storybrand-messaging-framework

StoryBrand Messaging Framework

Overview

Use this skill to apply Donald Miller's StoryBrand SB7 framework to brand messaging, website copy, fundraising appeals, product positioning, sales pages, and marketing assets. The skill turns a confusing offer into a clear customer-centered story: the customer is the hero, the brand is the guide, the offer solves a real problem, and the next action is obvious.

This is a messaging-clarity skill. It does not validate whether a market exists, set paid-media budgets, or replace customer research.

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when the user asks:

• "Help me create a BrandScript for my business."
• "Clarify my message."
• "Rewrite my homepage using StoryBrand."
• "Does this pass the grunt test?"
• "What is my one-liner?"
• "Am I positioning myself as the hero or the guide?"
• "Write a better CTA, tagline, landing page, email, ad, or pitch."

Core Principle

Clear messaging beats clever messaging. The user must leave with copy that quickly answers: what is being offered, how it improves the customer's life, and what the customer should do next.

Workflow Inventory

Architecture decision: Keep this as a single-file skill. StoryBrand is one tightly coupled SB7 messaging workflow; BrandScripts, website reviews, one-liners, CTAs, and rewrites all reuse the same seven dimensions and usually share the same output assets. Splitting these into subskills would make routing heavier without improving decision quality.

The SB7 Framework

DIMENSION 1: A Character

Rule: The customer is the hero, not the brand.

Key questions:

• What does the customer want?
• Can the desire be stated in one clear sentence?
• Is the copy centered on the customer's ambition rather than the company's story?

Decision criteria:

• One primary desire is visible above all secondary messages.
• The customer's current state and desired future state create a story gap.
• Company history and internal language are removed unless they prove guide authority.

Warning signals:

• The copy opens with company history, credentials, or founder story before naming the customer's want.
• Multiple audiences or desires compete in the same headline, pitch, or page section.
• The offer is framed as what the company does rather than what the customer gets.

Agent instruction: Name the customer's concrete want before writing any brand copy. If the user provides many audiences or goals, ask them to pick the primary buyer for this pass.

DIMENSION 2: Has a Problem

Rule: Customers buy relief from internal frustration, not only solutions to external problems.

Key questions:

• What is the external practical problem?
• What internal frustration, fear, delay, embarrassment, or uncertainty does it create?
• What philosophical "this should not be this hard" statement makes the stakes feel meaningful?
• What force can be named as the villain without attacking a person?

Decision criteria:

• The copy includes external, internal, and philosophical problem language.
• The villain is a problem source such as complexity, waste, risk, or confusion.
• The emotional problem is specific enough to make the buyer feel understood.

Warning signals:

• The message lists features without naming the buyer's practical problem.
• The copy uses generic pain words such as "stress" or "frustration" without context.
• The villain is a person or customer group rather than the obstacle the offer helps defeat.

Agent instruction: Diagnose all three problem levels and choose the one most likely to move the customer. Do not stop at feature-level pain points.

DIMENSION 3: Meets a Guide

Rule: The brand must be the guide, not a competing hero.

Key questions:

• How can the brand show empathy for the customer's struggle?
• What proof establishes authority without bragging?
• Are testimonials, numbers, logos, credentials, or case results available?

Decision criteria:

• Empathy appears before or beside authority.
• Proof is used to reduce buyer risk, not to make the brand the protagonist.
• The copy avoids "we are amazing" language unless tied to the customer's outcome.

Warning signals:

• The brand talks about itself as the hero of the story.
• Authority claims are unsupported or disconnected from the customer's risk.
• Empathy is absent, making proof feel like bragging instead of guidance.

Agent instruction: Write one empathy line and one authority line. If proof is missing, mark it as a gap and suggest what evidence to collect.

DIMENSION 4: Gives Them a Plan

Rule: A confused buyer does not move. A guide gives a simple path.

Key questions:

• What are the 3-4 steps from interest to success?
• What fears or objections need an agreement plan?
• Which step is the customer's next visible action?

Decision criteria:

• The plan has no more than four steps unless the user explicitly needs a complex process.
• Each step uses plain verbs.
• The plan reduces perceived risk.

Warning signals:

• The buyer must infer the process from scattered copy.
• The next step sounds operationally complex or risky.
• The page gives a CTA but no path from action to result.

Agent instruction: Produce a process plan for action and, when trust is low, an agreement plan that names guarantees, standards, or commitments.

DIMENSION 5: Calls Them to Action

Rule: Customers do not act unless challenged to act.

Key questions:

• What is the direct CTA for ready buyers?
• What is the transitional CTA for not-yet-ready buyers?
• Does the CTA use a clear action verb instead of vague browsing language?

Decision criteria:

• Direct CTA is concrete: buy, schedule, start, donate, subscribe, get quote.
• Transitional CTA offers useful value while moving the relationship forward.
• CTA text appears repeatedly where action is natural.

Warning signals:

• The main CTA uses vague language such as "learn more" when the buyer is ready to act.
• The page has many competing actions with no priority.
• Not-yet-ready buyers have no low-risk next step.

Agent instruction: Always output both direct and transitional CTAs unless the channel only permits one.

DIMENSION 6: Helps Them Avoid Failure

Rule: Stakes make action meaningful, but fearmongering breaks trust.

Key questions:

• What cost of inaction is honest and specific?
• What frustration, loss, delay, risk, or missed opportunity continues without action?
• Is the warning balanced with a positive success vision?

Decision criteria:

• Stakes are clear but not manipulative.
• The cost of inaction is connected to the customer's stated problem.
• The copy avoids exaggerated catastrophe.

Warning signals:

• The message never explains why acting now matters.
• The stakes rely on exaggerated fear rather than a credible cost of delay.
• Failure language appears without a nearby success vision.

Agent instruction: Add one concise stakes statement, then quickly move to the success outcome.

DIMENSION 7: Ends in Success

Rule: The brand must paint the customer's successful future.

Key questions:

• What specific result will the customer experience?
• How will the customer feel, be seen, or operate differently?
• What identity does the customer want to step into?

Decision criteria:

• Success language is concrete, visual, and outcome-oriented.
• The outcome is about the customer, not the product.
• The transformation is believable from the offer.

Warning signals:

• The promised result is abstract, such as "better outcomes" or "peace of mind," with no concrete before/after.
• The copy celebrates product usage instead of customer transformation.
• The identity shift is too grand for the offer to credibly support.

Agent instruction: End major copy outputs with a before/after transformation and an aspirational identity statement.

Query Response Framework

Full BrandScript

1. Identify product, customer, desired outcome, and buying action.
2. Fill the seven SB7 elements in order.
3. Flag missing proof, vague customer definition, weak stakes, or unclear CTA.
4. Extract reusable messaging assets.

Website Review

1. Apply the grunt test: what is offered, how it improves life, what to do next.
2. Audit hero headline, subheadline, CTA, problem section, guide proof, plan, stakes, success.
3. Rewrite the highest-impact sections first.
4. Give prioritized fixes, not a generic critique.

One-Liner

Use this structure:

We help [customer] who struggle with [problem] get [solution] so they can [success].

Asset Rewrite

1. Remove company-centered language.
2. Put the customer's problem and desired success first.
3. Add empathy, proof, plan, CTA, stakes, and success as appropriate for the channel.
4. Deliver polished copy plus a short rationale.

Output Format

For a complete messaging request, respond with:

## StoryBrand Diagnosis
- Customer:
- Primary desire:
- Main problem:
- Current clarity issue:

## BrandScript
1. Character:
2. Problem:
   - External:
   - Internal:
   - Philosophical:
   - Villain:
3. Guide:
   - Empathy:
   - Authority:
4. Plan:
5. Calls to action:
   - Direct:
   - Transitional:
6. Failure avoided:
7. Success:

## Copy Assets
- One-liner:
- Tagline options:
- Website hero:
- CTA set:

## Priority Fixes
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

For a narrow rewrite, respond with:

## Revised Copy
...

## Why This Works
- Customer-as-hero shift:
- Problem clarity:
- CTA improvement:

## Remaining Gaps
- Proof needed:
- Customer decision needed:

Critical Reminders

• Treat the BrandScript as a messaging filter, not a decorative worksheet.
• Reduce every offer to one primary customer, one primary desire, and one primary action before writing copy.
• Make external, internal, and philosophical problems explicit when diagnosing weak messaging.
• Always position the brand as the guide: empathy plus authority, never self-hero language.
• Use both direct and transitional CTAs when the customer journey includes ready and not-yet-ready buyers.
• Balance stakes with success; do not use fear as a substitute for clarity.
• For websites, prioritize the hero section, visible CTA, plan, proof, and success picture before lower-page refinements.

CITATION RULES

When making substantive StoryBrand-method claims, cite the quote files if the user asks for sources or if the answer is a formal audit.

Quote files:

• quotes/main-framework-quotes.md — SB7 rules, clarity, guide positioning, plan, CTA, stakes, transformation.
• quotes/storybrand-principles-quotes.md — broader StoryBrand principles and implementation reminders.

Anchor mapping:

• main-framework-quotes.md: #words-sell-things, #brain-drawn-to-clarity, #story-greatest-weapon, #customer-is-hero, #customer-looks-for-guide, #companies-sell-external, #trust-guide-with-plan, #call-to-action-required, #avoid-tragic-ending, #buying-transformation, #if-you-confuse-you-lose, #grunt-test
• storybrand-principles-quotes.md: #story-organizes-information, #brain-survive-and-thrive, #story-makes-music, #think-different-lesson, #hero-in-a-hole, #three-levels-problems, #guide-positioning, #tidal-fatal-mistake, #story-gap-power, #conflict-gets-attention, #villain-focus, #plan-removes-confusion, #two-types-cta, #whats-at-stake, #aspirational-identity, #one-liner-formula, #website-hierarchy

Citation format:

> "Author's exact words here."
>
> - [*Building a StoryBrand*, cited excerpt](https://github.com/simbajigege/book2skills/blob/main/skills/storybrand-messaging-framework/quotes/main-framework-quotes.md#customer-is-hero)

Use only exact quote text from the quote files. If no exact quote fits, cite the closest anchor and state that the analysis is a paraphrased application.