Everybody loves a good story, even your customers and potential customers. Using storytelling techniques and building narratives is something that can help businesses and organizations connect with people. This type of connection often resonates with customers and ultimately helps to build brand trust and recognition. If you aren’t telling a story, what are you telling customers? Consider making some changes to your communication platform so that you can effectively engage customers with stories that drive home what your company is all about, what it values, and why people should become your customers.
Create Distinction
When you provide a story to your clientele, you actually create a memory about your business. Customers can better relate to businesses that share stories rather than content that is purely informational in nature. One of the reasons stories resonate so well with audiences is because they create emotion. When a customer is emotionally bonded to your story, they become one step closer to bonding with your business. Moreover, the memory you create with your story helps to define your brand and helps set it apart from your competitors.
Market Your Brand
When you tell your customers a story, you’re actually marketing your brand to them. Depending on the type of story you tell, you can actually pinpoint areas of your business you want to promote, areas you hope will resonate with your audience. You might want to reach your clients with a story about your environmental platform or how you take care of your employees. These stories aren’t just interesting in themselves, but become viable vehicles for marketing your brand with each and every story you tell.
Human Touch
If you look at a wide array of business websites, you’ll begin to divide them in this way: websites that are personable and websites that are not. If your business is trying to sound more personable, it can rely on storytelling to give it that personal touch. For instance, “this business was started by my grandfather who left Italy when he was 17 years old.” That type of storytelling detail puts a human spin on something that could very well sound more formal, more like corporate speak: “our team has a combined experience of 20 years.” The second example does not generate the same emotional response in customers that the first will.
What Types of Stories Should You Tell?
There are many types of stories that businesses can tell in order to connect with clients and build their brand. Your company could discuss how it came to be, what motivates your team to create innovative products or services, or even the types of customers and clients you work with. By employing a narrative, you can draw your audience in and help them connect with information in a more emotionally meaningful way.
If you have used the storytelling technique before, try it in small ways. Create a blog or series of social media posts that rely on a narrative technique. Consider other ways in which you can use the storytelling technique to market your brand in email or even on the home page of your website. Chances are you’ll find that the technique will help you make those connections needed to drive your business forward.
