Welcome to the latest edition of PT Reading Corner, our book for today is Building a Storybrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller. In this book, Miller provides a framework to allow you to transform your marketing techniques and become a magnet for customers. The book is separated into three parts, the first one explaining why marketing nowadays tends to be ignored by the average Joe, and the second part expands on Miller’s 7-step framework. Finally, the third section of the book explains how to implement the framework for your own brand to develop a strong and clear message for customers.
Here are a few useful lessons found in this book:
1) Your customer is the hero, not your brand
Miller emphasizes that in order to begin figuring out your message, you need to identify what your customer wants. For physiotherapists, this can be relatively simple, most patients tend to have some sort of injury or condition and want to get better. However, you, as a brand, need to be able to engage your customer and identify their primary ambition. If you want your customers to listen, you have to lay out a clear and precise plan of what you will provide and how you will help them to achieve their goals. If your patient wants to return to a specific task or hobby and you, as a physiotherapist, are unable to clearly outline a plan to help the patient return to their goals, chances are that your client won’t be very satisfied with your prowess as a clinician.
2) Customers need a guide
The role of your brand is to be a guide for clients to overcome their fears and worries and to help them achieve their desires. Physiotherapists will often claim that due to their advanced training, they’re experts in manual therapy or soft tissue release and they have all the tools to solve a patient’s problem. However, the key is to recognize that the story is about the patient and not yourself as a clinician. Miller highlights that individuals will often lose sight of the fact that your brand’s messaging should be related to the success of the customer and not your own. Additionally, your branding should explain how you will change a client’s life. Never assume that they can determine this on their own. You need to explain why physiotherapy, and specifically your brand of physiotherapy can provide a resolution to the client’s needs and explain to them how their life will look when you solve their problem. It is vital that you foreshadow success in your client’s story, so that you keep them motivated with their rehabilitation and help inch them towards success.
These were a couple of the lessons found in Building a Storybrand, which came highly recommended to us by Zak Gabor. We’d like to thank him for the book as it was a wonderful read and we hope you’re able to apply Miller’s framework to develop your own excellent brand.
