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Building a StoryBrand 2.0: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

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Building a StoryBrand 2.0: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

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Highlights & Notes

Customers generally don’t care about your story; they care about their own. Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand. This is the secret every phenomenally successful business understands.

May we all be richly rewarded for putting our customers’ stories above our own.

The fact is, pretty websites don’t sell things. Words sell things. And if we haven’t clarified our message, our customers won’t listen.

the human brain, no matter what region of the world it comes from, is drawn toward clarity and away from confusion.

Even if we have the best product in the marketplace, we’ll lose to an inferior product if our competitor’s offer is communicated more clearly.

“There’s a reason most marketing collateral doesn’t work,” Mike said, putting his feet up on the coffee table. “Their marketing is too complicated. The brain has to work too hard to process the information. The more simple and predictable the communication, the easier it is for the brain to digest.

human beings are constantly scanning their environment (even advertising) for information that is going to help them meet their primitive need to survive.

The first mistake brands make is failing 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.

“The reason many businesses—and for that matter, leaders, are ignored,” Mike continued, “is because processing information demands that the brain burn calories. And the burning of too many calories processing information we do not need in order to survive acts against the brain’s primary job: to help us survive and thrive.”

The second mistake brands make when they talk about their products and services is they require their customers to burn too many calories in order to understand their offer.

The key is to create a message that reveals how we help our customers survive and to do so in language so simple that they understand the message without having to, burn too many calories.

you don’t need an expensive ad campaign or a beautiful style guide to grow your business; you just need a few sound bites customers immediately understand so they quickly realize you have a solution to their problem.

What is a story? A story identifies an ambition or objective the hero wants to accomplish, then defines the challenges that are keeping the hero from getting what they want, then provides a plan to help the hero conquer those challenges so they can survive and thrive. It’s an age-old formula, but it works. And it doesn’t only work to entertain us; it works to get our attention. Here, then, is the thesis of this book: when we define the elements of a story as it relates to our brand, we create a mental map customers can follow to engage our products and services.

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 they don’t win, and what wonderful thing will happen if they do.

if we haven’t identified what our customer wants, what problem we are helping them solve, and what life will look like after they engage our products and services, we can forget about thriving in the marketplace.

What we think we are saying to our customers and what our customers actually hear are two different things. And customers make buying decisions based not on what we say but on what they hear.

Story is similar to music. A good story takes a series of random events and truths and distills them into the essence of what really matters.

The essence of branding is to create simple, relevant messages we can repeat over and over so that we “brand” ourselves into the public consciousness.

and recognized. The offer was clear: if you want to be different, choose Apple. The story they invited the public into involved (1) identifying what their customers wanted (to be seen and heard), (2) defining their customers’ challenge (that others didn’t recognize their hidden genius), and (3) offering their customers a tool they could use to express themselves (computers and smartphones).

Here is nearly every story you watch, read, 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 experience a success.

at no point should you be able to pause a movie and fail to answer three critical questions. What does the hero want? Who or what is opposing the hero getting what they want? What will the hero’s life look like if they do (or do not) get what they want?

What do you offer? How will it make my life better? What do I need to do to buy it?

Nobody wants to go to your website and figure out a riddle. Just. Be. Clear.

we will not accomplish our mission by explaining our own story; we will accomplish our mission by inviting customers into a story in which they can experience a clear win.

  • Importante

Alfred Hitchcock defined a good story as “life with the dull parts taken out.”2 Good branding is the same. Our businesses are complex, for sure, but a good messaging filter will remove all the stuff that bores our customers and will accentuate the aspects of our brand that will help them survive and thrive.

the customer is the hero of the story, not your brand. When we position our customer as the hero and ourselves as the guide, we will be recognized as a trusted resource to help our customers overcome their challenges.

When giving a speech, position yourself as Yoda and your audience as Luke Skywalker.

Yet business leaders do it all the time. Rather than invite their customers into a story, they talk about themselves, their mission, their goals, their backstory, and all sorts of stuff no customer cares about. Instead, let’s understand our products from the customer’s perspective.

Once we identify who our customer is, we have to ask ourselves what they want as it relates to our brand. The catalyst for any story is that the hero wants something.

Unless we identify something our customer wants, they will never feel invited into the story we are creating.

STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE TWO: THE ONLY THINGS PEOPLE BUY ARE SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS, AND IF YOU HAVEN’T IDENTIFIED YOUR CUSTOMER’S PROBLEMS OR FAIL TO TALK ABOUT THEM CLEARLY, YOU AREN’T GOING TO SELL ANYTHING.

  • Importante

They want to solve a problem that has, in big or small ways, disrupted their peaceful life. In short, every one of our customers is a “hero in a hole” looking for a way out. Whether they are looking for the perfect Mother’s Day gift, relief from a headache, whiter teeth, a larger car to fit their growing family, or an investment that doubles as a tax break, your customers are in a hole and are looking for a way out.

our customers are in trouble and need our help.

In stories, heroes encounter external, internal, and philosophical problems.

If heroes in a story could solve their own problems, they would never get into trouble in the first place. That’s why storytellers, through the centuries, have created another character to help the hero win.

To position yourself as a hero is a mistake. Brands that position themselves as heroes unknowingly complicate their relationship with potential customers. Every human being wakes up each morning and sees the world through the lens of a protagonist. The world revolves around them, regardless of how altruistic, generous, and selfless a person they may be. Each day is, quite literally, about how we encounter our world. Potential customers feel the same way about themselves. They are the center of their world. When a brand comes along and positions itself as the hero, customers remain distant. They hear us talking about how great our business is and subconsciously believe we’re competing with them for scarce resources. Their subconscious thought pattern goes like this: Oh, this is another hero, like me. I wish I had more time to hear their story, but right now I’m busy looking for a guide to get me out of this hole.

  • Importante

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 to get out of their hole. Making a purchase is a huge step, especially if our products or services are expensive or time-consuming to adopt. What customers are looking for, then, is a clear path we’ve laid out that takes away any confusion they might have about how the process of getting out of the hole is going to work. The StoryBrand element we will use to create this path is called the plan.

The point is that people are looking for a philosophy they can embody or a series of steps they can take to solve their problems.

In stories, characters don’t take action on their own. They must be challenged. If we’re telling a story about a man who needs to lose thirty pounds and suddenly decides to do it of his own volition, the audience will be unable to suspend disbelief. Why? Because that’s not how life works. There needs to be a reason our hero takes action. Our character has to run into a high school sweetheart who is now a yoga instructor, or he needs to lose a bet that forces him to run a marathon. In stories, heroes take action only after they are challenged by an outside force. This principle is true in story because it’s true in life. Human beings take action when their story challenges them to do so.

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 so we can continue to earn trust until they are ready to place an order.

Once we begin using both kinds of calls to action in our messaging, customers will understand exactly what we want them to do and will decide whether to let us play a role in their story. Until we call our customers to action, they will be inclined to ignore us, but when we call them to action (the right way), they will engage and place orders.

If there is nothing at stake in a story, there is no story. Likewise, if there’s nothing at stake in whether I buy your product, I’m not going to buy your product. After all, why should I? Simply put, we must show people the cost of not doing business with us.

Brands that help customers avoid some kind of negativity in life (and clearly define what that negativity is by using plain language) engage them for the same reason good stories captivate an audience: they define what’s at stake.

If you fail to paint the negative stakes, you’re essentially saying the hole your customer is in is not that deep, which cheapens the perceived value of your brand to rescue them. In other words, all negativity becomes positivity the moment the negativity is overcome.

We must tell our customers how great their life can look if they buy our products and services.

everybody wants to be taken somewhere, and if we fail to tell people where we are capable of taking them, they will engage another brand.

In the seventh element of the StoryBrand framework, I’ll elaborate on a critical sound bite to round out your messaging strategy: offering a vision for how great a customer’s life could be if they engage your products or services.

Creating a StoryBrand BrandScript will do more than create a clear message you can use to engage customers; it will also give you clarity about the value you offer to the world. Many business leaders know their products are important but aren’t exactly sure why. This confusion can create a lack of confidence about what you have created or what you represent. When you create a BrandScript, you will have much more confidence that what you do matters to the world.

Read each of the next seven chapters. After you read each chapter, brainstorm potential messages you might use to populate your BrandScript. Carefully look at your brainstorm and then decide on a specific message to use in each section of your BrandScript.

  • To do

Remember: simple, clear messages that are relevant to your customers result in sales.

Thousands of companies shut their doors every year, not because they don’t have a great product but because potential customers can’t figure out how that product will make their lives better.

If we want customers to engage our brand the way they engage their favorite movie, we, too, must define something the customer wants and must become known for delivering that thing and delivering it well. As soon as we define something our customer wants, we posit a series of story questions in the mind of the customer: Can this brand really help me get what I want? If so, how much does it cost, where do I get it, and how soon can they ship it to me? And what do they need to do to answer those questions? They need to buy our product.

Your brand will grow when people can easily remember what you offer, and people don’t remember complexity.

Financial Adviser: “A Plan for Your Retirement” College Alumni Association: “Leave a Meaningful Legacy” Fine-Dining Restaurant: “A Meal Everybody Will Remember” Real Estate Agent: “The Home You’ve Dreamed About” Bookstore: “A Story to Get Lost In” Breakfast Bars: “A Healthy Start to Your Day”

Identifying a potential desire your customer can fulfill opens what, in storyteller terms, is called a story gap. The idea is you place a gap between your hero and what they want. Moviegoers pay attention when there’s a story gap because they wonder if and how the gap is going to be closed.

Here’s a storytelling rule that you can immediately apply to your business: attention rises and lowers with the opening and closing of a story gap.

catching mice?” It is my view that story gaps explain a lot more than how and why we pay attention. They also explain all of human behavior. The opening of a story gap works a magnetic force that drives every action we take and certainly every dollar we spend. Hunger is the opening of a story gap, and lunch is how we close that gap. A headache is the opening of a story gap, and aspirin is what we take to make it go away. Arousal is the opening of a story gap, ambition and sexual fulfillment brings its closing. There is little action in life that can’t be explained by the opening and closing of various story gaps. The business lesson here is that when we fail to define something our customer wants, we fail to open a story gap in their mind. When we fail to open a story gap in our customer’s mind, we give them no motivation to engage our brand because they are not left with a story question that demands resolution. Defining something our customer wants and featuring it in our messaging and marketing will open a story gap that drives engagement and action.

If you want to grow your brand (or write a good screenplay), define a single desire you are able to fulfill and then add to that desire in subsequent marketing and messaging. The objective is this: Define a specific desire your customers have and become known for helping people achieve that specific desire. If you try to open too many story gaps at once, your audience will become confused about what, exactly, you offer.

The reality of a diverse brand, though, brings the same challenge many amateur screenwriters succumb to: they clutter the story by diluting their hero’s desire with too many ambitions.

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 the promise.

I recommended he make an edit to his message. Instead of saying, “Inhale Knowledge, Exhale Success,” simply say, “Helping You Become Everyone’s Favorite Leader.”

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 physical, economic, and social resources to eat, drink, reproduce, and fend off foes.

Building social networks. If our brand can help people find community, we’ve tapped into yet another survival mechanism. We think we’re only being nice when we bring our coworkers coffee, but what if we’re actually being nice because our primitive brains want to make connections in an effort to build a tribe in case the bad guys come knocking at the door? Add this to the fact human beings have a strong desire to nurture and be nurtured, and we’ve tapped into yet another survival mechanism.

So how do we offer potential customers a sense of meaning? Not unlike giving our customers the opportunity to be generous, we invite them to participate in something greater than themselves. A movement. A cause to champion.

In business, if we don’t communicate clearly, we shrink. When we’re motivating a team, convincing shareholders to stay engaged, or selling to customers, we must define a desire our customers have or we will fail to open a story gap and the audience we desire will ignore us. Remember, customers want to envision the great place you are going to take them. Unless you identify something they want, it’s doubtful they will follow you.

The goal for our branding should be that every potential customer knows exactly where we will take them: to visit a luxury resort where they can get some rest, to become the leader everybody loves, or to save money and live better.

  • Importante

Don’t assume your customers know what you are offering. Tell them. And tell them in plain, simple, and repeatable language. The only way word will get out about your brand is if you give people the exact words to use.

CLARIFY YOUR MESSAGE SO CUSTOMERS LISTEN Go to StoryBrand.AI and either create a StoryBrand BrandScript or log in to your existing BrandScript. Either alone or with a team, brainstorm what potential desires your customers might have that you can fulfill. Make a decision. Choose something your customer wants and fill in the “character” module of your StoryBrand BrandScript. Read the next chapter and repeat this process for the next section of your BrandScript.

  • Action

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 inviting them into because when we identify their problem, we open the story gap even wider.

If there is no conflict in the story, there is no story gap, and without a story gap, there is no reason to pay attention. It bears repeating: the more we talk about the problems our customers experience, the more curiosity they will have about our brand.

When you talk about a problem, people become interested in finding a solution, which means you sell more of your products.

The Villain Gives the Problem a Root Cause and a Focus The villain is the number one device storytellers use to give conflict a clear point of focus. Screenwriters and novelists know the stronger, more evil, more dastardly the villain, the more sympathy we will have for the hero and the more the audience will want them to defeat their foe and return to their previous state of stability.

we want our customers’ ears to perk up when we talk about our products and services, we should position these as weapons they can use to defeat a villain. The more dastardly the villains, the more urgent their need for our products.

Don’t be afraid of a little drama in your messaging, especially if that drama is true.

The point is, real threats exist in the world. If your customer wasn’t experiencing some sort of pain or frustration as it relates to your brand, they wouldn’t be seeking you out anyway.

Advertisers personify the villains their customers face in order to capture their customers’ imaginations and give their frustrations a focal point.

Here are four characteristics that make for a good villain on your StoryBrand BrandScript: The villain should be a root source. High taxes, for example, are not an example of a villain; they are what a villain makes us experience. Rather, the broken-down government is a good example of a villain that is charging us all that tax money to do precisely nothing but use it to collect salaries and stir up culture wars so they can get re-elected and continue their important work of doing nothing. 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. One villain is enough. A story with too many villains falls apart for lack of clarity. The villain should be real. Never go down the path of being a fear-monger. There are plenty of actual villains out there to fight. Let’s go after them on behalf of our customers. Another thing: the villain doesn’t have to be serious. If you’re creating the messaging for the upcoming Boston Red Sox versus New York Yankees series, personifying your opponent as the villain is just smart marketing. Turning the opposition into a villain will fill the stands at either stadium and increase the urgency the audience feels while rooting for their team.

What is the chief source of conflict that your products and services defeat? Talk about this villain. The more you do, the more people will want a tool to help them escape the villain’s deadly grasp.

The three levels of problems heroes (and customers) face are external problems, internal problems, and 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. These are also the three levels of problems a customer hopes to solve when they buy a product.

companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but people buy solutions to internal problems.

Stories teach us that people’s internal desire to resolve a frustration is a greater motivator than their desire to solve an external problem.

When we ask, “What does this problem make our customers feel?” we can easily brainstorm great copy that will improve our marketing efforts.

The only reason our customers buy from us is because their external problem 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, we do more than just sell our customers products; we bond with our customers because we’ve positioned ourselves deeply into their narrative. 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 house on the block. Knowing this, our marketing could offer “Paint That Will Make Your Neighbors Jealous.”

Understanding and talking about our customers’ internal problems does more than create better advertising. Framing our products as a resolution to both external and internal problems increases the perceived value (and, I would argue, actual value) of those products. In other words, when you solve somebody’s internal problem, you can charge more for your products.

Adding a philosophical problem is one of the main reasons a film will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and it will have your audience sitting on the edge of their seats. A good philosophical problem can help you turn disinterested customers into brand fanatics.

A philosophical problem can best be talked about using terms like ought and shouldn’t. For example: “Bad people shouldn’t be allowed to win” and “People ought to be treated fairly.”

When a story represents (or speaks to) a cause, it expands beyond the screen or the page and stirs people to champion a cause, which gives the story itself considerably more import. Likewise, brands that give customers a voice in a larger narrative add value to their products by offering a deeper sense of meaning in their own story.

Is there a deeper story your brand contributes to? Can your products be positioned as tools your customers use to fight back against something that ought not to be? If so, let’s include some philosophical stakes in our messaging.

The Perfect Brand Promise If we really want to satisfy our customers and create brand evangelists, 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.

Our products, if we want them to succeed in the marketplace, should offer to solve a problem, soothe a feeling, and, if possible, contribute to some sort of justice-oriented agenda. Then, upon purchase, our solutions need to fulfill all three promises. If we can accomplish this (and use clear words to explain how we did), we can expect customers to fall in love with our products and our brand. If we really want our business to grow, we should position our products as the resolution to an external, internal, and philosophical problem and frame the “Buy Now” button as the action a customer must take to close the story gap we’ve opened in their minds.

No two lives are the same, yet we share common chapters. Every human being is on a transformational journey.

Guides are important in stories because they are important in life. Every human being knows that the wisdom it takes to navigate life is passed down, that no human can figure it out on their own. If a hero solves her own problem in a story, the audience will find it difficult to suspend disbelief. 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, then, to encourage the hero and equip them to win the day.

As I’ve already mentioned, a brand that positions itself as the hero is destined to lose.

Under the StoryBrand framework, the customer must always be the hero and the brand must always play the guide.

In short, any message that can be framed as a contribution to a “power to the people” movement will trump any message that is framed as a “power to the powerful” money grab.

If our fans don’t believe we are fully doing business for them, they will move on to another brand.

There’s a lesson in the Tidal story for all of us: Positioning yourself as the hero devalues your offering. In fact, it would be a great private equity play to shop for brands with terrific products but mistakenly positioning themselves as heroes in the story. Anybody hunting for a business to buy could seek out businesses making the “hero mistake,” buy them cheap, change the messaging (and culture of the company) to position the brand as the guide, and then see a predictable increase in both revenue and the overall value of the business itself.

Position your customer as the hero and your brand as the guide. If you don’t, your brand will struggle to survive. The hero is always the person pulling out their wallet to make a purchase. The hero is never the people who make the product. If you remember that, you are more likely to get your messaging (and your business strategy) right.

The larger point here is simple: the day we stop losing sleep over our problems and start losing sleep over our customers’ problems is the day our business will transform into a brand customers love.

Why should we never position ourselves as the hero? Because in stories, heroes are weak.

The guide must be strong and all-knowing. The guide must be confident, that way the spotlight is fully on the hero and their transformation. If both the hero and the guide are transforming in a story, who the heck is the story about?

As guides, it is paramount we be competent and strong. The hero is counting on us to know more than they know and to have a solution to their greatest problem. The guide, then, must live in service of the hero, and if the guide is not competent, they are useless.

When we look for a leader, we enjoy a backstory of transformation but a current demonstration of competency.

The idea that the guide must serve the hero is true in business, in politics, and even in your own family. People are looking for a guide to help them, not another hero.

Those who realize the epic story of life is not about them but actually about the people around them somehow win in the end.

If you make the story about you, you will lose.

We must demonstrate two characteristics in order to be recognized as a guide: empathy and competency.

The guide must have this precise one-two punch of empathy and competency in order to move the hero and the story along.

don’t put people in the mind-reading business.

People trust those who understand them, and they trust brands that understand them too.

the three things every human being wants most are to be seen, heard, and understood. This is the essence of empathy.

to …” or “Nobody should have to experience …” or “Like you, we are frustrated by …”

customers won’t know you care until you tell them.

Real empathy means letting customers know we care about them in the same way we care about ourselves. Customers look for brands they have something in common with.

I explained that even if you are in a room of people who are completely different than you, you must find and focus on a common experience, especially if you need to express disagreement.

Your brand and your customer are alike. You have shared experiences and a shared view of life.

As a guide, you do not have to be perfect, but you do have to be competent in your field of expertise.

Competency matters, and if you actually have it, let’s not mess around with self-deprecation. Your hero needs more than a friend; they need a useful friend.

The guide needs to know what they are doing and should have serious experience helping other heroes win the day.

The key to playing the guide, though, is to tell only the parts of your story that support your care for the customer and your competency to help them.

As customers view our websites, commercials, or emails, they simply want to check off a box in the back of their minds that gives them confidence in our ability to help them. And our backstory can help.

There are five easy ways to add evidence of competency to your marketing and messaging.

When we express empathy, we help our customers answer Cuddy’s first question, “Can I trust this person?” Providing evidence of competency helps our customers answer the second question, “Can I respect this person?”

Once we express empathy and demonstrate competence, we can position our brand as the guide our customer has been looking for.

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.”

Commitments are tricky for our customers because as soon as they make a commitment, they run the risk of losing their money. But more than their money, their time and their identity as a person who makes smart buying decisions are also at risk. Most customers are not going to take that chance just yet.

What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m a fool for buying this? How long will it take to work? What if I buy it and never use it? Your customer is also asking another question: How do I get from where I am to the place where I’ve adopted this new product in my life?

there are thousands of people who “feel” cognitive dissonance about your products or services, and if you don’t give them a few simple steps they can take to easily cross from unknowing into knowing, they are less likely to spend money with you.

Remember the mantra “If you confuse, you lose”? Not having a plan is a guaranteed way to create cognitive dissonance.

recommend all our clients employ, is a process plan. A process plan can describe the steps a customer needs to take to buy our product, or the steps they need to take to use our product after they buy it, or a mixture of both.

For instance, if you’re selling an expensive, service-based product, you might break down the steps like this: Schedule an appointment. Allow us to create a customized plan. Let’s execute the plan together. Whether we’re selling a financial product, a medical procedure, a university education, or any other complicated solution, a process plan takes the confusion out of our customer’s journey by breaking down the process into baby steps. Another kind of process plan would be the post-purchase process plan. This plan is best used when our customers might have problems imagining how they would use our product after they buy it. For instance, with a complicated piece of software, we might want to spell out the steps or even the phases a customer would take after they make the purchase: Download the software. Integrate your database into the new system. Revolutionize your customer interaction.

themselves, Oh, I can do that. That’s not so hard, and then they click “Buy Now.” A process plan can also combine the pre- and post-purchase steps. For instance: Test-drive a car. Purchase the car. Enjoy free maintenance for life.

Again, the key to any plan’s success is to alleviate confusion about next steps. What steps do they need to take to do business with you? Spell out those steps, and it’ll be as though you’ve paved a sidewalk through a field. More people will cross the field.

doing business with you requires more than six steps, break down those steps into phases and describe the phases. In reality, you might guide your customer through twenty or thirty steps, but studies show when you bombard customers with information, buying decreases.

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.

Another benefit of an agreement plan is that it can work to clarify shared values between our customers and us. Whole Foods’ list of values has attracted millions to their stores and works as an agreement to source food in a way that is socially and environmentally responsible. Unlike a process plan, an agreement plan often works in the background. Agreement plans do not have to be featured on the home page of your website (though they could be), but as customers get to know you, they’ll sense a deeper level to your service and may realize why when they finally encounter your agreement plan.

If it’s short enough (we’re fans of brevity, obviously), you can feature your agreement plan on the wall of your business or even on your packaging or shopping bags.

Customers do not take action unless they are challenged to take action.

The reason characters have to be provoked into taking action is because everybody sitting in the dark theater knows human beings do not make major changes in their lives unless something challenges them to do so. If I wrote a story about a guy who wanted to climb Everest and then one day looked at himself in the mirror and decided to do it, the audience would feel that something was wrong in the story itself. Making sudden decisions to change and then taking action on that decision is not how human beings operate. Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest, and so do customers. Heroes need to be challenged by outside forces.

People who get what they want know how to ask in clear, simple language. And if you want customers to place an order, you, too, should ask using clear, simple language.

Next time you’re closing a sale, try this statement instead: If you’re struggling with “X,” which it sounds like you are, I think buying “Y” is the right decision. I can take your order now and you won’t have to struggle with “X” anymore. Would you like to place an order right now?

Our product will solve your problem; would you like to place an order now?

The moral of the story is to make your call to action clear by asking customers a yes/no question.

Customers aren’t looking for brands that are filled with doubt and in need of affirmation; they’re looking for brands that have solutions to their problems.

action. Direct calls to action include requests like “buy now,” “schedule an appointment,” or “call today.” A direct call to action is something that leads to a sale or at least is the first step down a path that leads to a sale. Transitional calls to action, however, do not require a purchase but do require some sort of commitment that further builds toward a trusting relationship. 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 asking your customer, “Can I take you out on a date?” and a direct call to action is like popping the question, “Will you marry me?” In our marketing collateral, we always want to have a direct call to action and a transitional call to action.

there should be one obvious button to press on your website, and that button should be the direct call to action. When I say, “one obvious button,” I don’t mean “only one button” but rather one that stands out. Our customers should always know we want to marry them. Even if they’re not ready, we should keep letting them know where we’d like the relationship to go. Customers don’t buy when we are ready for them to buy; they buy only when two realities overlap: they realize they have a problem and they remember you have a solution. If they don’t have a problem, they aren’t going to place an order; if they do have a problem but forgot you have a solution, they will make a purchase from somebody else who had made the effort to ask them out, spend time with them, and build trust. You just never know when a customer is going to want to make a commitment, and when they do, you want to be on one knee, holding flowers, smiling for the picture. Examples of direct calls to action are Order now Call today Schedule an appointment Register today Buy now

A good transitional call to action can do three powerful things for your brand: 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. Create reciprocity. I’ve never worried about giving away too much free information. In fact, the more generous a brand is, the more reciprocity they create. All relationships are give-and-take, and the more you give to your customers, the more likely it is they will give something back in the future. Give freely. Position yourself as the guide. When you help your customers solve a problem, even for free, you position yourself as the guide. The next time they encounter a problem in that area of their lives, they will look to you for help.

Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending.

Throughout a story, storytellers foreshadow a potential successful ending and a potential tragic ending. The audience remains in suspense as long as the storyteller keeps the hero teetering on the precipice of success and failure.

What can be won or lost in our customers’ lives if they do or do not purchase our products?

The only two motivated actions a hero can take in a story are to move away from something bad or move toward something good. Such is life. Our desire to avoid pain motivates us to seek a resolution to our problems.

brands that don’t paint the stakes fail to answer the “so what” question every customer is secretly asking.

If I am perusing your landing page, I must know what the stakes are if I do or don’t buy your product, and if you send me an email telling me about your product, there must be stakes in the email too. If you are giving me an elevator pitch, those stakes must be repeated. And by the way, if you are offering a lead-generating PDF, there must be stakes as to whether I download it; and if I do, there must be stakes as to whether I read it; and if I do read it, the stakes must be clear as to whether I buy your product and also whether I buy by midnight tonight.

according to Kahneman, in certain situations, people are two to three times more motivated to make a change to avoid a loss than they are to achieve a gain.2

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. I’ll use a simple marketing narrative for a pest-control business as an 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 termites will destroy your home, you should do something about it to protect your investment.” Third, we should let them know about a specific call to action that protects them from the risk. “At ACME Pest Control, we offer a complete home treatment that will ensure your house is free of termites.” Fourth, we should challenge people to take this specific action. “To enjoy a 10 percent discount, call us today and schedule your home treatment.”3

Fear Is Salt in the Recipe We do not need to use a great deal of fear in the story if we want to see results. Just a pinch of salt in the recipe will do.

When receivers of negative messaging 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.

The lesson here is that we mustn’t let a fear of negative messaging keep us from using it, because if we don’t use negative messaging, our campaign will fail to stimulate action.

The principle is, the darker the story gets, the brighter the light is at the end of the tunnel.

What negative consequences are you helping customers avoid? Could your customers lose money if they don’t place an order? Are there health risks in play if your customers avoid your services? What about opportunity costs? Could they make or save more money with you than with a competitor? Could your customers’ quality of life decline if they pass up your offer? What is the cost of not doing business with you?

Never assume people know how your brand can change their lives. Tell them.

always remember, people want to be taken somewhere. Figure out where you want to take them and state it clearly, then repeat yourself over and over until you get them there.”

The job of your brand is to guide the hero out of a hole and into a better life. And casting a vision might be the most important element in any leadership campaign.

By foreshadowing a potential successful ending to a story, or, as Stew Friedman at the Wharton School puts it, defining a “compelling image of an achievable future,”1 leaders captivate the imaginations of their audiences.

Without a vision, the people perish. And so do brands.

offer our customers what they want most: a happy ending to their story.

Stories aren’t vague, they’re defined; they’re about specific things happening to specific people. Otherwise they’re not stories; they’re just the telling of random events.

Being specific matters. President Kennedy would have bored the world had he cast a vision for a “highly competitive and productive space program.” Instead, he defined the ambition specifically and visually and as such inspired a nation: “We’re going to put a man on the moon.”

Regardless of what you sell, if possible, show us people happily engaging with your product.

your StoryBrand BrandScript should solve all three levels of your customers’ problems: external, internal, and philosophical.

them. When we resolve our customers’ external, internal, and philosophical problems, we’ve truly envisioned an appealing resolution to their story and have increased the chances they will step into that story.

The key to a stellar ending, though, is to successfully open the external, internal, and philosophical story loops early in the story and then close them all through a single event at the end.

The strategy for your brand, then, is to spend your marketing copy opening external, internal, and philosophical story loops and then offer to resolve them through the use of your product.

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The three dominant ways storytellers paint this new world are by providing the hero with greater power or position, unity with somebody or something that represents their wholeness, and an experience of self-realization that also makes them whole.

Even those who convince themselves they do not want status often want the status that comes with not wanting status.

So how can our brand offer status? Here are four ideas:

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. But what if a tool you offer could give the customer what they’re missing? 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. In this instance, consider your brand not unlike the character Q in the James Bond films. Your customer comes into your secret cave and explains their objective, and you reveal all the tools you offer. More time: For many customers, time is scarce, and if our product can expand time, we’re offering to solve an external problem that is causing an internal frustration. Not being able to “fit it all in” is often perceived by our customers as a personal deficiency. Any tool, system, philosophy, or even person who can expand time may offer a sense of completeness.

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How does my customer feel incomplete and how can my product be positioned to offer that completion? If you ask and answer this question in a short, simple way, you’re looking at a terrific messaging sound bite.

Whether it’s by fulfilling some purpose or accepting themselves as they are, this offer to return our hero to contentment fulfills a universal human desire: self-acceptance.

Acceptance: Helping people accept themselves as they are isn’t just a thoughtful thing to do; it’s good marketing.

Transcendence: Brands that invite customers to participate in a larger movement offer a greater, more impactful life.

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. If our products can help people achieve any or all of these things, we should make this clear in our StoryBrand BrandScript.

What problem are you resolving in your customer’s life, and what does that resolution look like after they buy your product? Stick to basic answers because they really do work. Then, when you get good, strong sound bites, start diving deeper into the levels of problems your brand resolves. You don’t need to think about external, internal, and philosophical sound bites at first. Just give me a sound bite that screams resolution, then sharpen the language as you refine your marketing message.

The important idea in this section is that we need to repeatedly show how our product or service can make somebody’s life better. If we don’t tell people where we’re taking them, they won’t follow. A story has to go somewhere. Have you told your customers what sort of life you want to guide them into?

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. This desire for transformation is by design. Humans start as tiny babies, learning color and smell and sound and attachment.

As it relates to your brand, how does your customer want to be perceived by their friends and family? And can you help them become that kind of person? Can some aspect of your product participate in your customer’s identity transformation? If you offer executive coaching, your clients may want to be seen as competent, generous, and disciplined. If you sell sports equipment, your customers likely want to be perceived as active, fit, and successful in their athletic pursuits. Once we know who our customers want to be, we will have language to use in emails, blog posts, and all manner of messaging collateral.

Playing the guide is more than a marketing strategy; it’s a position of the heart. When a brand commits itself to helping customers define their heroic ambition; resolve their external, internal, and philosophical problems; and inspire 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.

A hero needs somebody else to step into the story to tell them they’ve transformed. Heroes do not realize their transformation intuitively. They must be told by somebody else, and that somebody is the guide. That somebody is you.

Who does your customer want to become as they engage your products and services?

Brands that realize their customers are human, filled with emotion, driven to transform, and in need of help truly do more than sell products; they change people. Dave Ramsey changes people. Apple changes people. TOMS Shoes changes people. Gerber knives changes people. It’s no wonder brands like these have such passionate fans and do so well in the marketplace.

Here are some examples of aspirational identities from StoryBrand clients like you: PET FOOD BRAND From: Passive dog owner To: Every dog’s hero FINANCIAL ADVISER From: Confused and ill-equipped To: Competent and smart SHAMPOO BRAND From: Anxious and glum To: Carefree and radiant

Spend some time thinking about who you want your customers to become. How can you improve the way they perceive themselves? How can your brand participate in your customer’s identity transformation?

In short, subplots aside, a good story will support only one major plot.

How do you come up with your controlling idea? You already have. If you’ve created a StoryBrand BrandScript, your controlling idea is staring right back at you. As you read your BrandScript, ask yourself, “What is this story really about?” or, better, “What is the moral of the story I am inviting customers into?” Is the moral “You shouldn’t have to pay more for car insurance” or “Natural peanut butter shouldn’t taste like cardboard”? Whatever it is, your controlling idea is “the point” you’re trying to make in all your messaging collateral. You should have one controlling idea, and it should be stated simply. It should be easy to understand. Your BrandScript forces your story to be simple and clear. Your controlling idea should get a positive reaction from your customers (without you having to explain it at all) and should be repeated several times as a customer scrolls down the page. Remember, good messaging is an exercise in memorization, meaning you are trying to get your customer to memorize your controlling idea so they can repeat it to their friends and your business will grow. Short, simple statements repeated word for word, over and over, is an effective messaging strategy.

What is the main differentiator that sets you apart from your competition? What one idea would most quickly clarify your offer? What idea do you want your customers to repeat as a way of introducing your brand to others? These are the kinds of questions you want to consider as you brainstorm the controlling idea section of your BrandScript.

Let’s be clear: Your message is clear to you, but until you speak it and repeat it, it isn’t clear to anybody else. To get results, your message must be clear in the minds of others.

If you are building a brand, your job is to act as though your products and services are running for office.

This same dynamic is likely true of you and your products and services. You did the work to create terrific products and services and are capable of delivering. But building great products and services and being able to talk about them effectively requires two separate sets of skills. The idea that “if you build it, they will come” may work to summon ghosts to a baseball field in Kansas, but it will not work to grow your business. To sell products and services, you must build them and then talk about them. And when you’re done talking about them, you must talk about them again. And then again.

I’ve come to believe people have to read or hear your message about eight times before they internalize and respond to that message. On top of that, people ignore most commercial messages, so you have to repeat your clear message over and over for them to hear it even once. If 90 percent of all commercial messages are ignored, for instance, you will have to repeat your message eighty times to get somebody to hear it eight times. Your clear message needs to be stated clearly in elevator pitches, passed around in conversation, repeated clearly on your website, spoken of in your lead generators, talked about in YouTube videos, printed on your swag, painted on the wall of your retail establishment, written about in emails and snail mail, and spoken from the mouths of your sales representatives. Your message should be communicated in any digital ads you create, podcast openings and closings, keynote presentations, and so on and so on. In other words, your clear message is going to require a campaign.

Stop rambling. When you talk about your brand, know what you are going to say long before you are asked to speak. Don’t wing it. Don’t make it up as you go along. You will immediately find that when you start using the sound bites you have created to talk about your brand, people pay attention.

Your StoryBrand BrandScript should be a work in progress until it succeeds. If you aren’t getting the reaction you want, keep refining the sound bites until they lead to engagement and orders.

Keep evolving your sound bites until they get the reaction you want.

recently went to the website for Squarespace, and it simply said, “We Help You Make Beautiful Websites.” Perfect.

We had a client a couple of years ago who 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 facilitators. The challenge, then, was to increase demand for each product so 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 actual money-making facilitator certification.

By “Morse code” we mean copy that is brief, punchy, and relevant to our customers.

Most of us err too far in the opposite direction of simple and brief: we use too much text.

As an experiment, let’s see if you can cut half the words out of your current website. Can you replace some of your text with images? Can you reduce whole paragraphs into three or four bullet points? Can you summarize sentences into snappy sound bites? If so, make those changes soon. The rule is this: the fewer words you use, the more likely it is that people will read them.

The words you use in your marketing and messaging don’t have to be the exact text you have on your BrandScript, but the ideas should be the same.

Transform your marketing by implementing your clear message in a marketing system that works

Every step you take should result in greater customer engagement and more sales. You don’t have to create your entire messaging and marketing campaign all at once. That said, the more you create, the more customers will encounter and understand your offer.

guides customers through the three stages of relationships: curiosity, enlightenment, and commitment.

the first job of a good messaging and marketing campaign is to make them curious.

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In this enlightenment stage, depending on how expensive or complicated the product adoption might be, a customer may look around for reviews, read about your product, ask their friends if they’ve used the product, or search YouTube for videos about your product. If you have good “enlightenment” material, customers will then move on to the third phase of their relationship with you, and that is the “commitment” phase in which they become willing to place an order.

Our goal as marketers is to create terrific curiosity collateral—that is, sound bites on landing pages and digital ads and webinars and the like that will pique a potential customer’s curiosity. After we create our curiosity collateral, we need to create enlightenment collateral, which may include downloadable PDFs, webinars, breakout session presentations, automated email sequences, YouTube videos, and other long-form marketing collateral. Once we’ve created our enlightenment collateral, we need to make sure our calls to action are clear, including sales emails, countdown timers, special offers, and so on. The job of a messaging and marketing campaign is to pique our customers’ curiosity; earn their trust with consistent, valuable information; and then ask for the commitment by challenging them to make a purchase.

The one-liner you will create for your company will work like a logline for a movie: it will clearly communicate your offer and promise a solution to your customer’s problem.

one-liner has three parts: the problem, the product as solution, and the result.

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. You simply want to communicate these four ideas: Who is your customer? What is their problem? What is your plan to help them? What will their life look like after you do?

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF PROBLEMS DIFFERENT BRANDS CAN TALK ABOUT: If you’re a busy mom and can’t find time to work out, then … If your dog barks loudly whenever somebody knocks on the door, then … If you want the benefits of an electric vehicle but worry about range, then …

Now that we’ve clearly stated the problem, let’s position our product as the solution. This should be a very, very simple addition to the one-liner. Simply state: “That’s why we created X” and stop talking. When creating a one-liner, clients will often ramble on and on about their product, about its features and benefits and so on. This is a mistake. When you simply state the name or short description of the product, you resolve the open story loop and satisfy the customer’s curiosity, but when you ramble on and on, you actually dilute the value of your product. For example, compare: “Many people find it difficult to fall asleep at night because they are stressed. Our meditation is based on science and over twenty years of research, relieving the central nervous system by triggering natural calming agents that are released through breath work, mental focus and …” with this statement: “Many people find it difficult to fall asleep at night because they are stressed. Our simple meditation helps you fall asleep fast.”

The header is the part of your website that sits “above the fold,” meaning at the top of the page. The job of the header is to explain your offer so clearly and in such simple language that your customer wants to know more. If you’ve used the right text, your customer will want to keep scrolling to “enlighten themselves” about all that you offer.

THE STAKES The stakes section of your website is where you put the negative consequences of not doing business with you. We like this section near the top because, as you remember, the problem is the hook. Your stakes section can be developed as a paragraph, images, bullet points, or even a video.

GUIDE Now that you’ve invited customers into a story, introduce yourself. After all, at this point, you’ve likely earned the right to be heard. In this section, you want to position yourself or your brand as the guide the hero needs in order to solve their problem and win the day.

In order to combat noise in today’s marketplace, your lead generator must do two things: Provide enormous value for your customer Establish you as an authority in your field

“Put that guy on commission and let him do what he wants.”

Content is important, but the point is, there is great power in simply reminding your customers you exist.

An automated email campaign is a prewritten sequence of emails that begin to go out once a person is added to your list. Some people call this an “auto-responder series,” but the idea is to invite customers into a narrative that enlightens them and builds a relationship.

Great testimonials give future customers the gift of going second.

If you’re asking customers to write a testimonial for you, it’s likely they are (1) too busy to give deep thought to writing the testimonial or (2) subpar writers or communicators.

Here are five questions most likely to generate the best response for a customer testimonial: What was the problem you were having before you discovered our product? What did the frustration feel like as you tried to solve that problem? What was different about our product? Take us to the moment when you realized our product was actually working to solve your problem. Tell us what life looks like now that your problem is solved or being solved.

The point is that people are drawn to transformation. When they see transformation in others, they want it for themselves. The more we feature the transformation journey our customers have experienced, the faster our business will grow.

Once you create a system that funnels potential customers into becoming actual customers, the final step is to turn around and invite happy customers to become evangelists for your brand.

referrals and peer recommendations are up to 2.5 times more responsive than any other marketing channel.

Simple: Email or text your list offering a bonus if people tell their friends. For example, you might offer “one month free” or “a special discount code” that could be used when folks email the specific link you’ve offered to a friend or family member.

Give Your Customers a Helpful Tool They Can Use to Spread the Word

Some Real-World Referral Systems

Backlinks