Title: Building a Story Brand
Author: Donald Miller
Year Published 2017
Kind of Book: Business/How-To
How strongly I recommend it 8/10
My Impressions This book applies the hero's journey story arc to marketing strategy. If you remember nothing else, remember: your customer is the hero in his or her story and you are the wise old man or woman offering them assistance.
Date Read July 2020
Practical Takeaways
Make your customer the hero of the story, not you or your brand (Customer's don't care about your story, they care about their own)
Put your customer's story above your own
Make your message clear! (Nobody will listen to you if your message isn't clear)
Make your message repeatable
Make sure you can say your message easily
Make sure your entire team can repeat your companies message easily
Make sure the customer can figure out what your offer is within 5 seconds of visiting your website
Help your customer eat, drink, find a mate, fall in love, build a tribe, experience a deeper sense of meaning
Focus on making your message about how people will survive and thrive with your help
Frame your customer as the hero and yourself as the wise old man
Frame your customer as James Bond and yourself as Q
When giving a speech position your audience as Luke Skywalker and yourself as Yoda-Nancy Duarte
Don't make your prospect burn calories trying to understand your service/product
Make sure your audience
Knows who the hero is
Knows what the hero wants
Knows who the hero has to defeat to get what they want
Knows what tragedy will befall the hero if they lose
Knows what wonderful thing will befall the hero if they win
Make your marketing mantra "if you confuse, you'll lose"
Trim your message down
Identify who your customer is
Identify what your customer wants
Define your customer's challenge
Offer your customer a tool they can use to aid them with their challenge
Cut anything that doesn't serve the plot
Create obvious calls to action for your customers
Indicate clear and direct steps that your customer can take to overcome their challenge
Show your customer what they stand to lose by not buying *don't overdo this. Think of it like adding a little bit of salt to the recipe
Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them
Offer your customer a vision of their life after engaging with your product/service
Define something your customer wants
Place a gap between your customer (hero) and what they want
Only have one simple problem that your brand is trying to solve (don't try to solve to many at first. Eventually you can add subplots)
Don't be vague when defining what it is your customer wants
Make sure the customer can tell exactly where you want to take them
Position your product as a weapon your hero can use to defeat a villain (the villain needn't be a person, but they should have personified qualities) (eg. mucinex commercial with evil looking mucus guy moving in)
Make the villain Relatable
Make the villain singular ie. Only identify one problem. Don't give them too many villains
Make your villain Real ie. Don't make up an imaginary problem
Identify the customer's frustration, put it into words
Ask yourself "Is there a deeper story your brand contributes to?" (eg. Make the world a healthier place, less violence, more love etc.)
Frame your "Buy Now" button as the action your customer must take to create closure in their story
Make sure that as the guide you convey your Authority/Competence and Empathy
Express your understanding of the pain and frustration that the hero has. Convey that you've been there or know what they're going through (it will help you create a bond of trust)
Make sure you convey to your customers that you care
See your customers as you see your old self (before the product/service you're selling)
Place a few testimonials on your website to help your prospect customers feel that they are in good hands and can trust you as an authority
Start with three testimonials. Avoid too many (otherwise you run the risk of positioning yourself as the hero)
Avoid rambling testimonials that heap endless praise on your brand. Make sure they're brief
Make sure you convey your experience to the customer
Provide prospects with stats on how many people you've helped, how much money you've saved people, how much their business has grown etc.
Show any awards you've received on the bottom of your page
Make sure your prospect can answer yes to the following questions "does this guy know what he's doing?" "Is it going to be worth it to invest my money in this product?" "Can they really help me solve my problem?"
Convey that your customer can trust and respect you
Give your prospect clear instructions of what their next actions need to be
Get your prospect to
Schedule an appointment
Create a customized plan
Execute the plan together
Show your prospect that you have a clear plan for getting them from point A to point B
Make your plan for you customer 3-6 steps (if more than 6 steps are required break them down into subphases)
Give your plan a name (5 principles, 6 steps away, 12 step program) (a name will increase the perceived value of your product or service)
Make a list of all of your prospects possible concerns and then counter the list with agreements that will alleviate their fears
Be bold in your call to action for your customers
Challenge your customers to place orders
Repeat your call to action over and over
Make the "Buy Now" button in the top right corner of your website (make sure it is not crowded by other buttons. It is a different color and text and larger from all the others) Repeat this button over and over as you scroll down your page
Make the same call to action be repeated above the fold and in the center of your website, and again and again as people scroll down the page
Error on the side of overselling, versus being too subtle about what you want them to do (most people think they are overselling when, in truth, their calls to action fall softer than a whisper)
Believe that your sale is benefiting them and helping them change their lives, not helping you or charity to you //buyer seller frame
Have a transitional call to action on your site (eg. Free pdf, free webinar, free consultation)
Make sure your customer always knows that you want to marry them
Have a direct call to action at the end of every e-mail blast (order now, call today, schedule an appointment, register today, buy now)
Make a free PDF or video series, podcast, or webinar to get people's email address
Never worry about giving away too much free information
Give your customers the opportunity to test drive the car
Offer a limited-time free trail
Tell your customer what they will lose if they don't buy (people are motivated by loss aversion)
Let the reader/customer know they are vulnerable to a threat
Ask yourself "What am I helping the customer to avoid?"
Show people happily engaging with your product/service
Give your best customers a special title like 'Preferred, Diamond Member, Emerald Club' etc.
Do limited time offers for your products
Include smiley happy people on your website
Convince your customer that you can help them transform their life
Ask 'who does your customer want to become? What kind of person do they want to be?
Celebrate your customer's wins with them
Make your website the equivalent of an elevator pitch
Keep your website simple
Have a call to action button above the fold
Make it obvious what you can offer the customer
Make sure your website is skimmable
If you don't want to use a long section of text explaining something on your website, place a "read more" link at the end of the first or second sentence
Replace some of your text on your website with images
Cut half the words out of your website
Summarize your sentences into sound bites on your website
Create a one-liner for your businesses message. Memorize it. Make sure your team knows it by heart
Formula for your one-line
The character
The problem
The plan
The success
(eg. "We save retirees the cost of a second home in Florida, yet deliver the warm beaches and luxury accommodations they love"
Keep editing your one-liner. Run it by friends, potential customers. Monitor their faces. Ask if it is clear to them
Include your one-liner on your website
Offer people something of value in exchange for their email address. Don't ask for it in order to "stay in the loop"
Make your free PDF about 3 pages and as content rich as possible
Create a pop-up feature on your site after 10 seconds of browsing for an ask (pop ups out perform every other type of Internet advertising)
Don't worry if your email open rate is low (20% open rate is industry standard) (the goal is to stay on people's minds)
Include a P.S. in your email news letter (this is often times the only part of the email people will read)
Email news letter outline
Invite happy customers to tell their friends and everyone they know
Give happy customers a video to share with their friends
Talk about a problem
Explain a plan to solve the problem
Describe how life can look for the reader once the problem is solved
Questions for satisfied customers writing testimonials
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
Big Ideas
People are more likely to think your system works if it has a name
Customers don't care about your story. They care about their own
A good story is life with the dull parts taken out
Our perception of how much we think we are doing is often wrong
Often we think we are overselling when we aren't selling enough
The words on the website sells things, not the images
Your Story for your customer should include the following
A Hero: your customer
Has a Problem: an internal or external problem
Meets a Guide: You, your product, your service
Trusts the Guide who has a Plan: You have a plan to solve their problem that is tested and works
(The guide) Calls them to action: Customers do not take action unless they are challenged to take action
That helps them avoid failure: Show them what they stand to lose by not buying
And Ends in Success: Explicitly tell them how your brand can make them win and change their lives
Surprising Facts
Amy Cuddy found that the first two questions people ask themselves based on their first impression of another person is 1) can I trust them? 2) can I respect them?
FUBU is an acronym for 'for us by us'
People see an average of 3,000 marketing messages every day
Unknown Terms
Transitional call to action: asking to further your relationship with a customer without making a direct ask. (eg. Collecting email, free webinar etc.)
Direct call to action: asking a customer to buy
Log line: A movie or screenplay's one-sentence description.
Nurturing (email) campaign: a simple, regular e-mail that offers your subscribers valuable information as it relates to your products or services