STOP BLAMING ADS!

The #1 Reason Your Campaigns Don’t Convert
(And How to Fix It With Better Messaging)

If you’re tired of spending money on ads that just don’t convert, it’s time to quit blaming the algorithm and make your brand messaging work smarter.

(This is the method the world’s most successful brands–& the most lucrative small businesses–use.)

Here’s what implementing just one of the strategies in this method did for Thomson Reuters, the global leader in providing intelligent information for legal, finance and media:

Do you think your business is too small for the tactics a huge brand like Thomson Reuters uses to work on your brand? 

Here’s one of my clients, Ulle, an ADHD coach. 

Her pipeline is filled with people wanting to be on her waitlist. Check it out 👇 

And the kicker? 

The ONLY thing we did for her business was to get her brand messaging super crisp and clear. 

She’s NOT running any ads, she has NO mailing list and she DOESN’T even have a social media presence. 

Truth be told, she’s actually taken a pause on her coaching business for the time being and is focusing on her family instead. 

Yet the leads keep pouring in on their own. 

Her messaging is doing all the heavy lifting and getting the attention of her ideal clients. Which is exactly what it’s supposed to do. 

How can you do the same in your business?

By simply getting your brand story straight in a few simple steps. 

(Don’t worry, I’ll show you the step-by-step below.👇)

BUT FIRST…

Just think for a second about what it would mean for you if you could explain what you do in your business in a way that makes people beyond excited to work with you–right there and then?

What would it mean for you to 2x or even 3x your current conversion rate?

Wanna do the math? 

Go on, I’ll wait.

Beyond more clients, what would the extra income allow you to do? 

🌴 Travel more? 

👩‍❤️‍👩  Retire your loved ones? 

😴 Just take some time off and do nothing?

Let me explain how this works

By having implemented the Straight Story Method for my customers over the last 7 years, here’s the impact my customers have been able to have: 

👉 Jenn, an architect and online course creator increased her conversion rate for her signature course by 2x after we implemented my 5-step method on her brand and sales page;

👉 Ulle, an ADHD coach started getting warm leads into her inbox the moment we put her website live WITHOUT any ads or even social media presence, relying on messaging alone

👉 A B2B software development agency increased the number of leads they got with their new messaging by 45% as compared to their old messaging (source of comparison: website analytics).

With this method you’ll get:

✅ Increased conversion rates on your website or landing page for your service offerings. Honing in on your messaging can easily 2x or 3x your conversion rates.

✅ Increased confidence. You know how to talk about your business so that people stop and listen. Whether you’re at a networking event, on a stage or on someone’s podcast. You’ll never meander again. 

✅ Decreased micromanagement. With my Brand Story Guidelines, you can say goodbye to micromanaging your content team! They’ll just know how to write content for your brand — because they have a comprehensive resource to always go back to.

✅ So many ideas for content you can’t even… my no-brainer framework helps you know exactly what to talk about and craft copy that sweeps your ideal customers right off their feet over and over again. On your sales pages, social media posts, emails… 

✅ Clarity on how to take your business to the next level. It would be a mistake to underestimate just how powerful getting clear on your brand story can be. It’s not just about the words — it’s the foundation of your whole business. Through this framework, you’ll gain absolute clarity on your business direction and how to get there. 

And you can say goodbye to the “dread of the blank page”, too! 

All because of crafting a simple, coherent brand story that aligns your message, your values and your offer into a compelling narrative that your ideal audience just GETS.

They’ll read the copy on your website, your posts on your social media or even your sales messaging and go:

“Well I’ll be damned, I didn’t know anyone could just GET me like that.”

This TRIED AND TESTED method has helped coaches and consultants boost their conversion rates by 50-100% or even MORE and bring them more sales with less effort. 

This method will help you sell:

👉 Signature coaching programs

👉 Consulting packages

👉 High-ticket digital courses and memberships

👉 Low-ticket digital products

👉 Done-for-you services

👉 Retainers and other long-term support packages

THIS METHOD is what will set your business apart, giving you the clarity, confidence and conversions you need to grow and scale. 

But this ONLY works if you have achieved some traction in your business already (have made at least a few sales, have some target-audience followers on social media or even a small email list etc) and you’re genuinely looking to make a real difference in your customers’ lives. 

The thing is, this method puts your customers first and looks for ways your products can genuinely solve their biggest pains. 

Not just to make you a quick turnover but to truly help them make the change they’ve been dying to make. 

For big egos looking for sleazy pressure tactics, this will be a painful process.

The Straight Story Method will solve 3 big problems for you if you’re looking for sustainable growth:

Your messaging leaves your potential customers confused or uninterested. You struggle to communicate your value clearly, so you’re getting crickets instead of conversions.

The Solution: By simplifying your message into a clear, compelling statement that highlights your unique value, your audience will instantly understand what you do and why it matters. You’ll start seeing  more engagement and sales.

“My brand blends in. I’m struggling to stand out in my industry.”

Your messaging feels generic and kind of ‘blah’. Your customers have a hard time understanding why they should choose you instead of the competition.

The Solution: By focusing on what makes your brand truly unique and articulating it with a distinct voice, your messaging will stand out in any crowded market. Yes, even if you’re a life coach. 

“I’m wasting money on marketing that doesn’t bring results”

You’re spending time and money on ads, content, and campaigns, but the investment is just not reflected in your leads and sales numbers.

The solution: By aligning your messaging across all platforms and ensuring every word speaks directly to your ideal audience, your marketing efforts become consistent, effective and optimized for results.

​You will never be able to build a successful brand if you’re not crystal clear on what you want to say to your customers. 

But fear not!
All you need is to get your story straight.

With the Straight Story Method, your brand’s story will become the driving force of your business.

• No more explaining to your customers what you do
• No more hard sells
• No more blending in with your competition
• No more worrying about how to pitch your business
• No more wondering what to talk about in your content
• No more micromanaging your marketing, design and content assistants because they’re missing the mark with your brand’s tone of voice, leaving you to redo their work.

Just a Straight Brand Story that will call in your ideal clients because they just “get it”.

After doing this for 7+ years, here’s what I know works best:

The Straight Story Method

The best-kept secret in marketing and sales is that you’re not actually selling anything. 

All you’re doing is changing the story your customers tell themselves about what they can or can’t achieve.

You’re offering a new narrative to them. 

And here’s how you can craft this unique, transformative story for your brand and your customers: 

💡 Pro tip: At this point, you can grab a pen and paper if you want. However, I’ve found that speaking your answers to the questions in the below sections into a voice recorder app on your phone can be even more beneficial.

You can simply blab away, not leaving anything out and not censoring yourself in any way. You can then play your answers back to yourself later and pick out the answers that resonate the strongest.

Or, say the question, then speak your answers straight into your favourite AI chat, then ask it to respond with a refined version of everything you said.

Easy-schmeazy!

STEP 1: The Brand Beacon

We all stand for something. So do you and so does your brand. If you want the right people to find you then you must get clear on the core of your business—what you stand for, why you exist, and how you create impact. This is your brand’s guiding light. When you shine your beacon clearly, the right people will find their way to you.

What to do:

Define your brand’s “Why” and core values, setting the foundation for everything that comes after. Get clear on your vision and mission.

Why it matters:

• 74% of consumers make purchasing decisions based on a brand’s values (Cone Communications). A clear “Why” and core values help ensure your messaging aligns with what people truly care about.
• A strong, purpose-driven brand story not only resonates emotionally with customers but also drives 61% higher purchase intent (Harvard Business Review).

Action:

• Question 1: What is the deeper reason behind why I started my business?
• Question 2: What is it that I’m working towards in my business that, if it were true, I believe that the world would be a better place? (See example below)

Outcome: You’ll create a solid foundation for your messaging with a clear vision and values statement that reflects your business’s true essence

EXAMPLE

One of my clients, Jenn, is an architect with 20 years of experience in designing and building homes for her clients. She has also been running her own residential architecture and design practice as an entrepreneur for the past 12 years.

When we started working together, Jenn was a little confused about who her ideal audience was (more on that in the next section) and so was unsure of the value she could offer to her clients. 

So, the first thing we did together was dive into her values system and start uncovering what makes her tick, what the non-negotiables in her business are and define her overarching values system. 

What I love about this step is that with the right questions (like the ones above), it becomes easy for my clients to just talk about what they believe in and what they hope for when it comes to their business. After that, it’s simply a matter of putting the pieces together.

Here’s what I came up with for Jenn: 

Deeper Meaning: I work towards making sure that everyone lives in an environment that adapts to their needs and supports their life journey.

I Believe Statement: I believe that if everyone lived in an environment that supported them and adapted to their needs at every stage of their life journey, the world would be a better place. 

Do you know what the real beauty of defining these aspects of your business first is? It’s that your business is built on something much more substantial than your current services offering. By defining these, you don’t yet need to worry about exactly what you do or how you do it or whom you’re doing it for. 

So if the what or the how goes out of style or the who doesn’t need your services any longer, you simply go back to your deeper meaning and “I believe” statements and redefine your strategy and tactics. But you won’t need to start re-imagining your values, what you stand for or the change you want to see in the world. 

This is what I call a Brand Beacon.

Step 2: The Audience Compass

You’re not just looking for any customers—you’re seeking your people. The right people will not only be the ones who need what you have to offer and are willing to pay for it but are also the ones who are a joy to work with. The Audience Compass helps you navigate the crowded market and pinpoint the exact audience who will resonate with your brand.

P.S. As scary as it may feel to exclude certain people from your target audience, remember that an estimated 5.3 billion people are online worldwide. Getting clear on which of these internet users are your ideal audience will not only make your brand stand out but also make running your business much easier and much more fun. 

What to do:

Understand your ideal client by creating a clear persona that outlines their needs, goals, pain points, and desires. Focus on both demographics and psychographics to create a full picture.

Why it matters:

• 67% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from brands that understand them (PwC).
• Customer personas lead to 2-5x higher engagement because they ensure you speak directly to what your clients want and need (HubSpot).

Action:

• First: Look around among your social media followers or past clients, or check out your closest competitors’ followers. Who are they? What do they look like? What do they sound like? What do they like to talk about? What do they care about? Whom do they follow? What common denominators can you find in their gender, age range, interests and other factors? Play the detective for a few days. Write all of your findings down.
• Then: Now think about which of these people you would actually like to serve. Sometimes we tend to forget that part of building a deliberate business is also deliberately choosing whom it brings us joy to work with. Just because someone could benefit from working with us, doesn’t mean we necessarily want to work with them. Perhaps it’s a worldview thing or just a gut feeling. Whatever it is, you’re the boss and you decide. What can you add about your ideal ideal audience to your customer research? What’s their common denominator? 
• Finally: based on your research, define your customer’s transformation. Write your answers to the following questions:
  • What deeper need does my offering fulfil?
  • What fundamental shift or transformation do I facilitate for my customers?
  • What does a “before” and “after” state for my customers look like when they work with me?

This third step is to help you further hone in on the kinds of people you would like to serve, as well as where to find them and what words to use to approach them.

Outcome: You’ll develop a clear persona of your ideal client, ensuring your messaging is tailored to their needs and resonates with them.

EXAMPLE

Let’s continue with our story about Jenn, the architect. 

As you remember, by this point, we had gotten clear on her brand’s deeper meaning and ‘I believe’ statements. 

It was now time to figure out her ideal audience.

When we started working together, Jenn told me that she had been trying to get a more scalable online education platform going and had been focusing on homeowners as her primary audience. She had created a wealth of materials and courses, teaching homeowners the ins and outs of the design and build process, trying to make it easier for them to manage their home build process. 

However, the conversions on her online products were extremely low, and she was getting disheartened. Not to mention that she felt like she was having to explain to her audience why they should care about educating themselves about the home building process in the first place. Most of them were working with professional architects and designers anyway. 

So, the first thing I did was dive into the profiles of her most avid fans on her growing social media following. It didn’t take me long to discover that Jenn’s most loyal, active, and easily converting clients were none other than other designers and architects (simply a few steps behind her in experience and skill).

Enriched with this knowledge, we ran a customer survey with her existing audience and figured out that most of her ideal clients were struggling with the following: 

1. filling up their client pipeline

2. confidently presenting their rates, and

3. navigating the design and build process with their clients with ease. 

I took everything we had learned and created an ideal client avatar with Jenn’s ideal client’s demographic (age, location, education etc) as well as psychographic data (needs, values, fears, aspirations etc). 

From there, it was easy for us to define the fundamental shift and transformation for her clients.

In short, it was:

“From feeling overwhelmed and uncertain, with impostor syndrome ever-present in their minds and constantly struggling to make ends meet, afraid they will soon have to take a 9-to-5 job.” 

“To a confident designer acing their client projects from inception to delivery. Their attention to detail and stellar delivery of results for their clients perpetuates a cycle of word-of-mouth recommendations, keeping their business not only sustainable, but thriving.” 

Step 3: The Magnetic Narrative

Your brand’s story is not a simple sales tool. Your brand’s story is where everything about what your brand stands for, which customers you work with and what you help them achieve comes together.

It’s the single most powerful tool in your business because this is the narrative you wish your customers would tell themselves instead of what they’re telling themselves now.

This step helps you craft messaging that’s not just heard, but deeply felt—so your audience connects, engages, and takes action.

What to do:

Craft a compelling brand story that positions your customer as the hero, with your brand as the guide that helps them achieve their goals. This story should be simple, direct, and centered around your clients’ transformation.

Many brands make the mistake of thinking that in order to impress their clients, they need to display themselves as the hero first and foremost (e.g, “We’ve been in business since 1979” or “We’re the biggest manufacturer of XYZ in the region.”).

This is a mistake because our clients are looking for solutions for their problems, not other heroes. It’s just brain science.

Why it matters:

• 92% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that offer a personal connection (American Express). A compelling brand story fosters emotional connections, which makes customers feel understood and valued.
• Storytelling-driven marketing can increase sales by up to 23% (Psychology Today), proving how critical it is to align your story with your audience’s desires.

Action:

• Question 1: What specific problem are my customers facing as it relates to the area of my expertise?
• Question 2: What does my customer (the hero) want most? 
• Question : What’s my specific solution to help my hero overcome their problems?
• Question 4: How can I position my brand as a helpful guide in my hero’s journey, helping them to overcome their biggest challenges but always keeping them in the limelight?

💡 Pro tip: Consider how you can lead with empathy first (understand where your customers are now), then bring in your skills, education and experiences to build the trust that you know what you’re talking about. 

Outcome: You’ll have a powerful and magnetic brand story that’s client-focused, clear, and actionable, driving engagement and connection with your audience.

EXAMPLE

For Jenn, the architect, I came up with a story that was directly built on her ideal customer (see Step no 2) and her overall vision for her brand impact (see Step 1).

Here’s a super condensed version of the story that I later expanded on to use on her website, her landing pages and other marketing materials:

Hero. Jenn’s hero (a woman in her mid-30s with her budding design practice) wants to have a full pipeline of high-paying clients who understand the value of the services she offers. She wants to ace her projects from start to finish like a pro, and feel confident covering not just the necessary but also offering her clients an incredible experience while working with her. She has a vast tool kit and can offer her clients a true 360-degree service while always going the extra mile.

Problem. Her biggest problem is imposter syndrome. She feels inadequate and not good enough when comparing herself to others. It’s robbing her of the confidence she needs to build the company of her dreams and is keeping her stuck working with clients that rob her of her joy. She’s thinking of throwing in the towel altogether.

Guide. Jenn understands that the world of architecture and design can be intimidating and the prospect of starting or growing your own design practice can be truly daunting. She nearly failed architecture school because for her the experience was soul-sucking and didn’t allow her individuality to come across. She knows the industry hasn’t changed much so she wants to help heart-led designers achieve their dreams through building their own unique design practices. Having been in the residential design & build industry for 20 years and built her own company over the past 12, Jenn knows exactly what goes into building a successful design business that keeps her calendar booked at least 6 months in advance. 

Solution. That’s why she’s built a platform for architects and designers where she shares her pro tips on building a unique and thriving design practice, teaches some of the best (and least-known) skills an architect/designer should learn to enable them to immediately increase their earning potential, shares her vast experiences on how to run projects from design to build to delivery and much more. 

If you can write a similar core story for your brand, you will always (always!) have enough context to create new offerings in your business that speak to your ideal customers’ core needs. You will also never run out of angles to address in your emails, blog and social media content, PDF guides and anywhere else.

Here’s a few reasons why this method works to easily attract your ideal clients:

1. 🧠 It’s optimized for human psychology. Our brains are selfish because they’ve evolved to ensure our survival. By shifting the narrative away from your brand’s self-promotion and towards the client’s aspirations and challenges, you tap into their deepest desires for transformation and problem-solving. Remember, you’re the guide, not the hero. 
2. 🏋️‍♀️ It does the work for you. By focusing on your core values and your customers’ needs, you build genuine trust. People connect with people and brands whose values they align with, and that makes them want to work with you. It also turns away those whose values don’t align with yours. This makes your marketing dollars work even harder and prevents you from wasting your breath on the wrong audiences. 
3. 🤔 You never have to wonder again what to say. This method gives you a clear story to tell. Your ideal customers understand exactly what you offer and how it helps, making it easy for them to say “yes”. And what’s more, you can stop hovering over your team, too. Just show them your brand story and they’ll finally understand how to create your blog posts, social media entries, ad campaigns, landing pages and marketing collateral without you having to micromanage everything. 

By using this method, you’ll create a brand that not only stands out but also connects deeply with your ideal customers, drives higher engagement, and ultimately converts like never before. 

You’ll build a foundation rooted in purpose and values, attract the right clients through tailored messaging, and craft a compelling brand story that transforms how your customers see you—turning them from passive observers into loyal, lifelong advocates. 

And you know what’s the best? 

You don’t EVER have to wonder what you should be talking to your customers about in your newsletters, blogs, YouTube channel, socials or even on stage. 

You’ll be crystal clear on whom you serve and why, and exactly what story you’re trying to change for your customer. 

Want me to take a look?

🚀 Book a brand story audit with me!

If you’re like — well this all sounds great but HOW exactly do I implement this with my brand? — fear not!

I’m more than happy to have a look at your brand and give you a few super valuable, highly actionable and easily implementable pointers that are tailored to your brand.

Here’s how it works:

☝️ You’ll fill out a quick questionnaire so that I can get to know your brand, what you want to achieve and where you’re stuck. You’ll share any websites, social media profiles and other platforms your brand is represented on.

✌️ I’ll do the analysis and pick out 3-5 areas for improvement that can give you an instant boost in your brand clarity and, therefore, your reach, conversions and revenue.

🤙 I will record my analysis of your brand in a Loom video that you can access on the web. No fluff, just valuable insights and next steps so you can elevate your brand story immediately.

👇 And there are BONUSES! 👇

I’m Hanna-Mari, a Brand Story Strategist. I have over 10 years of experience in marketing and sales and 7 years of experience specifically crafting compelling brand stories for companies big and small. Nothing excites me more than helping brands with a purpose get their story straight. I want to make sure that your brand stands out in the crowded marketplace and is not just heard–but remembered. 

Please Note: The price for this Brand Story Audit is usually $199 because I do this personally — no handing this off to my “certified team” or anything.

With the bonuses, this would come to $248.

For a short period of time, though I’m running a cold paid traffic test to see if people from ads, who haven’t heard of me before, will take me up on this offer for just $59.

If you have any questions, email me at hanna-mari@heroesandguides.com 

Usually: One-Time Payment of $248

Today: One-Time Payment of $59

🏆 Guarantee: If you feel like the audit didn’t provide you with the actionable value you were hoping for, just email me at hanna-mari@heroesandguides.com, and I’ll refund you for the audit — no questions asked.