Everybody loves a good story. Think about it – we spend time and money at the movies, we curl up with a good book, and we love sharing about “that time we went on vacation.”
Stories are a huge part of our lives, and great stories enlighten us and encourage us. Businesses can use the same elements that make up great stories to market their products and services and grow their businesses, argues marketing expert Donald Miller.
In Building A StoryBrand, Miller explains how creating a BrandScript – essentially a short story describing a journey you take your customers on – can help cut through the noise of competition and the fog of unclear messaging.
The framework Miller teaches is made up of seven elements:
● A Hero who has
● A Problem he needs to solve, but meets
● A Guide who gives them
● A Plan, then
● Calls them to action that ends in
● Success or
● Failure.
One of the key paradigm shifts in this framework is to position the business as the Guide, rather than the Hero, which is the usual practice. By acting as the Guide, the business shows that it has the answers to the customer’s problem.
By creating and arranging these seven elements, a business can clearly communicate what they do, how it makes their customers’ lives better, and how to purchase the business’s products or services.
Communicate a common set of ideas to keep your message clear
Once you have created a BrandScript for your business or organisation, all of your marketing will come from one or more of the seven elements. In that way, everything you communicate shares a common set of ideas, which helps keep your message clear.
On top of that, since you’ll use the same elements over and over, they will become associated with your business. Marketing is, in many ways, an exercise in memorisation, so as the BrandScript elements become related in your customers’ minds, they will start to associate your products and services with the solution to their problem.
For more insight into the StoryBrand Framework and putting together a BrandScript for your company, you can read Building A StoryBrand by Donald Miller, available on Amazon, Audible, and in bookstores. In addition, there is a free tool that can help you create your own BrandScript at https://www.mystorybrand.com.
Julie Firth is one of the founders of STORY22, a full-service marketing agency saving businesses time and money with highly effective story-based marketing. Book your free 30-min strategy session to get your marketing on track and grow your business with ease.
