Did you know that by creating the story around your brand it engages your future customers more than anything else?  A brand’s story is so important that it is more important then telling people what you sell.  A book by Donald Miller has done a great job of simplifying this concept.  The book is called Building a StoryBrand and is available for sale on Amazon (links below).  As you may know iCita has been building marketing plans, landing pages and integrating CRMs for over 15 years.  But when I saw how this book conceptualized the steps and the story, I really enjoyed it.  When you start reading the book, you will begin to see what grabs you and motivates your actions in almost every part of your decision making life.  This applies especially to your purchase decisions.

A good story always has these seven elements:  

1. A character
2. Who has a problem
3. Meets or finds a guide
4. The guide has a plan
5. And motivates them to action
6. Sometimes it ends in failure
7. Or it can end in success

How you communicate all these steps makes your story, and your brand, compelling. You must know that your brand is not the main charactor of the story – your customer is. You make the customer the hero.  You need to position yourself into the story by being the guide who helps the customer win the day.  If the customer is still not sure, you need to give them an easy way out while still staying in touch. The concept works wonders for landing page campaigns when you target a specific demographic segment.

Before starting down the story path, you must first ask these seven questions that clarify the power of your brand’s story.  The answers will be the core building blocks to your future marketing communication.

1. What do your customers want?
2. What are your customer’s external, internal, and philosophical problems?
3. Have you positioned your brand as the guide to the hero (the hero is the customer)?
4. Have you created and communicated a clearn plan fo rthe hero to win?
5. Are your calls to action clear?
6. Have you identified the consequences you are helping the hero avoid?
7. Have you helped the hero imagine how you (your brand) can improve their lives.

Take your time and work through these questions on paper and in your head.  Start to apply these to movies, brands you love, places you shop, then see if you recognize the guide, the story and what they are making you feel (or the problem they are solving) that moves you to action.

I recommend purchasing and reading or listening to the Donald Miller’s book.  It offers great marketing insight.

Building A StoryBrand website >>

Order on Amazon >>