3.5 Stars
I must admit, I love film and storytelling. If I were a mega millionaire and had no callings in life, I would watch films and TV shows all day. So when I came across Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller, I was intrigued. I have studied film at one of the top five best film schools in the country, published comics, and a couple children’s books. I love storytelling and found the idea of approaching marketing with pieces of the standard hollywood-style story arch compelling.
Up front I got the feeling this was just going to be a marketing book selling me on his next class or marketing service. I also initially didn’t like his tone of voice. BUT after a couple chapters, I got past those concerns, saw the value David was bringing, and I really enjoyed this experience. He gets a bit redundant with references to his website, BUT you can see he’s doing in his own book and website what he tells you to do for yourself. Below are some specifics I picked up on that I feel you will like too.
In chapter 1, Donald says, “Formulas are simply the summation of best practices.” This is a great quote, and it speaks to me in particular, because I like to place formulas in my own books.
In chapter 2, he introduces the story form in most successful books, movies, etc. and shows us how to apply it to our marketing. Every line or image we use in our marketing material must either support the customer story or will detract from it. If it doesn’t grow, it must go.
In this chapter he also says your website must convey:
1. What do you offer.
2. How it will make my life better.
3. How can I buy it.
The framework in chapter 3 says to establish your customer as the hero and yourself as the guide. Position yourself as Yoda and the audience as Luke Skywalker.
In chapter 12, Donald discusses the mistake of having too much text on your website and make suggestions on converting things to bullets and small lists with learn more links if you want to get into details. It has helped me to sculpt a few things in my own website to make it easier for visitors to understand what I am selling (leadership and entrepreneurial books).
In the next to last chapter, he draws a great parallel between the repetitive nature needed for your one line description of your company service and successful musicians singing their hit songs for the rest of their careers. It’s a great analogy to remind you how important it is to keep saying the same message in service of your customers. Donald then gives a list of five questions you can use to generate a great customer testimonial; those are pretty slick.
Overall, I felt like this book had about 75% meat and 25% potatoes. It’s a good read, doesn’t get redundant, and he’s clearly a confident public speaker.
I tend to listen or read business or technical books all the time. You can see…
… more of my Audible book reviews here
…. more of my Kindle/Paperback reviews here.
… books I have authored here.
Any other great, simple marketing books out there that you’d recommend?