What Do You Mean, Story?
Definitions abound, but here are the ones that relate to marketing communications:

  • An approach to brand positioning. Also called brand-as-story or story applied. (What the fine folks at Story Worldwide, Get Storied, and Applied Storytelling do.)

  • An approach to the crafting of marketing materials. A set of tools from classical narrative structure that make information interesting, memorable, and persuasive.

    This is what Metaphorial specializes in.

Where To Use Story
Case studies. Staff profiles. Sales letters for large or complicated sales. Company origin stories. Articles. Fundraising brochures. Presentations. Blog posts. Press releases. Customer success stories. Social media. Speeches. And many other places.

Websites
Websites may contain some or all of the above, of course. But don’t forget the website itself. Every building block of your website should express and support your story. Design, usability, content, tone-of-voice, images, the whole nine yards.

If you talk about customer service, but your website is confusing or hard to read? That negates the story. If you sell quality products or services, but have spent next-to-nothing on the design and coding of your site, there’s a disconnect.

Need help aligning your website with your story? Get a website review.