A brand, in its simplest form, is a promise. Yet people write mission statements that read like freeze-dried mottos. They sound so stiff and forced they might as well be saying, "We are committed to providing excellent customer service with an unwavering commitment to excellence."
Most brand messages fail because they lack stories. Stories don't just grab our attention; they keep it—as long as the story is about them. When you're trying to sell something, your brand message must be about them. When telling these stories, however, marketers get caught up in themselves. The end result - their marketing copy sounds stiff and confined when it should sound raw and wild. It needs to be engaging.
What Does Storytelling Have to Do With Branding?
A great story connects to the human brain unlike any other. In a world where a lot of new information wants to be absorbed, a story takes away the complications of creating new thought patterns. When you take the elements of the story into your web copy, landing pages, or any marketing material, the infrmation you present follows a beaten path, making your pitch feel familiar.
Most stories have seven elements that carry the narrative and help us make sense of what's happening. Take the Star Wars saga as an example. The original trilogy follows a story of a hero wanting to achieve freedom through a righteous yet rebellious struggle. When Luke Skywalker bumps into Yoda, the path toward their success suddenly makes sense. Let's explore these elements and create a connection between stories and your brand messaging.
The StoryBrand Framework and Your Brand Story
Donald Miller's book, Building a StoryBrand introduces us to the StoryBrand Framework, a 7-part outline inspired by the hero's journey. This framework takes the elements of storytelling and incorporates them into the solutions your business is offering to create a clear message that engages potential customers.
Your customer's story starts with them. When your blog post or social media content puts them as a priority, it's easier for them to pay attention because what they're seeing feels like a gift, one that's made especially for them. With that said, let's break down these story elements one by one.
Element 1: The Hero
Each story begins with a hero who wants something. In movies, screenwriters identify the hero at the beginning of the film and within minutes, the audience knows where the story is headed. The goal of your business is to be a brand that knows exactly what customers are looking for.
Everyone wants to be the hero of his/her own story. The biggest mistake companies make is to send a message that is mostly all about what they do and not what they can do for their customer. Take note of the differences.
Put yourself in the shoes of a customer for a moment. When you're out there looking for solutions to your problem, you want to work with a company that prioritizes you. You want them to exist to serve you. When your business offers this kind of feeling to the people you intend to serve, they reward you with something better than their attention. They give you their focus.
Element 2: The Problem
Once you've established that your hero has what it takes to solve their problem, they end up becoming interested in taking on the journey to get what they want.
Identify what specific problem your business wants to solve for your customers. If there's no problem, there's no story.
Without Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker is just a kid from the desert. James Bond is just a slick dude who likes social drinking. Without productivity problems and untimely sleepiness, coffee is just a dark drink that gets your heart racing for no reason.
Most businesses talk about their products and services first instead of the problem they're offering to solve. If we want our customers to finally pay attention to what we're selling, we have to focus on the problem they're trying to solve. People won't remember the clever tagline you spent two hours making. They associate your brand with the problem you fix.
Element 3: The Guide
Many companies create ads and copy that try to put the competition down while propping themselves up. You can see it all over the world, but it doesn't mean that this approach works. On the contrary, it actually turns customers away.
What customers are looking for are not heroes that will save them from their problems, but guides that will lead them to success. Luke Skywalker had Ben Kenobi, Harry Potter has Albus Dumbledore, and your customers have you.
This paradigm shift helps engage more customers. You can sell products more effectively as a guide than as another egotistical brand trying to throw shade at your competition.
Communicating as a guide requires empathy and authority. You need to let your customer know that you understand what they're going through and that you know the way for them to succeed because you've done it before with your previous customers.
Element 4: The Plan
Now that you've established your position as the best guide for your hero to follow, it's time to give your customer a crystal clear step forward. In heist movies, this is where you hear about the plan - the gang is about to steal this precious thing, and the feat is clearly impossible, but here's the plan.
A plan clears away the mystery for your customers. Before your customer decides to move forward with you, they have to know that the next step is safe. Take note that even at this point in our story, we haven't asked for money.
The plan convinces them that the next step is not only possible, but it's also easy and safe. In Donald Miller's book, he emphasizes the importance of a 3-step plan. Three steps are easier to remember because it gives our focus a sense of completion. When you get caught on fire, you stop, drop, and roll. When there's an emergency, you call 9-1-1.
Giving your customers the plan is a very important step, and it requires you to clarify your message so you don't end up confusing them. Think about the solution your business is offering. What are the three steps your client can do to achieve what they want through your product or service? That right there, in a nutshell, is the plan.
Element 5: Call To Action
At some point, you have to make a move. When you call them to commit, into action, it sends the message that you can actually solve their problems.
At this part of your brand story, you are going to ask them to buy-in. It's time for the hero to accept or reject your offer.
In your marketing, you have to call your customer to action because humans don't want to act on their own naturally. As the guide of the hero, your role is to tell them when to move.
You don't want to be that person who likes somebody and doesn't make a move at all. We understand that it's hard to put yourself out there, but it's much harder work to beat around the bush and not close the deal.
Your customers need to see Call To Action buttons in your marketing materials, and they have to be strong.
- Buy Now
- Schedule a Call
- Shop This Sale
There are CTA buttons out there that aren't as effective, like:
- If You Have Any Questions, Reach Out
- Learn More
- Visit Website
These ones are weak because they beat around the bush or they sound like you need to do a lot of work to get what you want if you're the customer.
Decide what your customer needs to do next. In the simplest of terms, what step do they need to do to move forward? The only way you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing materials is with the number of responses you get from your CTAs.
Your CTAs need to be everywhere as well. Most StoryBrand websites have lots of CTAs all around because people make thousands of decisions every day, and your company doesn't want to get drowned in all of them. You need to ask your hero to buy in several times and do it consistently on your marketing message.
Element 6: Help Them Avoid Failure
For a story to be good, some stakes have to be involved. Stories that paint a picture of a tragic ending are always more captivating. Without consequences, why would people pay attention?
As a guide, you have to identify failure for your customer if they don't buy your product or service. Paint a picture of the consequences they'll face if they stick with what they currently have. Take this element of storytelling and tie it up with the problem you're trying to solve.
In Donald Miller's book, Building a StoryBrand, he'll teach your company how to create a StoryBrand BrandScript - the roadmap of your brand to tell a story that engages customers and communicates with them with a clear message. In your own BrandScript, you can write the consequences your customers can face if they decide to live with their problems.
Think about what their lives will look like if their problems persist. But remember not to talk too much about it. When you dwell on the possible tragic ending so much, you'll sound manipulative.
Instead of saying "if you don't buy my products, you'll end up dying alone and sad," ask questions.
- "Are you frustrated with what you're experiencing right now?"
- "Do you feel like the brand you're using right now is not delivering the results you wanted?"
Communicate this part to your customers clearly. Guide them into avoiding failures to get them to opt into your solution.
Element 7: Success
Your hero has gone through the journey, and now it's time for them to achieve success. Cast a vision for a happy ending for your customers.
In this last part of the StoryBrand Framework, your brand's communication should focus on letting your customer know what they can achieve if they buy your product or services. Think about that climactic scene in your favorite movie where the hero finally defeats the villain or when the couple finally gets together. Your customer's story should end with this kind of feeling.
Allow people to imagine themselves at that moment where their problems start finally fade away.
When they finally get a new mattress, they'll wake up to more pleasant and stress-free mornings. When they get their teeth checked and cleaned regularly, their smiles shine brighter and they won't need to worry about toothaches. You can use words that bring the message of a happy ending intentionally.
Another good way to do this is to put pictures of smiley happy people using your products or services in your website, emails, or social media. Let your customers picture themselves in a better state of being, and let them know you're rooting for them to experience it first-hand.
Ready To Tell Your Brand's Story?
If you've worked with other marketing agencies and had a bad experience, it's time to take a different marketing approach.
We were originally a StoryBrand-Certified Agency. We've helped lots of companies simplify their message and create stories that resonate with their customers. We've seen first-hand how Donald Miller's StoryBrand Framework changed the way our customers do marketing.
We've applied this framework to improve website traffic and conversion rates for our existing clients. We can also host a StoryBrand Marketing Workshop for your team to get your team on the same page in terms of marketing messaging and internal communication.
Marketing doesn't have to be complicated. Make it simpler and more effective with the StoryBrand Framework. If you're ready to tell your brand's story and capture more customers, click on the button below.
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