Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Building a StoryBrand summary
Donald Miller
Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
22 mins
Table of Contents
Building a StoryBrand
summarized in 9 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 9
Your marketing message needs to be clear and speak to your customer’s needs.
If you had to come up with an easy way to increase sales, you might think, “Bingo! New website!”
But a new website, no matter how fancy and tricked out, won’t do the job if you don’t use language effectively.
So how can you harness the power of prose? Well, you’ll need to construct a clear message, one that presents your brand with no room for confusion. This message should communicate three things: Who you are. What you’re here to do. And why a customer should choose you instead of someone else.
If your message is a muddle, potential customers will struggle to decipher what you’re offering and quickly take their business elsewhere.
Let’s say you have a house-painting business, and a customer looking to add a new coat to his house visits your website. You could be the Michelangelo of housepainters, with the sleekest site ever, but none of that will matter if your website doesn’t clearly state that you paint houses.
When creating the perfect message, the best things to consider are the survival-related needs of your customers. How will your product or service help them survive and flourish?
To get you in the right frame of mind, let’s turn to psychologist Abraham Maslow. He devised a hierarchy of human needs, arranging them according to their importance to our survival.
First, come food and drink, and then safety and shelter. Third on the list is our need for companionship: we need both friends and people with whom to reproduce. Finally, we look to satisfy greater needs. These include everything from psychology to spirituality.
These needs can be leveraged to hone your message and entice customers. Most of us want to be accepted and find a partner and belong to a tribe, and everyone has to eat and drink – so use that knowledge to explain how your product will help customers satisfy those needs and thrive in life.
So, to take the housepainter example: focus your message on helping customers have their friends over more often – which speaks to their survival-related need for being part of a tribe. If your house looks rundown, people will be reluctant to visit you!
Want to see all full key ideas from Building a StoryBrand?
Key ideas in Building a StoryBrand
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is Building a StoryBrand about?
Building a StoryBrand (2017) is a practical guide to effectively marketing your company or product. By showing the power of a seven-part story-telling framework, these blinks help you and your company create a clear message that no customer will ignore.
Best quote from Building a StoryBrand
The more simple and predictable the communication, the easier it is for the brain to digest.
—Donald Miller
Who should read Building a StoryBrand?
- Marketing people
- Storytellers
- Leaders and executives
Categories with Building a StoryBrand
Books like Building a StoryBrand
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked
Start growing with Blinkist now
26 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers