If you really want to elevate your sales performance, the answer is a simple one: share your success stories!
Human beings are hard-wired for stories. We remember them, share them and are influenced by them on a daily basis – much more than we are by facts and numbers. In terms of your business, success stories serve as social proof, demonstrating the real-world value your product provides. Success stories allow potential customers to relate more easily to your company and visualise how your products could work for them in the way they have worked for others.
The medium of storytelling also provides you with greater fluidity in how you present the narrative, allowing you to highlight certain factors that customers may be looking out for. You may for instance, what to show how your products address pain points or demonstrate company values and appeal to diverse perspectives in the market.
Sharing success stories also provides your brand with a more authentic feel, humanising your company and making it more personal and less corporate. This immediately allows customers to connect to your business on a deeper, more emotional level. This authenticity will also build trust and credibility between you and your customers and provide you with an excellent instrument with which to change minds about your products.
How to collect and leverage stories
To use storytelling, you will need a strategy to collect and frame your success stories. The first step is likely to be identifying and reaching out to your most satisfied customers, then conducting interviews or using surveys to gather details about their experience with you and your products.
Once consent is given, it’s your job to use that information and turn it into a compelling case study. Simply put, this will involve a description of the problem the customer faced, the solution you provided and the subsequent positive results. It’s important to use a narrative style that keeps the reader engaged; this comes from an understanding of your audience and what they may find interesting.
Once you have identified your success stories, it’s important to modify them across your various marketing channels to ensure maximum reach. Storytelling on social media will, for example, be more succinct than written articles on your website. It’s also important to track engagement with different success stories to find out which type resonates the most with your audience. Using testimonials from happy customers is also a great way to share success stories within your business. These tend to be shorter and more direct but definitely has a place within your marketing mix.
By harnessing the power of success stories, you can create a compelling narrative around your products. This approach will also build the trust and credibility necessary to encourage more customers to interact with your products and change minds in the industry.
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