I work with companies and individuals that are looking to be better storytellers. In some cases, I’m brought in with a brief around fixing a perception issue or projecting a specific image of the brand. The hope? That a story or a series of stories will magically make the issue or problem go away.

Here’s what I tell them:

1. Storytelling is not a band-aid that will fix problems with your products or services

2. Storytelling isn’t about projecting your desired image of your company or products

3. Storytelling is not a branded advertorial

Why?

1. If you cannot fix the problems with your company or your products/services, there’s not a big enough marketing or storytelling band aid out there – consumers will just complain and ask for a refund – only further damaging your reputation.

2. If you only look inward and focus on yourself – you’re missing the big picture. Companies also need to factor in the reality of how customers perceive the brand, their products and services, plus those of their key competitors when crafting their storytelling strategy.

3. Consumers will tune out content that feels like an ad. Great storytellers play to their audience by keeping their stories genuine and aligned with what their audience finds interesting.

What should you do instead?

1. Acknowledge the problems!

Instead of telling a story to conceal the problems, tell a story or series of stories documenting you journey of how you are fixing them. This is far more interesting than pretending everything is perfect. Bonus: It will help you gain customer respect and loyalty with your customers, employees, investors, and more because you are making things right and showing them that their feedback matters.

2. Map out what your current brand image and perception is vs. your desired one.

Then map out the key stakeholders who will need to support your transformation journey. Transforming your company’s image goes far beyond the surface and will require the support of leadership and many different departments. It is not the sole burden of the marketing and public relations team. If you can get the key players aligned on this transformation journey, incredible stories will follow.

3. Get to know your customers.

What are their FAQs? How do they perceive your company, your products and services? What are their interests? What role do your products and services play in their lives? The more you can test and learn by putting customers at the heart of what you do – the more your storytelling efforts will resonate. Plus, if you are on a transformation journey, showing how customer feedback was incorporated and continuing to pivot based on their feedback is quite powerful. If you are successful, you will likely start to get proactive stories from customers about how your company listened to their feedback combined with positive sentiment toward your products and services.

Jessica Gioglio is the co-author of The Laws of Brand Storytelling and The Power of Visual Storytelling. Professionally, Jessica has led innovative marketing and public relations programs for Dunkin’ Donuts, TripAdvisor, Sprinklr, and more. Today, Jessica is the founder of With Savvy Media & Marketing, a strategic branding, storytelling, and content strategy consultancy.