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With hundreds of Certified StoryBrand Guides, how do you find the right StoryBrand Guide to help you clarify your marketing and grow your business?
As a leader, you’ve learned from StoryBrand that most companies waste an enormous amount of money on bad marketing. And you know that StoryBrand certifies the world’s best marketers, known as StoryBrand Certified Guides who can help you grow your business.
In the following guide, you’ll uncover:
- What makes a StoryBrand Guide, certified to get you results
- How to find a StoryBrand Guide, that’s a fit for your business using Marketing Made Simple
- How to effectively interview a few Guides
- Three things you should look for when evaluating proposals from a StoryBrand Guide
What makes a StoryBrand Guide, Certified to Grow Your Business?
1/ Trained & Coached by Donald Miller, founder of StoryBrand
Every Guide has been trained and coached by Donald Miller, alongside his sidekicks JJ Peterson and Koula Callahan.
When you work with a Certified Guide, you have a marketer on your team who is qualified to clearly tell a story that will engage and get the attention of your ideal clients.
2/ Certified Guides know how to help you market your business with confidence
The foundation of every successful marketing strategy starts with clear messaging that speaks to the aspirational identity of your customers and every StoryBrand Certified Guide is an expert in bringing clarity to your marketing.
How to find a Certified StoryBrand Guide?
01 The Marketing Made Simple Directory
Finding a StoryBrand Guide, starts with visiting Marketing Made Simple (aka ClarifyYourMessage.com) directory.
The directory makes it easy to find StoryBrand Guides with different areas of expertise and areas of focus, such as copywriting, sales funnels, website design and development, email marketing, and overall digital marketing strategy.
Tips for Using Marketing Made Simple
You'll note, the Marketing Made Simple directory doesn’t have a ranking system - that means, you can’t find a StoryBrand Marketing Consultant who is rated as the best Guide.
Also, if you click 'search', the directory will randomly match you with a few guides. Are these the right guides for you? Probably not.
To find a guide, use the filter option to get matched with the Guides who would be an ideal fit for your business and needs.
Here’s how:
- 01 Search by your location - always good to connect with a Guide nearby. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to meet and work in person
- 02 Use the Filters feature to search by areas of focus such as copywriting, web design
- 03 Budget is another option but it’s not always reflective of your true investment. As much of your investment will depend on what stage your business is in, what is the value of each new client, and what your specific marketing needs are.
02 Ask Google
If your business needs are lead generation, look for StoryBrand Guides who are rank top on Google for the following search terms:
- StoryBrand Consultant
- StoryBrand Guide
- Find a StoryBrand Guide
- Certified StoryBrand Guide
- StoryBrand Examples
- StoryBrand Website Examples
Why?
Most likely these Guides know how to create content that is both clear to people and Google. These are the type of StoryBrand Guides who have proven that they can clarify your marketing but can also get your StoryBrand Messaging ranked on Google to attract more of your ideal clients.
03 Social Media
If your ideal channel for attracting clients to your products and services is through social media, then I’d recommend you find a StoryBrand Guide on your preferred social media who is active, has an engaged following, and publishes engaging content.
Whether your audience lives on LinkedIn or Instagram or Twitter, you can easily find StoryBrand Guides through hashtags such as #storybrandguide #storybrand
How to effectively interview a StoryBrand Guide?
If you’re looking to invest thousands of dollars on hiring a StoryBrand Guide, it's best you schedule a discovery call with at least three different StoryBrand Guides, using the above suggestions to find a guide that could be a great fit for your business.
The introductory call is an opportunity to evaluate whether you and the guide will be a good fit.
Here are the questions we recommend asking the guide during the discovery call.
- 01 What differentiates you from other StoryBrand Guides?
Each Guide has the experience to help a business clarify their message, put those words on a Wireframe, and write sales funnels that could grow your opportunities. But what does the Guide do, that is unique and that provides their clients added value and better results?
For example, at Creativeo, we’re a team of Certified StoryBrand Guides. This means, when you engage us, you get not one, but a team of Guides who will look at your story, messaging, and marketing from different view points. This gives our clients a story that is unique, engaging, and remarkable.
- 02 Ask to see their process
If you’re hiring for a full implementation, ask to see their process from start to finish.
Ask to see an example of the Messaging playbook that will be delivered? What’s included in the final delivery?
Ask to see examples of Wireframes?
What about website design, ask if they use a generic theme or do they build a custom design to match your story, brand, and one that will create the right selling environment for your customers?
Do they exclusively build websites on one platform or are they content management agnostic? Meaning, do they develop custom websites on WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, and Shopify?
What’s included in the website design delivery? Images, technical SEO, Usability, Browser and mobile testing, and page speed optimization?
Does the Certified Guide work solo or do they have a team of designers, developers, and project managers that will be part of your project?
- 02 Challenge the StoryBrand Consultant by asking a direct question about your industry?
While it is important to have industry experience, a broad experience of other industries will allow a StoryBrand Guide to bring new ideas to your business.
During your discovery call, ask the guide to look at your website and marketing and offer you 2 to 3 opportunities on the spot that could make you money.
This is a good way to measure the StoryBrand Consultants ability to think quickly and test their skill of identifying opportunities
- 03 Can they offer you a guarantee?
Success is never guaranteed. For example, a StoryBrand Guide can’t guarantee success if you have no marketing budget to promote your business.
Or, they can’t guarantee you #1 ranking on Google for your most important search term in 3 months.
If they do, be cautious.
But a Guide, in our opinion should prioritize your ROI and be committed to getting you a shocking return on your marketing investment. For example at Creativeo, we guarantee our clients a 3X ROI on their StoryBrand implementation.
How?
We evaluate every potential client to ensure that they have the leadership, drive, product/service, untapped opportunities, and of course, the budget to invest in StoryBrand Marketing.
If we agree to put forward a proposal and take you on as a client, we’re committed and responsible to get you at least 3X return on your investment with us.
For example, if a client invests $10,000, at the minimum we guarantee a 3X return on their investment. If they fail to get at least 3X return within 6 months, we will continue to work with them until they do - yes, for free*.
*This hasn’t happened to this day - as we’re careful who we accept as clients.
- 04 How will the Guide measure the success of your project?
Your team and the Guide you hire, need to be clear on how success will be measured?
Be specific about your key objectives for implementing the StoryBrand framework. As a client, you should have 2 to 3 specific objectives. For example:
1. A concise and clear messaging that invites our ideal customers into a story that matters to them. To measure this, you can look at bounce and exit rate of your home page before and after launching you new messaging, or you can run tests using services like Wynter or UsabilityHub.com and test your new messaging for clarity with your targeted customers.
And, there’s always the famous ‘grunt-test ' – show your website to a few people for 5 seconds, and then ask them if they're able to identity what do you sell, how does your product/service makes their life better, and how they could buy it?
2. A new website that is beautiful, fast, and leads people to take key actions after visiting your site.
A website that works, will keep your visitors engaged, and leads them to take key actions such as downloading a free asset, schedule a call, add a product to their shopping cart, or engage with your live chat.
During your discovery call, you want to look for the following traits in the consultant:
- 01 Do they ask you great questions about your business, goals, and aspirations or do they mostly talk about themselves?
- 02 Is the guide professional in how he conducts and presents himself?
- 03 Can you see yourself working with this guide closely for 30, 60, or 90+ days?
- 04 Is the guide trying to sell you their services or are they more interested in helping you think through opportunities that will help your business?
There are hundreds of StoryBrand Guides, but not all certified guides are the same and not all guides prioritize ROI.
To find a StoryBrand Guide that will be right for your business, take your time in interviewing potential consultants and before you make your final decision, have a follow up call with your top 2 or 3 guides to ensure you are comfortable with their approach, experience, and plan to help you clarify your message so you can engage more customers.
To your success.
