When you invest in marketing, you want to get something out of it. That’s precisely the thinking behind StoryBrand. StoryBrand has provided business owners with a simple system they can use to grow their business. The key piece to the StoryBrand methodology is the BrandScript, a seven-step framework that helps entrepreneurs clarify their messaging.
Unfortunately, putting StoryBrand into action is often easier said than done, and that goes for the BrandScript as well. Many business owners struggle to create a BrandScript that resonates with potential customers—even after attending StoryBrand workshops or the online course. Some even invest hours into the creation of their BrandScript only to get absolutely nothing out of it.
If you’re considering making a BrandScript for your company, don’t just jump into it. These are six of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when creating a BrandScript for their business—mistakes that can keep them from connecting with potential customers.
1. Targeting The Wrong Audience
Who you’re considering It doesn’t matter how perfect your BrandScript is. If you don’t create it for the right audience, you won’t see any impact on your sales.
We’ve worked with many business owners in the past who want to create a BrandScript for customers they want to target, not the customer group they’re already targeting. On the surface, this might not seem like a bad notion. You already have loyal customers. You need new ones, right?
Well, there are a few issues with creating a BrandScript for a new buyer persona. First of all, you don’t know them as well. You speak with your current customers on a regular basis. You understand what they’re looking for and why they purchase your product or service. But this new group is more of a mystery. If you target them, you risk highlighting pain points that they don’t actually have.
Another point to consider is that you know your current audience is interested in your product. For some reason or another, your business makes their life a little easier and keeps them coming back for more.
So instead of taking a big risk by creating a BrandScript that doesn’t resonate with them, why not try to reach more of them? It’s a safer bet, and nine times out of ten it’s going to get you the best results.
2. Focusing On The Wrong Problems
Once you have a clear understanding of who your character should be in your BrandScript, it’s important that you understand all of their pain points. What are they feeling when they come to your doors? Are they frustrated? Overwhelmed? Angry?
So instead of taking a big risk by creating a BrandScript that doesn’t resonate with them, why not try to reach more of them? It’s a safer bet, and nine times out of ten it’s going to get you the best results.
What’s it look like when you highlight a less impactful internal problem? You end up with an expensive and ineffective marketing campaign. A good example of this is CarFax. CarFax recently updated all of their marketing collateral to focus on one specific pain point for potential customers: embarrassment caused by overpaying for a car.
Here’s the problem. When you overpay for a car, “embarrassment” isn’t the first thing you feel. Heck, it might not even be in the top five emotions you experience.
Instead, you’re probably feeling:
- Frustrated with your that you didn't know better
- Angry with the dealership for ripping you off
- Mad that you were punished for something you didn't know
I’m considering buying a new car, but from the content alone, CarMax wouldn’t be a tool I would even think about using to compare car prices. It just doesn’t seem like it’s right for me. If they changed their focus to “someone fed up with dealerships taking advantage of them,” I might be more interested. Until then, Google it is!
3. Making It Too Long
As a business owner, it’s incredibly tempting to try to stuff every detail about your business into your BrandScript. You want to showcase all of the reasons why you’re better than the other guys, and there’s no shame in that. You’ve worked hard to get to where you are today.
Unfortunately, the more you add to your BrandScript, the more convoluted it becomes. This goes for every bucket, not just your Authority or Agreement Plan. If you focus on too many internal problems, add a full page of successful ending points, and create a one-liner that four paragraphs long, you’re not doing your business any good. And you’re not doing your BrandScript any justice.
Try to keep your BrandScript as simple as possible. Shoot for a max of:
- 1 sentence in the Want bucket
- 5 bullets in the External and Internal Problem
- 3 sentences in the Philosophical Problem
- 1 paragraph in the Empathy and Authority
- 3 steps in the Plan
- 5 bullets in the Agreement Plan
- 3 sentences in the One-Liner
4. Creating A Vague Tagline
Your tagline, for many businesses, is the first thing you include on your website. This makes it the first point of contact many potential customers will have with your business. So if your tagline misses the mark, you could miss out on sales—right at the start.
Clearly, your tagline is incredibly important. Yet many business owners still believe that a vague, inspirational tagline is the way to go. Sure, we don’t want our taglines to be exactly the same as everyone else’s. But you also should ensure that it clearly states what your business does. This is especially the case if your business name doesn’t indicate your line of work (like Johnson & Rose or CloverPatch).
Taglines can take some practice to perfect, so don’t be afraid to spend several meetings brainstorming options with your team. Then, once you have your tagline picked out, share it with strangers to see if they can determine what your business does from the tagline alone.
5. Rushing Through The One-Liner
Just as important as your tagline is your business’s one-liner! Unfortunately, because one-liners come at the very end of the BrandScript, some business owners don’t give it the care and attention it deserves.
Your one-liner is your business’s elevator pitch. If it’s strong and clear, you’ll be able to use it in countless ways: on your website, on collateral, whenever you introduce your business at events… It’s a timeless story that tells your customers what you do and why they should care, and they’re the main character.
One-liners can be very overwhelming to create on your own. Check out my video below to find out the top mistakes people make when creating a one-liner for their business and how to create an effective one-liner yourself.
6. Not Using Your BrandScript At All
Finally, the last mistake entrepreneurs make with their BrandScript is perhaps the most disappointing of all: they don’t use their BrandScript after they make it. I know what you’re thinking. “Seriously?? You spent all that time and money on creating a BrandScript, but then you do nothing with it?” It sounds crazy, but it happens more often than you might think.
Many of the business owners we work with have existing BrandScripts when they come to our doors. But when you look through their website, you wouldn’t even know it. The content doesn’t match. The messaging is all over the place. And that crystal clear BrandScript sits up on a shelf, gathering dust.
This happens for several reasons. Maybe your business’s market has changed over recent years and you haven’t taken the time to update your BrandScript. Maybe you used the BrandScript for “inspiration” for your website content, but you didn’t create the content using it. Maybe you just don’t know what you’re supposed to do with your BrandScript after you make it.
Whatever the reason is, your BrandScript deserves to be seen. To ensure that it provides you with an ROI and fulfills its purpose, keep it updated. Use the StoryBrand buckets on all the content you create. And if you don’t know how to get started, hire a StoryBrand Certified Agency to guide you through it!
Creating a BrandScript for your business can be daunting. Even if you’ve completed a StoryBrand workshop or read “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller, you could find yourself making simple mistakes in your BrandScript that hurt your bottom line.
A lot is riding on the success of your BrandScript. By avoiding the mistakes above, you’re one step closer to creating a powerful, enticing BrandScript that will bring leads straight to your door.
If you would like some guidance on your business’s BrandScript, we’re here to help! Our team of StoryBrand certified copywriters can review your existing BrandScript content and provide recommendations to strengthen it. Or, we can create a crystal clear BrandScript for your business from scratch.
Schedule a free strategy session and let us know how we can help you use StoryBrand to grow your business.
