Building a StoryBrand Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen. Donald Miller

Building a StoryBrand Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen. Donald Miller

STCTION 1
WHY MOST MARKETING IS A MONEY PIT
CHAPTER 1
THE KEY TO BEING SEEN, HEARD, AND UNDERSTOOD

Most companies waste enormous amounts of money on marketing. We all
know how mind-numbing it is to spend precious dollars on a new marketing
effort that gets no results. When we see the reports, we wonder what went
wrong, or worse, whether our product is really as good as we thought it was.
But what if the problem wasn’t the product? What if the problem was the
way we talked about the product?
The problem is simple. The graphic artists and designers we’re hiring to
build our websites and brochures have degrees in design and know everything
about Photoshop, but how many of them have read a single book about
writing good sales copy? How many of them know how to clarify your
message so customers listen? And worse, these companies are glad to take
your money, regardless of whether you see results or not.
The fact is, pretty websites don’t sell things. Words sell things. And if we
haven’t clarified our message, our customers won’t listen.
If we pay a lot of money to a design agency without first clarifying our
message, we might as well be holding a bullhorn up to a monkey. The only
thing a potential customer will hear is noise.
Still, clarifying our message isn’t easy. I had one client say that when he
tried to do so, he felt like he was inside the bottle trying to read the label. I
understand. Before I started StoryBrand I was a writer and spent thousands of
hours staring at a blank computer screen, wondering what to say. That

soulwrenching frustration led me to create a “communication framework” based
on the proven power of story, and I swear it was like discovering a secret
formula. The writing got easier and I sold millions of books. After using the
framework to create clear messages in my books, I used it to filter the
marketing collateral in my own small company. Once we got clear, we
doubled in revenue for four consecutive years. I now teach that framework to
more than three thousand businesses each year.
Once they get their message straight, our clients create quality websites,
incredible keynotes, e-mails that get opened, and sales letters people respond

Building a StoryBrand Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen. Donald Miller