Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step StoryBrand Guide for Any Business
By Donald Miller and Dr. J.J. Peterson
4.5/5
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About this ebook
This guide from New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller, is a must-have for any marketing professional or small business owner who wants grow their business. It will teach you how to create and implement a sales funnel that will increase traffic and drive sales.
Every day, your company is losing sales simply because you do not have a clear path to attract new customers. You’re not alone.
Based on proven principles from Building a StoryBrand , this 5-part checklist is the ultimate resource for marketing professionals and business owners as they cultivate a sales funnel that flows across key customer touchpoints to effectively develop, strengthen, and communicate their brand’s story to the marketplace. In this book, you will learn:
- The three stages of customer relationships.
- How to create and implement the one marketing plan you will never regret.
- How to develop a sales funnel that attracts the right customers to your business.
- The power of email and how to create campaigns that result in customer traffic and a growth in brand awareness.
- The keys to wireframing a website that commands attention and generates conversions.
The inability to attract and convert new customers is costing business owners valuable opportunities to grow their brand. This prevents companies, both big and small, from making the sales that are crucial to their survival. With Marketing Made Simple, you will learn everything you need to know to take your business to the next level.
Donald Miller
Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand and Business Made Simple. He is the host of the Coach Builder YouTube Channel and is the author of several books including bestsellers Building a StoryBrand, Marketing Made Simple, and How to Grow Your Small Business. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Elizabeth and their daughter, Emmeline.
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Reviews for Marketing Made Simple
24 ratings6 reviews
What our readers think
Readers find this title to be a refreshing and informative read. It offers actionable steps for marketing and is invaluable for business owners. The concepts are well explained and the book is practical and straight to the point. While it may be more targeted towards medium-sized businesses, it still provides great ideas for all readers. Overall, this book is a breath of fresh air in the sea of marketing books.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To cement these concepts, I've listened to this audio version 4x in the past 3 weeks and the fifth time I read it and highlighted sections. There is no fluff. All steps are doable and make sense to me.
I don't know if this will work out for me but I'm going to be testing them exactly as Donald and JJ have laid out. The challenge will be actually getting people to see my lead generator in the first place. I'm willing to run ads but Donald says they did not advertise his business (Business Made Simple) until they hit $4 million in revenue.
The bottom line for the copywriting portions is: connect your solutions with the customers' problems. Over and over without fail. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The book was OK. There were some great ideas but definitely is more targeted to medium rather than single person business model.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very much practical book. All written straight to the point.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The writing is concise and pithy. Concepts are well explained. A refreshing and informative read.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A very useful book on marketing. Very worthwhile read. Yes, read!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In a sea of marketing books that often say the same stuff, this is a breath of fresh air. So many of which claim to offer 'actionable steps.' This whole book is an exact framework to follow. It is ALL actionable step! If you own a business a need to want to make your website into something that earns money, this book is invaluable. I also really love Miller's books Business Made Simple and Building a Story Brand, but this one might be the most indispensable.
3 people found this helpful
Book preview
Marketing Made Simple - Donald Miller
INTRODUCTION
Marketing should be easy and it should work.
Whether you run a small business or a large business, the easiest and best marketing plan starts with a sales funnel.
It doesn’t matter what you sell, if you use words to sell your products, a sales funnel will work.
A sales funnel is the basic foundation of a good digital marketing plan. Once you create a sales funnel, your advertising can then support your sales funnel.
While there is more to marketing than a digital plan, your digital strategy, including your website, lead generator, and email campaign will serve as the foundation for all your other collateral.
But, most importantly, you need a sales funnel—and this book will teach you to create one.
A sales funnel is a way to capture and convert leads.
Every entrepreneur, business owner, and marketer must know how a sales funnel works. Whether you create a sales funnel yourself or have somebody else create it for you, the checklist in this book will spell out everything you need to know to build a sales funnel that works. Each chapter of this book will give you tips and strategies for creating each piece correctly.
At MarketingMadeSimple.com you can download a free paper wireframe that, along with this book, will save you an enormous amount of time and mental anguish.
At StoryBrand, we’ve helped over ten thousand small, medium, and large size companies create sales funnels that work. Nearly all of them started by simply filling out these pieces of paper.
When you download your paper wireframe, you’ll also get two sample wireframes to help you understand where you are headed.
This book is all about making the execution of a marketing strategy easy. We can talk about marketing all day, but you will only make money on what you execute.
Most marketing plans do not fail in intent or philosophy of communication, they fail in execution. People simply don’t get it done.
Last year, my contributing writer Dr. J. J. Peterson turned in his doctoral dissertation on the StoryBrand messaging framework. In the dissertation J. J. defended the idea that the framework works for any kind of business, large or small, B2B or B2C. However, J. J. found that success with the framework hinges on one crucial imperative: execution. This book is all about execution. It exists to help you get the job done.
If you have a clear message and no sales funnel, your business will not grow. Your visitors will assume you can’t solve their problem and they will leave in search of someone who can.
DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON MARKETING THAT DOESN’T WORK
If you haven’t started spending money on marketing yet, this book will save you thousands if not millions of dollars. And if you’ve been wasting money on marketing, this book will stop that waste in its tracks.
Over the years we’ve run StoryBrand, we’ve met lots of marketing agencies that will sell you new logos, color schemes, and brand guidelines followed by Facebook ads and slick landing pages. Without a sales funnel in place, most of that stuff won’t work.
J. J. and I have trained hundreds of StoryBrand certified marketing guides and in that time experimented with dozens of marketing ideas. Yet we keep coming back to the old, trusty sales funnel.
The checklist in this book will get results.
If you are an entrepreneur, a business owner, or serve in the marketing department of a large organization, this book will serve as an easy-to-understand blueprint.
If you’re in charge of the marketing for your company, consider this your new playbook. And if you run a company, hand this book to your marketing team and ask them to create exactly what is in this checklist.
PAYING FOR MARKETING THAT DOESN’T WORK IS WRONG
It is wrong for a marketing company to charge you money and fail to get you a return on your investment. It’s an equal injustice that you, personally, would spend your time on an effort that does not pay you for your work. Your time is too valuable for that.
If you read this book and need help, visit MarketingMadeSimple.com where you can find a StoryBrand certified guide to create your sales funnel for you. Even if you hire a guide, however, this book will be important to show you what the guide will be doing. You will be able to offer valuable direction and feedback in the creation of your marketing plan after you fully understand what your marketing plan should be.
Marketing does not have to be complicated. Do what we’ve laid out in this book and you’ll have confidence in your marketing, you’ll grow your mission, and you will connect with customers.
Let’s get started.
Part I
THE THREE STAGES OF RELATIONSHIP
1
THE ONE MARKETING PLAN YOU WILL NEVER REGRET
Twenty years ago I’d just written my first bestselling book. I’d written a book before that but my mother was the only one who bought copies, so that doesn’t count. It took me two tries to write a book people actually wanted to read, and from what I hear, even hitting it big on your second try is pretty rare. More than 99 percent of book writers fail to sell enough copies to make a living. I was lucky.
After writing a bestselling book, I thought, everything else would come easy. I assumed every book I’d release after that would also be a bestseller. I assumed thousands of people would show up every time I gave a speech. And I supposed I could make movies out of my books and become some kind of literary/Hollywood phenomenon.
It turns out that for more than 99 percent of writers who write a bestselling book, none of that other stuff happens.
Writing a bestseller is a huge help, but thousands of bestselling authors have dwindled away their money and influence so that, in the end, they had nothing to show for it. And that’s what nearly happened to me.
Instead of building a platform, I rested on my past success. In my calculation, I wasted about ten years not taking my opportunity as a successful author (and human being) seriously.
If I could go back in time twenty years, this book is the letter I’d write to myself.
I know it sounds strange to say if I could go back twenty years I’d sit down and teach myself a basic marketing plan, but it’s true.
Not having a marketing plan cost me millions of dollars, serious international influence, and the chance to accomplish at least some of my dreams.
Don’t get me wrong. Things have turned out okay, but the only reason things worked out is because I executed this plan.
THE FIVE-STEP MARKETING PLAN THAT WORKS
In short, there are five things I should have done twenty years ago to keep the momentum going. And after I did these five things, I should have done them again and then again and then again.
They are ridiculously pragmatic. Here they are:
1. Created a BrandScript. I should have clarified my message.
2. Created a one-liner. I should have distilled that message into a single sentence.
3. Wireframed a landing page. I should have elaborated on that message and brought it to life on a clear and compelling website.
4. Created a lead-generating PDF. I should have used a lead generator to capture emails.
5. Created an email campaign. I should have earned the trust of people who had given me their email address by sending them helpful emails that practically solved their problems.
This is a book about building a platform and growing a company. I’m going to keep it simple and specific.
Most business books are long on theory and short on application, but J. J. and I are going to tell you exactly what you should do and what order you should do it in so that your marketing works.
THIS PLAN WILL DIG YOU OUT OF A HOLE
I learned to execute this simple marketing plan because I had to.
Twenty years ago, after having sold millions of books, I lost everything.
I put all my money into an investment that failed.
On a bright and cool September morning I got a call saying the investment hadn’t worked and that my life savings was gone.
It was one of the hardest seasons of my life. I felt like I’d squandered everything.
In the weeks following that excruciating loss, I realized I’d not taken responsibility for my career. I’d trusted outside managers, publicists, investors, and publishers to guide me.
I decided then to become the CEO of my own life. I’d make the decisions.
I rebuilt.
Instead of writing another book, sending it to the publisher, and hoping for another bestseller, I self-published my next book and started a little company. I began searching for an inexpensive marketing plan that would work, and after years of experimenting, came up with the plan that is in this book.
Today, my wife and I own a company called Business Made Simple that is tackling the problem of college debt by offering inexpensive online business courses to anybody trying to develop themselves.
Today, only seven years later, we give away more to charity every year than I lost on that Monday morning.
How did all this happen? Following this simple, five-step marketing plan over and over is what built my company and rebuilt my life.
The good news is, you don’t have to lose all your money to build a great company. If you follow the five steps outlined in this book, you’ll grow your brand correctly the first time.
If you work for a large company, this plan will work for every division and every product within each division. Yes, you can use this book to create multiple sales funnels. In fact, I recommend doing exactly that. Once you create your first sales funnel, start working on the next one. Ultimately, your marketing plan will consist of many sales funnels, each selling your products and services to varying demographics.
Regardless of whether you’re a small company creating a few sales funnels or a large company creating hundreds, the plan works.
You do not have to struggle with marketing. You can be confident, proud, and see a return.
If you execute the plan that is in this book, you will succeed.
2
THE ACTUAL STAGES OF A RELATIONSHIP
Why People Have to Get Curious and Enlightened Before They Will Commit
Our five-step marketing plan will invite people into a trusted relationship with your brand. Not only will you sell more products, but customers will start thinking of you, your salespeople, and even your products as friends who are helping them on their journey.
Understanding the stages of a relationship is important because it helps us understand what our sales funnel has to accomplish.
We all want people to understand how our products can solve their problems so that they will make a purchase. But it turns out, simply asking people to buy our products doesn’t work. At least not right away.
Asking for a sale is a relational proposition. And relationships have rules.
Most of us ask people to buy our products the way a shy, young boy might ask a girl to go on a date. We clumsily walk up to her in the hallway, shake her hand with a strong grip the way our dad taught us, and ask her if she’d like to go to a movie with us and our mom, who just bought a new car. (I’m relating the story for a friend.)
Who knows whether that relationship will work out. Let’s hope so for the kid’s sake. Regardless, though, the kid would do a lot better if he understood how relationships really work. And the truth is relationships are built slowly.
Whether we are talking about a romantic relationship, a friendship, or even a relationship with a brand, all relationships move through three stages. And, these stages cannot be rushed.
The stages of a relationship are:
1. Curiosity
2. Enlightenment
3. Commitment
People do not want to be enlightened about you (get to know you more) unless they are curious about you (you have something that can help them survive), and until they are enlightened about how you can help them survive, they will never commit.
Every relationship you have ever been in has gone through these three stages. Even relationships you have with brands.
THE JOURNEY EVERY CUSTOMER TAKES
Recently I began exploring high-end audio equipment. Betsy and I live in Nashville and because so many people in this town are in the music industry, we often find ourselves hosting small get-togethers with artists