Boxcar Writing Labs Resources

Does Your Website Pass the 15-second rule?

brand story business sales storybrand web Jan 04, 2020

According to industry experts, people spend roughly 15 seconds on your website before they decide to stay or leave. Some of them, never to return.

For the ones that walk away, yet still identify as your target audience, what makes them leave?

In the StoryBrand framework, Donald Miller teaches the value of your customer locating themselves inside the story. In his book, Building a StoryBrand, he not only teaches the framework but gives you what he calls a Brandscript to help you rewrite your business’s story from about you and what you offer to a story about your customer and their problem.

In other words, many people—including your ideal customers—are leaving your site because they don’t hear themselves reflected in the story you’re telling.

Knowing your business story, or what I call your Brand Story, isn’t just something business geeks talk about. And that's a good thing. Because...

What is Your Business Famous For?

business content creation content marketing web website Dec 12, 2019

What is your business famous for?

If your business is new, you might have trouble answering this question. Even established businesses have a hard time naming what makes them unique.

But what happens if I change the question and ask:

What do you want to be famous for?

Elevating your narrative begins by taking control of it. Marketing strategist, Kyle Sexton, reminds businesses, “If you’re not telling your story, someone else is.”

Taking control of your narrative begins with starting a conversation when they encounter your website. This starts with a strategic homepage but extends to the pages on your site.

The problem is a lot of businesses aren’t sure what information they should share, so end up offering pages of everything, which causes your prospects to research, scroll, and compare rather than moving them in the direction of buying or working with you.

You can...

Does StoryBrand Live Up to the Hype?

business copywriting web Nov 19, 2019

When I first encountered Building a StoryBrand in 2017, I thought of it as “Donald Miller’s new book.” See, I live in Portland, Oregon, where Miller also lived for over a decade and already had many followers. From his faith-based memoirs Blue like Jazz and A Million Miles in a Thousand Days (my favorite), Miller’s disarmingly witty straight talk about some of life’s most challenging topics—family, identity, and faith—earned him respect even among secular audiences.

So when I decided to check out the book and later what turned out to be his then “new” company, I was amazed. As a former English professor and story geek, I soon discovered Miller had managed to take the meta-concepts of story and convert them for business owners.

In other words, Miller figured out how to give business owners—but often non-marketers—simple tools to create more effective marketing.

Flash forward to 2020, and StoryBrand is a...

Why Your Business Needs an Email Campaign

business email campaign email marketing web website Sep 10, 2019

Not everyone is ready to buy. Some people aren’t even ready to meet you. But lots and lots of people are willing to learn from you.

In another article, I showed you why your business must have a lead magnet—a free resource or gift that lives on your homepage, in exchange for your prospect's email address. Creating a lead magnet is a first step but without an automated email campaign, you don't have a way to continue to build trust with future customers.

Creating an email campaign that nurtures new leads through a series of emails gives you a second chance to make a great first impression. Or perhaps it's more of an opportunity to make a second impression.

And with each email you send, you get to make a third, fourth, fifth impression. It’s no accident that in advertising the word impression accounts for the number of times someone views your content. Impression is also a word that means to leave a lasting mark.

What kind of...

What Happens When You Treat Prospective Clients like Honored Guests

business digital marketing lead generator web Apr 02, 2019

When clients have never met you, it's tough to really convince them that your business or product is not like everyone else's.

But what if instead of trying to show them you're different, you showed them you care.

By being helpful, you're able to show prospective clients that you're here to serve them, not the other way around.

Check out the following tip to help you transform your homepage copy to anticipate your prospective clients problems and learn one real way to provide solutions before they ever meet or buy from you.

And the best part? Being helpful doesn't just make you a good person; it's good for your business.

Transform Your Business into a Story Magnet

business copy email marketing story magnet storybrand web Mar 04, 2019

Have you ever had an important message to share? And you really wanted to get it right?

But with so many ways to start...

And so many ideas in your brain...

When you opened your mouth the ideas seemed to scatter like a bag of marbles dropped along the ground?

Telling the story of your business, narrating your brand, writing emails that convert...these are the kind of riddles that give us all headaches. But I don't believe you have to be a professional writer to grow your business and reach your ideal customers. Especially when you know one. (Yep, that's me.)

If you haven't downloaded my StoryMagnet Guide, you can get it here.

Because when it comes to you and your business, I believe you deserve the tools to...

make communicating your message easier...

reach your ideal clients...

increase conversions...

and grow the business you want.

And the good news is with the StoryMagnet Guide, you're not start from scratch. Nope! Instead, you're using writing tricks...