How to Choose the Best StoryBrand Guide for Your Business

At some point in business, we all need a guide. If you’ve worked hard to grow your business but sales are starting to plateau because your time and abilities are maxed out, it is time to call in some help. A StoryBrand Certified Guide can help you finetune your marketing strategy and keep your business growing. Here’s how to choose the best StoryBrand Guide for your business.

Why Work With a Certified StoryBrand Guide?

A StoryBrand Guide is essentially a marketing consultant. Some guides work on their own while others work within agencies. Working with a StoryBrand Guide will give you an advantage in your marketing because:

They have a deep understanding of the StoryBrand Framework and are very familiar with the StoryBrand Principles.
Guides are part of a highly-qualified network. That means, if your business has a need your guide can’t meet, he or she knows someone who can.
A StoryBrand Guide will focus on clarifying your message first instead of selling you services that will just create more noise in your marketing.
StoryBrand Certified Guides focus on your goals and your success instead of trying to fit you into a cookie-cutter marketing approach.

If you want someone to help you clarify your messaging and maximize your results, a StoryBrand Guide is the help you’ve been looking for. Now let’s figure out how to find the best one for your business needs.

How to Choose the Best StoryBrand Guide for Your Business

The best place to begin your search for a StoryBrand guide is in the StoryBrand Guide directory. However, there are literally thousands of options in the directory and it can feel somewhat intimidating. Here are a few factors to consider in order to narrow your search results:

Location

Do you prefer a guide you can sit down with over a cup of coffee and review your business goals, or is a zoom call just fine? Does your guide need to understand the ins and outs of your local market? Do you prefer to support a local business? If location is important to you, you will want to use the location tool filter.

Communication Styles

If you need consistent communication and want to be very involved in the marketing process, you need a guide who is big on teamwork and willing to stay in touch. If you prefer a person who will ask you initial questions, for some minor feedback along the way and then just delivers the finished product, you need a guide who is a self-starter and a problem solver. It is important that your guide fits well with your communication style and company culture so that they can best support you.

This isn’t something you can filter out in the directory but when interviewing potential guides to work with, you will want to ask about their communication style to make sure it fits your needs.

StoryBrand Certified Guide vs StoryBrand Certified Agency

The next option to consider is if you prefer to work with just one person or with a team of people. Some StoryBrand Guides work alone and collaborate with other guides as needed. Others work alongside a team of copywriters, web designers, and other professionals who are familiar with the StoryBrand Framework but aren’t necessarily certified themselves. A StoryBrand Certified Agency means that the entire team is certified in the framework. All three business models can deliver high-quality results. However, it is a good idea to ask your guide about their process ahead of time to make sure it fits your goals.

Project Needs

StoryBrand Guides often specialize in certain areas of marketing. If you know that your marketing strategy is in need of a specific skill set, you can set that as a filter in the directory. For example, if your greatest need is a strong copywriter to update your messaging on your website, you can search specifically for copywriters.

If you have several needs, you can either search for what you need most, trusting that your guide will loop in other marketing professionals as needed, or leave out this filter for now.

Niche

If you’d like your guide to specialize in your specific type of business, you can put in a few keywords that best describe your business (like education, finance, non-profit, etc.) in the search bar to find guides who are familiar with your area of work. This will ensure your guide has existing knowledge about your target audience, target market, and your customer’s pain points. However, most guides use an extensive interview process, in the beginning, to get to know you, your brand, and your marketing needs well. So, although it is nice to work with someone who already understands your niche, it is not 100% necessary.

Price

Although all StoryBrand Certified Guides have been trained by the same agency and hold a StoryBrand Certification, StoryBrand does not dictate how much guides should charge. Therefore, no matter what your budget may be, you can probably find a guide who fits your needs. You can place specific price ranges into the directory search tool or look at the guide’s website for pricing information.

Results

Lastly, you want to look through the guide’s website for case studies, client testimonials, or other proof that this guide can deliver the results you need. Unfortunately, not all guides deliver the same quality and caliber of work so you want to make sure you are getting the results your business deserves.

After you’ve scanned the guide’s website for testimonials, use their site and email sequence as a portfolio of the guide’s work. Does the website copy deliver a clear marketing message? Does the header pass the grunt test in five seconds or less? Is their lead generator captivating? Does their email sequence compel you to make a purchase? If not, you may need to keep looking for a better fit. You want to make sure your guide can deliver on their promises to help you grow your business and make more money.

Interview Questions to Ask a StoryBrand Certified Guide

When you are first interviewing a potential StoryBrand Certified Guide to work with your business, here are some basic questions you may want to ask:

Where are you located?
What services do you offer?
How does your pricing work?
How long have you worked as a StoryBrand Certified Guide?
What other marketing roles have you held?
Do you provide ongoing marketing consultation and assistance?
How do you generally communicate with clients? How often?
How do you incorporate client feedback into your work?
Do you work by yourself or with a team?
Is your team certified in the StoryBrand Framework?
Do you have client testimonials or case studies available? (If you weren’t able to find them on the website.)

If you’d like to get to know your potential guide even better, here are three great deep dive questions to include in your interview.

Let us be your StoryBrand Certified Guide

Choosing a StoryBrand Certified Guide to help you improve your marketing strategy can be a daunting and overwhelming decision. Here at Agency Boon, we’d love to help you clarify your message without making you sift through the overwhelming directory.

Please reach out to us directly so that we can talk one-on-one about your needs and goals. Our prices are listed directly on the website so you never have to wonder if our services fit within your budget. We have one in-house StoryBrand Certified Guide, Angie Schultz, who ensure that all of our clients are telling the right story to the right audience in the right way.

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