Buyers Journey: Communicate Success & Failure with StoryBrand

Customers need a reason to do business with you. Generally, that reason is to solve a problem.

As your prospects move through the decision-making process, they research how to solve their problem through a purchase. They'll ask the following questions:

• Where does your product or service take me? 
• Where will my life go if I engage with your business?
• Will I feel better about my problem? 

To answer these questions, your digital marketing needs to show and tell.

Show your customers the happy ending that awaits when they do business with you, and warn them of what could happen if they don’t. 

You do this by defining success and failure.  

StoryBrand identifies problems and solutions in your customer’s buying journey. Keep reading to learn about marketing messaging that eliminates guesswork, and produces the results you need with a story that sells.

Define the Stakes: Success & Failure

What does success look like for your customers?

Customers need you to solve their problems. 

The best way to solve your customer’s problems is to solve their external, internal, and philosophical motivations in one simple motion. For your business to solve a problem, you need to position your business as a guide. 

A guide is a resource in a customer’s life that makes their buying journey easier. Think about it: customers start their buying journey confused and uncertain. It’s your responsibility to clarify how you help.

You’ve always been your customer’s guide. It’s time for your marketing to position your business as a guide, too. 

Never assume people know how your brand changes their lives. They never will unless you tell them.

When it comes to marketing messaging, your customers are dealing with a lot of noise out there—cut through it. Here’s how:

• Be consistent with your marketing copy
• Build websites that stand out and communicate to customers that you’re their guide 
• Develop an effective nurturing strategy through email marketing 

What does failure look like for your customers?

Humans hate failure. We’ll do whatever it takes to avoid it. It’s known as loss aversion. What loss is a customer averting by doing business with you?

Off the top of your head, do you know what your customer avoids when they do business with you? Do you think your prospective customers know when they look at your website? 

You need to clearly define to your customer the cost of not doing business with you.

It probably feels a bit weird to remind your customers of negative results. But that’s the point. Telling your customers what to avoid while offering a solution is how you guide them to success and avoid failure.

A word of warning: be careful not to overdo it! If you remind customers too much of failure, they’ll find another solution. Think of failure messaging like salt; just a dash to enhance the flavor, but too much ruins the dish. 

Here are some common examples of what failure looks like for your customers: 

• Wasted time and effort
• Spending too much money 
• Losing social or professional status
• Struggling to solve simple or complex health problems

When you filter success and failure through your brand, you tell a clear, compelling story—a story that entices, compels, and converts prospects into customers. At Sauce, we call that a Story that Sells.

Meet Your Buyer Throughout Their Journey

It's crucial that you communicate the stakes throughout your customer's decision process. With that in mind, the buyers journey looks like this: 

1. A prospective customer encounters a problem 
2. They meet a guide (that’s you!) 
3. The guide offers a path to success 
4. Your customer follows the path
5. Customer avoids failure and trusts your business

Tell a Story that Sells with Team Sauce and StoryBrand

StoryBrand is a proven messaging framework that helps your brand tell a clear and compelling story. We know you know want to be a confident marketing professional who achieves results. That’s why Sauce Agency worked hard to become a Certified StoryBrand Agency. We’re here to help you build a cohesive digital marketing story and strategy that delivers the profitable results you need to ignite your revenue engine. Ready to tell a Story that Sells? Request a risk-free call with a Certified StoryBrand Growth Guide today!