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The Twos Storybrand Notes

The Twos Storybrand Notes

by Joe · 189 things on Twos

Clarify your message
Nobody will listen to you if your message is not clear, no matter how much money you spend on marketing
Businesses that invite customers into our hero story are the most successful
We are not only in a race to be the first to market, we are also in a race to communicate to the customer why our products will make their lives better.
Story formulas put everything in order to be more easily understood.
Hierarchy of needs
Set up a system to eat, drink, and survive physically.
Safety
Relationships
Greater psychological/psysiolgical needs.
Use the hierarchy of needs to identify what our customers NEED and look to sell it to them that way.
If we start to confuse our customers, they will tune us out.
The three crucial questions: how do we make sure our companies message is clear?
At no point should we be able to pause a movie and be unable to answer three questions…
What does the hero want?
Who/what is opposing the hero getting what the hero wants?
What will the hero’s life look like if he does/does not get what he wants?
If you find yourself daydreaming in a movie, then it’s probably not answering one of these questions and descending into noise.
Anything that doesn’t serve the plot, has to go
We are either making music or making noise.
Our customers are burning calories every time they use an effort to listen or understand our offer.
If we do not meet their needs while they are burning those calories, they will tune us out.
Make the message about how our product will help our customers survive as easy to understand/digest as possible.
Do not answer questions your customers are not asking.
Stories organize information in such a way that people are compelled to listen
If it does not serve the plot, then it needs to go
The essence of branding is to create simple, relevant messages, we can repeat over and over so that we can 'BRAND' it into people's consciousness.
Learn from Steve Jobs and how his branding changed after he left apple and went to Pixar.
The story about apple, is not about apple. It is about you. You are the hero.
People buy products they can understand the fastest.
The Storybrand Framework
Define your customers desire
Communicate it simply
Invite your customer to something that they want
Define a specific desire and help people achieve it
This can be beneficial for a company which can solve many problems
Don’t clutter the story by diluting the hero’s desire with too many ambitions
Focus on one simple desire and then let subplots do the rest
Define something simple and relevant your customers want and deliver on that promise.
Choose a desire RELEVANT to their survival
Conserving financial resources
Conserving time
Building social networks
Gaining status
Accumulating resources
The innate desire to be generous
The desire for meaning
Open a story gap. A purpose for them to engage. Feature it in your marketing materials.
Do not be so vague people can’t understand what your company does
Every story needs a villain
The villain should have personified characteristics
Vilify the idea of distractions
Four characteristics that make good villains in your story
The villain should be the root source.
The villain should be relatable
Immediately recognizable by the customer and have a sense of disdain
The villain should be singular
The villain should be real
Don’t be a fear monger
Talk about the villain
It will make your customers need a tool to defeat that villain
The villain should be the root source.
The villain should be relatable
Immediately recognizable by the customer and have a sense of disdain
The villain should be singular
The villain should be real
Don’t be a fear monger
Talk about the villain
It will make your customers need a tool to defeat that villain
The two characteristics of a guide
Turn the focus on the customer giving them a heroic role in a meaningful story to radically change the way we do business
A brand must communicate
Empathy
Authority
To move the hero and the story along
When the customer senses that they have found a guide who can express these things, it will move them along.
A guide understands the pain and frustration of their customers?
Empathizing with the customers dilemma builds a bond of trust
Everyone wants to be seen, heard, and understood
We understand how it feels…
We are frustrated by the same things you are…
And we understand, and will help them solve their problems
Real empathy is letting customers know we see them as we see ourselves
When the customer feels like they have a lot of things in common with the brand, it builds trust
Nobody likes a know it all and nobody likes to be preached at
Put your arm around your customers shoulder and treat them as an equal
When looking for a guide, a hero looks for someone they trust knows what they are doing
Four easy ways to add a little authority to our brand
Testimonials
Gives customers the opportunity to be second
Avoid rambling
It won’t take long for a customer to trust you
Statistics
How have we helped?
Scratches the itch of the left brained customer who loves numbers
Awards
Share a small logo of awards you’ve won
No need to make a big deal
Logos
Place logos of known businesses you’ve worked with in your collateral
We have the ability to help our hero win the day
Answers if this brand knows what they’re doing
When a customer meets a brand, it is like they are meeting a person and can trust you
Can I trust this person?
Can I respect this person?
Make a significant difference in how customers engage with our product
How can we position ourselves as the guide to our customers problems
Brainstorm empathetic statements we can use to show people we can solve their internal problems
A brand must communicate
Empathy
Authority
When the customer senses that they have found a guide who can express these things, it will move them along.
Empathizing with the customers dilemma builds a bond of trust
We are frustrated by the same things you are…
Real empathy is letting customers know we see them as we see ourselves
When looking for a guide, a hero looks for someone they trust knows what they are doing
Our customers are not looking for another hero, they are looking for a guide
Every human being is on a transformational journey
In stories events mark the beginning and end of our story
If you look in these stories you will meet the guide
Guides offer encouragement and tools that help us overcome a challenge
Every morning our customers wake up in the center of their own hero story
They are fighting internal, external, and philosophical problems
And they know they can’t solve them on their own
Do not position yourself as the hero, present yourself as the guide.
Customer is the hero, brand is the guide.
The story is not about us
Stop losing sleep over your companies success
Start losing sleep over the success of your customers
The hero is never the strongest character
Guide has been there and done that and can play the role of focusing on the hero and taking the most power.
Customers trust a guide that has a plan
When a customer is deciding to buy something, position our customer on the opposite edge of a running creek, you can hear the waterfall at the end and you have to identify the the thoughts that are going through our customers head of things that can go wrong if they cross the creek
Give our customers stepping stones that will safely allow them to cross the creek without falling down the waterfall
Give people step by step instructions that greatly increases our customers ability to cross the creek
When a customer is deciding to buy something, position our customer on the opposite edge of a running creek, you can hear the waterfall at the end and you have to identify the the thoughts that are going through our customers head of things that can go wrong if they cross the creek
Define 3-6 steps that will alleviate our customers confusion
What’s the plan called?
Increase the perceived value of using our brand/service
Title our plan that frames it in our customers mind
Lift the fog, make things clear
They will need a call to action
Customers do not take action unless we call them to take action.
By now we have already…
Defined a desire
Identified their challenges
Empathized with their feelings
Established our competency in helping them
Given them a plan
Call them to action.
Characters have to be challenged to take action
A body at rest, stays at rest
‘The power of the buy now button’
One of the biggest hindrances is that customers can read your mind
Ask clearly for the sale
Direct calls to action
‘Register today’
Transitional calls to action
Offer customers something for free
Always be clear on how people can do business with us.
A good traditional call to action can…
Stake claim to that territory
Positions you as the expert
Create reciprocity
Be generous, don’t be afraid of giving away too much
Position yourself as the guide
Educational videos, podcasts, all are great transitional calls to action
Define the stakes - for if they do/don’t do business with us.
What’s at stake for the hero?
If we can properly personify the mayhem of not using Twos, it will drive people to our website and other social media to potentially avoid said mayhem
Features the potential pit falls of not doing business with us
If there are no stakes, there is no story
People hate losing $100 more than making $100
Loss aversion may be a better trigger to use your product then a potential gain
Never assume people can understand how our brand can change their lives, tell them.
People want to be taken somewhere
Cast a clear aspirational vision that will attract our customers to want to use our product
Stories are specific things for specific people
'We are going to put a man on the moon'
We must tell our customers what their lives will look like if they use our products
Smart brands define an aspirational identity
Consider how they want their friends to talk about them
How does your customer want to be perceived by their friends?
A hero needs a guide to step in to tell them they are different because they used their product
Tell the hero who they have become
Offering an aspirational identity increases the value of everything else we have done
People only hear about us through word of mouth or social media
They then go to our website to be convinced we have a solution to their problem and makes them want to use our product
Five things to see results also known as 'The Basics' our website should include