8 Reasons Your Brand Needs Customer Stories

Who doesn’t love a good story? Your customer’s stories are the way that your brand message can be effectively conveyed in a short amount of time. And, in a compelling way.

Stories help to gain attention and rise above the clutter for the people you’d like to target. Stories are one of my favorite marketing and sales tactics because they can be used every day in a variety of ways for businesses. Here's why your brand needs customer stories.

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1. Stories Command Attention

Stories have more impact than facts. They invoke an emotional response in the listener and you’re your clients take notice and feel what you’re saying.

Stories help cut through the distractions and content overload so your audience remembers what you said, how you made them feel and stay engaged. So if you have key facts you need to communicate, use a story strategy to make it resonate.

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2. Content Is King, and Stories Are a Key Part

Stories particularly on social media communicate & influence. Your social media gets involved only when they are intrigued by content. Your content will drive your success—it needs to be interesting, involve the audience, and be authentic.

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3. Stories Add Energy to Your Branding

Even the most boring of industries needs energy (especially in B-to-C markets). A brand story will help to create that energy and will cut through the clutter we’re all surrounded by each day. When you use stories in your email marketing, website, social media, blog, etc. you give a voice to the energy of the business and this leads to more brand visibility.

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4. Stories Persuade

Do you want new sales? Of course! Well, stories are a great way for your sales team to persuade potential clients. Some people have the potential to argue when a prospect presents an objection.

Stories are a wonderful way to be on the offensive as opposed to arguing on defense. A story allows the audience to deduce the message themselves, resulting in persuasion rather than hearing facts. Brand stories should be practiced but not overly rehearsed and should end with an open ended question to get the prospect talking.

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5. Brand Stories Inspire Employees Too

Customer stories create alignment internally as well as externally. Help your employees motivate customers to support the brand because they share its values. You can tell when people really believe in their products and services and when they’re just saying they do. Using brand stories allows for rapport building and a way to overcome consumer challenges.

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6. Customer Retention & Crisis Management

When a crisis occurs and you’re on the verge of losing a client, stories can help you to start a new conversation and remind people what you stand for. Real client stories can be really impactful when trying to save a sale and turn perceptions around.

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7. Multiple Stories Help With Strategy

When creating brand stories it’s good to have several in case of long lead times and multiple customer conversations and needs. At the end of the day stories must be relatable & have context or else why tell them? Aim for stories from different perspectives (new people, long time customers, angry clients, etc.) to add depth to the overall strategic marketing message.

Communicate which stories should be lead with so your team becomes familiar with them but train them to know when to use them or you may set your rapport back.

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8. Stories Help You Succeed

Your organization needs a culture in place that is committed to identifying new stories. These should then be curated to leverage into marketing and sales presentations to get in front of your target audiences. Remember: telling good stories will not happen overnight. This will take time.

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At the end of the day, your audience does pay attention to stories, and these can help your branding connect with them in meaningful ways. So start sharing your stories and see the difference if can make.

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Charisma Communications is a Tampa area marketing firm that specializes in client experience. We love helping you tell your great stories. Communicate with Charisma; contact us for a consultation today!