One thing about marketing - if your messaging is not well-communicated, your company can get drowned in the noise. You can waste a lot of money on marketing materials and efforts that offer little to no return.
The StoryBrand BrandScript is a game-changing marketing approach that uses the common elements within the stories we all know and love to help companies peel off the layers of their business and get to their core message.
This framework helps businesses identify what they stand for, why it matters, how it makes life better for customers, and who they are as people.
A BrandScript is a marketing strategy tool created by Donald Miller that uses the elements of a story to help your business connect with more customers. It uses the StoryBrand Framework to help you:
In marketing today it's not just about what you offer but also how you present it. And when marketing becomes storytelling - it captures the minds of your customers!
We all know that story sells. But why? What are marketers doing differently now than in years past?
Since marketing technology has advanced and customers' attention spans have shortened, marketers need to tell a story that quickly draws the customer in with entertainment value and holds their interest through suspense.
What marketing managers must do is discover a marketing message that is simple enough to fit into a 30-second read or 15-second video while simultaneously including the complete marketing message.
Enter BrandScript and the StoryBrand Framework, created by Donald Miller, the author of the book Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen.
A BrandScript identifies what your brand stands for, where it is going, and how you will get there one step at a time. Through the StoryBrand Framework, you then identify the negative space around the problem and fill in the rest of the story that details exactly how you are helping them solve their problem or help them achieve success.
A BrandScript helps marketers position their brand as a guide to the customer, not merely a seller of features and benefits. The hero is your customer while marketing becomes storytelling. And marketing is marketing only when it works for both parties: to tell stories that sell to customers and call them to action.
Your BrandScript begins with you finding out what type of hero your business is trying to bond with (the positive), shielding from (the negative), and finally guiding on their transformation journey (gestating), and the StoryBrand Framework is your guiding method as you lead your customers to reach success.
The marketing message is a story about your customer, not just an ad about you. It doesn't end with you telling them who you are, but with a call to action that encourages them to move forward.
A BrandScript requires marketing managers to write marketing messages that follow the chord structure of storytelling, making marketing more effective for customers who are pressed for time and attention but long for a solution that eliminates their frustration or pain points.
This process starts by empathizing with the customer and telling them a story that adds value. In other words, marketing must first have a heart before it can have an impact.
Once you create your BrandScript, you can design marketing strategies that engage more customers in less time and in the most cost-efficient manner. Customers don't really care about you unless it's relevant to THEIR story.
As the country's first marketing agency that got StoryBrand Certified, we saw the importance of a BrandScript first-hand - it's what gives your marketing strategy its foundation. It was only after implementing this foundational element that our clients saw how much more there is to storytelling than just crafting engaging content for customers.
The story has an impact on both external and internal changes within companies. It provides brands with objectives about who their company serves and why they exist before they show up for their customers.
If you want to know how your BrandScript can affect your company, here are 3 reasons worth checking out.
Your product or service is something that customers need to solve a specific problem.
It’s like when you have a cold and go to the chemist looking for those lozenges. You don’t want a guy who knows how you can get better, you want your cold gone. The product may be known for one thing - but what it does, it does very well.
That product is good at something: removing the symptoms associated with a cold.
Similarly, in building up brand awareness (and sales), you should aim to clearly communicate exactly what your product or service does - and to do it well.
Take the product (lozenges) that your customers are looking for, and compare it to what you’re offering them in a product or service. Ask yourself:
Your product or service solves the customer's problems, just like how those lozenges solve your cold symptoms. Your product or service may have one very specific application, but if customers see that it is useful beyond its primary function, they'll get more value from it than simply as an item they need to fulfill a task.
You can always imagine customers as characters in a movie:
The hero - who has a need. The problem (or problems) - who makes the need worse; And the guide - who leads them through it all (that's your business).
When you position your brand as a guide, you clearly outline your company's value and worth in the eyes of your customer. So when you place a call to action at the end of your story, your customer won’t have any problem clicking through.
Trust is an essential part of product purchase. They have to believe that you’ve got the product they need and that your product will fix their problem. This step is crucial to building a StoryBrand BrandScript that can encourage customer loyalty.
It's no secret that trust is the most important thing a company can have in today's world. Every day, consumers are faced with thousands of choices for how they might spend their time and money.
In order to get people to choose your brand over all the others, you need more than just product quality; you also have to establish trust via memorable branding. BrandScript has been shown time and again by StoryBrand clients as an effective way to do exactly that: create powerfully consistent messaging that will resonate with customers.
A BrandScript is not simply a slogan or a clever tagline (although it could be). BrandScripts expand on what those common identifiers mean by providing an explanation of why they're special. It gives your audience a reason to choose your brand over another.
Your BrandScript could establish the reasons why your company is trustworthy by showing how what you do benefits others: "We bring clean water to 200 million people every year." Or it might convey a sense of urgency: "Every day that goes by without Brand X will kill 8 people in 20 years."
See how those messages don't just state facts; they also explain why those facts are important. They not only describe Brand X's product or service, but they show your audience how their lives will be made better as a result of buying Brand X.
Every brand has some form of benefit for its customers and potential consumers. The key is to explain exactly what that benefit is in your BrandScript so that people can quickly and easily understand why they should choose you.
If BrandX were to say, "Cleaner food for cleaner water," it comes across as conflicting messaging because of the repetition of the word clean. We don't want cleaner food; we want clean water, so you need to be focused on what your brand does differently than the competition.
Your BrandScript is not just a tagline or advertisement for your product, but instead: It's an explanation of exactly how your business distinguishes itself in customers' minds. Even the name of your brand alone calls them to action in the same way as seeing McDonald’s arches make you think of burgers.
As a branding agency, we help businesses craft BrandScripts that are simple and straightforward – making them clear and effective for all involved parties: Your audience will benefit because they will have simple and easy-to-understand marketing messages that resonate with them.
Your business will benefit because your BrandScript can be used across all marketing channels and show up in search results, improving the likelihood of being found by potential customers.
Your BrandScript needs to be so clear that it stands out from the noise but also uses recognizable language - communicating your brand in a way that is unique to you. Your BrandScript should not sound like industry jargon nor obscure what your product or service does; rather, it should happen organically when talking about your business.
As we stated before, BrandScripts should answer three questions: What do you do? Why are you different? How is that good for me?
Your company's BrandScript can help create a space within your customer's mind. When you have that kind of real estate, you'll be hard to compete with.
The StoryBrand BrandScript framework convinces your customers you’re there to help them. Therefore, they’ll buy your products and pay for your services. Also, they’ll subscribe to your newsletters and engage more with your brand on social media.
A StoryBrand BrandScript establishes the human element that is often missing from companies’ online and social media messaging. With your StoryBrand BrandScript, you won’t struggle with communication clarity.
It creates a clear picture of the challenges your prospects are facing, how you can help them, the success they’ll achieve when they work with you, and the possible dangers lying ahead if they don’t take action. Your prospect will know exactly what to do next: get in touch or buy now.
One way StoryBrand helps businesses create a BrandScript is by using language that matches their ideal customer's dreams and wants. StoryBrand teaches you how to use the right “We’re here for YOU!” story.
This story includes the specific external problem you solve, why your ideal customer needs it, and how they can get help from you. By telling your story in a way that shows you understand them and that they’ll be better off by working with you, people will respond.
Ask yourself these questions:
The answers are different for every business, but your BrandScript helps you find out what those things are so you can create an effective marketing message.
You can use it online and offline, in social media messaging, press releases, and sales letters. The best part about this approach is that it works for large as well as small brands.
We were one of the original StoryBrand-certified agencies that can help you create a powerful BrandScript for your business. It will help your employees know exactly what they should say and how they should say it when communicating with prospects online and offline.