Bring Your History to Life

By Linley McConnell 

Whether your business is 6 months or 60 years old, customers connect emotionally to storytelling. Being intentional about how you tell your company’s story helps customers understand who you are, what you value, and why they should trust you. 

Your history is right there at your fingertips. So much so, you probably take it for granted. But it’s an area that helps you stand out from other companies, because every history is different. Here are four simple ways to put your company’s history to work.

Then and Now

Do you have old images of your business? A then-and-now post is a simple way to show how your business has changed, while also showing what’s stayed the same. We recently posted a photo of Gibson’s main location from the 1960s next to a photo of the same location today. It showed our tenure in the industry and in that neighbourhood. There’s something genuinely fun about a black and white vintage photo showing up in someone’s feed. It stops the scroll in a way a polished modern photo often can’t.

Celebrate Long-time Customers

Some of us are lucky to have served three generations of family members. We recently had a long-time client pass away at age 95. The whole team felt his loss, because we also know his children and grandchildren. Is there an opportunity to interview a long time customer and feature them on your social media platform?

Share Your Story with Your Community

Celebrating an upcoming milestone? Local media love to hear about the success of a long standing community business. Reach out to local outlets. Today, podcasts are also a great way to share your story. Rob McConnell and I participated in a podcast called Success Leaves Clues, which allowed us to share more about Gibson’s Cleaners.

Create Something Physical

We had the pleasure of visiting another family business that took their history seriously. So seriously that they’d created almost a company museum in their office. When visitors walked through the space, they saw the origin story, everything from an old BlackBerry phone to their first packaging sample. We’ve been inspired at Gibson’s to create something similar, and would love to build a timeline of our beginnings in 1929 to today. This is a great way to show visitors your story in a physical and memorable way, through wall laminate, framed photos, physical objects, or a TV screen slideshow.

Highlight Your History Moments through Social Media

Remember Canadian Heritage Minutes? Consider featuring historic moments within your social media or digital marketing.

Why this Works

According to a Headstream study on brand storytelling, when people love a company’s story, they’re 55% more likely to buy from that company in the future, 44% will share the story with others, and 15% will buy immediately. A well-told history isn’t just a fun way to share your story, it’s a trust-building tool.

Start with Your Core Message

You’ll want to use your history to convey your business’s core values. These could include sustainability, commitment to quality, or competitive advantage, among others. Here’s what that might look like, using a fictional company, The Greener Cleaner, founded in 2000 by Mr. Green:

• (Sustainability): Since 2000, The Greener Cleaner has offered sustainable wet cleaning, 100% compostable packaging, an electric vehicle fleet, and biodegradable cleaning products.
  
• (Culture): At The Greener Cleaner, our team is our greatest asset. We invest in ongoing training, celebrate legacy, and foster a workplace where employees are proud to build long term careers.
  
• (Community): The Greener Cleaner is proud to donate a portion of proceeds to Green Future Fund, a local environmental charity, reflecting our belief that a business rooted in community should give back to the community that supports it.

What if you don’t have any history yet?

One newer marketing idea is called “building in public.” Instead of waiting until everything is polished and finished, businesses share the journey as it happens—the wins, the setbacks, and everything in between. 

Customers today don’t just want a finished product or service, they want to feel like they were part of the story from the start. Sharing your setbacks alongside your wins builds trust faster than a polished brand ever could, because people back business owners they’ve watched work for it.

You don’t need a following in the millions to build in public. It can be as simple as a weekly post about what you’re working on, what you got wrong, or what you learned. Jenn Whitmarsh from Snappy Dry Cleaning did an incredible job of this, sharing the real ups and downs of building her business rather than only the highlight reel.

Whether you’re six months in and building in public, or sixty years in with a filing cabinet full of black and white photos, your story is already there. Share it and let your customers feel like they are part of your success–after all, they’re the heart of it.

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