Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
by Donald Miller
April 4, 2021 — April 7, 2021
Los Angeles, CA
In the past, whenever I’d set up an organization I realized that I ended up confusing people when I would pitch it or take too long to convey my message, this is because I assumed that people would understand a grand and complex vision. This book was perfect in understanding how to convey your message and design your organization to make it easier to understand by your targeted audience, in the form that your audience/customers are heroes and you’re the guide. It got me hooked, with real examples of businesses, connections to stories from movies, and detailed plans and techniques that can be adopted and applied. The only thing that I didn’t appreciate is that the author is constantly trying to sell his platform throughout the entire book, but he did succeed in getting me to at least visit and browse through it.
The key is to make your message about something that helps the customer survive and to do so in such a way that they can understand it without burning too many brain calories. To do this, identifying what your customers wanted, defining your customer’s challenge, and offering them a tool they could use to express themselves. It puts the story of customers in a nutshell by comparing it to a movie or adventure story: a character who wants something encounters a problem before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a guide steps into their life, gives them a plan, and calls them to action. That action helps them avoid failure and ends in success. What the company should do is position itself as the guide, and that the customer is the hero, to focus everything based on the consumer. An interesting example mentioned was when Jay-Z set up Tidal that wasn’t so successful since he based it on what will benefit the artists, but the artists weren’t the ones buying the music, it was the listeners (the consumers), so always plan on focusing on what will benefit those who are consuming your product.
The two things a brand must communicate to position themselves as the guide are empathy and authority. As the hero’s (customer) guide (company), when we empathize with their dilemmas, we create a bond of trust. People trust those who understand them, and they trust brands that understand them too. Customers won’t know you care until you tell them. On the other side it’s authority, which is competence, people trust those who know what they’re doing and have experience in helping other heroes before them win. This can be shown by presenting testimonials, stats, awards, and logos. Ultimately, the two thoughts you want to win over as a guide is that you can be trusted and respected.
Making everything easier in your hero's journey is essential to winning. Even though steps or things might seem obvious, they aren’t obvious to our customers. This is a concept I have fallen into multiple times, I need to begin simplifying the processes and explanations, with more direct calls to action and improved transitional calls to action by staking a claim to my territory, creating reciprocity, and positioning myself as the guide. At the same time, we use fear as salt, to pull them towards as more, putting a thought in their head that if they don’t use our service, they won’t win as much. To beat out the competition though, you’ll need better attraction and the way to do that is to offer status to your customers, by offering limited access, providing premiums, creating scarcity, and offering an exclusive identity association. Another way is to offer the ultimate self-realization or self-acceptance feeling by providing them with inspiration, acceptance, and transcendence.
The book continues on with examples, strategies, and techniques to manage the brand and image of your mission. All ensuring that it’s customer-friendly and consumer-based to help you win. It was a short read, and I recommend it, it won’t revolutionize your organization, but it will definitely provide you with ideas that will help you further upgrade your organization and generate more traffic that will lead to sales.