The Must-Have Elements of a Successful Messaging Framework To Up-level Your Marketing And Copy

Many entrepreneurs today try to give too much information to their customers. When you give your customers too much at one time, they can’t clearly see what problem you solve for them, why it’s relevant, and why they want to do business with you. It shouldn’t feel this hard to create the framework of your message, but if you are including too much it can feel overwhelming and confusing. If you include these essential elements to outline your messaging framework though, you’ll have a clear message that your customers will resonate with every time.

Today’s episode gives you the must-have elements of a successful messaging framework to up-level your marketing and copy to convert more leads to customers.

This framework is the filter that will help you create more relevant messaging for everything else in your business, from your website, social media ads, email marketing, courses, and blog posts. If you fill in this framework, you can use this structure to build a simple, effective message every time.

 Resources From Today's Show:

Join my Facebook Community for more marketing, messaging, and copywriting strategies to grow your business, or up-level as a Freelancer, VA, OBM, or DOO with weekly training on adding these skills to your services https://www.facebook.com/groups/theschoolofcopyandmessagingcommunity

StoryBrand by Donald Miller

Marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller

Full Audio Transcription of this Podcast Episode:

(00:10):

Hey there friends. Are you one of the many women who started a business and quickly got overwhelmed by online marketing? You want your message and your marketing to be effective, but you don't want to spend all of your time on social media. Am I right? Well, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the school of copy and messaging, a podcast where we help you craft an effective message, create relevant content, and give you simple and effective marketing tools that don't require you to spend hours on social media. I'm your host, Amber Glus. I'm a certified story brand marketing guide who professionally has been in this business for 20 years. Personally, I'm a breast cancer survivor and a lover of all things. Coffee, who believes that Friends is still the best TV show ever. If you are ready to craft your message, promote it easily online. Let's get to work, grab a laptop or pen it's coffee time.

(01:11):

Welcome back to another episode. I am so excited today to share with you, how do you start to really frame your message? Like maybe you're just getting started in your business and you're like, I don't even know how to do this. I don't know what copy to put on my website. I don't know what copy to put in my lead magnet. I'm not even sure how to put into words, the message that I'm sharing. Or you may be an entrepreneur who has already started your business, got some momentum. And now you're like, oh, I feel like I need to clean this up. I feel like I need to really niche it in and make it more clear either one of those scenarios that you might fit into is going to work for today's episode and make this so much easier. So today we're diving into how exactly do you frame your message and then how do you put that into copy?

(01:59):

That's actually going to convert into customers. That's what we're diving into today. But before we get there a couple of things first, I want to thank our sponsor today, which is Kajabi. You guys know a love me. Some Kajabi. Kajabi is the all-in-one platform for your email marketing, for your website, for your courses to be hosted. It gives you one place. You have to log it into amen to that because I don't have to remember five or six different platforms. Log-ins I have one bill each month that is cheaper than all of the other platforms that I was using. And the best part is Kajabi is easy to use. Like I wires put up your hands and say, thank you because Kajabi is amazing. And you can actually work on your own website if you want, because their platform is so easy to use. I am not a website person.

(02:46):

You guys, um, by nature, like I've taught it to myself, but out of everything that I've learned Kajabi is by far the easiest platform that I've built a website on. So if you would like to try Kajabi, see if you love it, see if you love it. As much as I do, you can grab the link in the show notes to get 14 days for free. So you can dive in, look around, see if it's a fit for your business. If it's not no big deal, it didn't cost you any money. But if it does feel like a fit, you'll have 14 days under your belt to go try it out. So grab that link in the show notes, you are going to love it. The next thing I want to remind you about is your website is still important to your business. Even in the world of social media marketing, you should have a website that can quickly convert readers into customers.

(03:33):

That is so important today in the online business space. So if you would like to know what in the world do you put on your website and where does it all go so that it makes sense to your customers. I've got you covered. You can grab my free [email protected] forward slash website. The link for that is also in the show notes. This is a really comprehensive guide. You guys that is totally free to you. It is a map. It literally shows you exactly what to include on your homepage and where to put it. So go grab that guide. Amber glus.com/website. Alright, let's dive in to today's episode today. We are talking about how in the world do you start framing your message and how do you put that into copy? That's actually going to convert into customers for your business. Here's something I want you guys to hear.

(04:21):

If you get nothing else out of today's episode, please, please, please hear me on this. The most important thing about the message that you create for your business is that it clearly explains to your customer why it matters to them. Okay? It clearly explains to your customer why it matters to them. Now I'm a StoryBrand certified marketing guide. You guys know, I love everything. StoryBrand StoryBrand teaches this to their marketing guides in a way that is amazing. It's called using a brand script. So that's, I'm gonna walk you guys through today. A brand script helps you structure your message. It helps you create a framework to put your message in that highlights the points of how you're going to make this make sense to your customer. And it positions your customer as the hero. Why is this important? Let me tell you a little bit about how StoryBrand presents this.

(05:15):

StoryBrand um, basically teaches their marketing guides to do marketing in a way that invites the customer into a story that's going to help them solve a problem in a way that's going to transform them into something. That's going to bring them success or joy or freedom or money or whatever it is. Um, sort of invites them into a story that shows them how to do that, but makes them the hero of the story. It makes it about them. This is why this is important is if your copy and your marketing and your brand script as a whole, isn't inviting your customer into a story that matters to them. You won't convert them. Once you get a customer to pay attention. It's because you have told them something that matters to them. It's just human nature. You guys, we are, we are selfish by nature. I hated as much as the next person.

(06:10):

It's just true. When we are listening to somebody we're listening for what this is going to apply to in our own lives or in our own business. Like why does this matter to me? That's the filter that the human brain is always filtering something through. When we see it, when we hear it, when we read it, we always are trying to figure out what is this going to do for me? And if you've answered that question, you're going to keep your customer's attention. If you haven't answered that question, you're going to lose them. If it's confusing to me, I don't understand what it is. I don't understand why it's applicable to me. You're going to lose me. But if you immediately helped me understand what this is for and how it's going to impact me now, you've got my attention. So how do we do that?

(06:54):

That's what we're going to talk about today in StoryBrand again, it's called a brand script. And so you can walk through this on your own and create this, and it will help you be the filter through which you should put all of your marketing through in the future to make sure that you are staying on track with keeping your customer in, involved in a story that positions them as the hero and walks them through this brand script. You can also get help with this. If you would like my help as a StoryBrand certified guide, I would love to help you create a brand script that you can use for your business. Copy on your website, lead magnets, Facebook ads, email marketing, you name it. The brand script is going to help you clarify your message that you can use with your customers. So I'd love to help you do that.

(07:44):

You can grab a free discovery call on my website, Amberglus.com And I look forward to talking to you and helping you build a brand script, but let's get into this. Um, the brand script is also in, um, StoryBrand marketing books. So you can grab marketing made simple, or StoryBrand both by Donald Miller and read more about the brand script and what it does and why it's important. The first thing on a brand script is the character. So the character is who, who are we talking to? This is also today in the online business world referred to as who's your avatar, who's your client avatar or your client community, who is it that you serve? Who is that character? What does that person want? What are they looking for? Now, we're going to use an example throughout the brand script today, and I'm going to use a product-based business.

(08:40):

So let's say you have a skincare line, a product line that's for women. So your character would be a woman, maybe she's between the ages of 45 and 60. And what she wants is a simple skincare solution. That's good for her skin without a lot of chemicals. So she's looking for something simple. That's good for her case. So we're going to use that example today to walk through the brand script. That's our character. The next thing that a character is looking for is they have a problem that they need to have a solution to. So the problem in the case of our example today, the external problem might be that there are so many products on the shelves when this woman goes to Target or Walmart, or, you know, Macy's or whatever it is. She's always seeing all of these products with ingredients that she can't understand.

(09:33):

And she has no idea how to decipher which ones are actually good for her. And which ones might be a simple solution. Like, does she need the whole kit that has seven bottles in it? Or is there something that could do all of that in one without harsh chemicals? Okay. So the external problem for her is there are too many options and she's confused. She doesn't know what to choose. So when you're finding your external problem for your character, this is usually something physical. It's usually something outside of themselves that is causing stress or anxiety. It's an external problem. The next type of problem is internal. So how is that external thing, making them feel so in StoryBrand they teach their guides that we have to really look for the emotion. The internal problem is the emotion that that external problem is causing.

(10:25):

So in the case of our example with the skincare company, it might be that the internal problem is that it's overwhelmed, I'm feeling overwhelmed and I'm feeling like it's a little hopeless. Like I'm just never going to find something that's going to work. All of these options are maybe the same or different. I don't know. I can't even tell it's just overwhelming. So I'm feeling overwhelmed. Then the next thing is the philosophical problem. So here you're really looking for why does this create an injustice? So in StoryBrand they talk about the injustice, really being a big piece of your marketing, because it's part of how you're going to hook your customer with the product or service that you're selling. And you're basically saying you shouldn't have to feel this way. So in the example of our skincare line, it would be, you really shouldn't have to feel so overwhelmed by finding a simple solution to healthy skincare.

(11:18):

That would be an example of the philosophical problem. And so it's something that it seems just like it's in an injustice that it's even happening. So once you identified those, you've got the external problem, the internal problem, and the philosophical problem, then you can take it a step further in identify a villain. And I love how Donald Miller goes into this in his books, because it's kind of like the icing on the cake, right? Like if you can really hone in on a villain, uh, in your marketing. So in this example, it would be the industry, it be the skincare industry has gotten so big and there are so many options that are overwhelming and it just shouldn't be this hard to find good skincare. That's healthy for your skin and simple. Okay. So we're kind of saying the industry itself is a problem that's causing the overwhelm.

(12:09):

We're going to put all of this together. So the next thing is you as their guide, your product, your service, your membership, your course, your business, or consulting, whatever it is that you do, positioning that as the guide, that's going to help them solve those problems that we just identified. The first thing is your empathetic statement, telling your customers why you care and why you feel their pain. So this an example may be, um, I understand how overwhelming it is because it took me years to find a skincare solution that was simple. And that was good for my skin. And it was so overwhelming to go through all of the options. So that's just an empathetic statement to say, I know what you're going through. I know how hard it is to keep trying all of these different products only to find that they don't work or that they all feel the same.

(12:58):

That's an empathetic statement. The next piece is your authority. So what authority do you have to solve this problem? So I just gave you some of it. It took me years to find the skincare solution that worked for me. I was trying all of these products. They all felt the same. And finally, I created this line that I knew had organic products that were good for my skin. And in three months it cleared up my skin and I've never used anything else. That's an example of an authority authoritative statement that you can use gives your customer empathy. You know what they're dealing with. You also bring in some authority as to why you are the person to solve their problem. You've been in their shoes. You created this product that, you know, works, it's organic and it cleared up your skin. Your skin feels and looks so much better.

(13:46):

Kay. That's an example of an authoritative statement. The next thing is, what's the plan summarize a plan that your customers can work with you. So this is simple. Use three, maybe four, but no more than four steps that helps the customer know how to work with you. So this is something that is simple because you don't want to overwhelm your customer. You don't want to make it hard for people to work with you. So a quick, very easy summary could be number one, set up a good discovery. Call number two, we customize a plan for you and number three, get your product and have clear skin. Okay. So number one, set up a discovery call. Number two, we give you a customized product. Number three, you have clear skin and you love it. And you know, it's organic very, very simple. The human mind needs simplicity.

(14:40):

If I see something that is 20 steps long, I have to do a bunch of research. There are 18 products. My initial human reaction is that sounds hard and it's much. I don't want to do that. So I'm going to move on. But if I see that, okay, this is very simple. Here are the three steps I follow. And then I have organic products that are going to be better for my skin. That sounds easy. I can do that. The next part of the brand script is your call to action, a direct call to action, and a transitional call to action. The direct call to action is giving me something very specific to do. So. An example of that is schedule a free call, schedule a free consulting call, a discovery call. Um, the transitional CTA is usually something that is going to get their email address.

(15:27):

Like if you just want to try a sample of our product, put in your email address, we'll send you, um, a code where you can download it and have it sent to your mailbox. Something like that. So it's transitional, um, Donald Miller, when you become a certified guide in the training he gives, I love how he says the direct call to action is kind of like the will you marry me and that transitional call to action is the, I am giving you an option to still date me. So the transitional call to action is something that feels less intense, less invasive. It gives me an option to just kind of try you out. So something, um, for online entrepreneurs would, that would fit this, of course, is like your lead magnet, your, your freebie on your website. That's just free to download in exchange. You get my email address.

(16:15):

We're just dating. We're not getting married. The direct call to action is more of a schedule, a call with me. That's going to be a little bit more of a commitment for your customer. So you want to have both two calls to action in your brand script. The first is direct. The second is transitional. Now, after you've got that, we start to move into the results. So outlining the success. What is success look like for your customer when they work with you or use your product or your service, or take your course list, at least three things that equal success for your customers. So in our example that we're using today, number one might be, you have one product instead of 20 in your cabinet. Another piece of success might be that you save money using only one product. Uh, number three could be, you have one product that's organic.

(17:09):

That feels great on your skin. Uh, number four could be, you have more radiant, youthful-looking skin. Those are just examples. So what does success look like? What would your customer experience and then say, I feel like that was successful. So write down three or four things that you think your customer would feel success. The next thing is what would be failure? What would be the results of your customer not working with you? So an example here for our skincare would be, uh, you continue to spend or to waste money, trying different lines of skincare, that all feel the same and don't work. Or you have bags full of products that you have to travel with to get the skin results that you want. Or the next thing could be, you still feel overwhelmed by doing the research in an industry where there's so many options and you continue to feel overwhelmed by all of the choices.

(18:10):

So what is that? What are the, the tragic things that keep happening if your customer does not work with you last, and here's where it gets really fun is identify the transformation. So who is the person you're helping your customer become? They go from something to something. So in our skincare example, they go from feeling overwhelmed by all the options in the industry that don't work to feeling so excited about one skincare product, that's good for their skin and makes them feel great. So that's just an example. They go from something to something from being overwhelmed, to being so excited about one product that works. That's healthy for them, Kate, from something to something. Now, once you've written all of that down, let me go through these just quickly. More time to recap, you have a character, that's your customer who has a problem, external problem, internal problem, philosophy, philosophical problem, and a villain to top it off.

(19:14):

Remember the internal problem is something external. That's making them feel an emotion and the emotion is your internal. The philosophical is why is just, why is this just plain wrong that they feel this way? And then the villain, the icing on the cake is, is there something that you could rally around to like, say the injustice is caused by this fill in the blank. So external, internal, philosophical, and villain all within your problem category. Next is what is your empathetic statement and your statement of authority, then summarize the three, no more than four-step plan of how to work with you, include a call to action, direct and transitional, and then outline three to four things that your customer would call successful after working with you. And then what are the three things they would continue to experience that would be tragic results because they didn't work with you.

(20:10):

And then the last thing, what are you transitioning them from? And two, once you outline all of that folks, you have a brand script. Um, I love the StoryBrand brand script. It is the coolest framework. Um, the reason I decided to become a certified guide with StoryBrand is because when I saw their framework, I felt internal peace. Literally, literally, I was like, hallelujah, I have been looking for a frame, right, framework like this as a marketing guide for years. And I just grabbed onto a Story Brand and have success with it in my own business. Um, as, as well as those that I've shared it with. And so I would just encourage you to sit down, write out this brand script for your own brand. And then what you will start to do is use this brand script to filter through all of your marketing.

(21:06):

So let me give you an example of what I mean by that. So if you're getting ready to write an email to your list, you want to give an email that specifically talks about some of the problems that you solve. You can pull some of those problems by using the character you created and what they want, and then pulling from those external problems that create the internal problem of emotion that they feel and why it's just the philosophical injustice that they feel, and then how you solve it. You can pull some of those things from the success bucket and say, when you work with me, here's how we solve that. And then you can pull from the transformation bucket and say, you will go from this to this schedule a call with me here, and that's your call to action. Okay. So the brand script really gives you the overall picture of what your brand does, what your service or your product does.

(22:01):

And it helps you filter through what to include in any of your marketing, email marketing, social media headlines, um, your copy on your website, your lead magnet. Like if your lead magnet doesn't solve one of these problems or give some of your customers a way to avoid these problems, then this is a really good place to come up with a new lead magnet pull from this brand script. Uh, really, and if you guys need go back and listen to the episode I did on how to create a stellar lead magnet, um, your brand script is a really good way to figure out what kind of a topic you want to use for lead magnet, because you can really hone in on what are the problems that your customer has, or what are the things that they're trying to avoid. Sometimes the things they're trying to avoid is a really good topic for an email or excuse me, a lead magnet as well.

(22:54):

And the brand script will help put all this in a framework for you to make that a lot easier to read. Like sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own marketing because we have so much in our mind and the brand script really helps you focus in your message. That's what it's designed to do. And that's why I love it. Love it, love it so much. Um, so go check out my website. If you'd like to schedule a discovery call for me to help walk you through this exercise, I would be happy to do that. Um, you can do that amberglus.com and the first call is just us getting to know each other, to see if I can help you. And if I can, I would love to do your brand script for you. Um, if you have grabbed my website guide that tells you what to put, where on your website, um, the brand script actually helps you create the copy for the website.

(23:43):

You'll notice after you do this brand script. And then if you look at my website guide, you can actually use this to create the copy in each of those sections and make it super easy to have copy on your website, that converts. Okay, so go grab that free guide. If you haven't already at amberglus.com/website, and then schedule a discovery call with me. If you'd like to set up some time for me to help you with your brand script. The last thing I want to mention to you guys today to bring all of this together and drive it home is why is this so important outside of helping you really focus on your marketing and clear up your message so that it's easy for your customer to understand, again, that's our goal is easy for your customer to understand if your customers don't understand what you do and the problem that you help them solve, you're going to lose their attention.

(24:33):

But the second that you invite them into a story and explain the problem you solve and tell them what light life looks like after working with you, then you've got their attention. And that's a, that's a StoryBrand thing. It's Donald Miller kind of created this framework that helps you do that. And the brand script is kind of the, the skeleton of it, the structure of it, and that's kind of where it all starts. So why is this so important in addition to helping make sure that your message is clear enough for your customer to understand this is the filter to put your marketing through, to help you quickly and easily create copy and other things for your website, like your website, your lead magnet, et cetera, but it also positions your customer as the hero by telling you how you're going to solve their problem and how their life is going to look like after.

(25:25):

And that is going to set you apart in any industry like right now. So many industries online feel oversaturated because so many people are doing online businesses. And what I want you to hear right now is it doesn't matter if you're in an oversaturated industry. You guys, I am in such an oversaturated industry, marketing and copywriting. Like there's a ton of podcasts on marketing and how to do things like sales pages and email sequences and all of this stuff that I do. There's a ton of that. And so StoryBrand really has helped me figure out how do I position my message to where my customer is the hero. I hope you guys create a message that helps you grow your business in a way that's simple so that you don't have to spend all your time on social media. And StoryBrand has helped me really create a framework for that and help me understand that my customer needs to understand the transformation that I provide them.

(26:28):

They want to show up on social media to sell their passive products without spending all of their time online. That's what I help them do. And that is what they remember. They're like when they start thinking about, oh, I've spent all this time on social media and they're like, whoa, wait a minute. No, I don't because there's this marketing guide named Amber who told me that I didn't have to do that, but I could build the business that works with marketing. That doesn't take me as much time online. And I want my customer to start associating me and my services with that message. And StoryBrand is what helped me create that for my business. And I want to help you create that for yours as well. So hope you enjoyed that episode. Hope you found it useful, truly creating the brand script is so much fun.

(27:10):

You guys, it's one of my favorite things to do. Um, I just did two of them this week for some friends of mine and actually think they're going to be coming on the show soon, and we're going to do some online coaching, so that'll be fun. And then you can kind of see how we walk through that. Um, but I hope you found this valuable again, if you want to do this yourself, you can learn more in the books by Donald Miller marketing made simple and StoryBrand highly, highly, highly recommend them. I know I've mentioned them a lot on the podcast, but StoryBrand is like my favorite thing ever. So, um, that's why I became a certified guide is I want to help people do this in their business. And I would love to work with you if you would just be like, oh, Amber helped me help me. I don't want to do this on my own. I would love to help you create your brand script. So go grab a discovery [email protected] and we can get to work. All right. You guys, thanks for listening to the show today. Would you screenshot this and share it on your Instagram stories and share the love, um, to others who might need to create a brand script and who need to hear this message? I sure would appreciate it. Thanks so much. And I'll talk to you again soon.

(28:16):

Thanks for listening today, friends, and spending a piece of your day with me to get more information on my copywriting and content marketing and messaging services. Go to Amberglus.com. You can also learn more on Instagram with me @AmberGlus until next time go share your unique message with the world.