Great post, Nicole. As someone who spent 15+ years in marketing, I can understand why you've been so successful in your new career ( post corp. job). You offer incredibly valuable information about the power and purpose of marketing, messaging and copywriting.
I'm not a health coach but I understand the same premise is relevant for other coaches. Wondering if you think it applies to different types of business as well?
As I work on the launch for a second Substack on a different topic in a different industry from my first, I'm trying to figure out the positioning/messaging and wondering if I I can successfully solve one problem for 4 different, yet related audiences? The audiences depend on eachother but it does make it harder to position.
Many thanks for your note ... and for you're very kind words.
It's hard for me to answer your question without more detail, but I'll give it a try...
With health coaches, I often follow this general guideline:
If the problem affects a broad audience, it's better to narrow the "who." A good example is weight loss. The problem affects a very broad audience. So it's better to focus on one gender and a narrower age range (say 10 to maybe 15 years).
If the problem affects a narrow audience, you can expand the "who." An example here could be MS.
But having a common problem is important. As long as your audience has that, you can have more flexibility with the audience.
I loved this article! And I wonder...what if your program addresses 4 or 5 issues a person may be facing with a disease -- do you address all or do you really, really have to narrow down how you help someone to only one thing? What if the other 4 things also need to be addressed at the same time? How do you address that?
Hey Barb. I LOVE that you asked this question! It really comes down to what problem the person is aware of.
So if a person has a diagnosis, it's likely they are aware that the group of symptoms they have are related to the diagnosis.
If a person doesn't have a diagnosis, they could have a variety of symptoms but not know they're related. In that case, you can often find 1 symptom that people are MOST bothered by (and therefore, most motivated to change).
The problem you focus your marketing message on is the one that will grab their attention. Once you have their attention, you can eventually talk about some of the other symptoms. Then when they're in your program, you can address all the symptoms.
How you market yourself is about what your ideal client knows they want. The program you offer needs to address that, but it can do a lot more, too!
Thank you, Nicole! This is interesting and helpful, and I'm thinking this might involve testing to see if one is correct about the one symptom. I appreciate the explanation!
Interesting. I've two reasons why I'm usually not specific in my writings.
Firstly you say one of these coaches might be able to reverse diabetes - but if she states it like that, will she run foul of the law - even if it's true?
Secondly even if she, or any other healer, can do such a thing, can she succeed every time? I've seen amazing results with natural healing, but I'm wary of making promises.
I realise these make marketing pretty difficult, but what to do?
You are correct about not being able to say you can reverse diabetes. That's making a disease claim, which you can't do. But you can talk about lowering blood sugar, for example. Basically, you can discuss "form and function" in health copy. But you have to stay clear of making claims about diseases.
For your second point, no one can guarantee something will work every time... not even pharmaceutical companies. You can still create powerful marketing messages without over promising. A skilled health copywriter knows how to do these things.
Great post, Nicole. As someone who spent 15+ years in marketing, I can understand why you've been so successful in your new career ( post corp. job). You offer incredibly valuable information about the power and purpose of marketing, messaging and copywriting.
I'm not a health coach but I understand the same premise is relevant for other coaches. Wondering if you think it applies to different types of business as well?
As I work on the launch for a second Substack on a different topic in a different industry from my first, I'm trying to figure out the positioning/messaging and wondering if I I can successfully solve one problem for 4 different, yet related audiences? The audiences depend on eachother but it does make it harder to position.
Am I asking too much?
Hi Tracy,
Many thanks for your note ... and for you're very kind words.
It's hard for me to answer your question without more detail, but I'll give it a try...
With health coaches, I often follow this general guideline:
If the problem affects a broad audience, it's better to narrow the "who." A good example is weight loss. The problem affects a very broad audience. So it's better to focus on one gender and a narrower age range (say 10 to maybe 15 years).
If the problem affects a narrow audience, you can expand the "who." An example here could be MS.
But having a common problem is important. As long as your audience has that, you can have more flexibility with the audience.
Hope that helps!
Thank you, Nicole! I appreciate the response. I'm going to revisit my positioning as I may not be where I need to yet:)
I just looked at my website, and I am definitely selling a solution… Time to fix that!
I loved this article! And I wonder...what if your program addresses 4 or 5 issues a person may be facing with a disease -- do you address all or do you really, really have to narrow down how you help someone to only one thing? What if the other 4 things also need to be addressed at the same time? How do you address that?
Hey Barb. I LOVE that you asked this question! It really comes down to what problem the person is aware of.
So if a person has a diagnosis, it's likely they are aware that the group of symptoms they have are related to the diagnosis.
If a person doesn't have a diagnosis, they could have a variety of symptoms but not know they're related. In that case, you can often find 1 symptom that people are MOST bothered by (and therefore, most motivated to change).
The problem you focus your marketing message on is the one that will grab their attention. Once you have their attention, you can eventually talk about some of the other symptoms. Then when they're in your program, you can address all the symptoms.
How you market yourself is about what your ideal client knows they want. The program you offer needs to address that, but it can do a lot more, too!
Hope that helps.
Thank you, Nicole! This is interesting and helpful, and I'm thinking this might involve testing to see if one is correct about the one symptom. I appreciate the explanation!
Thank you Keely!
This is awesome Nicole! Thank you!
Great post! Excellent food-for-thought as I finally work on my “about” page!
Glad it was helpful!
Interesting. I've two reasons why I'm usually not specific in my writings.
Firstly you say one of these coaches might be able to reverse diabetes - but if she states it like that, will she run foul of the law - even if it's true?
Secondly even if she, or any other healer, can do such a thing, can she succeed every time? I've seen amazing results with natural healing, but I'm wary of making promises.
I realise these make marketing pretty difficult, but what to do?
Thank you for your note, Antony!
You are correct about not being able to say you can reverse diabetes. That's making a disease claim, which you can't do. But you can talk about lowering blood sugar, for example. Basically, you can discuss "form and function" in health copy. But you have to stay clear of making claims about diseases.
For your second point, no one can guarantee something will work every time... not even pharmaceutical companies. You can still create powerful marketing messages without over promising. A skilled health copywriter knows how to do these things.
Thank you Nicole.