CTC Ep. 38 | Turn Your Website Into a Client-Converting Machine Using StoryBrand

Kris: [00:00:00] Welcome to from Click to Client, where we transform a confusing message into a clear, compelling story that sells. I'm your host, Chris Jones, StoryBrand marketing expert. I'm here to help you attract more dream clients with the power of story.

Hello there. Today we are talking about how to turn your website into a client generating machine using StoryBrand. Your website should act as your top sales employee, and if it isn't doing its job, I am gonna break down the exact structure that I use to fix that for good. I'll be answering rapid fire questions to keep it.

Okay. I'll be answering some rapid fire questions to keep it casual and real, so let's go. Okay. Why do so many good looking websites not work? They don't work because they're not using story to sell. they don't work because they're not clear. So StoryBrand [00:01:00] really helps break down the structure of a story.

So I'm talking about the story that we've told to each other as humans from the beginning of time. This is how we gathered around the fireside way, way, way back when. So that same structure is used in every story you've ever heard, every movie you've ever read to every book that you've ever read follows the same story.

Structure when we walk into a movie theater and the lights dim and we get pulled into the movie and for 90 minutes, we do not get distracted. We don't look at our phone, we don't go to the bathroom. We don't go get popcorn. We are fully immersed in this movie. So if story has the power to capture our attention in that way, why wouldn't we also use

the power of story in our messaging on our websites, wherever we talk about our business, we should be doing it using the structure [00:02:00] of story. So a website might be really beautiful, but it might also be beautiful and not work to get you new clients. and there are a lot of reasons for that, but the main ones are:

there's no story being told. When I look at a lot of websites online or my potential client's websites, we look at their website together, often there's no story being told at all, and on top of that, the messaging is, is unclear. I am left when I'm reading the website with more questions than answers, and we never want

to make our website visitors work to figure out what it is that we do, how we can make their life better. What's the one big problem that we solve for our clients? What's the transformation we provide? What, what's the next step that they need to take to work with us? So kind of a, blanket answer to that question.

Why do so many good looking websites not actually work. It [00:03:00] really comes down to story, no story being told and really confusion. too many words.Lack of clarity, trying to cover too much territory with the website. The website is, is really, I liken it to like a first five

minute coffee date. It is not your resume. It is not your life's background. It is a first five minute coffee date meant to create enough interest and enough intrigue in order to get them excited about taking that next step with you. We've, in order for them to wanna book a call with you or buy your offer, we've gotta build trust.

We've gotta cultivate connection. We have to establish resonance. And story is the most effective tool to create all of that. And so that's why I use it in, everything that I do, both for my own business and for my clients' work. Okay. the next question, can you share a story of someone who spent a [00:04:00] ton and still got crickets?

Yes. a lot of clients come to me after they've spent thousands of dollars. I had a, a client recently who had spent about over $20,000 on a website redesign. She hired a really gifted designer, and honestly, the, the site looked beautiful, like the color palette was gorgeous. the stock photos were really pretty. Even the font treatment was really nice. But when we moved through the site, it was really clear. There was just no story being told. And this is a really, difficult moment that I have with. My clients when they've forked over a lot of money, to revamp their website, but yet they thought the issue was design, that if their website looked better, they would get more clients.

But ultimately, even when it looks better, it's not gonna work to get you clients if it's not telling a story. So essentially [00:05:00] she worked with me and we were able to work with the original design and infuse a story into the design. So in the end, she had a beautiful website, but she also had a really powerful and compelling story.

And then immediately just people started responding, clicking on that call to action. I mean, the whole goal is to get people to click on the call to action and, and those people need to be "right fit" clients. So there's a lot that goes into it. But ultimately, when you tell a really powerful and compelling story, and you pair that with beautiful design, beautiful, wonderful, magical things happen, and your business is able to grow pretty effortlessly. Okay. the next question is, what even is StoryBrand? Like, what is it? What if, what if you've never read the, the book Building a StoryBrand? Um, most business owners, most coaches, most most consultants are somewhat familiar with it or have, have heard the term before. [00:06:00] But I'm gonna give you the really quick, you know.

thirty second overviews so you really understand what it is. And I touched on this earlier. Essentially there's a formula for every story that's ever been told. And when I say formula, that can kind of have a negative connotation to it. But really when you think of, The amount of movies that have been made that are so dramatically different from each other, right?

The, the, the same movie has never been made twice, and even though all movies follow the same story formulas, so there's, there's limitless, limitless creativity that can happen within the framework. But when somebody tries to make a movie and abandons the framework or abandons the formula, the movie flops, and so again, why not [00:07:00] capitalize on a framework that that has the power to capture the human brain's attention in the most effective way.

So StoryBrand really breaks it down. really in a nutshell, every story you've ever heard begins with a character or a hero that has a problem they don't know how to solve. They're out and about trying to find somebody who can help them solve their problem. And that's when, about a third of the way into the, to the movie or the story, there is a guide that comes into the picture. And the hero meets the guide. The guide knows how to overcome this problem. And the thing I want you to remember here is that you're the guide and your clients are the hero of the story. And so your job is the guide, is to really break things down for them. You wanna encourage them to take action because you know, if they don't do anything.

Nothing's gonna change. They have to take action in order to reach their transformation. And so as the guide, your job is to really [00:08:00] break it down for them and give them a very simple three step plan. Step one is the call to action. Step two is engaging in work with you as a coach. And step three is the happy end result. Our brains wanna know.

When is that happy end result gonna happen? Like, where's the carrot at the end of all this? Where's the end goal? And so the plan reassures them, okay, all I have to do is step one, two, and three until I get my happy end result. So your job as the guide is to step in and have just so much empathy. So much empathy for your client, and you get it right.

You've either overcome this struggle yourself, or you've helped other people. A lot of other people overcome it, so you just show up with a lot of empathy, some authority. You give them a plan. The plan is the thing when they read it, like they've been stuck in their problem for a long time, and so. They're, they're feeling a little bit discouraged and [00:09:00] the plan, when they read it, they have this internal thought, which is, "I can do this." "This is not as hard as I thought it was gonna be". And when they have that internal thought, they click on your call to action. Everything we do on your website is in service of clicking on this call to action. That's how we know the website's working. People are clicking on your call to action, so the plan encourages them and inspires them to click on the call to action. Now, the last step in every story is really about stakes. Stakes just mean there's success to be had and there's also failure that's possible. And we wanna create a nice, healthy tension between those two things. So we pull them through and we keep them engaged in the story through stakes. And so we wanna go heavy on success and really continually remind them what's in it for them, how they're gonna benefit from it, from solving this problem and working with us.

But we also wanna gently put our hands on their back and we wanna just say. If you do [00:10:00] nothing, here's the truth. You're gonna keep, you know what's gonna happen if, if you do nothing, right? That's really the the question I want you to answer in that stake section. What happens for them if they don't do anything?

They don't make any changes, they don't solve this problem, and so it might mean continued overwhelm. It might mean eventual burnout. It might mean missing out on profits. it might mean staying at a weight that they're not comfortable with or that that's not healthy for them long term. So those are the components of a, of any story, brand story and actually any story you've ever heard.

and it's incredibly powerful. Again, our brains are really wired for it. And so Donald Miller. Kind of broke the story framework down in a way that business owners could then apply it to their own businesses. And let me tell you, when I adopted the framework in 2017, magical, magical things started happening both for my own business, but [00:11:00] more importantly for my clients and I watched them like book, like a record breaking amount of lead calls. I watched them increase their rates. there was a client of mine who increased his rates six times, and didn't, didn't change the amount of work he was doing, he was just showing up, really connecting with potential clients and really showing his value.

And that's the other thing that happens when we tell a very compelling story and we're very clear about the problem that we solve. people are so relieved that they found us, oh, I found the right person. This is the person that I know is going to help me overcome this challenge. And so they're happy to pay what you're worth. Okay. Next question. Why does flipping the script client as hero, you as guide, change everything? So. what happens when we do this? Number one, I wanna, I wanna say this, the weakest character in every story is the actual hero. Um, we don't know if the hero's gonna succeed or if they're [00:12:00] gonna fail, and so they're not the strongest character in the story.

The strongest character in the story is the guide, and that's why you wanna position yourself as the guide. Famous guides are like Yoda, Mr. Miyagi Hamit in Hunger Games. So you really wanna show up as the guide. And when a potential client comes to your website light, they are wanting to. Feel a connection.

They're wanting to understand what it is you do, how you can help them. And when you position your client as the hero, you're showing them that they matter to you more than anything. Their struggles matter to you. Their success matters to you, and it matters so much that you make them the central character in your story.

Yes, you are part of the story too. You are the guide and that's a, the, the most important role. But we want our heroes to feel seen. We want them to feel heard. We want them to feel like they're not alone in their struggle. [00:13:00] And when we do this, then they automatically think that the best ones to fix it. So there's, there's incredibly wonderful things that happen when you

position your clients as the hero and yourself as the guide. All of a sudden they look at you with respect and trust and connection, and they feel like, of course I finally found the person that's gonna help me. What happens when a coach makes themselves the hero of their own story?The quick answer to this question is, you know, the number one I just wanna share, this is like 99% of the websites on the internet right now.

Most coaches, most business owners are making themselves the hero of their own story, and I, I totally understand why this happens. You think. I've gotta get my website up. I've, I've got a business, I've gotta get clients. I've gotta, you know, crank out a website. So you get on [00:14:00] Squarespace or Wix or Kajabi or whatever and you throw it up and you kind of follow their template. But the thing about those builders, which I really like all those builders actually, but the templates that they provide you, encourage you to position yourself as the hero. And they don't do this to be mean. They just do this because they're not in the business of strategic websites.

They're in the business of a, a pretty website. So they wanna make it easy. Here's the template, throw it up, Fill in the blanks and done and done. The problem is you end up with a website that I call it like a brochure website because it doesn't actually inspire anyone to take action.

It kind of just sits there like a bump on a log wasting wifi, and that doesn't help you grow, right? That doesn't get you clients. So I know you want an effective website and. When you position yourself as the hero, you're actually, your website won't be as effective because you're painting yourself as the weakest character in the [00:15:00] story, and your potential clients can't envision themselves engaging with you because there's only room for one hero in every story.

So if you have taken that role and then you have a hero coming to your website, they're like, oh, that role's taken. I can't. I can't picture myself here. And what happens is a lot, I mean this, most of this happens unconsciously, but they come to your website and they're like, "huh, seems like a credible coach, but I'm gonna keep looking" because they aren't feeling that connection, they're not feeling that trust.

They can't see themselves in your story because you are the hero of your own story. So. I really, again, just wanna double down on as a coach or as a consultant, you've got to position your clients as the hero and yourself as the guide if you want your website to work. Okay. we'll do a few more questions and then we're gonna sign off for today.

Let's talk about the header of your website. So this is really that area of the website that shows up right when somebody comes [00:16:00] to your page. in this section, you've got about five seconds to communicate. What do you do? How's it gonna make their life better? And what do you want them to do next? So this might like look like, coaching for women over 40 that, are struggling with weight loss, or you really wanna identify what do you do?

And that would be coaching or consulting or a group program or a course. What is it? What is it? You know, what is it? Define that, and then who's it for? So we wanna identify our hero, and then we wanna very clearly show them what's in it for them. How are they gonna benefit from this? So it might mean, you know, work less, make more, or finally fit into your favorite jeans.

Like, what, how are they gonna benefit from that? Lengthen your life because you're gonna be more fit, whatever it is, right? We wanna, we want to reassure their brain that they're gonna benefit from this. And then [00:17:00] the most important thing is the call to action. What do you want them to do next? And so often, I was just reviewing some websites today, the call to action was at the very bottom of the page. And I had to scroll all the way down to find it. You want that call to action to be right up on the front, right in the header area, and ideally in the upper right hand corner of your website. That's the most valuable real estate on your entire webpage. So the call to action needs to be there, and when I talk about a call to action, I could talk about this for another 30 minutes, but the call to action.

It needs to show them what you want them to do next. For most coaches, this would be book a call, book a discovery call. And I would say that's probably the most common one book a discovery call. But we really wanna rethink that call to action. So how can we. Make it more compelling. How can you integrate a benefit into the call to action?

So for example, [00:18:00] I used to have on my website book a clarity call. Not bad. It was fine. When I changed the wording to book a Money-Making Messaging Call, all a sudden I started getting a lot more calls booked. And that's because I wove in. A benefit to it. And it's true, they do get that benefit from getting on the call with me.

They learn how to craft a story and tune up their website so it makes them more money. So what's a benefit that you could offer in your call to action in booking a call with you? Are they gonna get clarity on the, the roadmap to. weight loss or are they gonna get some other kind of strategy? Are they gonna get a growth strategy?

Are they gonna going to, clean out the clutter in their home? Are they gonna become a better parent? So, you know, if it's a parenting call, for example, if your ideal clients are parents, There's a, there's a website that I did for a client who helped women co-parent with [00:19:00] calm and peace. And I wanna say her call to action was like, book a, a co-parenting strategy call.

And so what that did was it help people understand that this is not just a call that they're gonna get sold on. Like they're not gonna show up to this call and just be sold to. They're actually gonna get value from the call. And so we wanna be honest, of course, we really do wanna give value. We also on the call, want to, I think both people wanna understand like, would this be a good fit for working together?

And I think that that's a fairexpectation, but also we wanna give value to them. So when you name your call to action, make it short, make it concise, but weave in a benefit Like book a call versus even book a strategy call. Like if I know I'm gonna get some kind of strategy on the call

That word has so much more value in it than just a book a call. So when they land on your website, what do you do? How's it gonna make [00:20:00] their life better? And what do you want them to do next? If you can accomplish those three things in under five seconds, you have done the most important work on your website.

Kris: All right. That is all for today. In the next episode, we're gonna go over more questions and go even deeper into StoryBrand. So I want to thank you for being here today. Is your website turning away Potential clients? I can help you turn that around. Book a moneymaking messaging call with me today and we'll transform your story into your most powerful sales tool. That's all for this episode of From Click to Client. Don't forget to subscribe and follow. I'm Chris Jones and I'll see you next.