Best for: Anyone that has any kind of influence or part in communicating an offering to a market
Donald Miller’s Building A StoryBrand was something of a revelation to me when I first read it, and sinc reading it the principles in his book have continually proven themselves in web, email, product and sales communications.
The problem with our marketing communications
As business owners, marketers or website developers we have the problem of proximity with our brands. Because we’re so close, so zoomed into our brand and our offering we naturally (and sometimes fatally) assume that everyone understands our offering in the same way that we do.
Our products seem so clear to us. Simply because we can recite the features and benefits of our product or service we feel it’s only logical that our customers can too.
This is, however, very often not the case.
Through our approach with clients we very often come across a mismatch between what benefits companies offer and what their web copy communicates.
How Donald helps
What do The Lord of The Rings, The Hunger Games and Star Wars have in common? A formula.
The shire is home to the character Frodo in the Lord of The Rings series
Donald’s book helps readers understand the hidden formula behind great plots through the ages, and helps us position our brands, our solution, our customers and their problems in our minds in such a powerful way that it quickly becomes clear that there is a better way to communicate the benefits of your product or service – often with incredible conversion rate consequences.
This is simply just the best marketing messaging book I have ever read.
I remember soon after I first read the book I implemented one idea from the book as a sort of off the cuff test of the principle and was able to reduce bounce rate significantly.
The book is written in such a digestible, simple way; never waffling on or over complicating the principles and it is ab-so-lu-tely PACKED with actionable marketing messaging wisdom.
Key Takeaways
1. The SB7 Framework
Taken from Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand – The Hunger Games along with other classics follow this plot formula.
The trick here is to replace Katniss with your customer, and replace Haymitch with your brand. Just this realisation that your brand is the ‘guide’ here to help the star of the show (the customer) achieve their success is powerful.
2. Your customers buy to transform
Two of my favourite brands are Huckberry and Gerber. But I’m a conversion rate optimising city slicker, I really don’t spend all that much time in the outdoors. The revelation is that this is exactly why I love these brands. Their products give me an opportunity to step into a version of myself I wish I was – more adventurous & outdoorsy.
People buy things that they believe will help them solve their problems, and sometimes those problems are more ethereal like feeling a certain way or having others see them in a certain way. This is an understanding that should filter through to how you describe your product to your customers.
3. Keep it simple
A while back @shanesnow released this graph that shows the reading level of the bestselling authors on a scale.
Something that will stand out for you is that even the great F. Scott Fitzgerald doesn’t crack the 8th grade level. This proves to us that people enjoy reading what is easy to read.
One of the key elements in Donald’s book (and one of the reasons the book itself is such an easy read) is to keep your copy simple. We are too often filled with a desire to show ourselves to be smart and we are too often inclined to use technical industry jargon that our customers don’t understand. Your customer can quickly become collateral damage in your pursuit to sound smarter or your lazy use of ‘insider’ terminology. The simpler and easier your offer is to understand, the better your website results will be.