Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

Metadata

• Title: Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
• Author: Donald Miller
• Book URL: https://amazon.com/dp/B06XFJ2JGR?tag=malvaonlin-20
• Open in Kindle: kindle://book/?action=open&asin=B06XFJ2JGR
• Last Updated on: Monday, January 30, 2023

Highlights & Notes

Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand. This is the secret every phenomenally successful business understands.

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.

Why? Because nobody will listen to you if your message isn’t clear, no matter how expensive your marketing material may be.

The reality is we aren’t just in a race to get our products to market; we’re also in a race to communicate why our customers need those products in their lives. 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.

So what’s your message? Can you say it easily? Is it simple, relevant, and repeatable? Can your entire team repeat your company’s message in such a way that it is compelling? Have new hires been given talking points they can use to describe what the company offers and why every potential customer should buy it? How many sales are we missing out on because customers can’t figure out what our offer is within five seconds of visiting our website?

The more simple and predictable the communication, the easier it is for the brain to digest. Story helps because it is a sense-making mechanism. Essentially, story formulas put everything in order so the brain doesn’t have to work to understand what’s going on.”

The first mistake brands make is they fail to focus on the aspects of their offer that will help people survive and thrive.

All great stories are about survival—either physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual. A story about anything else won’t work to captivate an audience.

This means that if we position our products and services as anything but an aid in helping people survive, thrive, be accepted, find love, achieve an aspirational identity, or bond with a tribe that will defend them physically and socially, good luck selling anything to anybody. These are the only things people care about.

The second mistake brands make is they cause their customers to burn too many calories in an effort to understand their offer.

The key is to make your company’s message about something that helps the customer survive and to do so in such a way that they can understand it without burning too many calories.

As he said, story is a sense-making device. It identifies a necessary ambition, defines challenges that are battling to keep us from achieving that ambition, and provides a plan to help us conquer those challenges. When we define the elements of a story as it relates to our brand, we create a 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 the hero doesn’t win, and what wonderful thing will happen if they do.

What we often call marketing is really just clutter and confusion sprayed all over our websites, e-mails, and commercials. And it’s costing us millions.

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

All experienced writers know the key to great writing isn’t in what they say; it’s in what they don’t say. The more we cut out, the better the screenplay or book.

If we want to connect with customers, we have to stop blasting them with noise.

Story is the greatest weapon we have to combat noise, because it organizes information in such a way that people are compelled to listen.

The brain remembers music and forgets about noise just like the brain remembers some brands and forgets about others.

A good story takes a series of random events and distills them into the essence of what really matters.

When storytellers bombard people with too much information, the audience is forced to burn too many calories organizing the data.

This is why we need a filter. 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.

They did this by (1) identifying what their customers wanted (to be seen and heard), (2) defining their customers’ challenge (that people didn’t recognize their hidden genius), and (3) offering their customers a tool they could use to express themselves (computers and smartphones).

People don’t buy the best products; they buy the products they can understand the fastest.

Here is nearly every story you see or hear in a nutshell: A CHARACTER who wants something encounters a PROBLEM before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, gives them a PLAN, and CALLS THEM TO ACTION. That action helps them avoid FAILURE and ends in a SUCCESS.

1.  What does the hero want?        2.  Who or what is opposing the hero getting what she wants?        3.  What will the hero’s life look like if she does (or does not) get what she wants?

Just like there are three questions audiences must be able to answer to engage in a story, there are three questions potential customers must answer if we expect them to engage with our brand. And they should be able to answer these questions within five seconds of looking at our website or marketing material:        1.  What do you offer?        2.  How will it make my life better?        3.  What do I need to do to buy it?

“Could a caveman look at your website and immediately grunt what you offer?”

STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE ONE: THE CUSTOMER IS THE HERO, 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 them overcome their challenges.

when giving a speech, position yourself as Yoda and your audience as Luke Skywalker.1 It’s a small but powerful shift that honors the journey of the audience and positions us as a leader providing wisdom, products, and services our audience needs in order to thrive. 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. The rest of the story is a journey about discovering whether the hero will get what they want.

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

STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE TWO: COMPANIES TEND TO SELL SOLUTIONS TO EXTERNAL PROBLEMS, BUT CUSTOMERS BUY SOLUTIONS TO INTERNAL PROBLEMS.

Customers are attracted to us for the same reason heroes are pulled into stories: they want to solve a problem that has, in big or small ways, disrupted their peaceful life.

our customers are in trouble and they need help.

By talking about the problems our customers face, we deepen their interest in everything we offer.

What most brands miss, however, is that there are three levels of problems a customer encounters. In stories, heroes encounter external, internal, and philosophical problems. Why? Because these are the same three levels of problems human beings face in their everyday lives. Almost all companies try to sell solutions to external problems, but as we unfold the StoryBrand Framework, you’ll see why customers are much more motivated to resolve their inner frustrations.

STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE THREE: CUSTOMERS AREN’T LOOKING FOR ANOTHER HERO; THEY’RE LOOKING FOR A GUIDE.

It’s no accident that guides show up in almost every movie. Nearly every human being is looking for a guide (or guides) to help them win the day.

Brands that position themselves as heroes unknowingly compete with their potential customers. Every human being wakes up each morning and sees the world through the lens of a protagonist. The world revolves around us, regardless of how altruistic, generous, and selfless a person we 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 start wondering if 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.

STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE FOUR: CUSTOMERS TRUST A GUIDE WHO HAS A PLAN.

Making a purchase is a huge step, especially if our products or services are expensive. What customers are looking for, then, is a clear path we’ve laid out that takes away any confusion they might have about how to do business with us.

STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE FIVE: CUSTOMERS DO NOT TAKE ACTION UNLESS THEY ARE CHALLENGED TO TAKE ACTION.

Characters only take action after they are challenged by an outside force.

Human beings take action when their story challenges them to do so.

A call to action involves communicating a clear and direct step our customer can take to overcome their challenge and return to a peaceful life. Without clear calls to action, people will not engage our brand.

Until we call our customers to action, they simply watch us, but when we call them to action (the right way), they will engage.

STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE SIX: EVERY HUMAN BEING IS TRYING TO AVOID A TRAGIC ENDING.

Likewise, if there’s nothing at stake in whether or not 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 let their customers know what that negativity is) engage customers for the same reason good stories captivate an audience: they define what’s at stake.

not all of the seven elements should be used evenly in your communication. Think of the StoryBrand Framework as a recipe for a loaf of bread. Failure is like salt: use too much and you’ll ruin the flavor; leave it out and the recipe will taste bland. Regardless, the point is this: your story needs stakes.

STORYBRAND PRINCIPLE SEVEN: NEVER ASSUME PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR BRAND CAN CHANGE THEIR LIVES. TELL THEM.

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

Everybody wants to be taken somewhere. If we don’t tell people where we’re taking them, they’ll engage another brand.

the most important element of your messaging strategy: offering a vision for how great a customer’s life could be if they engage your products or services.

You can create your StoryBrand BrandScript for free at mystorybrand.com,

The first project I’d like you to BrandScript is the one that represents your overall brand. Next you’ll want to create a BrandScript for each division of your company, and after that, each product within each division.

1.  Read each of the next seven chapters.        2.  After you read each chapter, brainstorm potential messages you might use to populate your BrandScript.        3.  Carefully look at your brainstorm and then decide on a specific message to use in each section of your BrandScript.

And 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 don’t closely analyze each element of our customers’ story, they’ll sense we don’t care and move on to a competing brand that took the time to do the work.

Believe me, human nature tends toward complacency. Finish this process. Beat the competition. Clarify your message. Grow your company. The competition may be more talented than you are, but they will never outwork you if you don’t let them. That’s the one thing you get to control.

A story starts with a hero who wants something. And then the question becomes: Will the hero get what she wants?

As a brand it’s important to define something your customer wants, because as soon as we define something our customer wants, we posit a story question in the mind of the customer: Can this brand really help me get what I want?

When we identify something our customer wants and communicate it simply, the story we are inviting them into is given definition and direction.

Financial Advisor: “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”

When you define something your customer wants, the customer is invited to alter their story in your direction. If they see your brand as a trustworthy and reliable guide, they will likely engage.

The opening and closing of a story gap is a magnetic force that drives much of human behavior. Arousal is the opening of a story gap and sexual fulfillment brings its closing. Hunger is the opening of a story gap and a meal ushers its closing. There is little action in life that can’t be explained by the opening and closing of various story gaps.

When we fail to define something our customer wants, we fail to open a story gap. When we don’t open a story gap in our customers’ mind, they have no motivation to engage us, because there is no question that demands resolution. Defining something our customer wants and featuring it in our marketing materials will open a story gap.

A critical mistake many organizations make in defining something their customers want is they don’t pare down that desire to a single focus.

Until we’ve defined a specific desire and become known for helping people achieve it, we shouldn’t add too many conflicting story gaps to our StoryBrand BrandScript. This can be frustrating if your products and services fulfill many desires. 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. As you create a BrandScript for your overall brand, focus on one simple desire and then, as you create campaigns for each division and maybe even each product, you can identify more things your customer wants in the subplots of your overall brand.

At the highest level, the most important challenge for business leaders is to define something simple and relevant their customers want and to become known for delivering on that promise. Everything else is a subplot that, after having delivered on the customer’s basic desire, will only serve to delight and surprise them all the more.

Once a brand defines what their customer wants, they are often guilty of making the second mistake—what they’ve defined isn’t related to the customer’s sense of survival. In their desire to cast a wide net, they define a blob of a desire that is so vague, potential customers can’t figure out why they need it in the first place.

People will always choose a story that helps them survive and thrive.

Defining something the customer wants and connecting it with the customer’s desire for survival opened an enticing story gap.

When I say survival, I’m talking about that primitive desire we all have to be safe, healthy, happy, and strong. Survival simply means we have the economic and social resources to eat, drink, reproduce, and fend off foes.

Conserving financial resources. In order to survive and thrive, your customers may need to conserve resources. In simple terms, this means they may need to save money. If your brand can help them save money, you’ve tapped into a survival mechanism.

Conserving time. In developed countries, most of our customers have thankfully moved beyond the hunter-gatherer stage of survival. They are familiar, then, with the notion of opportunity costs.

Building social networks. If our brand can help us find community, we’ve tapped into yet another survival mechanism. We only think we’re being nice when we bring our coworkers coffee, but what if we’re actually being nice because our primitive brains want to make sure we are connected to a tribe in case the bad guys come knocking at the door?

Gaining status. Luxury brands like Mercedes and Rolex don’t make much practical sense in terms of survival, right? In fact, spending lots of money buying a luxury car when a more common brand would do the trick seems counter to our survival, doesn’t it? Not when you consider the importance of status. Status, in any tribe, is a survival mechanism. It projects a sense of abundance that may attract powerful allies, repel potential foes (like a lion with a loud roar), and if we’re into shallow companions, might even help us secure a mate.

Accumulating resources. If the products and services you offer help people make money or accumulate much-needed resources, that will quickly translate into a person’s desire for survival. With more money, our customers will have more opportunity to secure many of the other survival resources they may need.

The innate desire to be generous. None of the desires I’ve listed are evil. They can all be taken too far, but the reality is we are designed to survive. Still, we should be comforted by the fact that nearly all human beings have an enormous potential for generosity. Achieving an aspirational identity of being sacrificial actually helps us survive (fends off foes, decreases outside criticism, helps earn trust in our tribe, and so on), but it also taps into something truly redemptive: we want other people to survive too.

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. A valiant fight against a real villain, be that villain flesh and blood or a harmful philosophy.

Remember, customers want to know where you can take them. Unless you identify something they want, it’s doubtful they will listen.

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

Define a desire for your customer, and the story you’re inviting customers into will have a powerful hook.

•  Go to mystorybrand.com 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.

Identifying our customers’ problems deepens their interest in the story we are telling. Every story is about somebody who is trying to solve a problem, so when we identify our customers’ problems, they recognize us as a brand that understands them.

It bears repeating. The more we talk about the problems our customers experience, the more interest they will have in our brand.

The villain is the number one device storytellers use to give conflict a clear point of focus.

If we want our customers’ ears to perk up when we talk about our products and services, we should position those products and services as weapons they can use to defeat a villain. And the villain should be dastardly.

The villain doesn’t have to be a person, but without question it should have personified characteristics. If we’re selling time-management software, for instance, we might vilify the idea of distractions.

Here are four characteristics that make for a good villain on your StoryBrand BrandScript:        1.  The villain should be a root source. Frustration, for example, is not a villain; frustration is what a villain makes us feel. High taxes, rather, are a good example of a villain.        2.  The villain should be relatable. When people hear us talk about the villain, they should immediately recognize it as something they disdain.        3.  The villain should be singular. One villain is enough. A story with too many villains falls apart for lack of clarity.        4.  The villain should be real. Never go down the path of being a fearmonger. There are plenty of actual villains out there to fight. Let’s go after them on behalf of our customers.

Is there a villain in your customers’ story? Of course there is. What is the chief source of conflict that your products and services defeat? Talk about this villain. The more you talk about the villain, the more people will want a tool to help them defeat the villain.

The three levels of problems heroes (and customers) face are External Problems Internal Problems Philosophical Problems

In a story, a villain initiates an external problem that causes the character to experience an internal frustration that is, quite simply, philosophically wrong. These are also the three levels of problems a customer hopes to solve when they buy a product.

Brainstorming what external problems you solve will be the easiest part of creating your StoryBrand BrandScript. It’s usually pretty obvious. But you’d be wrong to think the reason people call you, walk through your door, or visit your website is limited to the resolution of an external problem. Something else is going on.

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

The purpose of an external problem in a story is to manifest an internal problem.

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

By assuming our customers only want to resolve external problems, we fail to engage the deeper story they’re actually living.

The only reason our customers buy from us is because the external problem we solve is frustrating them in some way. If we can identify that frustration, put it into words, and offer to resolve it along with the original external problem, something special happens. We bond with our customers because we’ve positioned ourselves more deeply into their narrative.

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.

The philosophical problem in a story is about something even larger than the story itself. It’s about the question why. Why does this story matter in the overall epic of humanity?

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

People want to be involved in a story that is larger than themselves. Brands that give customers a voice in a larger narrative add value to their products by giving their customers a deeper sense of meaning.

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

If we really want to satisfy our customers, we can offer much more than products or services; we can offer to resolve an external, internal, and philosophical problem whenever they engage our business.

When these three levels of problems are resolved in one shot, the audience experiences a sense of pleasure and relief, causing them to love the story. This scene is often called the “climactic” or “obligatory” scene, and it is arguably the most important scene in the movie because every other scene builds toward it in some way.

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 create closure in their story.

Is there a single villain your brand stands against? And what external problem is that villain causing? How is that external problem making your customers feel? And why is it unjust for people to have to suffer at the hands of this villain?

Storytellers use the guide character to encourage the hero and equip them to win the day.

Just like in stories, human beings wake up every morning self-identifying as a hero. They are troubled by internal, external, and philosophical conflicts, and they know they can’t solve these problems on their own. The fatal mistake some brands make, especially young brands who believe they need to prove themselves, is they position themselves as the hero in the story instead of the guide. As I’ve already mentioned, a brand that positions itself as the hero is destined to lose.

How are you helping me win the day?

Always position your customer as the hero and your brand as the guide. Always. If you don’t, you will die.

the day we stop losing sleep over the success of our business and start losing sleep over the success of our customers is the day our business will start growing again.

The guide, not the hero, is the one with the most authority. Still, the story is rarely about the guide. The guide simply plays a role. The story must always be focused on the hero, and if a storyteller (or business leader) forgets this, the audience will get confused about who the story is really about and they will lose interest.

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. It’s counterintuitive, but it’s true. In fact, leaders who think the story of life is all about them may achieve temporary successes but are usually remembered in history’s narrative as a villain.

The two things a brand must communicate to position themselves as the guide are Empathy Authority

The guide must have this precise one-two punch of empathy and authority in order to move the hero and the story along. These are the characteristics the hero is looking for, and when she senses them, she knows she’s found her guide.

When we empathize with our customers’ dilemma, we create a bond of trust. People trust those who understand them, and they trust brands that understand them too.

Empathetic statements start with words like, “We understand how it feels to …” or “Nobody should have to experience …” or “Like you, we are frustrated by …”

Expressing empathy isn’t difficult. Once we’ve identified our customers’ internal problems, we simply need to let them know we understand and would like to help them find a resolution. Scan your marketing material and make sure you’ve told your customers that you care. Customers won’t know you care until you tell them.

When I talk about authority, I’m really talking about competence. When looking for a guide, a hero trusts somebody who knows what they’re doing. The guide doesn’t have to be perfect, but the guide needs to have serious experience helping other heroes win the day.

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

Testimonials: Let others do the talking for you. If you have satisfied customers, place a few testimonials on your website. Testimonials give potential customers the gift of going second. They know others have worked with you and attained success.

Statistics: How many satisfied customers have you helped? How much money have you helped them save? By what percentage have their businesses grown since they started working with you?

3.  Awards: If you’ve won a few awards for your work, feel free to include small logos or indications of those awards at the bottom of your page.

Logos: If you provide a business-to-business product or service, place logos of known businesses you’ve worked with in your marketing collateral. Customers want to know you’ve helped other businesses overcome their same challenges. When they recognize another business you’ve worked with, it provides social proof you have the ability to help them win the day.

Remember, you don’t have to brag about yourself. Testimonials, logos, awards, and statistics will allow customers to check the “trust” box in the back of their minds. The questions they’re asking themselves are, “Does this brand know what they’re doing? Is investing my time and money going to be worth it? Can they really help me solve my problem?”

When people meet your brand, it’s as though they are meeting a person. They’re wondering if the two of you will get along, whether you can help them live a better life, whether they want to associate their identity with your brand, and ultimately whether they can trust you.

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

Once we express empathy and demonstrate authority, we can position our brand as the guide our customer has been looking for. This will make a significant difference in the way they remember us, understand us, and ultimately, engage with our products and services.

But making a purchase isn’t a characteristic of a casual relationship; it’s a characteristic of a commitment.

Commitments are risky for our customers because as soon as they make a commitment, they can lose something. Most customers are not going to take this risk yet.

When a customer is deciding whether to buy something, we should picture them standing on the edge of a rushing creek. It’s true they want what’s on the other side, but as they stand there, they hear a waterfall downstream. What happens if they fall into the creek? What would life look like if they went over those falls? These are the kinds of questions our customers subconsciously ponder as they hover their little arrow over the “Buy Now” button. What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m a fool for buying this? In order to ease our customers’ concerns, we need to place large stones in that creek. When we identify the stones our customers can step on to get across the creek, we remove much of the risk and increase their comfort level about doing business with us. It’s as though we’re saying, “First, step here. See, it’s easy. Then step here, then here, and then you’ll be on the other side, and your problem will be resolved.”

In nearly every movie you can think of, the guide gives the hero a plan.

The plan tightens the focus of the movie and gives the hero a “path of hope” she can walk that might lead to the resolution of her troubles.

Plans can take many shapes and forms, but all effective plans do one of two things: they either clarify how somebody can do business with us, or they remove the sense of risk somebody might have if they’re considering investing in our products or services.

After potential customers listen to us give a keynote or visit our webpage or read an e-mail blast we’ve sent, they’re all wondering the same thing: What do you want me to do now? If we don’t guide them, they experience a little bit of confusion, and because they can hear that waterfall downstream, they use that confusion as an excuse not to do business with us.

For instance, if you’re selling an expensive product, you might break down the steps like this:        1.  Schedule an appointment.        2.  Allow us to create a customized plan.        3.  Let’s execute the plan together.

A post-purchase process plan is best used when our customers might have problems imagining how they would use our product after they buy it.

Again, the key to the success of any plan is to alleviate confusion for our customers. 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.

We get frequent questions about how many steps a process plan should have. The answer varies, of course, but we recommend at least three and no more than six. If 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. Remember, the whole point of creating a plan is to alleviate customers’ confusion. Having more than four steps may actually add to, rather than reduce, confusion. The key is to simplify their journey so they are more likely to do business with you.

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.

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. The best way to arrive at an agreement plan is to list all the things your customer might be concerned about as it relates to your product or service and then counter that list with agreements that will alleviate their fears. 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.

Once you create your process or agreement plan (or both), consider giving them a title that will increase the perceived value of your product or service. For instance, your process plan might be called the “easy installation plan” or the “world’s best night’s sleep plan.” Your agreement plan might be titled the “customer satisfaction agreement” or even “our quality guarantee.” Titling your plan will frame it in the customer’s mind and increases the perceived value of all that your brand offers.

The reason characters have to be challenged to take action is because everybody sitting in the dark theater knows human beings do not make major life decisions unless something challenges them to do so.

Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest, and so do customers. Heroes need to be challenged by outside forces.

One of the biggest hindrances to business success is that we think customers can read our minds. It’s obvious to us that we want them to place an order (why else would we be talking to them about our products?), so we assume it’s obvious to them too. It isn’t.

There should be a “Buy Now” button in the top right corner of your website, and it shouldn’t be cluttered with a bunch of other buttons. The same call to action should be repeated above the fold and in the center of your website, and again and again as people scroll down the page.

It’s true we don’t want to constantly beat our customers over the head with direct calls to action. Of the thousands of clients we’ve worked with, though, we’ve yet to encounter anybody who oversells. Most people think they’re overselling when, in truth, their calls to action fall softer than a whisper.

Do You Believe in Your Product? The reality is when we try to sell passively, we communicate a lack of belief in our product. When we don’t ask clearly for the sale, the customer senses weakness. They sense we’re asking for charity rather than to change their lives. Customers aren’t looking for brands that are filled with doubt and want affirmation; they’re looking for brands that have solutions to their problems.

At StoryBrand we recommend two kinds of calls to action: direct calls to action and transitional calls to 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, contain less risk and usually offer a customer something for free. Transitional calls to action can be used to “on-ramp” potential customers to an eventual purchase. Inviting people to watch a webinar or download a PDF are good examples of transitional calls to action.

In our marketing collateral, we always want to have a direct call to action and a transitional call to action.

As a brand, it’s our job to pursue our customers. We want to get to know them and for them to get to know us, but we are the ones who need to take the initiative.

It bears repeating: there should be one obvious button to press on your website, and it 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. Make the button a different color, larger, a bolder text, whatever you need to do. Then repeat that same button over and over so people see it as they scroll down the page. Our customers should always know we want to marry them. Even if they’re not ready, we should keep saying it. You just never know when they’re 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 Direct calls to action can be included at the end of every e-mail blast, on signage, in our radio ads, and even in our television commercials. Consider including direct calls to action in every team member’s e-mail signature, and if you really want to get the point across, on all your business cards. The idea is to make it very clear what we’d like customers to do: to make a purchase so we can help them solve their problem.

A good transitional call to action can do three powerful things for your brand:        1.  Stake a claim to your territory. If you want to be known as the leader in a certain territory, stake a claim to that territory before the competition beats you to it. Creating a PDF, a video series, or anything else that positions you as the expert is a great way to establish authority.        2.  Create reciprocity. 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 they will be to give something back in the future. Give freely.        3.  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.

Transitional calls to action come in all shapes and sizes. Here are a few ideas to create transitional calls to action of your own:         •  Free information: Create a white paper or free PDF educating customers about your field of expertise. This will position you as a guide in your customer’s story and create reciprocity. Educational videos, podcasts, webinars, and even live events are great transitional calls to action that on-ramp customers toward a purchase.         •  Testimonials: Creating a video or PDF including testimonials from happy clients creates a story map in the minds of potential customers. When they see others experience a successful ending to their story, they will want that same ending for themselves.         •  Samples: If you can give away free samples of your product, do it. Offering a customer the ability to test-drive a car, taste your seasoning, sample your music, or read a few pages of your book are great ways to introduce potential customers to your products.         •  Free trial: Offering a limited-time free trial works as a risk-removal policy that helps to on-ramp your customers. Once they try your product, they may not be able to live without it.

Is there a transitional call to action you can create that will grow your business? Are your direct calls to action clear and repeated often? If not, your customers likely don’t know what you want them to do. Remember, people are drawn to clarity and away from confusion. Having clear calls to action means customers aren’t confused about the actions they need to take to do business with you.

A story lives and dies based on the question: Will the hero succeed or will they fail? 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.

The only two motivations a hero has in a story are to escape something bad or experience something good. Such is life. Our desire to avoid pain motivates us to seek a resolution to our problems. If a storyteller doesn’t clearly let an audience know what no-good, terrible, awful thing might befall their hero unless she overcomes her challenge, the story will have no stakes, and a story without stakes is boring.

Brands that don’t warn their customers about what could happen if they don’t buy their products fail to answer the “so what” question every customer is secretly asking.

Blog subjects, e-mail content, and bullet points on our website can all include elements of potential failure to give our customers a sense of urgency when it comes to our products and services.

As it relates to our marketing, the obvious question is: What will the customer lose if they don’t buy our products?

Prospect Theory, as it was called, espoused that people are more likely to be dissatisfied with a loss than they are satisfied with a gain. In other words, people hate losing $100morethantheylikewinning$100. This, of course, means loss aversion is a greater motivator of buying decisions than potential gains. In fact, 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.

they propose a four-step process called a “fear appeal.”         First, we must make a reader (or listener) know they are vulnerable to a threat. For example:         “Nearly 30 percent of all homes have evidence of termite infestation.”         Second, we should let the reader know that since they’re vulnerable, they should take action to reduce their vulnerability.         “Since nobody wants termites, you should do something about it to protect your home.”         Third, we should let them know about a specific call to action that protects them from the risk.         “We offer a complete home treatment that will insure your house is free of termites.”         Fourth, we should challenge people to take this specific action.         “Call us today and schedule your home treatment.”

Essentially, Infante, Rancer, and Womack present a soft way of agitating a fear and then highlight a path that would return readers or listeners to peace and stability.

When receivers are either very fearful or very unafraid, little attitude or behavior change results. High levels of fear are so strong that individuals block them out; low levels are too weak to produce the desired effect. Messages containing moderate amounts of fear-rousing content are most effective in producing attitudinal and/or behavior change.

What negative consequences are you helping customers avoid? Could customers lose money? Are there health risks if they avoid your services? What about opportunity costs? Could they make or save more money with you than they can with a competitor? Could their quality of life decline if they pass you by? What’s the cost of not doing business with you?

I’ve found that advice applies to my family, my team, the books I write, and the speeches I give. And it certainly applies to our marketing.

Where is your brand taking people? Are you taking them to financial security? To the day when they’ll move into their dream home? To a fun weekend with friends? Without knowing it, every potential customer we meet is asking us where we can take them.

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.

In the final and most important element of the StoryBrand Framework, we’re going to offer our customers what they want most: a happy ending to their story.

In a good story, the resolution must be clearly defined so the audience knows exactly what to hope for.

Being specific matters. 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 as such inspired a nation: “We’re going to put a man on the moon.”

Whatever it is you sell, show us people happily engaging with the product.

Ultimately, the success module of your StoryBrand BrandScript should simply be a list of resolutions to your customers’ problems. Brainstorm what your customer’s life will look like externally if their problem is resolved, then think about how that resolution will make them feel, then consider why the resolution to their problem has made the world a more just place to live in. When we resolve our customers’ internal, external, and philosophical problems, we’ve truly created a resolution that will satisfy their story.

The three dominant ways storytellers end a story is by allowing the hero to        1.  Win some sort of power or position.        2.  Be unified with somebody or something that makes them whole.        3.  Experience some kind of self-realization that also makes them whole.

As I mentioned earlier in the book, the primary function of our brain is to help us survive and thrive, and part of survival means gaining status. If our brand can participate in making our customers more esteemed, respected, and appealing in a social context, we’re offering something they want.

The controlling idea of this kind of ending is that the character is rescued by somebody or something else that they needed in order for them to be made complete.

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 them 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.

More time: For many customers, time is the enemy, and if our product can expand time, we’re offering to solve an external problem that is causing an internal frustration. 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.

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 along with their products and services.

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 these things, we should make this a core aspect of our brand promise.

What problem are you resolving in your customer’s life, and what does that resolution look like? Stick to basic answers because basic answers really do work. Then, when you get good, start diving deeper into the levels of problems your brand resolves. The important idea in this section is that we need to show repeatedly 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 where you want to take them?

Everybody wants to change. Everybody wants to be somebody different, somebody better, or, perhaps, somebody who simply becomes more self-accepting.

Your brand is helping people become better versions of themselves, which is a beautiful thing. You are helping them become wiser, more equipped, more physically fit, more accepted, and more at peace.

Brands that participate in the identity transformation of their customers create passionate brand evangelists.

A few important questions we have to ask ourselves when we’re representing our brand are: Who does our customer want to become? What kind of person do they want to be? What is their aspirational identity?

Gerber defined an aspirational identity for their customers and they associated their product with that identity.

The best way to identify an aspirational identity that our customers may be attracted to is to consider how they want their friends to talk about them. Think about it. When others talk about you, what do you want them to say? How we answer that question reveals who it is we’d like to be.

Once we know who our customers want to be, we will have language to use in e-mails, blog posts, and all manner of marketing material.

Playing the guide is more than a marketing strategy; it’s a position of the heart. When a brand commits itself to their customers’ journey, to helping resolve their external, internal, and philosophical problems, and then inspires them with an aspirational identity, they do more than sell products—they change lives.

A hero needs somebody else to step into the story to tell them they’re different, they’re better. That somebody is the guide. That somebody is you.

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

Similar to the success module of your BrandScript, the aspirational identity section answers a question about how the story ends, except instead of telling us where the story is going, it tells us who the hero has become.

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.

Offering an aspirational identity to our clients adds enormous value to everything else that we offer.

Have you thought about who you want your customer to become? Participating in your customer’s transformation can give new life and meaning to your business. When your team realizes that they sell more than products, that they guide people toward a stronger belief in themselves, then their work will have greater meaning. Spend some time thinking about who you want your customers to become. How can you improve the way they see themselves? How can your brand participate in your customer’s transformational journey? Let’s do more than help our heroes win; let’s help them transform.

We will only see an increased engagement from customers if we implement our StoryBrand BrandScript in our marketing and messaging material. The BrandScript you’ve put together has to show up on websites, in e-mail campaigns, elevator pitches, and sales scripts. You must edit existing marketing materials and create new and better materials, then get those materials in the hands of potential customers. To the degree that you implement your StoryBrand BrandScript is the degree to which people will understand why they need your products. The more we implement, the more customers will listen. The more you execute, the more clearly you’ll communicate and the more your brand will stand out.

Most of us don’t have millions to spend on a marketing campaign, but that’s okay. These days we can get serious traction just paying attention to our digital presence. A great digital presence starts with a clear and effective website.

When they get to our website, their “hopes need to be confirmed,” and they need to be convinced we have a solution to their problem.

The customer simply needs to know that you have something they want and you can be trusted to deliver whatever that is. Even if your company has grown because of word of mouth, a website full of noise can kill potential sales. Your website matters.

The idea here is that customers need to know what’s in it for them right when they read the text. The text should be bold and the statement should be short. It should be easy to read and not buried under buttons and clutter.

Above the fold, make sure the images and text you use meet one of the following criteria:         •  They promise an aspirational identity.                 By offering to make my wife a pro in the kitchen, the school in Seattle could have let her know “what’s in it for her” by appealing to an aspirational identity. Can we help our customers become competent in something? Will they be different people after they’ve engaged us? Let’s spell it out clearly.         •  They promise to solve a problem.                 If you can fix a problem, tell us. Can you stop my cat from clawing the furniture? My car from overheating? My hair from thinning? Say it. We didn’t go to your website to read about how many company softball games you’ve won; we came here to solve a problem.         •  They state exactly what they do.                 The easiest thing we can do on our website is state exactly what we do. There’s a shop down the street from us called Local Honey, which would cause anybody to think they sell local honey. They quickly overcame this confusion, though, with a tagline that says, “We sell clothes. We do hair.” Gotcha. Local Honey sells clothes and does hair. I’ve now filed them away in the Rolodex of my brain and will remember them when I need new hair or new clothes.

An offer above the fold is a sure way to get a customer hooked on the story we’re telling.

For now, know that the whole point of your website is to create a place where the direct call to action button makes sense and is enticing. While we’re in business to serve our customers and better the world, we’ll be out of business soon if people don’t click that “Buy Now” button. Let’s not hide it.

Your transitional call to action should also be obvious, but don’t let it distract from the direct call to action. I like featuring the transitional call to action in a less-bright button next to the call to action so the “Will you marry me?” and “Can we go out again?” requests are right next to each other. Remember, if you aren’t asking people to place an order, they won’t.

We believe images of smiling, happy people who have had a pleasurable experience (closed an open story loop) by engaging your brand should be featured on your website.

Many of us need to display our products, but if we can feature those products in the hands of smiling people, our images might have more power. Not everybody needs to be smiling, of course; this wouldn’t seem authentic. But in general we need to communicate a sense of health, well-being, and satisfaction with our brand. The easiest way to do this is by displaying happy customers.

When we break down our divisions clearly so people can understand what we offer, customers will be able to choose their own adventure without getting lost.

Around the office we use the phrase “write it in Morse code” when we need marketing copy. By “Morse code” we mean copy that is brief, punchy, and relevant to our customers. Think again about our caveman sitting in his cave. “You sell cupcakes. Cupcakes good. Me want eat cupcake. Me like pink one and must go to bakery now.” Most of us err too far in the opposite direction. We use too much text.

As an experiment, let’s see if you can cut half the words out of your 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 bite-sized soundbites? 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.

There shouldn’t be a single word, image, or idea shared on your website that doesn’t come from the thoughts generated by your StoryBrand BrandScript. The words don’t have to be an exact replica of your BrandScript, but the ideas should be the same. If you’re including messages on your website that don’t come from one of the categories of the StoryBrand 7-Part Framework, your customers will only hear noise.

Customers aren’t the only ones who get confused when the message is unclear. Employees get confused too, from the division president to the regional manager to the laborer earning minimum wage on the front line.

The Narrative Void is a vacant space that occurs inside the organization when there’s no story to keep everyone aligned. In extreme cases the Narrative Void can take up residence in the very center of the organization, splintering it into factions of disconnected efforts that never quite come together as a unified mission.

Meanwhile, the communication of most companies has been going in reverse. The personal interaction that once fueled connection in the workplace has been replaced by telecommuting, remote field offices, and conference calls. The days of catching up around the water cooler are gone. Granted, they’ve added e-mail blasts and an employee portal, but studies show readership of those outlets is minimal.

A strong, StoryBrand-inspired narrative expels the Narrative Void the way light drives out darkness. Companies who calibrate their activities around a common story don’t just state their mission; they’re on a mission. They didn’t just dream about a better story, their culture tells one.

When customers are invited into a magnificent story, it creates customer engagement. Could the same be true for employees? Absolutely. With a StoryBrand-inspired narrative, ordinary jobs become extraordinary adventures.

These people are here to serve a customer they love.

The number one job of an executive is to remind the stakeholders what the mission is, over and over. And yet most executives can’t really explain the overall narrative of the organization. Here’s the problem: if an executive can’t explain the story, team members will never know where or why they fit.

A true mission isn’t a statement; it’s a way of living and being. A mission is more than token rituals that make momentary reference to the things your employees should care about. A mission is a story you reinforce through every department strategy, every operational detail, and every customer experience. That’s what it means to be a company on mission.

1.  Create a BrandScript with your leadership team.        2.  Audit the existing thoughtmosphere.        3.  Create a custom StoryBrand culture implementation plan.        4.  Optimize internal communications to support the plan.        5.  Install a self-sustained team to enhance the culture.

When you leverage the StoryBrand Framework externally, for marketing, it transforms the customer value proposition. When you leverage it internally, for engagement, it transforms the employee value proposition.

All engagement rises and falls on the employee value proposition. Increasing compensation is one way you might add value to employees, but that’s just the beginning. You can also raise value by improving the employee experience: advancement opportunities, recognition, meaningful work, camaraderie, and flexibility. All those things add value too.

To accomplish this, many StoryBrand BrandScripts are created. Certainly there is the external BrandScript that is pointed at the customer, but there are also BrandScripts created from the perspective of the leadership to the overall team. In these StoryBrand BrandScripts, the team is positioned as the hero and the company leadership is positioned as the guide. Compensation packages, leadership development, organized events, and more are all “tools” the leadership creates to help their employees win the day. Without understanding where a team member’s narrative is going, compensation, development, and events are all fueling fires heading in a thousand directions.

We’ve found time and time again that leaders desire to be seen as heroes when, in actuality, everything they think they want from playing the hero only comes by playing the guide. Guides are respected, loved, listened to, understood, and followed loyally.

Dominating the market is only a beautiful story if the team that accomplishes such a challenging task has tied that ambition to their own personal dreams.

Where there’s no story, there’s no engagement.

Once your StoryBrand BrandScript is created, you’ll likely want to refine your website. We consider this the first and most important step you can take to grow your business, and that’s why we separated that step into a previous chapter. Not only will editing your website grow your business, but it will help you and your team understand the basic talking points of your new and improved message.

The roadmap may take you a few months or even a year to execute, but don’t worry. You should see results with each step.

A one-liner is a new and improved way to answer the question “What do you do?” It’s more than a slogan or tagline; it’s a single statement that helps people realize why they need your products or services.

What makes these loglines complete and effective? Two things: imagination and intrigue. They summarize the movie in a way that a viewer can imagine the story, and they do so with enough intrigue that they make the reader want to watch the film.

If you use the following four components, you’ll craft a powerful one-liner:        1.  The Character        2.  The Problem        3.  The Plan        4.  The Success

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

People need to be able to say “That’s me!” when they hear your one-liner.

But defining the problem is vital, because once you do you’ve opened a story loop and they’ll be looking to you to help them find a resolution.

When a customer reads your one-liner, the plan component should cause them to think, Well, when it’s organized that way, it makes sense. Perhaps there’s hope.

Again, a one-liner is simply a clear, repeatable statement that allows potential customers to find themselves in the story a company is telling.

Branding is difficult and it will take time.

Print your one-liner on your business cards and in your social media bios. Print it on your packaging. Include it in your e-mail signature. Repeat it over and over to increase the percentage chance customers will read it.

Our one-liner is like our hit song, and we need to say it over and over and over until even our customers have it memorized and start repeating it to their friends.

I have hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers and nearly as many Facebook fans, but all my social media platforms combined don’t perform anywhere close to sending out an update or offer via e-mail.

So how do we get people to join our e-mail list? We offer them something valuable in return, something more valuable than the vague offer of a newsletter. This “something” is a lead generator, a resource that magnetically attracts people to our businesses and invites them to take action. In the StoryBrand Framework, we call this a transitional call to action. A transitional call to action, if you remember, is like asking potential customers out on a date. We’re not asking them to commit, but we are asking them to spend a little more time with us.

In order to combat noise in today’s marketplace, your lead generator must do two things:        1.  Provide enormous value for your customer        2.  Establish you as an authority in your field

This is one of the most common questions we get asked. My response: be as generous as possible. To my knowledge, it’s never cost me to give away valuable, free content. People consume this content on the run and will gladly pay to attend a workshop or hire a facilitator that helps them slow down and learn the information at a custom-created pace. If you’re going to create a downloadable PDF, keep it to about three pages of content. Stuff as much value as you can into those three pages so your prospects will see you as the “go-to” guide.

It’s never cost me to be generous with my customers.

Make sure you feature your lead generator liberally on your website. I recommend creating a pop-up feature on your site that, after ten seconds or so of the browser arriving, offers your resource to the user. Though people complain about pop-ups, the stats are clear: they readily outperform nearly every other type of Internet advertising. Just make sure there’s a ten-second buffer. You don’t want the pop-up to appear immediately. That would be like being tackled by a salesman as soon as you walk through the door of a retail store. Like farming a field, building a healthy and engaged e-mail list takes time, but it’s time well spent. Start today. A year from now, you’ll be glad you did.

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

Our customers may not need our product today, and they might not need it tomorrow, but on the day they do need it, we want to make sure they remember who we are, what we have, and where they can reach us.

A nurturing campaign is a simple, regular e-mail that offers your subscribers valuable information as it relates to your products or services.

Not unlike our lead generator, we want these e-mails to continue positioning us as the guide and to create a bond of trust and reciprocity with potential customers. There will come a time to ask for a sale, but this isn’t the primary goal of a nurturing campaign. A typical nurturing campaign may have an e-mail going out once each week,

I’ve been using this formula for years and customers love it.        1.  Talk about a problem.        2.  Explain a plan to solve the problem.        3.  Describe how life can look for the reader once the problem is solved.

The formula might look like this:        1.  Talk about a problem.        2.  Describe a product you offer that solves this problem.        3.  Describe what life can look like for the reader once the problem is solved.        4.  Call the customer to a direct action leading to a sale.

Great testimonials give future customers the gift of going second. The challenge lies in getting the right kind of testimonial: one that showcases your value, the results you get for customers, and the experience people had working with you.

Here are five questions most likely to generate the best response for a customer testimonial:        1.  What was the problem you were having before you discovered our product?        2.  What did the frustration feel like as you tried to solve that problem?        3.  What was different about our product?        4.  Take us to the moment when you realized our product was actually working to solve your problem.        5.  Tell us what life looks like now that your problem is solved or being solved.

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.

Various studies conducted by the American Marketing Association have shown that referrals and peer recommendations are up to 2.5 times more responsive than any other marketing channel.