When I was looking to buy a home, my realtor told me there were only 3 things I needed to consider:
Location! Location! Location!
Of course, that’s not really true. But I got the point. Location is the most important thing when you’re buying a house because you can change just about anything else with the house itself (as long as you’ve got the time and money).
Well, when it comes to building a successful health coaching business, there’s something that’s just as important as location is to buying a home. And that’s:
Positioning! Positioning! Positioning!
Until you’re clear on your unique positioning, everything else about building your business will be harder to figure out … and harder to do. It will be harder to build a website … harder to market yourself … harder to get clients …
And it will be impossible to scale.
First, what do I mean by “positioning”?
Positioning is a powerful marketing principle. It affects how you’re perceived compared to others in the same space. It’s the thing that will differentiate you from other health coaches.
In this article, I’m going to tell you about 2 of the most frequent positioning mistakes I see health and wellness coaches and practitioners make when they’re trying to build an online business. That way you can avoid them and get your business started (or back) on the right track.
Here’s Positioning Mistake #1:
Most Health Coaches Aren’t Clear About The Problem They Help People Solve
That coach wanted to focus on 3 different problems. And it’s hard to see how they’re related. It’s unlikely that people think to themselves “I have hypertension and want to lose weight and avoid kidney disease.”
Even if they’re all true for the person, one of them will stand out as the main thing that disrupts their quality of life the most.
There was also another problem…
One of the “problems” isn’t really a problem at all. Can you guess which one?
If you guessed “avoid kidney disease,” you’re correct!
The fact is, prevention isn’t a problem. And the vast majority of people don’t even think about prevention. (Hence the saying, “People won’t spend a dime on prevention, but they’ll empty their bank account for a cure.”)
Now if you’re naturally prevention-focused, like I am, that’s awesome! But out in the internet wild, that pretty much makes us unicorns.
When I became a health & wellness marketer, I quickly learned that most people don’t think about things until they become a problem. And that problem needs to disrupt their quality of life before they’ll hire a health coach to help them with it.
Back to our example, if we take “avoid kidney disease” out of the equation, that leaves us with lower blood pressure and lose weight. It’s true that one person could want to do both. But again, from a marketing perspective, trying to build messaging for both isn’t the best approach. You’d have a stronger message if you focused on just one of them. And like I said earlier, chances are there’s one that really bothers the person more.
So to help the coach get clearer, I asked him a few questions: Which problem does he have more experience with? Who can he get better or faster results for? Does he prefer helping people with one of those problems over the other?
Those are some of the things he needed to know so he could create a marketable offer that would attract people who want his help. I call it an Irresistible Breakthrough Offer™, which is the fastest way to build and scale an online health coaching business.
(If you’d like to find out more about how to create an Irresistible Breakthrough Offer, you can access a free resource called The Irresistible Breakthrough Offer Formula™. Here’s a link to it.
Now let’s move on to Positioning Mistake #2. And that’s not having a Signature System as part of your marketing message. In fact, your Signature System is one of the most important parts of your positioning.
The Most Important Part of a Successful Health Coach’s Market Positioning
As a health coach, you “sell” transformation. Transformation is what people want when they decide to work with you. So the best way to get clients is by focusing your marketing on that transformation. That’s where your Signature System comes in.
Chances are, the people you’re going to attract have already made a few unsuccessful attempts at the transformation they seek. In fact, they may have already bought coaching programs or other “solutions” that promised them results that they didn’t get. So they’ll naturally be somewhat skeptical that you’ll deliver what you say you will.Your Signature System can help because people feel a little more confident if they see you have a plan that makes sense to them.
Now a lot of health coaches make the mistake of thinking their Signature System is the same thing as their program. It’s not.
Your program covers the detailed steps your clients will go through. But your Signature System is a marketing message. When it’s done right, it helps people see why they had trouble getting results in the past … and why this time things will be different. (If you’d like some help with this, here’s an article that will give you some ideas about how to create a strong Signature System for your health coaching business). The problem you solve and your Signature System are 2 important aspects to your positioning. There is another one that makes you stand out even more. In fact, if it’s done right, it will make you the only health coach your dream clients want to work with. This article tells you more about it.
Interested in an analysis of your health coaching business? Find out how to work with me on your marketing here.
