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Jul 07
outdoor storybrand brandscript marketing

Unleash the StoryBrand BrandScript in Your Outdoor, Hunting or Shooting Sports Brand

By StoryBrand, Outdoor Industry Marketing

In the realm of outdoor industry marketing and branding, captivating your audience’s attention and compelling them to take action is the ultimate goal. However, achieving this outcome can be challenging without a clear and persuasive message that resonates with your target audience. This is where StoryBrand’s BrandScript comes into play.

In this blog post, we will help you understand what a StoryBrand™ BrandScript is and how it can revolutionize your approach to messaging and breaking through the clutter of today’s distracted environment.

Defining the StoryBrand BrandScript

The StoryBrand BrandScript is a framework developed by Donald Miller and his team at StoryBrand. At its core, the BrandScript is a tool that helps businesses craft a compelling and cohesive narrative that engages their customers on a deep emotional level through our brains natural tendency to latch on to a story. It provides a structured approach to clarifying your brand’s message and ensuring consistency across all marketing channels. This is important when making the most of your marketing dollars.

StoryBrand for the Outdoor Industry

Components of a BrandScript

  1. The Character: Every great story needs a protagonist, and in the BrandScript, that protagonist is your customer. By understanding your customer’s desires, challenges, and aspirations, you can position your brand as the guide who will help them overcome obstacles and achieve their goals.
  2. The Problem: Every customer is faced with a problem or a challenge that needs to be solved. Clearly identifying and articulating this problem in your BrandScript allows your audience to connect with your brand on a personal level. It demonstrates that you understand their pain points and are uniquely positioned to provide a solution.
  3. The Guide: As the brand, you play the role of the guide who will help your customer overcome their challenges. Positioning your brand as the trusted advisor who has the expertise and knowledge to lead your customers toward success is essential in establishing credibility and building trust.
  4. The Plan: Once the problem is defined, your BrandScript should outline a clear and actionable plan for your customers to follow. This plan should outline the steps they need to take to overcome their challenges and achieve their desired outcomes. Providing a roadmap instills confidence in your customers and empowers them to take action.
  5. The Call to Action: Every successful brand knows the importance of a compelling call to action. Your BrandScript should clearly define the next steps you want your customers to take. Whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or scheduling a consultation, a strong call to action prompts your audience to engage with your brand and move closer to becoming loyal customers.
  6. Ends in Success: Every hero wants a happy ending. Your BrandScript should define what success looks like if your customer buys your product. What are you helping them achieve?
  7. Ends in Failure: You must also show what the hero is trying to avoid. What happens if they don’t buy your product? What are the negative outcomes?

Benefits of Using a BrandScript

  1. Clarity: The BrandScript framework brings clarity to your messaging by focusing on the core elements that resonate with your audience. By clearly defining your customer’s problem and positioning your brand as the solution, you can communicate your value proposition more effectively.
  2. Consistency: With a BrandScript, you can ensure consistency in your brand’s messaging across various marketing channels. This consistency strengthens your brand identity and fosters trust and recognition among your audience.
  3. Engagement: The StoryBrand BrandScript is designed to captivate and engage your audience by leveraging the power of storytelling. By structuring your message in a narrative format, you can create an emotional connection that resonates deeply with your customers.
  4. Conversion: Ultimately, the goal of any marketing effort is to convert leads into customers. The BrandScript helps optimize your messaging to drive conversions by compelling your audience to take action and make a purchase.

 

IOTR Outdoor Web Design

IOTR StoryBranded Website

 

Crafting a compelling brand message is a critical component of successful outdoor, hunting or firearms marketing. The StoryBrand BrandScript provides a powerful framework that allows businesses to create engaging narratives, connect with their target audience, and drive meaningful results. By defining your customer’s problem, positioning your brand as the guide, and outlining a clear plan of action, the BrandScript empowers your business to tell a story that captivates, converts, and inspires loyalty. Embrace the power of storytelling and leverage the StoryBrand BrandScript to take your brand messaging to new heights.

Jun 23
storybrand hubspot for the hunting outdoor shooting sports

Grow Your Outdoor Company with StoryBrand and HubSpot

By HubSpot, StoryBrand

Creating your BrandScript and getting your sales and marketing teams aligned is a great feeling.

However, a clear message can only take you so far in the digital world. You have to communicate your message to your target audience and have the right tools in place to help you track, optimize and improve over time. 

In this post, I want to highlight how StoryBrand and HubSpot—that when combined, will help your business achieve the growth result you’re looking for. HubSpot is a CRM platform that connects everything scaling companies need to deliver a best-in-class customer experience in one place. HubSpot’s crafted, not cobbled solution helps teams grow with powerful tools but better together.

StoryBrand Sales FunnelWith HubSpot, customers come first, customization is simple, and teams are unified through a connected CRM.

The StoryBrand sales funnel requires four elements to make your website work:

These four elements work to engage your prospects, build trust, brand your message while simultaneously warming your prospect up to the idea of buying from you which turns your website into a 24/7/365 growth engine.  

By combining the StoryBrand sales funnel with HubSpot, you’ll have a powerful marketing program that will grow your business faster and better. It’s amazing to me how so many companies don’t implement this. The ROI over 6-9 months grows to over 5x! 

1. Sales Funnel: Lead Generator, Email Automation Series and Segmentation

HubSpot comes with built-in landing page tools, forms and email automation that make it easy for you to set up and track results. The intuitive interface is simple to understand and segmentation is also easily accomplished by setting up your buyer personas. By utilizing the email automation steps in the StoryBrand sales funnel framework, you can create a 24/7/365 marketing program that delivers qualified leads to your in-house sales team or if you’re more D2c – more contacts for your profitable email marketing program.

2. CRM

HubSpot’s free CRM allows you to organize your prospects, direct leads to members on your sales team, set up meetings, record conversations, set goals, and keep your sales goals on track in realtime. The CRM also includes video integration and integrates with countless ERP systems that most manufacturers rely on. You can also create playbooks that coach your team to maximize their sales process and calls. Another powerful component of the CRM is conversations. Having the ability to chat with your prospects when they are actively searching for solutions is a powerful way to increase sales. In our own studies, we’ve increased direct sales by over 15%. 

Ticketing and Help Desk software for outdoor, hunting and firearms companies3. Data: Understand what’s Working and What’s Not

You can’t track what you can’t measure. One of the biggest mistakes we see companies make when they implement their BrandScripts is that they don’t monitor their website to see if it made any difference. They fail to track an increase in dwell time, leads, and if the bounce rate went down or up. HubSpot brings numerous reporting tools that you can use to steer your growth efforts in the right direction. It helps you create pillar pages that aid in your SEO efforts as well. 

StoryBrand-and-HubSpot-Marketing-Reporting

4. Delight Customers at Scale

With more and more customers demanding better service, you will need to focus on how you deliver your brand’s customer experience. Here are a few vital statistics: 

  1. 90% of Americans use customer service as a factor in deciding whether or not to do business with a company. (American Express)
  2. Investing in new customers is between 5 and 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones. (Invesp)
  3. 49% of American consumers switched companies last year due to poor customer service. (New Voice Media)
  4. 81% of Americans believe that business are either meeting or exceeding their customer service expectations. (American Express)

HubSpot’s Service Hub measures customer experience, helps delight them at scale, and helps customers help themselves. 50% of customers have left a brand for a competitor who was able to stay more relevant and better satisfy their needs. (InMoment)  

StoryBrand is a powerful way to create a message that breaks through the distraction and clutter of the marketplace. Combined with the powerful tools of HubSpot you’ll have a powerful one-two punch to grow your business at scale and achieve the next level of growth. (See these case studies)

If you’re interested in learning how StoryBrand and HubSpot can help grow your business faster and better, please give us a call. We’ll answer any questions you have and give you a few helpful tips to improve your marketing.

Photo credit: Chris Dorsey

Clear Messaging Tasklist for Outdoor, Hunting and Shooting Sports Business Leaders

How much is unclear messaging costing you? 
The following tasklist will help you (the business leader, director or executive) determine if your message is clear. It will help you and your team think about how to make your customer “the hero,” and position your brand as the “the guide” that will revolutionize your marketing.

What you will learn: 

  • Introduction to a 7-part framework to clarify your message
  • Know what to say and what order to say it in
  • Give your team a messaging process that can be implemented across all your marketing materials
GET TASK LIST
Feb 11
shooting-sports-firearms-digital-case-studies

3 “Must Read” Outdoor Industry Digital Marketing Case Studies

By Case Study, Inbound Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Marketing, SEO, StoryBrand

Most marketers looking to start a outdoor industry marketing program for their company in the outdoor, hunting, shooting sports industries are usually met with some resistance from the higher ups.

After all, PR, print, and tradeshow have always been the industry norm. But COVID changed everything. The need for a robust digital marketing program that focuses on D2C sales is essential in the present era. 

If you’re still on the fence about pulling the trigger on the benefits of a cost-effective digital and inbound marketing program and are serious about getting on track to building your digital footprint for the future, now’s a good time to reconsider. 

In this post, I share three case studies that we’ve worked hard on over the past 2 years that received some outstanding results.

12-Month E-commerce Case Study

Garrison Everest was approached by a 2-year old consumer products company who had big growth goals that were having trouble getting traction in the marketplace. Due to the cost of entry to place print advertising—they were looking for other means to make their brand known. 

A rebrand was conducted that included new packaging, logo, and e-commerce website to make their products more appealing and more attractive to prospective buyers. Next, we built out three digital marketing programs that included SEO, email, and industry partnerships. To build brand awareness, the SEO program utilized content and industry writers to build backlinks on popular publisher sites. On-page and off-page optimization was also included. Lastly, we began engaging on social media daily, which added a human component versus a faceless brand image with their followers who in the end, shared the client’s brand goodness with their followers.

 

firearms digital marketing


Results

  • 400% Increase in traffic from the previous year
  • 40% in social media followers across Facebook and Instagram
  • 112% increase in email subscribers 

 The amount invested provided the client with a 624% return on investment. The program paid for itself six times over.

 “That’s like putting a dollar into the stock market and getting six dollars back.”

 

12-Month Influencer Case Study

A mid-growth company was having problems getting its product to penetrate a competitive accessory segment. Print and banner advertising provided diminishing returns, which set them looking for other ways to get more bang for their marketing dollar. Garrison Everest provided an influencer marketing strategy that worked with prominent industry celebrities and social media influencers to raise awareness of their product.

 

Results

  • 9.1 M Impressions
  • 7.2 M Estimated Reach
  • $6.5 CPM
  • 670K engagements

What made this influencer marketing program remarkable was the low CPM. Compare a $6.5 CPM to the cost of placing a banner ad on leading sites where CPM costs can be as high as $25. Influencer marketing provided great value to this company. 

 

24-Month Inbound Marketing Case Study

Faced with growing competition and a changing landscape, a B2B company contacted Garrison Everest to help them differentiate in the marketplace and generate leads and customers online. 

They were already placing large print buys but were not getting good returns, nor were they able to track their results which made them feel like they were throwing their money out the window.   

We started with a comprehensive brand development assignment that led to a website redesign and a 12-month inbound marketing campaign. Over the course of the next 12 months, traffic increased, leads multiplied, and through automation, we were able to nurture those leads into customers. 

The first campaign was so successful that they renewed for an additional 12 months.

 


Results

  • 233% increase in traffic
  • 564 leads
  • 383 new customers
  • 664 additional blog subscribers
  • 225% in social media followers

So does digital marketing work in the outdoor, shooting sports and defense industry? 

Yes, it does— unfortunately banging on this drum is difficult because for most marketers putting all their money towards print, PR and tradeshow is more comfortable. However, with the customer base skewing younger, I would argue traditional is becoming a risky bet. 

Digital marketing is all about daily repeatable tasks. Identify a clear message, the right channels, launch, track, optimize, tweak, rinse, and repeat. 

As you consider this year’s marketing budget, think about what a reliable digital marketing program can do for your company’s growth and the added benefits of a profitable revenue channel that works for you 24/7/365.  

GET MARKETING HELP
Feb 19
storybrand guide

Three Game Changing Takeaways From The StoryBrand Conference

By StoryBrand, Brand Development

I just completed a ground-breaking week-long study on consumer behavior, by Donald Miller, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author, on how to use the power of story to clearly communicate for better results. I wanted to share with you my three biggest takeaways from the StoryBrand Certified Guide Training that is sure to get you thinking differently about your business and how to communicate your brand’s message with greater clarity.

We are at a point in human history where your prospective customers and clients are bombarded with an unprecedented amount of noise and clutter. Facebook ads, phone dings, bings and bops, emails, podcasts, pop up banners, click-bait and unsolicited phone calls and texts have made it difficult to make any money spent on marketing work as good as it used to.

Furthermore, these intrusive methods have made brands untrustful as some companies have tricked customers into buying their products which have driven trust among brands past the point of no return. This barrage of distraction has the potential to stymie your business growth, waste thousands of dollars on marketing that doesn’t work and ultimately bring your business to the precipice.

However, there is a unique proven framework to fight against this to make your marketing work—and it has to do with the power of story. You see, storytelling has been a way to communicate with just about everyone since the dawn of time. It’s the sole reason the 43 Billion dollar movie industry continues to thrive year after year. And when you think about it, it’s the reason we love to sit around the campfire and listen to someone who overcame impossible odds that ended in success. And since story is used to create clarity in our understanding—it’s a perfect tool to infuse into your business and marketing communications that cuts through the clutter, grabs your customer’s attention and ultimately drives more sales. This process has been proven in thousands of businesses including brands like Chik-Fil-A, Pantene, Car Max, Intel, Berkshire Hathaway, and even Presidential political campaigns.

So in the following, I’ll give you my three biggest takeaways from last week’s StoryBrand Conference with some links to some resources that will give you more understanding on the power of story and how to use it to grow your business.

1. People don’t read websites, they scan them.

Website Wireframe

People don’t buy the best products, they buy the ones they understand the clearest. When you’re trying to build your business, clarity beats cute and clever every time. Your website is the hub of all your marketing activities and is the easiest way to track marketing spend. If a prospective customer lands on your website and you can’t spell out to them how you solve their problem within 8 seconds, you lose them. They bounce off and find someone else who can, usually a competitor.

2. Customer’s buy products or services based on internal problems, not external problems.

The difference between an internal and external problem is this:

The external problem is the tangible obstacle your customer has to overcome to get the thing that they want.

Ex. I need a new set of binoculars, mine just busted.”

Because your character is facing the external problem, how is that making them feel internally?

Ex. “I have a big adventure trip coming up and if I don’t have good set of binos I’m going to miss out on seeing all the wildlife.”

See the difference? The internal problem miss out has much more meaning behind it because the results are more tragic than the external problem. Most marketers communicate the external problem and don’t sell the internal problem.

3. Your product/service should show how the customer will transform into something better.

People naturally want to become better. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, become a better speaker, hire a better candidate or grow a bigger business—we all want to be aspire to our future itself. For example, a hunter in the below MTN OPS post wants to become a “conquering outdoor athlete.” For a hiker, it could be to become a “conservationist sojourner.” For a fitness fanatic, it could be to become “the athlete everyone wants to be.” Whatever your customer wants to become—you have to show how your product or service will get them there. Most companies put all the focus on their products benefits and features, not what their customer’s want to become. This doesn’t trigger the emotional responses in the brain needed to help your customer understand how you can help them or move them to the desired call to action.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

@chadmendes taking it all in at last light during his Utah Mule Deer Hunt. | #MtnOps #ConquerMore | @luke.dusenbury

A post shared by MTN OPS (@mtnops) on

By taking the time to clarify your message and figure out these aspects of your messaging, you will be able to transform your marketing and grow your business. In the following weeks, I will be rolling out a series of articles based on story and the StoryBrand process.

If you’d like to check out the book and learn more about the process yourself you can:

You can also schedule a call with me and get a clear plan on how to move forward that will allow you to grow your business more effectively in the age of distraction.

Dec 27
Clarify your marketing message

3 StoryBrand Outdoor Marketing Fixes That Will Save Money

By Outdoor Hunting Shooting Sports, StoryBrand

Whether you’re someone starting a business, a marketer trying to move the needle for your company—or an executive trying to figure out how you can grow more effectively—foggy and confusing marketing is costing you thousands of dollars and keeping you from seeing your way to the top. 

Humans have a tendency to complicate things—especially our marketing materials because we don’t understand how to connect and engage customers correctly. The human brain is drawn to CLARITY and away from CONFUSION. If customers are confused about what you offer, they’ll look past you for somebody who can say it clearly. (Source: StoryBrand)

In the following, I’m going to list three factors on why you are wasting thousands of dollars on marketing and why your marketing is foggy and confusing your customers. 

1. You leave marketing to a designer

Most businesses will approach their marketing material (website, ad, brochure, email, catalog etc.) by looking to a graphic designer or a design agency. This is all well and good, but the problem with this approach is that that designer is not concerned about how to communicate your product or service as much as they should be—they are only really concerned on making your marketing material look amazing.

Don’t get me wrong—amazing visuals are important and graphic designers are extremely critical to your business’ success, but this one-sided approach is not going to grow your business or give you a faster return on investment.

I started my career as a designer back in 1998. Back then and for the next 10 years, I was only concerned (ninety percent of the time) on making a website, brochure or advertisement look awesome for my client. This is what was taught to me in College. “If it looks good, it has to be good,” because at our core, we think like artists, not marketers!  As time went on, I began to wonder why my work wasn’t generating the results my clients expected, especially when data and analytics became more prevalent in marketing campaigns. These lack-luster results lead me on a journey to discover how to communicate more effectively. I wanted to know the secret behind what moved people to buy? I wanted to uncover the key on how to hold a person’s attention long enough to create a memorable brand connection.

What I concluded after almost 20 years of design and then marketing is that people love pretty pictures, but if the words don’t address your prospects fundamental problem—plainly and directly—“you confuse them and eventually lose them.” (Source: StoryBrand) Sounds simple enough; however, you’d be amazed by how so many brands fail to capture this on their websites and every other piece of marketing they produce. 

2. You’re not addressing your customer’s problems

Humans are natural problem solvers. We love to figure out our best friend’s relationship woes, we ponder and argue over politics, we post advice on Facebook about someone’s issue with their dog, and we even seek in our own lives to get smarter, faster, slimmer, or at least be more accepted. This natural human inclination is the first step in understanding how to make your marketing more effective. The more you talk about your customer’s problems, the more you will hold their attention and have greater success in moving them to your desired action.

People who have a deep desire to solve a baffling problem will take to the internet 90% of the time. If your website doesn’t communicate the customer’s problem clearly, when they first hit your home page, you lose.

3. You are not the hero, they are

Another great mistake that is costing you money is that businesses tend to put themselves before their customers in their messaging. They lead with messaging about how great they are, how many awards they’ve won, how superior, their product’s features are and how excellent their team is. That’s all very important, but that information means nothing to a customer who is quickly trying to understand your service or product over your competition. Moreover, to further complicate the issue, in most cases, these customers may not even know or have clearly defined what their problem is! You must put your customer’s problems first, seek to determine the problem and then show them how you solve it. Then and only then, through their journey of discovering who or what can solve their problem (best and for the right price) do you communicate these other great things about your company. So many businesses lose customers because according to the customer, all they knew about your brand was that they were the best at something that meant a lot to them, but not much to the customer.

Wasted marketing dollars take away from your ability to make that next hire, upgrade your equipment, expand office space or save for retirement. Not getting your marketing right is stymieing your growth and success.

By taking the time to clarify your message and figure out these aspects of your story, you will be able to transform your marketing, attract new customers and stand out in the crowded marketplace.

Schedule a call with me, and get a clear plan on how stand out in the crowded marketplace.

 

 

Clear Messaging Tasklist for Outdoor, Hunting and Shooting Sports Business Leaders

CLEAR MESSAGING TASKLIST

Is your brand getting noticed?
How much is unclear messaging costing you? The following tasklist will help you (the business leader, director or executive) in the outdoor, hunting, adventure or shooting sports industry determine if your message is clear. It will help you and your team think about how to make your customer “the hero,” and position your brand as the “the guide” that will revolutionize your marketing.

What you get:

  • Introduction to a 7-part framework to clarify your message
  • Know what to say and what order to say it in
  • Give your team a messaging process that can be implemented across all your marketing materials
DOWNLOAD TASK LIST