The Story Your Website Should Be Telling, but Isn't ...
Over the years I've sat with a great many business owners as they prepared to brief a website designer.
The conversation usually goes the same way. They know what colours they like, they have a competitor's site they admire, and they want it to "look professional".
What they rarely have is any idea of what the website should actually say, or why.
That isn't a criticism. Nobody ever taught them, and most designers, however talented, are specialists in how a site looks and works rather than in how people decide to buy. Even a good copywriter can produce beautiful sentences that sell nothing if they've never been shown how buying decisions are made.
Which is why I'd like you to spend seven minutes with Donald Miller. He's the founder of StoryBrand, and in this short video he explains the framework that has shaped much of how I think about marketing messages.
If you'd rather read than watch, or you'd like to come back to the key points afterwards, here is what he covers.
Why stories hold our attention
Miller begins with something we've all experienced. You're half-listening to a speaker, your mind drifting to what's for dinner, and then they say "let me tell you what happened to me last week". Suddenly you're paying attention. You lean in.
Stories have held human attention for thousands of years, and they follow a structure our brains recognise instantly. His argument is simple: if we borrow that structure for our marketing, people will listen to us in the same way.
Your customer is the hero, not you
This is the heart of it, and it's where most websites go wrong. We naturally want to talk about ourselves: how long we've been trading, what we do, the awards on the wall. Miller turns that on its head.
In any story worth hearing, the hero is the person with something to gain or lose, and in your marketing that person is your customer. Your business plays a supporting role.
What they want, and the problem standing in their way
Every story starts with a hero who wants something, and it has to be obvious what that is. If a visitor to your website can't quickly see how you'll make their life or business better, they'll leave and find someone who makes it clearer.
Then comes the problem, which Miller calls the hook that catches the fish.
People only part with money to solve a problem, and if you describe that problem better than your competitors do, you stand out even when you all sell much the same thing.
He suggests describing it on three levels: the practical, visible problem; how that problem makes people feel; and why it simply isn't right that they should have to put up with it. In my experience it's the second of those, the feeling, that most often moves someone to pick up the phone.
You are the guide
Heroes rarely succeed on their own. Luke Skywalker had Obi-Wan Kenobi. Miller's point is that your customers aren't looking for another hero; they already have one, and it's them.
What they want is a guide who understands their situation and knows how to get them out of it. That calls for two qualities working together.
The first is empathy, showing that you genuinely understand what they're going through. The second is authority, the evidence that you know what you're doing.
Empathy without competence feels pleasant but unconvincing, and competence without empathy feels cold. People buy from those who offer both.
A plan, and a clear invitation
Even when someone wants what you offer, buying can feel risky or confusing. A simple three-step plan removes much of that worry because it shows them exactly what happens next. They no longer have to guess.
After that, you need to ask them to act, and to ask plainly. Miller has little patience for buttons that say "Learn more".
If you want someone to book a call, say "Book a call". It's remarkable how many websites never quite get round to asking for the business.
What's at stake
Finally, every good story has something to be won or lost. Show people what their life or business looks like once the problem is solved, and be honest about what happens if nothing changes. I'd add a word of caution here. The aim is to help people see the cost of standing still, not to frighten them into buying. A light touch is far more persuasive than a heavy one.
Where this leaves your website
Put those pieces together and you have the raw material for every page of your site: what your customer wants, the problem they face, why they should trust you, how to get started, and what's at stake. With that in hand, your designer has something meaningful to build around and your copywriter has something worth writing about. Without it, you're asking both of them to guess.
Most of the websites I review aren't badly designed. They simply tell the wrong story, or no story at all, and the owner is left wondering why a site that looks so smart produces so little.
If this sounds familiar
Perhaps you've watched the video and recognised your own website a little too easily. Perhaps the site looks perfectly respectable but the phone still isn't ringing, and you can't work out why. You may know your words need to change but have no idea where to begin, or you may be tired of sounding exactly like everyone else who does what you do, when you know full well that you're different.
If any of that rings true, the question worth asking is a simple one. Do you know what part of your website is stopping the sale?
That's precisely what your Brand Story Insight is designed to answer. I look at your site through the lens you've just seen in the video and show you, in plain English, where the story breaks down and what to do about it.