Review and Highlights: Building a Story Brand, by Donald Miller
There are mountains of bad marketing books out there.
Books whose sole purpose is to elevate a consultant, speaker, or agency in order to drive clients and speaking opps to their door.
I thought this might be one of those books.
It is not. In fact, the book is pretty great.
Miller looks at marketing through the time-tested methodology of storytelling, laying out a simple (and simple does not mean easy) framework for creating a marketing message strategy that interests and engages your target customer.
Miller’s “StoryBrand” framework looks like this:
It’s an effective structure that also forces a business to be displicined about what it sells and how it sells it.
Much of the book fleshes out the details and strategies involved in creating something compelling and effective inside this framework--and, again, the content truly is useful. There’s no holding back information so you have to hire Miller’s agency. You can, if you want guidenace and content development, but there’s enough meat here for small businesses to build a story themselves so they can push it out into the wild for testing and refinement.
Later in the book comes the selling we’ve come to expect in marketing books--propping up the agency’s ability to infuse story into a company’s culture, for example.
But that’s forgiveable, because Miller gives us so much value in the rest of the book.
Miller implores businesses to position themselves as the “The Guide” who can lead “The Hero”--the customer--through a transformation. And Miller clearly demonstrates the power of that philopsophy, serving as the Obi-Wan Kenobi who leads the reader through a detailed, effective messaging framework.
“Building a Story Brand” is the rare marketing book that deeply explains strategy and follows up with tactical suggestions for execution.
Very smart, very useful. I recommend “Building a Story Brand” for any marketer or business owner.
Chapter-by-chapter highlights from “Building a Story Brand,” by Donald Miller
INTRODUCTION
This is not a book about telling your company’s story. A book like that would be a waste of time. Customers don’t generally care about your story; they care about their own.
To get the most out of this book, I encourage you to do three things:
1. Read the book and understand the SB7 Framework.
2. Filter your message through the framework.
3. Clarify your message so more customers listen.
Businesses that invite their customers into a heroic story grow. Businesses that don’t are forgotten.
SECTION 1
WHY MOST MARKETING IS A MONEY PIT
CHAPTER 1
THE KEY TO BEING SEEN, HEARD, AND UNDERSTOOD
The graphic artists and designers we’re hiring to build our websites and brochures have degrees in design and know everything about Photoshop, but how many of them have read a single book about writing good sales copy? How many of them know how to clarify your message so customers listen?
The fact is, pretty websites don’t sell things. Words sell things.
Essentially, story formulas put everything in order so the brain doesn’t have to work to understand what’s going on.”
The first mistake brands make is they fail to focus on the aspects of their offer that will help people survive and thrive.
All great stories are about survival—either physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual.
Mistake Number Two The second mistake brands make is they cause their customers to burn too many calories in an effort to understand their offer.
Imagine every time we talk about our products to potential customers, they have to start running on a treadmill. Literally, they have to jog the whole time we’re talking. How long do you think they’re going to pay attention? Not long.
The key is to make your company’s message about something that helps the customer survive and to do so in such a way that they can understand it without burning too many calories.
Story formulas reveal a well-worn path in the human brain, and if we want to stay in business, we need to position our products along this path.
In a story, audiences must always know who the hero is, what the hero wants, who the hero has to defeat to get what they want, what tragic thing will happen if the hero doesn’t win, and what wonderful thing will happen if they do.
All experienced writers know the key to great writing isn’t in what they say; it’s in what they don’t say. The more we cut out, the better the screenplay or book.
CHAPTER 2 THE SECRET WEAPON THAT WILL GROW YOUR BUSINESS
Technically speaking, music and noise are similar. Both are created by traveling sound waves that rattle our eardrums. Music, however, is noise that has been submitted to certain rules that allow the brain to engage on a different level. If I played you a recording of a dump truck backing up, birds chirping, and children laughing, you’d not remember those sounds the next day. But if I played you a Beatles song, you’d likely be humming it for a week.
Story is similar to music. A good story takes a series of random events and distills them into the essence of what really matters.
When Jobs returned to the company after running Pixar, Apple became customer-centric, compelling, and clear in their communication. The first campaign he released went from nine pages in the New York Times to just two words on billboards all over America: Think Different.
When Apple began filtering their communication to make it simple and relevant, they actually stopped featuring computers in most of their advertising. Instead, they understood their customers were all living, breathing heroes, and they tapped into their stories. They did this by (1) identifying what their customers wanted (to be seen and heard), (2) defining their customers’ challenge (that people didn’t recognize their hidden genius), and (3) offering their customers a tool they could use to express themselves (computers and smartphones). Each of these realizations are pillars in ancient storytelling and critical for connecting with customers.
People don’t buy the best products; they buy the products they can understand the fastest.
Here is nearly every story you see or hear in a nutshell: A CHARACTER who wants something encounters a PROBLEM before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, gives them a PLAN, and CALLS THEM TO ACTION. That action helps them avoid FAILURE and ends in a SUCCESS.
In Star Wars: A New Hope, our reluctant hero, Luke Skywalker, experiences a devastating tragedy: his aunt and uncle are murdered at the hands of the evil Empire. This sets a series of events in motion: Luke begins the journey of becoming a Jedi Knight and destroys the Empire’s battle station, the Death Star, which allows the Rebellion to live and fight another day.
The fact that nearly every movie you go see at the theater includes these seven elements means something. After thousands of years, storytellers the world over have arrived at this formula as a means of best practices.
The further we veer away from these seven elements, the harder it becomes for audiences to engage.
The Three Crucial Questions
1. What does the hero want?
2. Who or what is opposing the hero getting what she wants?
3. What will the hero’s life look like if she does (or does not) get what she wants?
if these three questions can’t be answered within the first fifteen to twenty minutes, the story has already descended into noise and will almost certainly fail at the box office.
there are three questions potential customers must answer if we expect them to engage with our brand. And they should be able to answer these questions within five seconds of looking at our website or marketing material:
1. What do you offer?
2. How will it make my life better?
3. What do I need to do to buy it?
So how do we come up with these messages? It’s simple. We use the same grid storytellers use in telling stories to map out the story of our customers, then we create clear and refined statements in the seven relevant categories of their lives to position ourselves as their guides.
CHAPTER 3 THE SIMPLE SB7 FRAMEWORK
THE STORYBRAND FRAMEWORK
1. A Character STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE ONE: THE CUSTOMER IS THE HERO, NOT YOUR BRAND.
2. Has a Problem STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE TWO: COMPANIES TEND TO SELL SOLUTIONS TO EXTERNAL PROBLEMS, BUT CUSTOMERS BUY SOLUTIONS TO INTERNAL PROBLEMS.
What most brands miss, however, is that there are three levels of problems a customer encounters. In stories, heroes encounter external, internal, and philosophical problems. Why? Because these are the same three levels of problems human beings face in their everyday lives. Almost all companies try to sell solutions to external problems, but as we unfold the StoryBrand Framework, you’ll see why customers are much more motivated to resolve their inner frustrations.
3. And Meets a Guide
STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE THREE: CUSTOMERS AREN’T LOOKING FOR ANOTHER HERO; THEY’RE LOOKING FOR A GUIDE.
It’s no accident that guides show up in almost every movie. Nearly every human being is looking for a guide (or guides) to help them win the day.
When a brand comes along and positions itself as the hero, customers remain distant.
4. Who Gives Them a Plan
PRINCIPLE FOUR: CUSTOMERS TRUST A GUIDE WHO HAS A PLAN.
At this point we’ve identified what the customer wants, defined three levels of problems they’re encountering, and positioned ourselves as their guide. And our customers love us for the effort. But they still aren’t going to make a purchase. Why? Because we haven’t laid out a simple plan of action they can take.
What customers are looking for, then, is a clear path we’ve laid out that takes away any confusion they might have about how to do business with us. The StoryBrand tool we will use to create this path is called the plan.
5. And Calls Them to Action
STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE FIVE: CUSTOMERS DO NOT TAKE ACTION UNLESS THEY ARE CHALLENGED TO TAKE ACTION.
In stories, characters don’t take action on their own. They must be challenged.
A call to action involves communicating a clear and direct step our customer can take to overcome their challenge and return to a peaceful life. Without clear calls to action, people will not engage our brand.
I’ll show you two calls to action that have worked for thousands of our clients. One call to action is direct, asking the customer for a purchase or to schedule an appointment. The other is a transitional call to action, furthering our relationship with the customer. Once we begin using both kinds of calls to action in our messaging, customers will understand exactly what we want them to do and decide whether to let us play a role in their story.
6. That Helps Them Avoid Failure
STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE SIX: EVERY HUMAN BEING IS TRYING TO AVOID A TRAGIC ENDING.
Stories live and die on a single question: What’s at stake? If nothing can be gained or lost, nobody cares.
Simply put, we must show people the cost of not doing business with us.
Whole Foods has built an enormous industry helping customers avoid the consequences of overly processed foods, and more recently Trader Joe’s has come along to help customers avoid the consequences of Whole Foods’ prices.
not all of the seven elements should be used evenly in your communication. Think of the StoryBrand Framework as a recipe for a loaf of bread. Failure is like salt: use too much and you’ll ruin the flavor; leave it out and the recipe will taste bland.
7. And Ends in a Success
STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE SEVEN: NEVER ASSUME PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR BRAND CAN CHANGE THEIR LIVES. TELL THEM.
We must tell our customers how great their life can look if they buy our products and services.
I’ll elaborate on what is perhaps the most important element of your messaging strategy: offering a vision for how great a customer’s life could be if they engage your products or services.
WHEN YOU FEEL CONFUSED, CLARIFY YOUR MESSAGE
CLARIFY YOUR MESSAGE SO CUSTOMERS LISTEN As you walk through the seven parts of the StoryBrand Framework, simply follow these three steps:
1. Read each of the next seven chapters.
2. After you read each chapter, brainstorm potential messages you might use to populate your BrandScript.
3. Carefully look at your brainstorm and then decide on a specific message to use in each section of your BrandScript.
SECTION 2 BUILDING YOUR STORYBRAND
CHAPTER 4 A CHARACTER
A story starts with a hero who wants something. And then the question becomes: Will the hero get what she wants?
Before knowing what the hero wants, the audience has little interest in her fate.
As a brand it’s important to define something your customer wants, because as soon as we define something our customer wants, we posit a story question in the mind of the customer: Can this brand really help me get what I want?
OPEN A STORY GAP
In story terms, identifying a potential desire for your customer opens what’s sometimes called a story gap. The idea is that you place a gap between a character and what they want.
To understand the power of a story gap is to understand what compels a human brain toward a desire. Even classical music follows this formula. Many classical sonatas can be broken into three sections: exposition, development, and recapitulation. The final section, recapitulation, is simply an altered version of the exposition that brings a sense of resolve. If that doesn’t make sense, try singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” without singing the final note on the word are. It will bother you to no end.
We also see this at work in poetry. When our ears hear Lord Byron’s first line “She walks in beauty, like the night,” a story gap has been opened. We are waiting to hear a word that rhymes with night and closes the open gap in our minds.
PARE DOWN THE CUSTOMER’S AMBITION TO A SINGLE FOCUS A critical mistake many organizations make in defining something their customers want is they don’t pare down that desire to a single focus.
This can be frustrating if your products and services fulfill many desires.
As you create a BrandScript for your overall brand, focus on one simple desire and then, as you create campaigns for each division and maybe even each product, you can identify more things your customer wants in the subplots of your overall brand.
At the highest level, the most important challenge for business leaders is to define something simple and relevant their customers want and to become known for delivering on that promise.
Everything else is a subplot that, after having delivered on the customer’s basic desire, will only serve to delight and surprise them all the more.
CHOOSE A DESIRE RELEVANT TO THEIR SURVIVAL
Once a brand defines what their customer wants, they are often guilty of making the second mistake—what they’ve defined isn’t related to the customer’s sense of survival. In their desire to cast a wide net, they define a blob of a desire that is so vague, potential customers can’t figure out why they need it in the first place.
What Does Survival Mean?
When I say survival, I’m talking about that primitive desire we all have to be safe, healthy, happy, and strong. Survival simply means we have the economic and social resources to eat, drink, reproduce, and fend off foes. So what kinds of desires fit under this definition?
Conserving financial resources.
Conserving time.
Building social networks.
Gaining status.
Accumulating resources.
The innate desire to be generous.
The desire for meaning.
WHAT’S THE STORY QUESTION FOR YOUR CUSTOMER?
When I offered my executive coach friend the tagline “Helping you become the leader everybody loves,” his customers’ brains were able to translate that message into multiple survival categories, including social networks, status, the innate desire to be generous, the opportunity to gain resources, and even the desire for deeper meaning.
The goal for our branding should be that every potential customer knows exactly where we want to take them: a luxury resort where they can get some rest, to become the leader everybody loves, or to save money and live better.
If you randomly asked a potential customer where your brand wants to take them, would they be able to answer?
CLARIFY YOUR MESSAGE SO CUSTOMERS LISTEN
CHAPTER 5 HAS A PROBLEM
StoryBrand Principle Two: Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems.
Identifying our customers’ problems deepens their interest in the story we are telling. Every story is about somebody who is trying to solve a problem, so when we identify our customers’ problems, they recognize us as a brand that understands them.
The problem is the “hook” of a story, and if we don’t identify our customers’ problems, the story we are telling will fall flat.
As the novelist James Scott Bell says, “Readers want to fret.” It’s true in story and it’s true in branding.
It bears repeating. The more we talk about the problems our customers experience, the more interest they will have in our brand.
HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS’ PROBLEMS
Every Story Needs a Villain
The villain is the number one device storytellers use to give conflict a clear point of focus.
The villain doesn’t have to be a person, but without question it should have personified characteristics. If we’re selling time-management software, for instance, we might vilify the idea of distractions.
Advertisers personify the problems their customers face in order to capture their imagination and give their frustrations a focal point. Fuzzy hairballs with squeaky voices living in your drains, making nests, and clogging up the pipes? Yellow globs of living, breathing, talking plaque vacationing between your teeth? These are all personified versions of conflict. They’re all villains.
four characteristics that make for a good villain on your StoryBrand BrandScript:
The villain should be a root source. Frustration, for example, is not a villain; frustration is what a villain makes us feel. High taxes, rather, are a good example of a villain.
The villain should be relatable. When people hear us talk about the villain, they should immediately recognize it as something they disdain.
The villain should be singular.
The villain should be real. Never go down the path of being a fearmonger. There are plenty of actual villains out there to fight.
The Three Levels of Conflict
External Problems Internal Problems Philosophical Problems
In a story, a villain initiates an external problem that causes the character to experience an internal frustration that is, quite simply, philosophically wrong.
EXTERNAL PROBLEMS
In literature, a villain’s job is to wreak havoc on the hero, to place barriers between them and their desperate desire for stability.
the external problem is often a physical, tangible problem the hero must overcome in order to save the day.
The external problem works like a prized chess piece set between the hero and the villain, and each is trying to control the piece so they can win the game.
If we own a restaurant, the external problem we solve is hunger. The external problem a plumber fixes might be a leaky pipe, just like a pest-control guy might solve the external problem of termites in the attic.
INTERNAL PROBLEMS
By limiting our marketing messages to only external problems, we neglect a principle that is costing us thousands and potentially millions of dollars. That principle is this: Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but people buy solutions to internal problems.
The purpose of an external problem in a story is to manifest an internal problem.
If I wrote a movie about a guy who simply needed to disarm a bomb, audiences would lose interest. What storytellers and screenwriters do, then, is create a backstory of frustration in the hero’s life.
In the movie Moneyball, for instance, Billy Beane failed in his playing career and so was filled with self-doubt about whether he could redeem himself as a general manager. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker was told by his uncle that he was too young to join the resistance, so he doubted his ability until the very end.
In almost every story the hero struggles with the same question: Do I have what it takes?
By assuming our customers only want to resolve external problems, we fail to engage the deeper story they’re actually living.
The only reason our customers buy from us is because the external problem we solve is frustrating them in some way.
If we can identify that frustration, put it into words, and offer to resolve it along with the original external problem, something special happens.
For example, if we own a house-painting business, our customer’s external problem might be an unsightly home. The internal problem, however, may involve a sense of embarrassment about having the ugliest home on the street. Knowing this, our marketing could offer “Paint That Will Make Your Neighbors Jealous.”
What Frustrations Do Our Products Resolve?
CarMax’s business strategy is aimed at you not having to feel lied to, cheated, or worked over in your car-buying experience.
The external problem CarMax resolves is the need for a car, of course, but they hardly advertise about cars at all. They focus on their customers’ internal problems and, in doing so, entered one of the least-trusted industries in America and created a $15 billion franchise.
PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS
The philosophical problem in a story is about something even larger than the story itself. It’s about the question why. Why does this story matter in the overall epic of humanity?
Why is it important that Tommy Boy save his dad’s company? I’ll tell you why, because the people trying to take Tommy Boy down are lying thieves. This is a comedic story about honesty, family, integrity, and hard work versus deception, greed, and trickery.
Why is it important that Bridget Jones find love? Because the beauty and worth of every person deserves to be recognized and cherished by another.
A philosophical problem can best be talked about using terms like ought and shouldn’t. “Bad people shouldn’t be allowed to win” or “People ought to be treated fairly.”
What’s the Deeper Meaning?
People want to be involved in a story that is larger than themselves.
Brands that give customers a voice in a larger narrative add value to their products by giving their customers a deeper sense of meaning.
Before music went digital, Tower Records promoted their chain of record stores using the tagline “No music, no life.” Not only did the tagline help them sell more than a billion dollars in records each year, but they sold thousands of bumper stickers and T-shirts featuring the tagline to fans who wanted to associate with the philosophical belief that music mattered.
The Perfect Brand Promise
If we really want to satisfy our customers, we can offer much more than products or services; we can offer to resolve an external, internal, and philosophical problem whenever they engage our business.
When Luke shoots the photon torpedo through the little hole in the Death Star, he actually resolves the external problem of destroying the Death Star, the internal problem that had him wondering whether he had what it took to be a Jedi, and the philosophical problem of good versus evil,
This formula works because human beings experience three levels of problems in their everyday lives. They aren’t just looking for a resolution to one level of problem; they’re hoping for a resolution to all three.
TESLA MOTOR CARS:
Villain: Gas guzzling, inferior technology
External: I need a car.
Internal: I want to be an early adopter of new technology.
Philosophical: My choice of car ought to help save the environment.
A large problem most of our clients face is they want to include three villains and seven external problems and four internal problems, and so on. But, as I’ve already mentioned, stories are best when they are simple and clear. We are going to have to make choices.
CHAPTER 6 AND MEETS A GUIDE
StoryBrand Principle Three: Customers aren’t looking for another hero; they’re looking for a guide.
No two lives are the same, and yet we share common chapters. Every human being is on a transformational journey.
It’s easy to recognize these chapters by their events, or what writer and story scholar James Scott Bell calls “doorways of no return.”1 This might have been our parents’ divorce, our first crush, a rejection from somebody we loved, or having absolutely nailed the moonwalk when the crowd gathered around us at the junior high dance.
The events that define our chapters are often instigated or interpreted by mystical characters that help us along the way. In a story there are many names for these characters, but I choose to call them guides.
In his book The Seven Basic Plots, Christopher Booker describes the introduction of the guide into the story this way: A hero or heroine falls under a dark spell which eventually traps them in some wintry state, akin to a living death: physical or spiritual imprisonment, sleep, sickness or some other form of enchantment. For a long time they languish in this frozen condition. Then a miraculous act of redemption takes place, focused on a particular figure who helps to liberate the hero or heroine from imprisonment.
EVERY HERO IS LOOKING FOR A GUIDE
When I talk about a guide, I’m talking about our mother and father when they sat us down to talk about integrity, or a football coach who helped us understand the importance of working hard and believing we could accomplish more than we ever thought possible.
If a hero solves her own problem in a story, the audience will tune out. Why? Because we intuitively know if she could solve her own problem, she wouldn’t have gotten into trouble in the first place. Storytellers use the guide character to encourage the hero and equip them to win the day.
Frodo has Gandalf, Katniss has Haymitch, and Luke Skywalker has Yoda.
The fatal mistake some brands make, especially young brands who believe they need to prove themselves, is they position themselves as the hero in the story instead of the guide.
The Fatal Mistake
In the months leading up to the launch of Tidal, Jay Z recruited sixteen well-known musicians who agreed to release exclusive content on his platform in exchange for a percentage of equity. In their multimillion-dollar rollout, the artists stood shoulder to shoulder at a press conference to explain their mission. Predictably, this is where everything fell apart.
“Water is free,” Jay Z quipped. “Music is $6 but no one wants to pay for music.” He continued, somewhat confusingly, “You should drink free water from the tap—it’s a beautiful thing. And if you want to hear the most beautiful song, then support the artist.”
Social media, especially Twitter, eviscerated Jay Z and Tidal.
Jay Z failed to answer the one question lingering in the subconscious of every hero customer: How are you helping me win the day?
The Story Is Not About Us
The larger point here is simple: the day we stop losing sleep over the success of our business and start losing sleep over the success of our customers is the day our business will start growing again.
Heroes are often ill-equipped and filled with self-doubt. They don’t know if they have what it takes. They are often reluctant, being thrown into the story rather than willingly engaging the plot.
The guide, however, has already “been there and done that” and has conquered the hero’s challenge in their own backstory.
THE TWO CHARACTERISTICS OF A GUIDE
Empathy Authority
Yoda understands Luke’s dilemma and has mastered the skills Luke must develop if he is going to win the day.
The guide must have this precise one-two punch of empathy and authority in order to move the hero and the story along.
When Bill Clinton delivered his now-famous line “I feel your pain” in 1992, he did more than just clinch a victory over George H. W. Bush; he positioned himself as the guide in the American voters’ story.
Bush gave a rambling answer to a young woman when she asked what the national debt meant to the average American. Clinton countered Bush’s linear, cerebral answer by asking the woman if she knew anybody who’d lost their job. He asked whether it pained her that she had friends out of work, and when the woman said yes, he went on to explain how the national debt is tied to the well-being of every American, even her and her friends. That’s empathy.
Empathetic statements start with words like, “We understand how it feels to . . .” or “Nobody should have to experience . . .” or “Like you, we are frustrated by
ARE YOU LIKE ME?
Empathy is more than just sentimental slogans, though. Real empathy means letting customers know we see them as we see ourselves.
Demonstrate Authority
Nobody likes a know-it-all and nobody wants to be preached at. Brands that lord their expertise over the masses turn people off.
When I talk about authority, I’m really talking about competence. When looking for a guide, a hero trusts somebody who knows what they’re doing.
how do we express our authority without bragging about ourselves so much that we step into the role of hero?
There are four easy ways to add just the right amount of authority to our marketing.
1. Testimonials: Let others do the talking for you.
2. Statistics: How many satisfied customers have you helped? How much money have you helped them save?
3. Awards: If you’ve won a few awards for your work, feel free to include small logos or indications of those awards at the bottom of your page.
4. Logos: If you provide a business-to-business product or service, place logos of known businesses you’ve worked with in your marketing collateral.
HOW TO MAKE A GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION
When people meet your brand, it’s as though they are meeting a person. They’re wondering if the two of you will get along, whether you can help them live a better life, whether they want to associate their identity with your brand, and ultimately whether they can trust you.
Cuddy distilled her research into two questions people subconsciously ask when meeting someone new: “Can I trust this person?” and “Can I respect this person?”
When we express empathy, we help our customers answer Cuddy’s first question, “Can I trust this person?” Demonstrating competence helps our customers answer the second question, “Can I respect this person?”
CHAPTER 7 WHO GIVES THEM A PLAN
If we’ve positioned ourselves as the guide, our customers are already in a relationship with us. But making a purchase isn’t a characteristic of a casual relationship; it’s a characteristic of a commitment. When a customer places an order, they’re essentially saying, “I believe you can help me solve my problem, and I believe it so much I’m willing to put skin in the game. I’m willing to part with my hard-earned dollars.”
When a customer is deciding whether to buy something, we should picture them standing on the edge of a rushing creek. It’s true they want what’s on the other side, but as they stand there, they hear a waterfall downstream. What happens if they fall into the creek?
In order to ease our customers’ concerns, we need to place large stones in that creek. When we identify the stones our customers can step on to get across the creek, we remove much of the risk and increase their comfort level about doing business with us. It’s as though we’re saying, “First, step here. See, it’s easy. Then step here, then here, and then you’ll be on the other side, and your problem will be resolved.”
In nearly every movie you can think of, the guide gives the hero a plan. The plan is the bridge the hero must cross in order to arrive at the climactic scene.
Rocky has to train using nontraditional methods, Tommy Boy has to embark on a national sales trip,
THE PLAN CREATES CLARITY
Plans can take many shapes and forms, but all effective plans do one of two things: they either clarify how somebody can do business with us, or they remove the sense of risk somebody might have if they’re considering investing in our products or services.
The fact that we want them to place an order is not enough information to motivate them.
THE PROCESS PLAN
A process plan can describe the steps a customer needs to take to buy our product, or the steps the customer needs to take to use our product after they buy it, or a mixture of both. For instance, if you’re selling an expensive product, you might break down the steps like this:
1. Schedule an appointment.
2. Allow us to create a customized plan.
3. Let’s execute the plan together.
the key to the success of any plan is to alleviate confusion for our customers.
We get frequent questions about how many steps a process plan should have. The answer varies, of course, but we recommend at least three and no more than six.
THE AGREEMENT PLAN
If process plans are about alleviating confusion, agreement plans are about alleviating fears.
An agreement plan is best understood as a list of agreements you make with your customers to help them overcome their fear of doing business with you.
The best way to arrive at an agreement plan is to list all the things your customer might be concerned about as it relates to your product or service and then counter that list with agreements that will alleviate their fears.
WHAT’S THE PLAN CALLED?
Your agreement plan might be titled the “customer satisfaction agreement” or even “our quality guarantee.”
Titling your plan will frame it in the customer’s mind and increases the perceived value of all that your brand offers.
CHAPTER 8 AND CALLS THEM TO ACTION
StoryBrand Principle Five: Customers do not take action unless they are challenged to take action.
they need us to do one more thing: they need us to call them to action.
ASK THEM TO PLACE AN ORDER
In stories, characters never take action on their own. They have to be challenged to take action.
The reason characters have to be challenged to take action is because everybody sitting in the dark theater knows human beings do not make major life decisions unless something challenges them to do so.
Have you ever wondered why late-night infomercial hosts keep screaming, “Call now! Don’t delay!” over and over as though they’re trying to wake people up from a zombie trance? They do that because they’re trying to wake people up from a zombie trance!
The Power of the “Buy Now” Button
One of the biggest hindrances to business success is that we think customers can read our minds. It’s obvious to us that we want them to place an order (why else would we be talking to them about our products?), so we assume it’s obvious to them too. It isn’t.
Companies that don’t make their calls to action clear remind me of my dating days before I met my wife. Instead of clearly asking a girl out, I’d say something like, “Coffee is nice, isn’t it? Do you like coffee?”
we don’t want to constantly beat our customers over the head with direct calls to action. Of the thousands of clients we’ve worked with, though, we’ve yet to encounter anybody who oversells. Most people think they’re overselling when, in truth, their calls to action fall softer than a whisper.
The reality is when we try to sell passively, we communicate a lack of belief in our product.
If we can change our customer’s story for the better, why shouldn’t we be bold about inviting them to do business with us?
Two Kinds of Calls to Action
direct calls to action and transitional calls to action. They work like two phases of a relationship.
Direct calls to action include requests like “buy now,” “schedule an appointment,” or “call today.”
Transitional calls to action, however, contain less risk and usually offer a customer something for free. Transitional calls to action can be used to “on-ramp” potential customers to an eventual purchase. Inviting people to watch a webinar or download a PDF are good examples of transitional calls to action.
To further the relational metaphor, a transitional call to action is like saying, “Can I take you out on a date?” to your customer, and a direct call to action is like saying, “Will you marry me?”
we always want to have a direct call to action and a transitional call to action. The metaphorical conversation with our customers goes like this:
Us: Will you marry me?
Customer: No.
Us: Will you go out with me again?
Customer: Yes.
Us: Will you marry me now?
Customer: No.
Us: Will you go out with me again?
Customer: Sure, you’re interesting and the information you provide is helpful.
Us: Will you marry me?
Customer: Okay, I’ll marry you now.
THOSE WHO ASK AGAIN AND AGAIN SHALL FINALLY RECEIVE
Direct Calls to Action It bears repeating: there should be one obvious button to press on your website, and it should be the direct call to action.
Our customers should always know we want to marry them. Even if they’re not ready, we should keep saying it.
Examples of direct calls to action are
Order now
Call today
Schedule an appointment
Register today
Buy now
Transitional Calls to Action
Direct calls to action are simple and obvious (though ridiculously underused), but transitional calls to action can be equally as powerful to grow your business.
A good transitional call to action can do three powerful things for your brand:
1. Stake a claim to your territory. If you want to be known as the leader in a certain territory, stake a claim to that territory before the competition beats you to it. Creating a PDF, a video series, or anything else that positions you as the expert is a great way to establish authority.
2. Create reciprocity.
All relationships are give-and-take, and the more you give to your customers, the more likely they will be to give something back in the future.
3. Position yourself as the guide. When you help your customers solve a problem, even for free, you position yourself as the guide.
Transitional calls to action come in all shapes and sizes.
Free information: Create a white paper or free PDF educating customers about your field of expertise.
Testimonials: Creating a video or PDF including testimonials from happy clients creates a story map in the minds of potential customers.
Samples: If you can give away free samples of your product, do it.
Free trial: Offering a limited-time free trial works as a risk-removal policy that helps to on-ramp your customers.
Connecting the Dots
WHAT ARE THE STAKES?
Once customers decide to buy our products, how can we increase the perceived value of those products and deepen the positive experience they have with our brand? How can we make the story we’ve invited them into so enticing that they can’t wait to turn the page? To do this, we must define the stakes.
CHAPTER 9 THAT HELPS THEM AVOID FAILURE
StoryBrand Principle Six: Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending.
The only two motivations a hero has in a story are to escape something bad or experience something good. Such is life.
If a storyteller doesn’t clearly let an audience know what no-good, terrible, awful thing might befall their hero unless she overcomes her challenge, the story will have no stakes, and a story without stakes is boring.
Every conversation, every chase scene, every reflective montage should serve the movie in the same way: it must either move the character closer to, or further from, the tragic result that might befall them.
the benefits of featuring the potential pitfalls of not doing business with us are much easier to include than we may think. Blog subjects, e-mail content, and bullet points on our website can all include elements of potential failure to give our customers a sense of urgency when it comes to our products and services.
WHAT’S THERE TO LOSE?
As it relates to our marketing, the obvious question is: What will the customer lose if they don’t buy our products?
People Are Motivated by Loss Aversion
Emphasizing potential loss is more than just good storytelling; it’s good behavioral economics.
In 1979, Nobel Memorial Prize winner Daniel Kahneman published a theory about why people make certain buying decisions. Prospect Theory, as it was called, espoused that people are more likely to be dissatisfied with a loss than they are satisfied with a gain.
In Dominic Infante, Andrew Rancer, and Deanna Womack’s book Building Communication Theory, they propose a four-step process called a “fear appeal.”
First, we must make a reader (or listener) know they are vulnerable to a threat. For example: “Nearly 30 percent of all homes have evidence of termite infestation.”
Second, we should let the reader know that since they’re vulnerable, they should take action to reduce their vulnerability.
“Since nobody wants termites, you should do something about it to protect your home.” Third, we should let them know about a specific call to action that protects them from the risk. “We offer a complete home treatment that will insure your house is free of termites.” Fourth, we should challenge people to take this specific action. “Call us today and schedule your home treatment.”
Fear Is Salt in the Recipe
We do not need to use a great deal of fear in the story we’re telling our customers. Just a pinch of salt in the recipe will do.
When receivers are either very fearful or very unafraid, little attitude or behavior change results. High levels of fear are so strong that individuals block them out; low levels are too weak to produce the desired effect. Messages containing moderate amounts of fear-rousing content are most effective in producing attitudinal and/or behavior change.
WHAT ARE YOU HELPING YOUR CUSTOMER AVOID?
What negative consequences are you helping customers avoid? Could customers lose money? Are there health risks if they avoid your services? What about opportunity costs?
Could they make or save more money with you than they can with a competitor?
PERKINS MOTORPLEX (USED CARS)
Getting ripped off by a used-car salesman
Being stuck with a lemon
Feeling taken advantage of
RELY TECHNOLOGY (AUDIO AND VIDEO FOR THE HOME)
Living in a boring home
Nobody will want to watch the game at your house
You need a PhD to turn on the TV
CHAPTER 10 AND ENDS IN A SUCCESS
StoryBrand Principle Seven: Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them.
Years ago, a friend gave me the best leadership advice I’ve ever received. He said, “Don, always remember, people want to be taken somewhere.”
Where is your brand taking people? Are you taking them to financial security? To the day when they’ll move into their dream home? To a fun weekend with friends? Without knowing it, every potential customer we meet is asking us where we can take them.
Ronald Reagan envisioned America as a shining city on a hill. Bill Clinton promised to build a bridge to the twenty-first century. Casting a clear, aspirational vision has always served a presidential candidate.
Successful brands, like successful leaders, make it clear what life will look like if somebody engages their products or services.
Without a vision, the people perish. And so do brands.
THE ENDING SHOULD BE SPECIFIC AND CLEAR
One of the problems we run into with StoryBrand clients is the vision they paint for their customer’s future is too fuzzy.
Harrison Ford had to defeat the terrorists on Air Force One to return to a peaceful White House. Erin Brockovich had to win the final verdict against Pacific Gas and Electric so the citizens of Hinkley, California, could know justice.
In a good story, the resolution must be clearly defined so the audience knows exactly what to hope for.
Being specific matters.
BEFORE AND AFTER
The next step is to say it clearly. We must tell our customers what their lives will look like after they buy our products, or they will have no motivation to do so.
HOW TO END A STORY FOR YOUR CUSTOMER
Brainstorm what your customer’s life will look like externally if their problem is resolved, then think about how that resolution will make them feel, then consider why the resolution to their problem has made the world a more just place to live in.
The three dominant ways storytellers end a story is by allowing the hero to
1. Win some sort of power or position.
2. Be unified with somebody or something that makes them whole.
3. Experience some kind of self-realization that also makes them whole.
The fact that these are the three most-employed story endings implies these are three dominant psychological desires shared by most human beings.
1. Winning Power and Position (The Need for Status)
part of survival means gaining status. If our brand can participate in making our customers more esteemed, respected, and appealing in a social context, we’re offering something they want.
So how can our brand offer status?
Offer access:
My wife loves using her Starbucks membership card because it gains her points, which gains her status and the occasional free latte.
Create scarcity: Offering a limited number of a specific item creates scarcity, and owning something that is scarce is often seen as a status symbol.
Offer a premium:
Most companies earn 70 percent or more of their revenue from a small percentage of their clients. Few, though, identify those clients and offer them a title such as “Preferred” or “Diamond Member.”
Offer identity association: Premium brands like Mercedes and Rolex sell status as much as they do luxury.
Status really does open doors, and by associating their brand, and thus their customers, with success and refinement, they offer them status.
2. Union That Makes the Hero Whole (The Need for Something External to Create Completeness)
The reason stories often end with the union of lovers has little to do with the desire for love or sex. Rather, union between male and female characteristics fulfills in the reader a desire for wholeness.
When the prince rescues the princess and they unite in a wedding at the end of the movie, the audience subconsciously experiences the joining of two halves.
So what are some of the ways we can offer external help for customers looking to become complete or whole?
Reduced anxiety: For years, brands that sell basic items like dish detergent and glass cleaner have almost comically positioned their products as anti-anxiety medication.
What is the brand really offering? Satisfaction for a job well done. A feeling of closure about a clean house. A better, more peaceful life.
Will the use of your product lead to the relief of stress and a feeling of completeness? If so, talk about it and show it in your marketing material.
Reduced workload: Customers who don’t have the right tools must work harder because they are, well, incomplete.
Whether they’re selling wheelbarrows, software, jackhammers, or a fishing apparatus, manufacturers have been positioning tools as “the thing that will make you superhuman” for decades.
More time: For many customers, time is the enemy, and if our product can expand time, we’re offering to solve an external problem that is causing an internal frustration.
3. Ultimate Self-Realization or Acceptance (The Need to Reach Our Potential)
Movies like Rudy, Hoosiers, and Chariots of Fire all tap into the human desire to reach our potential.
Legally Blonde, The Theory of Everything, and Whiplash are all about heroes who face great odds in their journey to prove themselves.
Once proven, the heroes realize an inner peace and can finally accept themselves because they’ve reached their potential.
Heroes can also take an internal journey to come to the same conclusion. When Bridget Jones realized she was too good for the boss with whom she desired a relationship, she came to an ultimate self-realization that returned her to a place of peace and stability.
How can a brand offer a sense of ultimate self-realization or self-acceptance? Here are a few ideas:
Inspiration: If an aspect of your brand can offer or be associated with an inspirational feat, open the floodgates. Brands like Red Bull, Harvard Business Review, Under Armour, The Ken Blanchard Company, Michelob Ultra, and even GMC have associated themselves with athletic and intellectual accomplishment and thus a sense of self-actualization.
Acceptance: Helping people accept themselves as they are isn’t just a thoughtful thing to do; it’s good marketing.
American Eagle used real people as models and refused to retouch the images. Tackling body-image issues, American Eagle went beyond basic product promotion and contributed to universal self-acceptance among their clientele.
Transcendence: Brands that invite customers to participate in a larger movement offer a greater, more impactful life along with their products and services.
Tom’s Shoes built a name for itself by selling stylish shoes while simultaneously giving a pair to somebody in need in what they called a “one for one” model.
CLOSING THE STORY LOOPS
The idea behind the success module in the SB7 Framework is that we offer to close a story loop.
Human beings are looking for resolutions to their external, internal, and philosophical problems, and they can achieve this through, among other things, status, self-realization, self-acceptance, and transcendence.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Offering to close a story loop is much more simple than you think.
Even the inclusion of smiley, happy people on your website is a strong way to offer the closing of a story loop.
What problem are you resolving in your customer’s life, and what does that resolution look like? Stick to basic answers because basic answers really do work.
Then, when you get good, start diving deeper into the levels of problems your brand resolves.
CHAPTER 11 PEOPLE WANT YOUR BRAND TO PARTICIPATE IN THEIR TRANSFORMATION
I’m talking about the human desire to transform. Everybody wants to change. Everybody wants to be somebody different, somebody better, or, perhaps, somebody who simply becomes more self-accepting.
we are all participating in our customers’ transformation, which is exactly what they want us to do. Brands that participate in the identity transformation of their customers create passionate brand evangelists.
HEROES ARE DESIGNED TO TRANSFORM
At the beginning of a story, the hero is usually flawed, filled with doubt, and ill-equipped for the task set before them. The guide aids them on their journey, rife with conflict.
The conflict begins to change the character, though. Forced into action, the hero develops skills and accrues the experience needed to defeat their foe.
This same character arc, by the way, is the arc for The Old Man and the Sea, Pride and Prejudice, Pinocchio, Hamlet, Sleeping Beauty, and Tommy Boy.
It’s the arc of almost every popular story we can name.
Feelings of self-doubt are universal, as is the desire to become somebody competent and courageous.
SMART BRANDS DEFINE AN ASPIRIATIONAL IDENTITY
HOW DOES YOUR CUSTOMER WANT TO BE DESCRIBED BY OTHERS?
The best way to identify an aspirational identity that our customers may be attracted to is to consider how they want their friends to talk about them. Think about it. When others talk about you, what do you want them to say? How we answer that question reveals who it is we’d like to be.
It’s the same for our customers. As it relates to your brand, how does your customer want to be perceived by their friends?
Once we know who our customers want to be, we will have language to use in e-mails, blog posts, and all manner of marketing material.
A GUIDE OFFERS MORE THAN A PRODUCT AND A PLAN
Playing the guide is more than a marketing strategy; it’s a position of the heart. When a brand commits itself to their customers’ journey, to helping resolve their external, internal, and philosophical problems, and then inspires them with an aspirational identity, they do more than sell products—they change lives. And leaders who care more about changing lives than they do about selling products tend to do a good bit of both.
GREAT BRANDS OBSESS ABOUT THE TRANSFORMATION OF THEIR CUSTOMERS
When we first met with Dave, I was surprised to learn he didn’t know that affirming the hero’s transformation was an oft included scene at the end of many stories. After the climactic scene (the debt-free scream), the guide comes back to affirm the transformation of the hero.
In Star Wars, the ghost of Obi-Wan stands next to Luke Skywalker as he’s rewarded for bravery. In The King’s Speech, Lionel tells King George he will be a great king. Peter Brand sits Billy Beane down in the movie Moneyball and lets him know he’s hit the equivalent of a home run as the manager of the A’s.
A hero needs somebody else to step into the story to tell them they’re different, they’re better. That somebody is the guide. That somebody is you.
IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION
Who does your customer want to become as they relate to your products and services?
EXAMPLES OF IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION
PET FOOD BRAND
From: Passive dog owner
To: Every dog’s hero
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
From: Confused and ill-equipped
To: Competent and smart
Participating in your customer’s transformation can give new life and meaning to your business. When your team realizes that they sell more than products, that they guide people toward a stronger belief in themselves, then their work will have greater meaning.
SECTION 3 IMPLEMENTING YOUR STORYBRAND BRANDSCRIPT
CHAPTER 12 BUILDING A BETTER WEBSITE
START WITH YOUR WEBSITE
A great digital presence starts with a clear and effective website.
When they get to our website, their “hopes need to be confirmed,” and they need to be convinced we have a solution to their problem.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Today your website should be the equivalent of an elevator pitch.
The customer simply needs to know that you have something they want and you can be trusted to deliver whatever that is.
THE FIVE THINGS YOUR WEBSITE SHOULD INCLUDE
1. An Offer Above the Fold
On a website, the images and text above the fold are the things you see and read before you start scrolling down.
I like to think of the messages above the fold as a first date, and then as you scroll down you can put the messages you want to share on a second and third date. But as we’ve talked about, the stuff you share on a first date should be short, enticing, and exclusively customer-centric.
customers need to know what’s in it for them right when they read the text. The text should be bold and the statement should be short. It should be easy to read and not buried under buttons and clutter.
Above the fold, make sure the images and text you use meet one of the following criteria:
They promise an aspirational identity.
They promise to solve a problem.
They state exactly what they do.
2. Obvious Calls to Action
There are two main places we want to place a direct call to action. The first is at the top right of our website and the second is in the center of the screen, above the fold.
Your customer’s eye moves quickly in a Z pattern across your website, so if the top left is your logo and perhaps tagline, your top right is a “Buy Now” button, and the middle of the page is an offer followed by another “Buy Now” button, then you’ve likely gotten through all the noise in your customer’s mind and they know what role you can play in their story.
3. Images of Success
The images we use on our websites also communicate something.
Everybody wants to experience a better life in some way or another, and while it may seem simple, images of people smiling or looking satisfied speak to us. They represent an emotional destination we’d like to head toward.
4. A Bite-Sized Breakdown of Your Revenue Streams
A common challenge for many businesses is that they need to communicate simply about what they do, but they’ve diversified their revenue streams so widely that they’re having trouble knowing where to start.
We had a client a couple of years ago that had two main products: a two-day personalized life-planning process for individuals and a two-day strategic operations planning session for teams of executive leaders. Sounds simple enough, except the company didn’t really make money off either product; instead, they made money training and certifying the facilitators. The challenge, then, was to increase demand for each product so that more people would want to become facilitators. This means they had to drive traffic to three different products: the life-planning product, the strat-ops product, and the facilitator certification. If this company sounds like yours, the first challenge is to find an overall umbrella message that unifies your various streams.
Above the fold on their website, we recommended the text “The Key to Success Is a Customized Plan” over an image of a facilitator mapping out a plan on a whiteboard for a satisfied client.
We may think our business is too diverse to communicate clearly, but it probably isn’t.
5. Very Few Words
People don’t read websites anymore; they scan them. If there is a paragraph above the fold on your website, it’s being passed over, I promise.
Some of the most effective websites I’ve reviewed have used ten sentences or less on the entire page.
If you do want to use a long section of text to explain something (we do it on our site, in fact), just place a little “read more” link at the end of the first or second sentence so people can expand it if they like, that way you aren’t bombarding customers with too much text.
CHAPTER 13 USING STORYBRAND TO TRANSFORM COMPANY CULTURE
THE CURSE OF THE NARRATIVE VOID
The Narrative Void is a vacant space that occurs inside the organization when there’s no story to keep everyone aligned.
For years, companies have attempted to exorcise the Narrative Void using the most sacred document available: the mission statement.
Needless to say, only in very rare cases has a mission statement actually led a company to be on a mission.
ARE YOUR PEOPLE CONFUSED?
THE COST OF A NARRATIVE VOID
one of the biggest contributors to the rise of disengagement has been the information explosion.
Companies who calibrate their activities around a common story don’t just state their mission; they're on a mission.
JUST BECAUSE YOU KNOW THE STORY DOESN’T MEAN YOUR TEAM DOES
GETTING THE ORGANIZATION BACK ON MISSION
THE STORYBRAND MARKETING ROADMAP
Five (almost free) things you can do to implement the StoryBrand Framework and grow your business
1. Create a One-liner. This roadmap is going to teach you the four-part formula for creating a single statement that will grow your business.
2. Create a Lead Generator and Collect E-mail Addresses.
You need a lead generator. You need a PDF, e-course, video series, webinar, live event, or just about anything else that will allow you to collect e-mail addresses.
3. Create an Automated E-Mail Drip Campaign.
Marketing has changed, and even the largest of companies are diversifying their ad spend to include e-mail campaigns. But where is the best place to get started? By far, you’ll get your best results through an automated drip campaign.
4. Collect and Tell Stories of Transformation.
Almost every story is about the transformation of the hero, and when we tell stories about how we’ve helped our customers transform, potential customers immediately understand what your brand can offer them.
5. Create a System That Generates Referrals. Once you create a system that funnels potential customers into becoming actual customers, your work is not quite done.
The final step is to turn around and invite happy customers to become evangelists for your brand.
STORYBRAND ROADMAP TASK ONE: CREATE A ONE-LINER FOR YOUR COMPANY
A one-liner is a new and improved way to answer the question “What do you do?”
When writers pitch their screenplays to studio executives, the difference between being accepted or rejected often comes down to what’s called a logline.
A logline is simply a movie’s one-sentence description.
Here are a few examples:
“Blacksmith Will Turner teams up with eccentric pirate ‘Captain’ Jack Sparrow to save his love, the governor’s daughter, from Jack’s former pirate allies, who are now undead.”—Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
“A science-fiction fantasy about a naive but ambitious farm boy from a backwater desert who discovers powers he never knew he had when he teams up with a feisty princess, a mercenary space pilot, and an old wizard warrior to lead a ragtag rebellion against the sinister forces of the evil Galactic Empire.”—Star Wars: A New Hope
“An incompetent, immature, and dimwitted heir to an auto-parts factory must save the business to keep it out of the hands of his new con-artist relatives and big business.”—Tommy Boy
What makes these loglines complete and effective? Two things: imagination and intrigue.
To craft a compelling one-liner, we’ll employ a distilled version of the StoryBrand Framework. If you use the following four components, you’ll craft a powerful one-liner:
1. The Character
2. The Problem
3. The Plan
4. The Success
Your one-liner doesn’t have to be a single sentence, nor does it need to be four sentences. Think of it more as a statement.
1. THE CHARACTER
Let’s say your demographic is soccer moms and you sell a Pilates class. Your one-liner might be, “We help busy mothers get a weekly, meaningful workout so they feel healthy and full of energy.”
2. THE PROBLEM
Soccer moms are challenged with busy schedules, and they can never seem to find time to work out. A retired couple looking to spend their winter in Florida cringes at the cost of buying a second home. But defining the problem is vital, because once you do you’ve opened a story loop and they’ll be looking to you to help them find a resolution.
3. THE PLAN
When a customer reads your one-liner, the plan component should cause them to think, Well, when it’s organized that way, it makes sense. Perhaps there’s hope.
4. THE SUCCESS
This is where you paint a picture of what life could look like after customers use your product or service. For soccer moms, success may involve a sense of health, well-being, or attractiveness.
Let’s put it all together by crafting a one-liner for soccer moms to see how powerful a one-liner actually is.
• The Character: Moms
• The Problem: Busy schedules
• The Plan: Short, meaningful workouts
• The Success: Health and renewed energy
• “We provide busy moms with a short, meaningful workout they can use to stay healthy and have renewed energy.”
Keep Editing Your One-Liner Until It Works
Consider your first one-liner a rough draft. Write it down and test it repeatedly.
How to Use Your One-Liner
1. Memorize your one-liner and repeat it over and over.
2. Have your team memorize the one-liner.
3. Include it on your website.
4. Repeat your one-liner in every piece of marketing collateral possible.
Use your one-liner till it feels borderline excessive. Include your one-liner in every piece of marketing possible.
When you think about how often you’ll need to say your one-liner, think of yourself as a big music star. Amateurs ramble on, playing and saying whatever they want, but professionals serve their audience. Our one-liner is like our hit song, and we need to say it over and over and over until even our customers have it memorized and start repeating it to their friends.
ROADMAP TASK TWO: CREATE A LEAD-GENERATOR AND COLLECT E-MAIL ADDRESSES
Email is the most valuable and effective way you can spread the word about your business, especially if your company revenue is under $5 million and you don’t have a large marketing budget.
Busting the Myth of the Newsletter Signup
Nobody wants to sign up to “stay in the loop,” because this kind of offer doesn’t promise anything of value. The only thing it implies is spam.
We offer them something valuable in return, something more valuable than the vague offer of a newsletter.
How to Create an Irresistible Lead Generator
In order to combat noise in today’s marketplace, your lead generator must do two things:
1. Provide enormous value for your customer
2. Establish you as an authority in your field
Five Types of Lead Generators for All Types of Businesses
1. Downloadable Guide: This is a shockingly inexpensive way to generate leads, and it’s what we used when launching StoryBrand. Get specific. If you’re a local market selling produce, offer monthly recipes or tips for tending a garden.
2. Online Course or Webinar:
3. Software Demos or a Free Trial:
4. Free Samples:
5. Live Events:
Still Stuck? Swipe Ideas from These Examples
“5 Mistakes People Make with Their First Million Dollars”—
“Building Your Dream Home: 10 Things to Get Right Before You Build”—
“Cocktail Club: Learn to Make One New Cocktail Each Month”—This
“Becoming a Professional Speaker”—A
How Much Value Should I Give Away for Free?
Among marketers, it’s been said you give away the “why”—as in why a potential customer would need to address or be aware of a certain issue—and sell the “how,” which is where you offer a tool or teach customers how to follow through step-by-step. My personal belief is that we should be generous—very generous. At StoryBrand, we certainly give away the “why,” but we also give away an awful lot of the “how.” It’s never cost me to be generous with my customers.
How Many E-mail Addresses Do We Need to Get Started?
if your business is generating less than $5 million a year, you should see results with as little as two hundred and fifty qualified e-mail addresses.
Where Should I Feature My Lead Generator? Make sure you feature your lead generator liberally on your website. I recommend creating a pop-up feature on your site that, after ten seconds or so of the browser arriving, offers your resource to the user.
ROADMAP TASK THREE: CREATE AN AUTOMATED E-MAIL DRIP CAMPAIGN
Content is important, but the point is, there is great power in simply reminding our customers we exist.
Send Potential Customers Regular, Valuable E-mails
An automated e-mail campaign is a prewritten sequence of e-mail messages that trigger once a person is added to your list.
Does Anybody Read These Things?
Don’t worry if the open rates on these e-mails are low. A 20 percent open rate is industry standard, so anything above that is performing well.
Getting Started
the one we recommend starting with is the nurturing campaign. A nurturing campaign is a simple, regular
mail that offers your subscribers valuable information as it relates to your products or services.
we want these e-mails to continue positioning us as the guide and to create a bond of trust and reciprocity with potential customers.
A typical nurturing campaign may have an e-mail going out once each week, and the order might look like this: E-mail #1: Nurturing e-mail E-mail #2: Nurturing e-mail E-mail #3: Nurturing e-mail E-mail #4: Sales e-mail with a call to action
This pattern can be repeated month after month.
The Nurturing E-mail
1. Talk about a problem.
2. Explain a plan to solve the problem.
3. Describe how life can look for the reader once the problem is solved.
I also recommend including a postscript, or the P.S. Often, the P.S. is the only thing somebody who opens a mass e-mail will actually read.
A GOOD NURTURING E-MAIL
The Offer and Call to Action E-mail
The formula might look like this:
1. Talk about a problem.
2. Describe a product you offer that solves this problem.
3. Describe what life can look like for the reader once the problem is solved.
4. Call the customer to a direct action leading to a sale.
Similar to the nurturing e-mail, the offer and call-to-action e-mail aims to solve a problem. The only difference is that the solution is your product and a strong call to action has been inserted.
ROADMAP TASK FOUR: COLLECT AND TELL STORIES OF TRANSFORMATION
As we learned earlier in the book, few things are more foundational to a compelling story than the transformation of the hero. Why? Because transformation is a core desire for every human being. That’s why so many stories are about the hero being transformed into somebody better.
Great testimonials give future customers the gift of going second.
Weaving together a compelling tale of transformation means you have to ask the right questions—you need some raw materials to work with. The following questions will allow you to build a bank of compelling testimonials that work with nearly any customer quickly and easily.
1. What was the problem you were having before you discovered our product?
2. What did the frustration feel like as you tried to solve that problem?
3. What was different about our product?
4. Take us to the moment when you realized our product was actually working to solve your problem.
5. Tell us what life looks like now that your problem is solved or being solved.
ROADMAP TASK FIVE: CREATE A SYSTEM THAT GENERATES REFERRALS
1. IDENTIFY YOUR EXISTING, IDEAL CUSTOMERS
Now imagine taking that strategy to the next level. What if creating a special database of existing, passionate customers and communicating with them differently can help you generate referrals? Developing a simple campaign using tools your existing fans can use to spread the word about your brand is key.
2. GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS A REASON TO SPREAD THE WORD
3. OFFER A REWARD
If you really want to prime the pump, offer a reward to existing clients who refer their friends.
Another way to offer a reward is to start an affiliate program. You can offer your customers a 10 percent commission on the orders they bring to you. This system has generated millions of dollars for thousands of companies. A good affiliate program can do the work of an expensive sales force if you structure the percentages well.
Automate the Work
SOME REAL-WORLD REFERRAL SYSTEMS
A 100 Percent Refund for Three New Referrals Within a Semester. This was the brainchild of an after-school test-prep academy that prepared high school students for the SAT and ACT college admissions test,
Invite-a-Friend Coupons.
Open-House Party. Whenever a home contractor finished a large-scale project, he asked the homeowners if they would be willing to throw an open-house party in exchange for a slight discount.
Free Follow-Up Photos.
A wedding photographer in Syracuse, New York, offered couples a free follow-up portrait on their one-year anniversary if the couple provided three referrals at the time of the wedding.