Why Stories Unlock Your Customers’ Hearts

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Wouldn’t it be great to be able to develop a quick emotional connection that turns visitors into fans?

It’s possible and done every single day.

Do you like Star Trek, traveling, dogs or romance novels? What does your company believe in? What struggles has your company overcome?

Your answers to these questions are the start to unlocking your customers’ hearts.

Your company’s stories will show people how you care and then they can decide if it resonates with them.

Quick Example

Companies that donate to charities to show people what they value are able build emotional connections with their ideal customers.

The above image in a recent email from Half Price Books gives me a reason to care about them as a company. I know that plastic bags are a scourge on our earth, especially our oceans, and I’m willing to forgo a plastic bag to help out. Then they also created a button that helps you deepen the connection with this story.

It’s stories like this one that builds a connection and keep people coming back to buy books from them.

In the Half Price Books case they tied everything together. How can they tell a story that they believe in and the customer connects with?

Now not every idea will work, but that’s where it gets fun. You’ll need to create success metrics and tweak on your next idea.

My Story

I’ve talked about my love of biking on my about page, how I was an artistic nerd in high school and how I use both sides of my brain to help my clients, how I dealt with Cancer and came back stronger and then was laid off from my job. This is who I am, and people like to know why I do what I do.

The more you can try letting your personality out on your site, the easier it gets to form connections with visitors and customers. The more action that you can take that backs up your message, the easier it is to connect with you.

For example if you give to a charity, it’s nice to give to that charity and tell your customers, but there will probably be a disconnect because they want to see that you walk your talk. Now if you create a blog post that shows photos of you at one of the charity events and what it means for the people you are helping, you’ve got a personal story that hits people a little deeper. You are showing people instead of telling them about your passions.

We all have connection gaps in our websites and sales systems. That’s why it’s so important to be yourself and not try to be something that you aren’t. People can sense it if you use a fake personality to build your brand. A fake personality pushes people away.

Stories Develop an Emotional Connection

When I give a talk to a company, I explain where they could be in their business or careers and then I tell them a story to help them understand and connect with me.

I have a story of when I was in 7^th grade and went on a date with my girlfriend. We had  mostly been hanging out at school and this was our official first date. We went to the movies. I can’t remember any of the movie because I was so nervous. I couldn’t even hold her hand because my palms were sweating so much.

We both knew what we were there to do.

After just 5 minutes into the movie, she leaned over and kissed me. Our tongues touched and I pulled away. It freaked me out. I never kissed anyone before and I wasn’t ready.

She in turn got freaked out. Our relationship was never the same after that.

I tell this story to explain because it’s embarrassing and funny. It connects me to my audience and it also explains that not every person who is willing to buy is a good fit for your product or service. You don’t want a buyer who isn’t ready, gets overwhelmed and never comes back again.

It’s easy to see that this story helps me connect with people because I’ve seen and heard the laughter come from my audience.

Letting personal stories out on your website and social media accounts are a little harder to measure. Even though it’s harder, you should try to understand if your personal story deepens your customer relationships or pushes them away from you.

This is where measuring and refining your connection systems is so important. When you express more of your personality and core values in your business, then you also need to measure how it affects your business.

Find Your Connecting Stories

Developing stories that help you connect with your customers is the foundation of your connection points. Just remember that every message you write should align with who you are as a business. You can write an email a million different ways, but it’s easier when you have a structure.

This structure comes from understanding two very important things:

1. Why do you do what you do? (Every person in your company should understand this. It helps them connect to their internal mission.)
2. How do you live your core values in your business?

This is where I start with all my clients. Aligning their messaging with their “why” and core values will make it easier to improve their connection systems. Remember stories unlock the door to your customer’s hearts. It’s why you care for a character in a movie. You’ve invested in their story.

No One is Perfect

It’s ok not to be perfect. I’m far from perfect as I’ve tried to infuse more of my personality into my business.

I make mistakes every day. I don’t infuse enough personality because I’m scared. I’m afraid of how people will respond. The thing is that the more that I allow the “real me” out the more people want to connect with me.

As you gain more confidence in letting yourself and your employees connect with people on a personal level the more you’ll attract your “ideal” customers.

Your Turn

Where on your site can you infuse stories that your “ideal” people can connect with you?