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Book: Building a StoryBrand

By: Donald Miller

Originally Published: October 10, 2017

Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership

Book Introduction

Donald Miller is a brand-building consultant. This book is about the brand-building system he created, StoryBrand. The StoryBrand system has seven steps, SB7 for short. 

• There is a protagonist (the user)

• Have a problem

• Meet a leader in desperation (an expert)

• The leader gives him a direction/path to solve the problem

• Then tell him to act

• Avoid failure from the beginning

• Finally, achieve success and become a hero

The system treats branding and website building like writing a story. The system goes from seeing your customer as the protagonist of a movie, and as a copywriter, we need to understand his pain points and how to provide value with products and services.

What’s Good for Us

We finished SB7: a character has a problem, goes to a guide with a solution, calls for action, puts him to work, helps him avoid failure, and finally succeeds. All stories are made up of these seven elements. After that, how should we apply it in marketing? The lesson of the book is that customers don’t buy from a boastful company and that the story should be about the customer, which means we should create a story that will bring the customer in. You have to create an ideal personality and then go from that. That’s the first thing we can do in marketing. After that, we can think about what kind of hero you want to create for your customers and let them become what kind of person. When a customer sees your ads, your website, and your app, his first reaction is, “This has something to do with me,” and that hit home. We shouldn’t build a story about our founder, building, nice logo, or brand story. It’s about creating a story that puts the customer in the center of the story and puts him on an adventure, and that’s when the customer is more likely to be impressed and willing to pay for you. To understand how a story should be structured, the author provides a set of templates. His company, StoryBrand, has helped thousands of companies, small and large, from startups to multi-billion dollar companies, revamp their marketing strategies, revamp their websites and apps, and the results have been phenomenal. Just sift through a lot of information and refine it according to its structure, and the brand story is immediately apparent.

Finally, do not forget to remodel your website. The authors say the site was revamped because many Americans still use computers. Most people around here are on their phones, so we probably have more apps. The first rule of your page is to keep it simple. Please keep it simple on your advertisement pages and your app’s front page.