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How to turn customers into fans
How an emotional connection through storytelling imagery helps you keep your customers for life.
JUST IMAGINE: all your passion and effort that you put into your business is seen and valued by customers who love and CARE about your brand, and who want to spend their money on your product or service – now and in the years to come. I mean, this is music to my ears! Isn`t it tiring to compete over prices? Wouldn`t it be much more rewarding if your customers stuck with your business even though there may be cheaper competitors out there – because they don`t just want to buy from ANY business but from YOUR business specifically?
Not all of your customers will be these kinds of dream clients. But these loyal, long-term customers are the ones that make a business successful: Forbes Magazine states that “existing customers are worth more than newly acquired ones. (…) 80% of your company’s future revenue will come from just 20% of your existing customers.” These 20 % are clients who have a high “Lifetime Value”: they spend much, frequently, and on a regular basis on your business.
How to get these kinds of clients who don`t run to the next best cheaper competitor, but who stick with you in the years to come, and rave about your product or service in front of their friends?
The key is an emotional connection with your customers!
The Harvard Business Review writes: “Our research across hundreds of brands in dozens of categories shows that the most effective way to maximize customer value is to move beyond mere customer satisfaction and connect with customers at an emotional level – tapping into their fundamental motivations and fulfilling their deep, often unspoken emotional needs.”
In another article, the Harvard Business Review states that clients that feel emotionally connected with a brand spend on average twice as much annually with that brand as highly satisfied customers.
Images create a mood and this triggers emotions...
One way to establish such an emotional connection is through storytelling visuals. This is especially important if you can`t rely on personal interaction in everyday life as a basis to build and keep your customer base.
Cinematic, storytelling pictures create a mood, and this triggers emotions. Emotions make customers want to connect with you, they want to be part of your story and therefore buy from you.
Say, for example, you are a deli owner. A scenic image of you in your store handing some deliciously looking fruit to your co-worker could give people a sense of feeling local and at home, enjoyment, deliciousness combined with self-care, health, quality, and luxury. Seeing the picture makes them feel good because it triggers their dreams – and the best thing: They feel inspired to bring that dream into their reality by connecting with your brand and buying your product or services.
Because people don`t buy products or services, but they buy dreams, hopes, solutions, convenience, ideas,... - they buy whatever your product or service is going to make them FEEL.
About the author: www.business-photographer.com
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