We’ve put together some StoryBrand BrandScript examples that will help you learn how other entrepreneurs have used this framework to boost their revenue. It can be frustrating and overwhelming to learn an entirely new way to market to your ideal customers, but you can learn and it will be worth your time.
3 StoryBrand BrandScript Examples and How To DIY
- Why Most Brandscript Imitators Don’t Work
- The StoryBrand Framework: Your Guide to a Clearer Message
- How The StoryBrand Brandscript Overcomes Your Audience’s Objections
- What Does Storytelling Have to do with Marketing?
- Applying the StoryBrand Brandscript for Clear Messaging
- StoryBrand BrandScript Example x3 and Tips
- Start Growing Your Business with StoryBrand
- How A StoryBrand Certified Agency Can Help
If you’ve landed on this blog, you’ve probably at least heard of a BrandScript. There are ways to get it done and ways to get yourself buried in a heap of wasted time. Stick with us, we’re going to break things down and show you some examples of how to make your brand shine.
Why Most Brandscript Imitators Don’t Work
Companies should be focused on what they do well instead of how great they are. Their messaging should focus on helping customers solve problems, not selling themselves.
Regardless of whether they know it or not, most companies follow some kind of script when communicating with potential clients. Most “scripts” look similar to this:
1. What do we do?
2. How do we prove we’re the best at it?
Once they’ve answered these guiding questions and written them up as content, their websites look more like companies trying to prove their value than they do sites that really help people. If someone goes to a site where most of its content focuses on the business rather than the product/service, he won’t be able to tell whether the company offers good products or services.
Much potential business is lost in translation and the bottom line will always reflect this.
The StoryBrand Framework: Your Guide to a Clearer Message
With this framework, you can immediately communicate value, reach out to your target audience, and increase sales for your company.
Donald Miller, the author of Building A StoryBrand, says, “If you confuse, you lose.”
It is imperative that as a business owner you are clear with your target customers about what problem you solve for them. This is what your business is formed around and your messaging must be clear and consistent across all of your marketing collateral.
The StoryBrand framework helps a company simplify its messaging by using the proven elements of a story by placing its ideal customers at the center of the hero’s journey.
Understanding the elements of effective storytelling will help you put all the players and steps in place which will translate to a clear and relatable marketing message.
The image to the right takes you through the storytelling process for your customer. It should flow like this:
Your customer has a problem they need to be solved and they meet a guide (you). You give them a plan and then you call them to take action toward solving their problem using your solution(s). This is when they either buy from you or decide to continue in a relationship with you giving you more time to convince them that your solution is the best option for them.
You show them what success looks like and you show them what failure looks like. Success will happen when they purchase from you and failure will happen if they don’t. Then, you invite them into the identity transformation that inevitably awaits them should they choose to move forward in action.
How The StoryBrand Brandscript Overcomes Your Audience’s Objections
A good brand script makes sure that the company isn’t talking about itself, but rather its customers. If your marketing material (including website copy) is mainly focused on solving people’s problems, then your visitors will become clearer about why they need your product/service.
Many companies identify what they think their customers want but don’t always understand why they want it. You then need to figure out why your customers aren’t buying what they want. You accomplish this by identifying the issue in the “Problem” section of the BrandScript.
It’s important to distinguish between the primary external and internal problem your customers have because while they look for solutions to an external problem, the reason for the purchase lies behind the internal problem. Your brand script helps you identify the internal problems your audience has so your marketing collateral addresses them directly. Once you’ve identified the internal problem, you’re ready to call them to action.
Have you been trying to apply these elements to your business’s BrandScript but feel stuck? There’s always a way forward and we’d love to help you discover the perfect BrandScript for your business. Schedule A Call with us today and we’ll talk about options.
What Does Storytelling Have to Do With Marketing?
You may wonder why storytelling has anything to do with brand identity and marketing communications.
As far as using storytelling in branding, Donald Miller really hit on something special. He understands the power that storytelling has in as far as it captivates the mind by using emotion. Think about it… humans have been telling stories to pass down to generations since the beginning of time.
Because stories rely on a sense-making mechanism, they’re effective for conveying complex ideas. This is important because, if you don’t know why something matters, then trying to explain it really doesn’t matter.
Why is this important to understand when it comes to marketing?
According to Miller, the main function of the human brain is to ensure survival. In a great and well-told story, the hero is always in a pursuit to achieve survival.
So, simply put… when your targeted and ideal customers visit your website and can’t figure out how you can help them ‘survive’, they won’t stay long; we’re talking seconds. Their brain is designed to forget and move on for their survival.
This is precisely why the ‘best product’ isn’t always successful. The most successful products or services are those with the clearest marketing message and the best and most relatable story. When you cast your customer as the hero in their own story, everybody wins.
Applying The StoryBrand Brandscript For Clear Messaging
We’ve helped dozens of companies achieve six-figure success using the StoryBrand BrandScript. We are passionate about his framework and approach because we’ve seen it do wonders for businesses and their owners.
Imagine finally being able to sit back and breathe without worrying about where you’ll find your next customer or when you’ll be able to make a sale. Think about all those things you’ve wanted to do but can’t because you just don’t have the time and/or the money right now.
Learning and applying this method will be worth its weight in gold for you and your business. We know it can seem overwhelming if you’re not accustomed to thinking this way, but we promise that while it will take some work and time on your part, it won’t be long before you master it for your marketing.
How to Use the StoryBrand BrandScript
So, how do you use a BrandScript to develop a story around your brand in a way that will cause your ideal clients to pay attention and respond?
Just like in great books and films, there are structural rules to follow. Diversions from this structure will likely result in the reader or watcher disengaging. When the reader/watcher loses interest, it’s over.
When this happens in books and films we attribute it to ‘the art’ because it’s ‘subjective’ and therefore allowed to deviate from the rules. When this happens in product or service marketing it’s NOT art, it’s a lost customer; usually for life.
Donald Miller concluded that the 7 main elements to stories that resonate are found in almost every successful film script.
The StoryBrand framework will help you:
#1 Cast and frame the customer in the story as the lead character. Clearly identify what they want.
#2 Understand the problems they face and how the product/service is a solution.
#3 Position themselves as the perfect guide for the customer by demonstrating empathy and authority, and by providing valuable and necessary content.
#4 Develop a plan for customers to follow that will lead them to purchase a product or service.
#5 Promote an actionable CTA that encourages customers to take an action.
#6 Clearly demonstrate what success looks like and how their life will be better if they purchase. Clearly demonstrate what failure looks like and how their life stays the same if they don’t purchase the product/service.
#7 Identity transformation where the client goes from one end of the arch to the opposite; from insecure to confident, from apprehensive to assured, from anxious to bold.
Once the messaging is clear for each of these story-telling elements, companies can apply it to their branding and marketing communication. Once you become well-practiced in working through these steps, you can use the results in your website copy, sales, and nurture email campaigns, speeches, and anywhere else you’d like to boost sales.
Still unsure about how it all works?
Read on as we break down each of the seven StoryBrand elements along with three specific BrandScripts to give you a better idea of how it all comes together.
StoryBrand BrandScript Example and Tips
Okay, now for some BrandScript examples so you can start sinking your teeth into the meat of this framework.
Here’s an example of a BrandScript from a therapy business.
- Character (hero that wants something): To be able to manage my thoughts and emotions.
- With a Problem (internal, external & philosophical): Every stage of life brings in new challenges, overwhelmed, everyone deserves to have support as they go through life’s highs and lows.
- Meets a Guide (who demonstrates empathy and authority): We understand that life is filled with unexpected challenges and for the past 6 years, we’ve helped hundreds of people gain clarity about what they really want in life.
- Who Gives Them a Plan: Schedule a call, we dig into your story, you gain clarity.
- And Calls Them to Action: Schedule a call.
- That Ends in a Success and Helps Them Avoid Failure: A trained and licensed support person, guidance on how to navigate change, educational resources. As opposed to continued frustration, Increased anxiety, being stuck.
- Character Transformation: From overwhelmed to confident.
You can sign up for Donald Miller’s free tool My StoryBrand BrandScript. We’ve created dozens of BrandScripts using this tool.
Onto more BrandScript examples…
Here’s an example of a BrandScript from an aesthetics medical spa.
- Character (hero that wants something): I want to feel more beautiful and love the way I look.
- With a Problem (internal, external & philosophical): The aging process is showing. I feel insecure. Everyone should feel beautiful, no matter their age.
- Meets a Guide (who demonstrates empathy and authority): We understand the pressures of living in Los Angeles and competing with younger people for jobs and relationships. For the past five years, we’ve helped thousands of women love the way they look so they light up any room they walk into.
- Who Gives Them a Plan: Schedule an appointment, choose your treatment plan, love your results.
- And Calls Them to Action: Schedule an appointment.
- That Ends in a Success and Helps Them Avoid Failure: Dating and love becoming more accessible, marrying the love of your life, happiness, confidence to apply for that job, confidence to ask for that raise, confidence to build the life you love. As opposed to continuing to do things that don’t work, getting traded in for a younger spouse.
- Character Transformation: From embarrassed to inspired.
Here’s an example of a BrandScript from a Real Estate Investing and Business Coach.
- Character (hero that wants something): A better strategy to grow your business.
- With a Problem (internal, external & philosophical): I don’t know what to do next, I’m stuck, every real estate investor deserves to have a business plan that works.
- Meets a Guide (who demonstrates empathy and authority): We understand what it’s like to wonder if you made the right decision. For the past 20 years, we’ve helped hundreds of people grow their real estate businesses and manage their teams better.
- Who Gives Them a Plan: Schedule a call, get clear direction, grow your business.
- And Calls Them to Action: Schedule a call.
- That Ends in a Success and Helps Them Avoid Failure: Have a healthy and balanced work-life, feel smart, have routines that work, flexibility to travel, freedom to work from anywhere, manage the team better, business growth. As opposed to, continued procrastination, feeling guilty that you didn’t move forward, unconsciously beating yourself up emotionally, continued complaints about the same things.
- Character Transformation: From confusion to confident real estate investor.
A couple of things to clear up here… You may be wondering why there is a space on the BrandScript to identify a villain yet we haven’t covered this part of the problem. A villain doesn’t always need to be identified. But, if you want to personify the villain, that’s up to you. For example, think of Allstate’s Mayhem character. The problem is the mayhem created by life’s monkey wrenches and they’ve personified mayhem to make it more relatable and fun. I’d say that one has worked wonders for Allstate. Raise your hand if you love seeing what Mayhem brings.
The second thing that needs clearing up… In the Call To Action section, there’s a transitional call to action. This is where you’re less direct about calling your potential customer to action. This would be where you offer something in exchange for continuing a relationship with them. A free downloadable PDF, a special offer, etc.
Donald Miller likes to compare the transitional call to action to asking someone on a date. You’re just asking them if they want to go on a date or another date (it could be several transitional calls to action before you ask them to commit). You’re not yet asking them for a formal commitment, like marriage.
If you’re feeling confident enough to go at the StoryBrand BrandScript Framework on your own, we have a DIY option for you. Follow this link Business Made Simple and turn into the marketing genius you know you are!
Here are a few more tips to keep in mind as you work through your BrandScripts…
Tip: Keep what you write as simple as possible in each box. This isn’t the place to braindump all of your ideas. Use a Google Doc for all those ideas.
Tip: Turn your BrandScript into a 1-minute video script. This will help you to make sure that what you wrote makes sense when you read it aloud.
Tip: Work with a StoryBrand Guide. Even the best writers have coaches. Someone who has written 50+ BrandScripts will see things that you can’t.
Tip: Don’t quit after you make the BrandScript! Use it in ALL your marketing. We’ve written some blogs to help you and when you buy a BMS subscription in the course Communication Made Simple you’ll learn how to use your BrandScript in 5 ways…
Last, but certainly not least…
Tip: Have FUN! Building a business shouldn’t be stressful all the time. Yes, filling out a BrandScript takes some effort but when you get it right I’ll be celebrating alongside you with my Prosecco!
Start Growing Your Business with StoryBrand
So, remember… YOU and your product or service are NOT the HERO. Your customer is the hero of the story and you are the guide who can get them to where they want to be.
When you invite your customers into their own story where they can play the hero they’ve always wanted to be, your business will show exponential growth. We all aspire to more. This is why we love to watch films and get taken away by the books that inspire us. There is something deep within us that relates to and wants to be like those characters experiencing some kind of success.
When is the last time you watched a film where the lead character was successful from the beginning of their own story? This only happens when the story is told out of sequence, because the reality is, nobody starts at the top. We know that when we see them at the top of the proverbial ladder, there is an inevitable fall just waiting for its screentime. We can feel it coming!
Check out 12 Powerful Local Business StoryBrand Website Examples for more inspiration on incorporating StoryBrand into your marketing by using the BrandScript.
How A StoryBrand Certified Agency Can Help
Don’t like copywriting or can’t find the time to dedicate to getting it right? We have
Done For You packages. Check prices out HERE Liz Cortes – StoryBrand
$1500, $7500, and $15K (plus install of everything on website/CRM & Design PDF)
We know what it’s like to struggle through a StoryBrand BrandScript only to land on something that still doesn’t feel quite right. It doesn’t have to be complicated and it’s not impossible.
We’ve helped dozens of businesses reach 6-figure status with our copywriting work.
How are you incorporating StoryBrand into your marketing? Drop a comment below and let us know.