PART I: WHY MOST MARKETING IS A MONEY PIT
Most companies waste enormous amounts of money on marketing. We all know how mind-numbing it is to spend precious dollars on a new marketing effort that gets no results. When we see the reports, we wonder what went wrong, or worse, whether our product is really as good as we thought it was. But what if the problem wasn’t the product? What if the problem was the way we talked about the product? The fact is, pretty websites don’t sell things. Word sell things. And if we haven’t clarified our message, our customers won’t listen.
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. The second mistake brands make is they cause their customers to burn too many calories in an effort to understand their offer. The most powerful tool we can use to organize information so people don’t have to burn very many calories is story. 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
To clarify the message, we’re going to need a formula. A serious formula. This formula needs to organize our thinking, reduce our marketing effort, obliterate confusion, terrify the competition and finally get our businesses growing again.
The Secret Weapon That Will Grow Your Business
To grow your company, you can simplify your message into soundbites that come from seven categories. Once you have these seven messages down, any anxiety you experience talking about your brand will subside, and customers will be more attracted to what you offer.
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.
Simply put, this framework is the pinnacle of narrative communication. The further we veer away from these seven elements, the harder it becomes for audiences to engage.
The Three Crucial Questions
The greatest enemy our business faces is the same enemy that good stories face: noise. At no point should we be able to pause a movie and be unable to answer three questions: 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?
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?
The Simple Story Brand (SB7) Framework
Let’s fly over the SB7 framework so you can understand, in summary form, all that it can do to simplify your marketing and messaging.
A Character. Story Brand Principle One: The customer is the hero, not your brand.
Has a Problem. Story Brand Principle Two: Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems.
And Meets a Guide. Story Brand Principle Three: Customers aren’t looking for another hero; they’re looking for a guide.
Who Gives Them a Plan. Story Brand Principle Four: Customers trust a guide who has a plan.
And Calls Them to Action. Story Brand Principle Five: Customers do not take action unless they are challenged to take action.
That Helps Them Avoid Failure. Story Brand Principle Six: Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending.
And Ends in a Success. Story Brand Principle Seven: Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them.
PART II: BUILDING YOUR STORYBRAND
A story doesn’t really pick up until the hero needs to disarm a bomb, win someone’s heart, defeat a villain or fight for their emotional or physical survival. 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 you define something your customer wants, you posit a story question in the mind of the customer: “Can this brand really help me get what I want?”
Open a Story Gap. Identifying a potential desire for your customer opens a story gap.
Pare Down the Customer’s Ambition to a Single Focus. 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.
Choose a Desire Relevant to Their Survival. In their desire to cast a wide net, brands often define a blob of a desire that is so vague, potential customers can’t figure out why they need it in the first place. Here, survival means 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.
A villain is the antagonist because the villain causes the hero serious problems. What’s less obvious is that in a story, there are three levels of problems that work together to capture a reader’s or a moviegoer’s imagination.
1. External Problems. In stories, the external problem is often a physical, tangible problem the hero must overcome in order to save the day: a ticking time bomb or a runaway bus. Most of us are in the business of solving external problems. We provide insurance or clothes or soccer balls.
2. Internal Problems. Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but people buy solutions to internal problems.
3. Philosophical Problems. The philosophical problem in a story is about something even larger than.
For Tesla Motor Cars, the villain is gas-guzzling, inferior technology. The external problem is, “I need a car. ”The internal problem is, “I want to be an early adopter of new technology. ”The philosophical problem is, “My choice of car ought to help save the environment.”
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.
If a hero solves her own problem in a story, the audience will tune out. 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 to encourage the hero and equip them to win the day. The fatal mistake some brands make is they position themselves as the hero in the story instead of the guide. If we are tempted to position our brand as the hero because heroes are strong and capable and the center
of attention, we should take a step back. In stories, the hero is never the strongest character. Heroes are often ill-equipped and filled with self-doubt. They are often reluctant, being thrown into the story rather than willingly engaging the plot.
The Two Characteristics of a Guide
The two things a brand must communicate to position themselves as the guide are empathy and authority. Empathetic statements start with words like, “We understand how it feels to . . .” or “Nobody should have to experience...” Empathy is more than just sentimental slogans, though. Real empathy means letting customers know we see them as we see ourselves. Customers look for brands they have something in common with. The guide doesn’t have to be perfect, but the guide needs to have serious experience helping other heroes win the day.
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.” 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.
A process plan can describe the steps a customer needs to take to buy your product, or the steps the customer needs to take to use your product after they buy it, or a mixture of both. 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.
At this point in our customers’ story, they are excited. We’ve defined a desire, identified their challenges, empathized with their feelings, established our competency in helping them and given them a plan. But they need us to do one more thing: They need us to call them to action.
Two Kinds of Calls to Action
Story Brand recommends two kinds of calls to action: direct calls to action and transitional calls to action. They work like two phases of a relationship. 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.
Starbucks offered to inspire and nurture their customers, one cup at a time. In the final and most important element of the Story Brand Framework, we’re going to offer our customers what they want most: a happy ending to their story. The ending should be specific and clear. Stories aren’t vague, they’re defined; they’re about specific things happening to specific people. President John F. Kennedy would have bored the world had he cast a vision for a “highly competitive and productive space program.”
Ryan Deiss at Digital Marketer created a great tool to help us imagine the success our customers will experience if they use our products and services. Answer the following questions about your customers’ experience before they engage your brand and after they engage it:
• What’s an average day like?
The next step is to say it clearly. We must tell our customers what their lives will look like after they buy our products, or they will have no motivation to do so. We have to talk about the end vision we have for their lives in our keynotes, in our email blasts, on our websites and everywhere else.
Ultimately, the success module of your Story Brand Script 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.
PART III: IMPLEMENTING YOUR STORYBRAND BRANDSCRIPT
An Offer Above the Fold. On a website, the images and text above the fold are the things you see and read before you start scrolling down.
Obvious Calls to Action. 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.
Images of Success. Words make up the majority of our messaging but not all of it.
A Bite-Sized Breakdown of Your Revenue Streams. You may think your business is too diverse to communicate clearly, but it probably isn’t.
Very Few Words. People don’t read websites anymore; they scan them.
A true mission isn’t a statement; it’s a way of living and being. And it all starts with your Story Brand script. When you leverage the Story Brand Framework externally, for marketing, it transforms the customer value proposition. When you leverage it internally, for engagement, it transforms the employee value proposition.
Getting your company on mission may be the first step in a turnaround. Not just for the company but for your customers, your team members and even you.
