Who this guide is for
This guide is for business owners, marketers, and brand strategists who want to understand the StoryBrand framework—what it is, how it works, and how to apply it to build clearer, more compelling brand messaging.
Key takeaways
- StoryBrand is a strategic messaging framework created by Donald Miller that uses the structure of classic storytelling to clarify your brand message and make it more compelling to customers.
- The core insight: your customer is the hero of the story, not your brand. Your brand is the guide. Businesses that position themselves as the hero lose customers; businesses that position themselves as the guide win them.
- The SB7 framework has 7 steps: a character who wants something, with a problem, who meets a guide, who gives them a plan, and calls them to action, that helps them avoid failure, and ends in success.
- Clear brand messaging removes the friction between a prospect understanding your value and deciding to engage. Confusion is the enemy of conversion.
- StoryBrand isn’t just a website exercise—it’s a messaging foundation that applies to every piece of content, every campaign, and every customer conversation your business has.
What’s inside this guide
- What StoryBrand is and why Donald Miller created it
- The full 7-step SB7 framework explained with practical examples
- Why positioning your brand as the guide (not the hero) changes how customers respond
- How to identify the external and internal problems your customers face
- How to build a clear plan and call to action that reduces friction
- How Big Red Jelly applies StoryBrand to brand strategy and messaging
StoryBrand is a strategic messaging framework developed by Donald Miller that helps businesses clarify their brand message using the universal structure of storytelling. The premise is simple and powerful: customers don’t buy the best product or service—they buy the one they can understand. If your messaging is confusing, customers disengage. StoryBrand gives you a clear, proven structure to communicate your value in a way that resonates immediately.
What Is StoryBrand?
StoryBrand—formally the SB7 framework from Donald Miller’s book Building a StoryBrand—applies the structure that humans have used to tell stories for thousands of years to brand messaging. Movies, books, myths, and legends all follow the same basic pattern: a character wants something, faces a problem, meets a guide, follows a plan, takes action, avoids failure, and achieves success.
StoryBrand maps your business onto this structure—with your customer as the hero and your brand as the guide. The result is messaging that is instantly clear, emotionally resonant, and structured to move people from awareness to action.
The 7 Steps of the StoryBrand Framework
1. A Character Who Wants Something
The most common branding mistake is positioning your brand as the hero. Businesses talk about how great they are, how long they’ve been in business, how many awards they’ve won. The problem: your customer isn’t looking for a hero to admire. They’re looking for a guide to help them become the hero of their own story.
Start by defining your customer with precision. What do they want? Not what they need in a generic sense—what specific outcome are they seeking? The more clearly you can articulate your customer’s desire, the more immediately your message will resonate with the right people.
2. With a Problem
Your customer is experiencing a problem that’s preventing them from getting what they want. StoryBrand identifies two types of problems to address:
- External problem: The practical, tangible problem your business solves. A business coach solves the problem of unclear direction. A skincare brand solves the problem of a skin condition. This is what most businesses focus on.
- Internal problem: The emotional experience of living with that external problem. The business owner feels overwhelmed and purposeless. The person with a skin condition feels embarrassed and is withdrawing from social situations. Internal problems drive purchasing decisions far more powerfully than external ones.
The businesses that win are the ones that address both—solving the practical problem while also acknowledging how the customer feels about it.
3. Who Meets a Guide
Your brand enters the story as the guide—not the hero. Think Yoda to Luke Skywalker, or Dumbledore to Harry Potter. The guide has two qualities that establish credibility: empathy and authority.
- Empathy shows you understand the customer’s situation: “We know how hard it can be to find clothing that fits comfortably.”
- Authority demonstrates why you’re qualified to help: years in business, number of customers served, specific credentials, unique capabilities.
Both are necessary. Empathy without authority feels warm but unqualified. Authority without empathy feels cold and inaccessible. Together, they create a guide customers trust.
4. Who Gives Them a Plan
Confusion kills conversion. When customers can visualize a clear process, they are significantly more likely to engage. The “plan” step gives them that clarity—a simple, 3-step path that makes doing business with you feel safe and easy.
Example: “Schedule a call → We develop your strategy → Your brand grows.” The specifics will vary, but the principle is constant: make the path forward obvious and frictionless.
5. And Calls Them to Action
What do you want your customer to do right now? This must be one specific, easy action: schedule a consultation, start a free trial, request a quote, download a guide. A vague or multi-option CTA reduces action. A single, clear, immediate CTA drives it.
6. That Helps Them Avoid Failure
What does your customer lose by not engaging with your brand? Not engaging with a business coach means continuing to feel overwhelmed with no clear direction. Not treating a skin condition means continued embarrassment and social withdrawal. Naming the cost of inaction creates urgency—not through fear-mongering, but through honest clarity about what remains unresolved.
7. And Ends in Success
This is the most important step. Paint a specific, concrete picture of what your customer’s life looks like after working with you. Not “better results”—but specific outcomes. What problem is solved? How does their life change? How have they been transformed? Customers buy transformations, not products. The clearer you can articulate the transformation, the more compelling your message becomes.
How to Apply StoryBrand to Your Business
StoryBrand isn’t just a website rewrite—it’s a messaging foundation that should inform every piece of content your business creates: your homepage, your pitch deck, your sales conversations, your email sequences, and your social media. When all of these communicate the same clear story—with your customer as the hero and your brand as the guide—the cumulative effect on awareness, trust, and conversion is significant.
At Big Red Jelly, brand messaging is central to every brand strategy we develop. We help businesses apply frameworks like StoryBrand to build messaging that actually connects with their target audience and drives action. If you’re ready to clarify your brand story, let’s talk.
Frequently Asked Questions: StoryBrand and Brand Messaging
What is StoryBrand?
StoryBrand is a strategic brand messaging framework created by Donald Miller, based on the principles of classic storytelling. It uses a 7-step structure—known as the SB7 framework—to help businesses clarify their message by positioning the customer as the hero of the story and the brand as the guide. The framework is detailed in Miller’s book Building a StoryBrand and is widely used by marketing teams, brand strategists, and agencies to develop website copy, marketing campaigns, and sales messaging.
What are the 7 steps of the StoryBrand framework?
The 7 steps are: (1) A character who wants something, (2) with a problem—both external (practical) and internal (emotional), (3) who meets a guide (your brand), (4) who gives them a plan, (5) and calls them to action, (6) that helps them avoid failure, (7) and ends in success. The framework mirrors the narrative structure used in successful films and literature because human brains are wired to process and remember information in story form.
What is the difference between being the hero and being the guide in StoryBrand?
In StoryBrand, the hero is the character who wants something and must overcome obstacles to get it—that’s your customer. The guide is the experienced, empathetic figure who helps the hero succeed—that’s your brand. Businesses that position themselves as the hero (talking about how great they are) create subconscious competition with the customer. Businesses that position themselves as the guide (focused on the customer’s journey and success) create trust and alignment. This shift in framing changes how customers respond to your messaging.
How do you build a brand story for a small business?
Start with the SB7 framework: define your ideal customer and what they want, identify the external and internal problems they face, position your brand as a guide with empathy and authority, articulate a simple 3-step plan for working with you, create a clear primary CTA, describe the cost of not engaging, and paint a vivid picture of the transformation customers experience. Apply this messaging consistently across your website homepage, sales conversations, email marketing, and social content.
How is StoryBrand used in website design?
StoryBrand is frequently applied to website copy and structure—particularly the homepage. A StoryBrand-informed homepage leads with the customer’s desire or problem (not the company’s history), introduces the brand as guide with empathy and authority, presents a simple plan, includes a prominent CTA, describes what success looks like, and optionally names the cost of inaction. The result is a homepage that communicates value immediately and gives visitors a clear next step.
