely to remember a story. So the better your business story, the more successful and memorable your company or organization is likely to be.

Here are seven strategy tips we use when helping a business share their story.

  1. Put the person before the numbers. Stats and numbers are great, but a story focused on an individual and why those stats and numbers matter is always going to make a better story angle.
  2. Start your story in the middle. It’s easy to lose your audience in the lead up to the action, so jump ahead a few pages and start with the really interesting part of the story. Then you can quickly go back and give the necessary context before explaining the result.
  3. Keep them hanging on every word. If it’s not imperative to your story, don’t include it. You need to keep interest from start to finish.
  4. Highlight obstacles and how you got past them. If it were easy, everyone would have already done it and they wouldn’t need you or your solution. Be honest about the obstacles you faced and how you got around them.  People love hearing how you overcame a problem, especially one that they themselves have faced.
  5. Identify the hero. Is the hero someone at your company or the product or service itself? It needs to be the star of your story that people remember and refer to later.
  6. Less braggy more huggy. If you want your audience to embrace your company or solution, you can’t be untouchable.
  7. Be bold but be realistic. Not every story is a best-seller and that’s okay.  Tell each story as best you can but don’t oversell it as Pulitzer-worthy.  Even simple stories should be told as it will help you build into a bigger story in the future.

In short, every business has a story.  It simply comes down to recognizing it and finding an interesting way to share it. It’s why I love my job and the challenge of first identifying a story opportunity and then coming up with a memorable way to tell the world about it.