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If you haven’t heard of StoryBrand or story-based messaging, it’s time to hop on the bandwagon.

Story-based messaging is exactly what it sounds like: messaging that tells a story. Your customers buy from you because they read or hear words that make them want to buy. It’s your job to write impactful messaging that demonstrates how you will help solve your customers’ problems — and that’s what StoryBrand and story-based messaging do!

Unfortunately, it’s common to make mistakes when implementing this type of messaging. Whether you’re new to StoryBrand or just getting started, this blog will help you avoid the biggest mistakes business owners make with their StoryBrand websites.

What is StoryBrand?

Let’s take a second to quickly overview StoryBrand.

After that, we will get into the top mistakes business owners make when building a StoryBrand website.

  • What it is: A 7-part framework used in marketing to clarify your messaging and grow your brand.
  • Why we’re talking about it: Evolve Global Marketing is a StoryBrand certified guide and we truly believe that it’s the most powerful way to communicate with your customers.
  • How is it used: With StoryBrand, you create a framework that includes different components of your messaging. You can use these aspects to build a website, create social media, write emails, and pretty much anything else you could think of that has to do with your messaging.
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Okay, now that you know what StoryBrand is and why we’re discussing it, let’s talk about the biggest mistakes business owners make, and what you want to avoid with your websites.

Mistake #1: Using Too Many Words

A huge mistakes business owners make with their websites is including too many words. When you’re close to the business, it’s easy to overdo the copy. You know so much about the business and you think that the more information you give, the better. In this case, that’s not how it works.

Clear and concise is the way to go. Unfortunately, we can’t give you a special formula that tells you exactly how many words are optimal for your offering, though there is a lot of research out there that looks at different trends. Depending on who you are and what you do, the amount of copy you need will change. But the main thing to remember is that if your message is clear and impactful, you shouldn’t need too many words at all.

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Stuffing your website with words is one of the mistakes business owners make on their sites. Stuffing your website with keywords is only going to convolute your main message and confuse your audience. Even more, if there are too many words, nobody is going to read it.

  • Instead of focusing on quantity, spend time on the quality of copy on your website.
  • Ensure that everything you’re saying is clear and absolutely relevant for the page and your audience.
  • Have someone else (maybe even outside of the business) take a look at your website to make sure that it makes sense and that they’re engaged the whole time. Ask them to keep an eye out for these mistakes business owners make, and see if they can spot any on your site.

Mistake #2: Not Including Enough Calls to Action

We often see amazing StoryBrand websites missing one of the biggest components: the call to action. Calls to action can come in different forms. Some examples are: “Book Your Demo Now,” “Sign Up Today,” “Register Now.” They are the action that you want your customer to take and usually include some sort of time component.

It’s only natural to feel a little weird to continuously ask your customer to buy from you. But if you don’t ask your customer to take action, they’re never going to do it – this is another of the big mistakes business owners make. StoryBrand recommends placing your call to action on your homepage eight times (yep, eight!). There’s no magic number that will get your customer to buy, but definitely include enough calls to action on your website. Because if you don’t, trust us, your customer isn’t going to buy.

Mistake #3: Messing Up The Problem Section

If you know anything about StoryBrand, you know that the main focus is the problem. What is the problem that you solve for your customers? Without a problem to solve, your business doesn’t exist. It’s your job to communicate this problem to your customers and to clarify how exactly you’re going to solve it. It’s no surprise that the problem section of websites tend to come near the top – ensure this isn’t one of the mistakes business owners make on your site.

Problem Section Example #1: Stretch Into Success. You can see this section in the first main frame of the website.

Problem Section Example #2: Risk Advisor Institute.
This is the second section, like in Stretch Into Success’ website, and it’s the first thing you see once you start scrolling.

Because the problem section is so important, you need to be extra careful about how you write and design it. And because you need to be extra careful, there is a lot of room for error.

Here are the top two mistakes business owners make on the problem sections on their websites:

  • Too Many Problems
  • Focusing on the Wrong Problem

Too Many Problems

When you’re going through the StoryBrand framework, you’re going to identify the main problem and a few additional problems that your customer is facing (we can’t give too much away about the actual framework, but all you need to know is that you’ll identify a few problems during the StoryBrand process!).

One of the mistakes business owners make is to try and include all of these problems in every section of the website. This ends up overcrowding and distracting from the one main problem you want to solve, and confusing your customer. Remember, less is more.

Focusing on the Wrong Problem

Similarly, another of the mistakes business owners make is that it’s common to see websites that don’t focus on the main problem. While they may be only focusing on one or two problems, they don’t properly address the biggest problem that your customer is facing. If your customer is going to trust you and your brand, they need to be sure that you are going to help them solve one of their biggest, most frustrating problems, not just something that kind of bothers them a little bit.

So, don’t overcrowd your problem section and make sure that you’re focusing on the right problem, i.e. the biggest problem.

Mistake #4: Talking About Themselves

Finally, another of the major mistakes business owners make that’s really common on websites is when a brand or business owner centers themselves instead of the customer. Here’s the honest truth: Your customers don’t care about what you’re saying about yourself; they want to know what you can do for them. Be the guide in this story, not the hero. Be the guide who leads your customer through their journey to solve their problem, but don’t center yourself or talk about yourself too much.

There is an appropriate time in the StoryBrand framework to use “I” and “we” statements and talk about yourself a little bit. But for the most part, you should be 100% focused on your customer. Remember, the only reason they’re buying from you is because you can solve a problem that they have. So, focus on that, not about yourself.

There you have it! The top four mistakes business owners make with their StoryBrand websites.

And there you have it! The top four mistakes business owners make with their StoryBrand websites. The list goes on — from copying and pasting the brandscript to including too much authority and not enough empathy, StoryBrand is a framework that requires a certain amount of science, art, and expertise. If you found yourself cringing at some of these mistakes, thinking about your own website, or if you want to avoid potentially making any of them to begin with, you know where to find us. Happy evolving!

Happy Evolving!

Feel free to schedule a call with us and we can give you a helping hand. Happy evolving!

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