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| Image by Yogesh More from Pixabay |
Stories are a part of our everyday lives. It's almost impossible to spend a day with people without someone telling a story at some point.
Stories connect us and shape our view of the world. Through sharing our stories, we get to understand each other better. This goes not only for individuals but for businesses, too.
If you own a business, regardless of the size, you have a story to tell. What's more, you can use your stories and create new ones to maintain good working relationships with other businesses and your customers as well.
As with any form of communication, it is important for businesses to know the right stories to tell to each of their audiences. For instance, if you have a business selling hand-made jewelry and crafts, you would not tell a story to your customers about the type of binoculars you bought for your birdwatching activity.
Your customers may be better able to relate to you when your message is directly targeted to them and they understand your journey. Why is this? Because there’s a good chance that they are on the same path that you once traveled. Sheila Lirio Marcelo serves as an example.
Sheila is the founder of Care.com, an online platform that helps people find caregivers for their family members. When Sheila tells her personal story, her audience—who are caregivers or people looking for caregivers for their aging loved ones—can relate to her.
As a young working mom, Sheila had to juggle her time between working and taking care of her children and her aging parents. Saying that Sheila needed support was an understatement. As time went on, Sheila created Care.com as the type of resource that she would have liked to have when she was caring for her parents.
If your customers understand the challenges you have gone through, they might admire you even more and be willing to support the resources or services you have to offer them.
Let’s face it, telling your story requires some vulnerability on your part, and you may not want to let everyone know about your personal life. That’s understandable. While it’s not necessary to disclose every detail of your life or aspect of your business, it’s important to tell your audience how you overcame your challenges and emerged intact.
Keep in mind that when you tell your story, people who heard it may retell your story by word-of-mouth, which is the best type of marketing when you have satisfied customers. On the other hand, word-of-mouth can have the opposite effect when it's told by unsatisfied customers.
The stories your customers tell about your business are more important than the ones that you tell about your business because customers typically find other users' experiences more compelling. Sometimes, customers consider stories that businesses tell nothing more than just another attempt to sell their products or services.
You can choose not to tell your story. But just think about how many lives could be changed for the better if you told it and shared your product or services with others.
Good stories communicate a clear message that helps people understand why they should care about your product or services. So, it all adds up to this: You have a story to tell and people are waiting to hear it.
Are you ready to tell your story? MarketingNewAuthors.com (MANA) can help. MANA offers a variety of publishing services, from editing to printing. If you have questions about writing or publishing your story, feel free to contact MANA at info@marketingnewauthors.com or call 734-975-0028 or contact us via our website at MarketingNewAuthors.
