This book is a must-read if you’re involved in developing messaging or creating taglines or writing marketing materials for your organisation.

The core tenet of Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller is that your customers don’t care about your story – they care about their story.

This means that if you want to sell them something, you have to invite them into a heroic story where they are the character (e.g. Luke Skywalker) and you are the guide (e.g. Yoda).

He uses a good analogy. He asks you to think of your customer as a hitchhiker. You pull up in your car to give them a lift. All they want to know is “where are you going?” But instead, you start telling them about your amazing playlist of alternative 80s music or the fact that your grandfather built your car with his bare hands.

Miller explains that a lot of marketers make two mistakes:

• They fail to focus on the aspects of their product or service that help customers to survive and thrive.
• They ask customers to use too many brain calories to understand what’s on offer. It has to be simple. Their mantra is “if you confuse, you’ll lose”.

How To Cut Through Noise? Try Making Less Of It

• Miller points out that all marketers know that noise is the enemy when you’re trying to get your message across.
• But very often the noise isn’t being created by your competitors – it’s being created by you. “What if the Bourne Identity was a movie about a spy named Jason Bourne searching for his identity but it also included scenes of Bourne trying to lose weight, marry a girl, pass the bar exam, win on Jeopardy, and adopt a cat? The audience would lose interest.”
• With a company website, that means someone needs to be able to work out the following within 5 seconds:
  • What do you offer?
  • How will it make my life better?
  • What do I need to do to buy it?

The StoryBrand Framework

The best thing about the book is that it isn’t just a book – it’s a framework with online tools to help you work through the 7 principles that you need to think about. The 7 principles in a nutshell are:

• Principle 1: Define the Character (Your Customer)
  • In a film, the character’s desire has to be defined within 9-10 minutes, otherwise the audience doesn’t care about them.
  • It’s the same with customers. What do they want? And once you’ve identified a desire, you open a story gap – how are they going to get it?
  • You have to keep this simple. He gives the example of a life coach who had a tagline of “Inhale knowledge, exhale success” and he changed it to “Helping you become everyone’s favourite leader”.
• Principle 2: What’s the Problem They’re Having?
  • Identifying a customer’s problems deepens their interest in us.
  • Once you have identified the problem, it becomes the hook of the story.
  • Every story needs a villain and it should be a dastardly one. You have to vilify your customers’ challenges. The challenges should be:
    • A root source, ie ‘high taxes’ rather than ‘frustration’
    • Recognisable
    • Singular – there should only be one of them
    • Real – it must be something real. Never just be a fearmonger.
  • The critical thing to remember about problems is that a hero faces three types:
    • External problems: the villain has to create an external problem – e.g. a bomb (in a film)
    • Internal problems: it’s the internal problem that really matters. Companies sell solutions to external problems but people buy solutions to internal problems. If we run a painting firm, the external problem is an ugly house. The internal problem is embarrassment. In the early days of computing, Steve Jobs knew that the external problem was “I need a computer” but the internal problem was that people felt intimidated by them.
    • Philosophical problems: these are harder. He gives the example of Tesla. The villain is gas guzzling. The external problem is the character needs a car. The internal problem is they want to be an early adopter. The philosophical problem is that they’re saving the environment.
  • The questions you need to ask:
    • Who is the single villain?
    • What external problems are they causing?
    • How is that external problem making customers feel?
    • Why is it unjust for people to suffer at the hands of the villain?
• Principle 3: The Character Meets a Guide (Your Business)
  • Brands need two things to position themselves as a guide:
    • Empathy
    • Authority (testimonials, awards, stats, logos on website)
• Principle 4: The Guide Gives The Character a Plan
  • At this stage you’ve defined what your customer wants, you’ve established the problems they’re facing, and you’ve established yourself as the guide.
  • But Miller says that the customer still won’t buy. They’re hovering over your ‘Buy Now’ button thinking ‘what if this goes wrong? What if I’m a fool?’ They’re standing on the edge of a rushing creek and your job is to give them stones, aka a plan.
  • There are two types of plan you might need:
    • A process plan – how the customer will buy the product and how they will use it. Sometimes you might need a post-purchase plan. 3-4 steps only (6 at the most).
    • An agreement plan – e.g. we’ll never ask you to haggle etc. To get one of these, list all the things your customers dislike.
  • Give your plans a name – Easy Installation Plan or Our Quality Guarantee.
• Principle 5: Call the Customer to Action
  • Miller reiterates several times that your customer cannot read your mind. You need clear calls to action. Have a big buy button everywhere.
    • Direct CTA – buy now
    • Transitional CTA – download a PDF
• Principle 6: Help the Customer Avoid Failure
  • If you don’t make clear what will happen if your customers don’t buy from you, they will think ‘so what’? That is the question every customer is asking.
  • People are motivated by loss aversion – studies have been done to show that people hate losing $100 more than they like gaining $100.
  • In the book Building Communication Theory, there are 4 steps:
    • Make the person know they are vulnerable
    • Let them know they need to take action to reduce vulnerability
    • Let them know the call to action to protect against risk
    • Give them the CTA
  • Too much fear and they’ll block out the message completely.
• Principle 7: Ends in Success
  • You now need to ‘create a compelling image of an achievable future’, a bit like JFK and his ‘we’re going to put a man on the moon’ rather than ‘we’re building a highly productive space program’.
  • Write a before and after table:
    • What do they have?
    • What are they feeling?
    • What’s an average day like?
    • What’s their status?
• There are numerous story endings that a film could have:
  • You win some sort of position of power (need for status)
  • You are unified with someone or something that completes you (need for something external to make you whole)
  • You experience self-realisation (reach potential)
• Finally: Meet the Human Desire to Transform
  • Once you’ve done the 7 steps, you also need to identify the customer’s aspirational identity.
  • For example, a pet food brand could go from a customer being ‘passive dog owner’ to ‘every dog’s hero’.

Executing the StoryBrand
Execution starts with the website. Most websites succumb to noise – want you need is an elevator pitch.

5 things your website must include:

• An offer above the fold.
• An obvious call to action – buy now buttons. Customer eyes move diagonally in a Z shape, so top right and middle centre will work.
• Images of success
• Bitesize breakdown of revenue streams – 1) find an umbrella message to unify your various streams and 2) put the two options with a BrandScript for each product
• Very few words – write in Morse code. People scan websites – they don’t read them. Most good websites use 10 sentences or fewer on the home page, with Read More buttons.

5 things to do:

• Create a one-liner – a logline is the sentence description of a film. It stimulates imagination and intrigue. Who is the character (soccer moms), what is the problem (busy schedule), what is the plan? (short meaningful workouts), what is success? (health and renewed energy)
• Create a lead generator and collect email addresses – it must provide enormous value and make you an authority (downloadable guide, online course or webinar, free trial/demo).
• Put an automated email drip campaign in place. You need 250 qualified email addresses for a $5m business. Pop ups on a website to gather email addresses do actually work – leave a 10 second buffer. You have to remind people you exist. Use nurturing = talk about a problem, explain a plan, describe success, and always add a PS. Every 3rd or 4th email must be about the product or service.
• Collect and tell stories of transformation. Ask the right questions – what was the problem you were having? What did the frustration feel like when you were trying to solve it? What was different about our product? What is life like now?
• Create a system to generate referrals. Identity your existing ideal customers. Give them a reason to spread the word – a video or a PDF. Offer a reward.

Employee engagement:

• Miller also includes a chapter about how a StoryBrand can be used to engage your employees. He explains that:
  • Companies often have a narrative void. Then they create a mission statement to fill it.
  • But a true mission isn’t a statement – it’s a way of living and being.
  • StoryBrand turns jobs into extraordinary adventures – rivers to cross, mountains to climb. It’s less about what the individual can get and more about how they fit into the story. It’s the employee value proposition.
  • Execs must explain the mission over and over again. They must understand the narrative.
  • The team is the hero and leadership is the guide.

Your next steps:

Buy and read Building a StoryBrand. I’ve only summarised the main points above and there’s a lot of practical advice in the book itself.

Have you read it? Let me know what you thought.