Humans love stories.  Without stories, we wouldn’t have movies or music or art.

Credit union executives ask me all the time “how do I make my marketing successful?”  One large ingredient is finding the stories that are happening every day in your credit union and telling them.  

Remember the Titans isn’t a football movie.  It is a movie about how a high school football team overcame racial prejudice and changed an entire town in the process.  

A Beautiful Mind isn’t about a mathematician who won the Nobel Prize.  John Nash nearly succumbed to mental darkness only to find the strength to overcome tragedy.  

Erin Brokovich went against all conventions yet she stuck to her instincts in order to save the lives of poison victims while facing a major corporation.

To credit unions, someone financing a car or a home is another loan in the portfolio.  But to the member, it is a big moment in their lives, enabling them to make memories. These memories are the stories that we should be telling in our marketing, on our social media channels, in the community, and anytime we share the credit union with others.

These stories are the connecting points.  As with training yourself to think a different way, reframing the way we see loans and accounts can often be done by thinking of our own favorite stories, favorite consumer experiences, favorite memories, and favorite movies.  

Find the stories, remember the stories, and tell the stories.  That is the connecting point with members and what differentiates you from the competition.

Article originally published on CUInsight.com.