What is StoryBrand? And Why You Should Hire a StoryBrand Certified Agency
In the vast world of online marketing, where businesses are constantly vying for your attention by dancing on TikTok and bombarding you with ads, it has become increasingly challenging to cut through the noise and connect with your target audience on a deeper level.
As business leaders and marketers, we are constantly searching for innovative approaches that captivate, engage, and ultimately drive our customers to take action, the problem is, so is the competition.
In order to cut through the noise and reach your audience, your message needs to be clear. Many businesses make the mistake of making their messaging about themselves; their achievements, their history- their story. But if you truly want to connect with your customers, they need to see how your business, product, or service helps them reach the goals of their own story.
Developed by Donald Miller, The StoryBrand framework uses the power of storytelling to make the customer the hero of the story and position your brand as the guide. This powerful framework taps into the timeless storytelling arch of the hero's journey, helping brands craft compelling narratives that resonate with their customers' aspirational identity.
At its core, the StoryBrand framework is designed to simplify and clarify your brand's messaging, ensuring that your audience not only understands how you solve their problem, but also connects their story with your brand.
In this blog post, we will explore the fundamental principles of the StoryBrand messaging framework, how to work with a StoryBrand Certified Guide, and what to consider before choosing a StoryBrand Agency.
Whether you're a seasoned marketer or just starting your entrepreneurial journey, this guide will give insight into the marketing framework to create impactful messaging that calls your audience to action and drives business growth.
What is StoryBrand?
StoryBrand is a marketing and messaging framework that follows the seven elements of storytelling used in the most famous stories throughout human history.
Humans are naturally drawn to stories, which is what makes StoryBrand an effective marketing tool for businesses. Storytelling is how humans share experiences, relate to one another, and learn. When you use the power of storytelling to reach your audience, you are participating in their transformation as a hero. This powerful narrative structure places your brand as the expert and guide on their transformational journey and leverages the elements of the narrative structure to support your brand’s authority.
Unlike other marketing tools, StoryBrand makes your brand’s marketing and messaging about the hero: your customer, not your brand. Why is this important? Heroes are inherently flawed, because humans are inherently flawed. We identify with the hero because we are all on our own transformational journey, striving to reach our goals: Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Frodo- these are all perfect examples of imperfect heroes with characteristics we can identify with, I mean, second breakfast is just non-negotiable in my household.
The importance of storytelling in marketing
The average person is bombarded with as many as 1000 ads per day, making it increasingly difficult for your brand to stand out against the noise in the marketplace. When a customer can identify with a brand through an emotional connection, the more likely they are to feel the brand is human and understands them and their problem.
Storytelling in marketing isn’t a passing marketing fad, it is an effective marketing strategy that your customer can relate to and it builds your brand’s authority as the guide. To fully understand how storytelling in marketing works, let’s break down the seven elements of the BrandScript and why each element is crucial to crafting a clear message to reach your customers.
What is the StoryBrand BrandScript?
The BrandScript is the blueprint for your brand’s messaging. It is broken down into seven sections that identify the seven elements of the framework to identify the hero, their problem and how your brand solves the problem.
Breaking down the StoryBrand framework and creating a BrandScript
The StoryBrand framework follows the hero’s journey narrative structure;
A character (your customer) is called on an adventure.
The character has a problem
And meets a guide (your brand)
Who gives them a plan (solution)
And calls them to action (to make a purchase)
That ends in success
And helps them avoid failure
It starts with a character
Let me be the one to tell you: your brand isn’t for everyone. As much as you want it to be, it just isn’t. All brands have an ideal customer in mind who makes up at least 80% of their customer base. Businesses struggle the most with messaging when they have a hard time pinpointing who their ideal customer is, making their message too broad. When the message is too broad, it isn’t clear how you solve the problem your target customer is experiencing.
When the character is identified, it’s important to determine their goals and aspirational identity. Understanding what motivates your customer allows you to participate in their transformational journey.. An aspirational identity is how your customer wants to define themselves after doing business with your brand. The aspirational identity gets to the core of the character’s desires. The easiest way to define the aspirational identity is to think of who this character will become after their problem is solved by your brand or how they would like to define themselves.
Who has a problem
Every great story has a central conflict that moves the narrative forward. Without this important turning point, you would have a pretty boring story where the hero gets exactly what they want without having to try. We can all identify with having conflict at one point in our lives; external conflict is like a barrier that prevents us from getting what we want be it financial, or physical, internal conflict, how the problem makes us feel on the inside, and philosophical, why it isn’t right for anyone to experience this problem. These three elements of The Problem
The external problem
The external problem your customer is facing is what led them to find a solution in the first place. A common mistake businesses make is to insert their product into the problem. One way to think about this is what is your customer googling to find a solution to their problem? The answer is the external problem they’re facing.
What this sounds like:
It’s hard to find home products that are good quality and don’t cost a fortune.
The internal problem
The internal problem is how the customer is feeling because they don’t have your product to solve their problem. Typically they feel frustrated or stuck.
What this sounds like:
Frustrated with the options available. Stuck with subpar quality.
The philosophical problem
This addresses why it’s just plain wrong that your customer is experiencing the problem they are facing.
What this sounds like:
Everyone deserves products for their home that are well-crafted and fairly priced.
And meets a guide
Finally, after you’ve completed nearly half of the BrandScript activity with your customer; you enter the story as the guide.
The Guide plays an important role in the hero’s story. The guide solves the hero’s problem because they’ve experienced the problem and have overcome it. The two most important traits of The Guide are empathy and authority. The guide empathizes with the hero because they’ve experienced the same challenges during their own transformational journey, they’re an authority on how to overcome the problem.
Who gives them a plan
What are the steps your customer must take to do business with your brand? Now, simplify it down to three steps. It isn’t important for your customer to know every single step involved in the process, they just need to know that you have a simple process to get them to their goals. When your plan isn’t clear, your customer gets confused.
And calls them to action (CTA)
Make it easy for your customers to do business with you. Tell them loud and clear what action you want them to take and repeat it. If your website says Learn More, you’re whispering to your customers when you should be confidently, clearly, and loudly saying Buy Now, Contact, or Schedule a Call. If your client isn’t ready to commit, offer a lead generator transitional call to action. A TCTA gives your potential customer a valuable piece of information in exchange for their email address. (hint, hint: capturing their email allows you to maintain contact through an email funnel).
That ends in success
Can you imagine if The Empire had not been defeated at the end of Return of the Jedi? Or if Voldemort wasn’t snuffed out at the end of the Harry Potter saga? You would expect another sequel because you’ve been conditioned to expect resolution and success at the end for the hero of the story.
And helps them avoid failure
As the guide, it’s your job to paint the vision of success for your clients and show the stakes of failure. If there were no stakes, it would make for an uninteresting story. Failure can look like staying stuck, losing money and time, or experiencing stress because of the problem they are experiencing.
Now that you know the seven elements of the StoryBrand framework, you may be wondering; how do I use this in my marketing?
How to use the StoryBrand framework
The seven elements of the BrandScript can be adapted to any messaging tool. Next we will show you how to use StoryBrand principles to deliver a clear message on your website and in your content.
StoryBrand your website
Your website is (hopefully) the only member of your team who works 24/7, including holidays and weekends. Because your website is your best salesperson, it should be clear and compelling.
A clear and compelling website is easy to navigate and makes it easy for your visitors to do business with you.
The best way to be clear is to start with your call to action.
Make your CTA clear and repeat it often. Say it loud, say it proud and say it often. Tell your customers how to do business with you. Don’t suggest it. Be direct and be clear: Call Now, Contact, Get Started.
Less is more when it comes to copy, imagery, just about everything related to your website. If you have to rely on a lot of copy to communicate how you solve your client’s problem, chances are you aren’t clear enough, or you’re trying to reach too broad an audience. If your site is cluttered with images, making it difficult to read text, you’re confusing (and likely frustrating) and losing your customers.
Stop talking about your business. Well, don’t stop entirely, but if you haven’t noticed, StoryBrand isn’t about you, it’s about your customer. Your customer isn’t motivated by the story of how your grandfather founded the business out of the back of his pickup truck, they want to know how you solve their problem and help them reach success.
StoryBrand your content
Dancing on TikTok isn’t the right strategy for every business but you can StoryBrand just about any form of content. In fact, a StoryBrand BrandScript can be turned into a content generation machine, with the potential to create up to 300 pieces of content off just one BrandScript. The best way to create useful content is to provide education and information to your audience, this can be in the form of a podcast, blogs, newsletters, and video. Start with the problem and create pieces of content that resonate with your audience using the successes and failures identified in the BrandScript.
StoryBrand your email marketing
Create consistent email marketing campaigns with StoryBrand. The mistake a lot of email marketers make is sending emails about their products or offerings rather than about the hero. Make your emails about your customers and their story, the problem they are experiencing and the success they can experience if they work with your brand, and you’re off to a great start already. Keep it short, sweet, and valuable with a lead generator on your homepage that triggers an email campaign and keeps you top of mind with your prospective customers.
Knowing where to start once you’ve crafted your BrandScript can be overwhelming. Luckily, there exist StoryBrand Certified agencies that specialize in the StoryBrand framework. These StoryBrand Guides help businesses identify their character and craft a clear message. Next, we will explore why a StoryBrand certified Guide is an invaluable resource and advocate for your customer.
Why use a StoryBrand Certified Guide
Fruitful is a StoryBrand Certified agency and part of the StoryBrand Guide Directory at marketingmadesimple.com. An agency certification involves an in-depth training and certification process led by StoryBrand. There are only 35 StoryBrand agencies in the world. When you work with a StoryBrand Certified Agency, you are working with a diverse team of experts who not only guide you through the seven elements of the BrandScript, but can also create a content strategy that will reach your audience. Many StoryBrand agencies specialize in other forms of marketing like video, social media, and email marketing and can help brands strategize and deploy different forms of marketing collateral. Fruitful is a full-service graphic design and strategy agency as well as being StoryBrand Certified. We build brands, websites, and content that help businesses reach their audience.
What makes Fruiful’s approach successful is the power of the StoryBrand framework in all branding elements we build for our clients from website homepage to email funnels and lead generating PDFs; creating a clear, cohesive message across all brand channels.
A StoryBrand Certified guide is a brand consultant for your brand and an advocate for your customer. They are trained in the StoryBrand framework and experts at telling your customer’s story. A guide is your partner when it comes to stripping out the noise and getting to the message.
What it's like to work with a StoryBrand guide
Maybe you’ve read Building a StoryBrand, or done a BrandScript on your own at mystorybrand.com, and you’re wondering how to implement it, or if you even did it right. A guide works with your brand (and for your customer), to bring focus to your customer’s problem and bring clarity to your message. A guide can help you refine your BrandScript, or create one from the ground-up by working closely to identify the key elements of the BrandScript while advocating for the hero and positioning your brand as the solution to their problem.
When you work with a guide, they’ll lead you through the BrandScript activity by asking you questions about your brand and your clients; like, who and where your customers are, what motivates their purchase decisions, and demographic info like age and gender. A frequent problem a lot of businesses face is being too close to their product or service and not being able to see their product from the customer’s eyes, this is where the guide comes in. A guide not only knows how to view your brand from the customer’s perspective, but how to communicate your brand’s message clearly and reach your target audience.
Depending on the agency, each has their own expertise in a different marketing discipline. As we mentioned, Fruitful is a branding and design agency, we specialize in messaging and design using the StoryBrand framework as a foundation. Our Brand Strategists work closely to identify your target customer and often develop marketing strategies and content to reach your customer.
What types of businesses use StoryBrand?
StoryBrand works for a wide variety of businesses, from nonprofit organizations that are working to combat period poverty, to construction companies that build custom pergolas and decks, a guide will help you find the right hero and messaging strategy. Be sure to read our post Top 10 StoryBrand Website Examples to learn how StoryBrand can work for different types of businesses.
Is StoryBrand right for your business?
Do you have customers or clients? Do you solve a problem for them? If you answered yes to both of these questions, StoryBrand might be right for your business.
Things to consider when deciding to work with a StoryBrand agency:
Budget: You pay a premium when working with a certified agency. You are working with a team of experts and paying for their consultation and guidance and sometimes content creation. What’s nice is if you can find an agency that does web design, content, and strategy…like Fruitful…you won’t have to shop around ala carte to piece together your brand elements.
Goals: Does the agency align with your business goals? Can they meet the deadlines you have set for reaching your goals?
Values: Does the agency align with your brand values? Sometimes, much like dating, it just isn’t fireworks from the start, and that’s ok. Every organization has their own values they are trying to stay true to, don’t compromise on values if it just simply isn’t a good fit.
Size: Does the size of the agency support your goals? A smaller agency may have slower production times but be more personable and responsive, whereas a bigger agency may be a production machine but not have the personal touch you would find at a smaller firm.
As you can see, whether you work with a small agency or a large one, or just a single guide, StoryBrand is a powerful messaging tool for your brand.
A BrandScript can be a single, living document, or you can refresh your BrandScript as your business grows, products change, or if you serve multiple clients with different needs. Choosing to work with a StoryBrand Certified Agency is one of the best ways to get a clearer message and reach your clients.
