If you’ve read the book and watched the videos, you’re probably well-versed in the StoryBrand framework.

You know, the seven-part framework that begins with a character and ends with character transformation.

That process is helpful when clarifying your message or wireframing a website, but how do we take StoryBrand marketing a step further and apply it to all of our marketing? Or crazier yet, our entire organization?

In another blog post, we talk about the StoryBrand framework marketing principles. Just to recap, those principles are:

1. The customer is the hero, not your brand.
2. Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems.
3. Customers aren’t looking for another hero; they’re looking for a guide.
4. Customers trust a guide who has a plan.
5. Customers do not act unless they are challenged to act.
6. Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending.
7. Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them.

These principles are the foundation of the StoryBrand framework and executing marketing work with them in mind is how you will implement StoryBrand across all your marketing.

In this post, we’ll succinctly define what StoryBrand marketing is, why you should implement StoryBrand marketing (over traditional marketing), and how StoryBrand marketing can help your business.

What is StoryBrand Marketing?

To put it simply, StoryBrand marketing is applying a specific set of seven principles to your marketing initiatives.

StoryBrand has taken these seven principles and developed them into the StoryBrand marketing framework, which focuses heavily on digital marketing (websites, emails, lead magnets, etc.).

But it is entirely possible to apply these same seven principles to all aspects of your marketing. For example, calling campaigns, press releases, digital and traditional advertising, and even speeches and book writing.

StoryBrand isn’t exclusive to your online marketing efforts, and it certainly isn’t limited to just marketing work.

We believe that Donald Miller would even encourage the use of his principles in other fields and other types of marketing work.

StoryBrand marketing is all about putting the customer at the center of your brand’s story and inviting them into that story. Doing so will result in more engagement for your brand.

Why You Should Implement StoryBrand Marketing Over Traditional Marketing Philosophy

There are two types of traditional marketing philosophies that we can think of:

1. Push marketing philosophy – This is when a company blasts as much info out in-market that they can. Hopefully resulting in brand awareness and increased sales.
2. Company-centric marketing philosophy – This is a more strategic approach to marketing than the first philosophy, but the messaging is solely focused on the company.

You can probably see the errors associated with these two marketing philosophies.

The first tries to get as much information out there as possible with no regard for the audience. The second cares about the audience but the story told is mostly centered on the company. This is the philosophy Donald Miller often critiques in his teachings.

The StoryBrand marketing philosophy is much more of a “pull” marketing philosophy coupled with a customer-centric marketing philosophy. In other words, it captures the benefits of both the earlier philosophies without any of their errors.

You should implement a StoryBrand marketing philosophy over other marketing philosophies because it focuses on the customer (over the company) and it invites that customer into a story (rather than shoving messaging down their throat).

StoryBrand marketing is so attractive because it places the focus on the customer rather than the brand.

Donald Miller uses the cocktail party analogy a lot and we think it illustrates this point perfectly.

At a cocktail party, would you rather be in a conversation with the person that won’t shut up about themselves? Or would you rather be in a conversation with someone thoughtful, listens, and ask you the questions?

Exactly.

How StoryBrand Marketing Can Benefit Your Business

Beacon Media + Marketing puts the benefits of implement StoryBrand marketing into perspective:

“When businesses lean into StoryBrand marketing, something amazing happens: the traction they couldn’t get on social media begins to materialize, the subscribers they couldn’t get on to their blog and email lists begin to appear, the leads they couldn’t get on their website begin to come in. In short, they succeed in their marketing.”

Ultimately, StoryBrand marketing will benefit your business through increased brand awareness, leads, and sales. But that’s not all.

Customers will begin to listen to what your business has to say. Not only that, but they’ll be interested in what your business has to say! Customers will look to you as an expert when you talk about their problems and how you can help solve them.

StoryBrand marketing benefits your business by placing it in the seat of the guide, which as we know from StoryBrand, is the position to be in.

In Summary

StoryBrand marketing is applying a specific set of seven principles to your marketing initiatives.

Those seven principles are:

1. The customer is the hero, not your brand.
2. Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but customers buy solutions to internal problems.
3. Customers aren’t looking for another hero; they’re looking for a guide.
4. Customers trust a guide who has a plan.
5. Customers do not act unless they are challenged to act.
6. Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending.
7. Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them.

You can begin implementing these principles across any of your marketing campaigns by thinking about the customer first.

StoryBrand marketing is powerful because it not only results in increased leads and sales, but customers also begin to listen to you and see you as an expert.

Need help implementing StoryBrand across your marketing initiatives? Reach out to us. We can help.