What is StoryBrand Marketing? A Beginner’s Guide to BrandScript

Every brand is a story—hopefully a Story That Sells.

Building your brand’s story is crucial to future-proofed success. After all, you have seven seconds or less to make a first impression. Make it count.  

Sometimes, putting yourself in your customer’s shoes is a challenge. It happens to the best of us! Businesses spend so much time focusing on the work required to exist they forget the very reason they’re open in the first place: the customer. No customer? No service. 

So you have a brand. But you need help figuring everything out. Do these questions sound familiar?

• Where do I start telling my brand's story?
• Which marketing framework should I adopt?
• How exactly do I outline my brand’s story?

Building a brand is incredibly difficult. But you don’t have to do it alone. Keep reading to learn more about storytelling, why brand stories are necessary, and how to apply the StoryBrand marketing framework to your business.

What is StoryBrand Marketing?

StoryBrand, developed by author Donald Miller, is a popular marketing framework that helps your brand tell a clear and compelling story. Remember the hero’s journey? That’s essentially what this boils down to.

Inbound marketing is a methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. StoryBrand is simply a story-driven extension of that methodology.

Traditionally, marketing initiatives focus on your business or your product. StoryBrand doesn’t do that. Instead, it treats your business as a guide and the customer as a hero. A compelling, engaging story that positions customers as the hero ensures a successful sales path.

Why Story is Crucial for Brands

Humans understand the world through stories. We connect to stories through understanding the motivations behind them. Your story’s purpose is the engine that will keep your brand rolling even when things go awry. If you know your brand’s story, you’ll have a much easier time communicating it to your audience. 

Don’t be afraid to go back to the basics. Characters. Settings. Plots. Conflicts. The not-so-secret sauce to storytelling. Understanding basic storytelling elements paints a vivid picture of where you’ve come from and where you plan to go

How to Tell Your Story

Once you have a story, you know the journey and the path to reach success. Take your story and share your brand’s authentic, true nature through mindful marketing messaging. Words are power. What you say and how you say it matters. Understanding the tone and voice of your brand is a vital part of communicating your brand’s story. 

Remember that your brand’s story is not all about you. It’s about how you solve your customer’s problem. How do you tell your brand’s story to customers? How does the customer understand you’re their problem’s solution? The answer is simple and capable: the BrandScript.

What is a BrandScript?

The BrandScript is a collaborative and proven storytelling framework that uncovers the motivations of your brand. Everything you do and everything your customer sees is a story. A BrandScript turns brand stories into an empathetic, clear path for your customer’s buying journey. 

BrandScripts can be used for just about anything, but here’s a few examples:

• Internal and external marketing projects 
• Company style guides 
• Custom sound alerts for internal software
• Your company’s logo 

Don’t neglect the senses and experiences ingrained in your brand. There’s no on and off switch for branding. Every aspect of your brand tells a story to your customer. A BrandScript ensures you say what you mean to who needs to hear it most. 

Instead of wasting time thinking about where to start, BrandScripts give you a step-by-step process that begins at a high level then zooms in on what matters most. 

Here is the BrandScript framework, as described in Donald Miller’s book, Building a StoryBrand:

• Research your character, or buyer persona
• A problem preventing your character from success
• Character meets a guide who can help them 
• The guide provides a plan and a path to success
• Character follows the path to success
• Character avoids failure

You are the guide to their hero

The BrandScript speaks to their pain points and offers a clear before and after. Think about it: heroes never start strong. They’re weak, confused, and in need of help. Be the guide your hero needs. Brands that transform characters generate more leads, establish connections, and maintain a healthy relationship with customers.

Every demographic sees themselves as hidden geniuses. Help them reveal their genius. Be their guide from problem to solution.

Is a StoryBrand brandscript right for you?

There’s one glaring flaw with the BrandScript framework from StoryBrand: it assumes you have a proven product. Now that you’ve read this blog and learned the StoryBrand basics, maybe you have what you need to try it out on your own. But if you still have questions, Team Sauce has the answers. We’ll save you time and drive revenue through inbound and StoryBrand methodologies.

Schedule a call to talk to a Growth Strategist today.