What was your favourite story growing up?  Thought of one?  Great! Now let’s take a look at why that story has stuck in your mind. 

The simple reason you remember that one story is because you were able to connect with it emotionally and relate to the plot, the characters, or even both. 

These same principles also apply in the world of business, and can help organisations increase their customer loyalty by connecting with their customers through the power of storytelling. This is much more than what you show people, because it focuses instead on how you make them feel.  

In this article we are going to explore five ways your brand can effectively communicate its message through the power of storytelling to help you attract more loyal customers to your business.  

5 ways your brand can tell its story to help attract loyal customers

#1 Show Emotion 

The secret to a great story is being able to connect with your customers on an emotional level. There is an excellent quote which summarises this point: 

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou 

It’s that feeling that your brand wants to create for its customers to develop an emotional connection.  Once your customer has developed this emotional connection, you will notice they become more attached to your brand, and as a result, become more loyal.  

This also makes your customers more likely to recommend your products and services to others.

To help build this emotional connection with your customers, here are some top storytelling tips to consider:

• Make the customer the primary focus of the story 
• Show empathy towards your customer’s situation and reflect this in the story, showcasing how your brand can help 
• Showcase what your brand stands for -- its core values -- as this is what your customers will relate to 
• Acknowledge customer feedback, ensuring your story actually helps to alleviate your customer’s core pain points, rather than focusing on what you think they need 

Here is how Bernas have used the power of storytelling to create an emotional connection in line with their core value of sharing moments. 

#2 Make it relatable

Though it may be true that the first thing that attracts us to a meal, a person or even a product or service is how it looks or comes across,  while this helps to create an initial first impression, it’s not enough to build up your loyalty or trust. 

When it comes to creating this loyalty through your story, your customers want to know the answer to that all-important question: 

“How will this benefit ME?” 

The key word here is “ME.”  When sharing your brand’s story, you want to showcase exactly how your product or service relates to the customer and directly improves results within their business or personal life.  The easiest way to start with this is by addressing your customer’s pain points by demonstrating how the product or service can solve them. 

This helps your customers to qualify your product or service as one that will be useful for them, and as a result, increases their intent to purchase.  

Here is how COOLEST Coolers have used this approach to relate their product to their target market by highlighting their pain points and how their product helps to resolve these:  

#3 Highlight Product/Service Benefits 

With so much competition out there, unless your company has come up with a totally new concept, it’s likely that other companies have a similar product or service.  That is why telling your story based on price or features alone may not be enough to capture your customers’ attention. Instead, you want to focus on the benefits. 

This is where your story helps to separate you from your competitors, as you begin to focus in on the product benefits rather than the product itself. 

In this case, it’s important to move away from talking about the product or service description and start to focus on how it can specifically benefit the customer and what they are going through. 

This process will help your potential customers to envision using your product or service in their daily lives as it helps to fill a need they have. 

Here is how Nutribullet have used this approach with their story by showcasing the benefits of their blender in helping to improve their potential customers’ health. 

#4 Be Authentic 

We’ve all heard stories that have made exaggerated claims, but these are usually fairy tales -- and that’s where they should remain.

When it comes to telling your business’ story, the quickest way you can lose trust and loyalty with your customers is to exaggerate the claims of your product or service. 

Doing so shows your company as one that is not genuine and only interested in making a profit. This not only affects your potential customers, but also your existing customers who may have purchased the product based on these claims, only to be disappointed.  The last thing you want is increased negative publicity around your product or service.  

Instead, when sharing your story, ensure you remain authentic with the claims you make about the performance of your product or service. A good way to back this up is to show an example of the product in action or a real life case study from a customer who has experienced your service.  

Here is how Magnescribe tried to mislead customers through their story – what do you think?  

#5 Take your customers on a Journey

What better way is there to attract loyal customers through your story than to take them on the journey with you?  Now of course I don’t mean literally -- although that would be amazing! 

This simply means that when telling your story, you want to take your customers along the same journey you went through to create the product and service. This helps to connect the customer, as it helps them to feel more involved throughout the process. 

Storytelling is a great way to achieve this, as you can share how your company came up with the concept all the way through to production and delivery. This can even include the thought process behind the brand or how the brand was founded. 

This makes your brand a lot more relatable and helps to share your brand values with the customer. 

And who said story telling had to be boring or serious? Here’s how Dollar Shave Club used humour to tell their company’s story of how they created their product. 

Last but not least, it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t share our story here at Salesforce – let us know what you think!  

Key takeaways 

• Show emotion when telling your story 
• Make your story relatable to your customers 
• Highlight the benefits of your product or service 
• Be authentic when telling your story – no exaggerated claims 
• Take your customers on a journey – share your organisation’s values 
• Don’t be afraid to use humour when sharing your story 
• Humanise your story – showcase both employees & customers