If you’d like to really stand out as a health coach …
If you want a way to separate your health coach branding from the competition …
And if you’d like to get people excited to work with you … then this article is for you!
I’m going to share the secret to creating a stand-out health coaching brand. One that will put you miles ahead of other health coaches. And most importantly … one that will help you get more paying clients.
In fact, if you do this right, your future clients will see you as the perfect health coach for them. And they’ll be telling everyone about how amazing it is to work with you.
But first, you need to forget the common advice about the so-called “best way to brand your health coaching business.” I’m referring to the advice that tells you to:
Choose colors, fonts, and graphics …
Create a logo …
And find your brand voice or “archetype” …
If you want to build a successful health coaching brand, you need something else first.
What you need is a way to resonate with your future clients … a way to show them that you can get them the results they want … even if everything else they’ve tried has failed.
How do you do that?
With your positioning
Your positioning is how people know you’re a great fit for them. When it comes to health coaches, there are 3 key Positioning Principles that lay the foundation of your brand … and there’s one that transforms you from an ordinary health coach into one that creates magic!
These 3+1 Positioning Principles give your health coaching brand the unique marketing advantage it needs to stand out and attract more paying clients.
In case you missed it, I covered the first principle here, and the next two here.
Today, I’m going to show you the +1 Positioning Principle. This one really powers up your positioning. In fact, it’s almost like having a magic wand.
That’s why I call this principle your Pixie Dust.
Before I get into the details, let me give you a little background about why I developed the 3+1 Positioning Principles for Health Coaches …
I used to work in the corporate world. For 29 years, I helped build and market brands like MTV, Nickelodeon, and The Sharper Image. I turned them into multi-million-dollar businesses around the globe.
I decided to leave Corporate America because I wanted to do something I felt more passionate about. And I found it in copywriting.
I know. Copywriting doesn’t sound nearly as sexy as flying all over the world for companies like MTV and Nickelodeon! And for a while there, I couldn’t imagine trading in my jet-setting career.
But after a while, global travel did get old. Besides, I wanted a career that was more aligned with who I am and what’s personally important to me.
What I love about copywriting is that it gives me a way to combine my love of writing and my personal interest in all things health & wellness. And because of my expertise in building and marketing high-profile brands, I can give my clients something they can’t get with any other copywriter.
As a copywriter, I write things that help people sell stuff. Many of my clients sell natural health supplements and skincare products.
I also work with wellness and health coaches, practitioners, and doctors to help them sell their services. I use positioning, branding and messaging techniques that have helped many of them build 6 to 7-figure businesses.
None of the businesses I work with now have deep pockets, like the brands I used to work for. They aren’t trying to appeal to the masses. And they don’t have the resources to spend on brand awareness or expensive advertising campaigns.
So I needed to find a way to help them stand out from their competition and get attention without spending gobs of money.
That’s why I developed the 3+1 Positioning Principles for Health Coaches
As a health coach, you can’t settle for the same positioning techniques that other businesses use. Because you have a serious problem to contend with …
Skepticism.
As you may know, people looking for a health transformation are constantly bombarded with products and services that make big claims. So your audience is more skeptical than ever.
You need a way to show your future clients that you’re not just making up claims. You have to show them you’re the real deal. And that by working with you, they will achieve the transformation they seek. That’s where your Pixie Dust comes into play.
Your Pixie Dust creates a paradigm shift for your future clients. This paradigm shift …
- Helps your future client understand why they have the problem
- Releases them from any guilt they may have for having the problem
- Explains why they haven’t gotten results from other things they’ve tried
- Gives them hope that this time they’ll get the results they want
- Positions you in as the best person to give them those results
Not every health coach has what it takes to bring Pixie Dust to their business. For instance, if the coach hasn’t embraced the first 3 Positioning Principles, it will be very difficult.
But if you think you’re ready to power up your positioning with some Pixie Dust, let me show you how I do it with my clients.
The first thing I do is to ask a lot of questions about their ideal client. I want to know why they have the problem they have. I want to know what their beliefs are about the problem. And I want to know the things they’ve already tried to solve the problem.
Then I ask the health coach about their approach. What do they do that’s different? How does it get people results? With everything they tell me, I ask them more questions … what does that do and why is it important?
What I’m looking for with all of this questioning is something that makes me think “wow, I didn’t know that.”
In many cases, the people I work with have made some kind of discovery about their ideal client. Quite often, what their client sees as the problem is actually a symptom of an underlying problem.
Let me give you an example.
Let’s say your ideal client is a new mom who wants to lose the weight she gained during pregnancy. She’s tried counting calories, eliminating food groups, meal replacement shakes, and intermittent fasting. She’s also tried exercise programs. But no matter what she does, she can’t get back to her pre-pregnancy weight.
So she’s “doing everything right” but not getting results.
As you can imagine, new moms have a lot on their plate. They have almost no time for themselves. They barely sleep. And they’re stressed.
Stress creates cortisol. And cortisol tells your body to store fat.
That means you can tell New Mom that it’s not her fault she’s not back to her pre-pregnancy weight. It has nothing to do with her not trying hard enough, not having enough self-discipline, or lacking willpower. (She’ll LOVE you for saying that!)
Instead, you can tell her that she has a cortisol imbalance that makes her body work against her. Once it’s fixed, she’ll get her pre-pregnancy body back.
Then you can tell her about the special program you created specifically for new moms. Like a magic wand, it will help her lower her cortisol level so she can lose up to 10 pounds in as little as 6 weeks (or whatever you can truthfully promise her).
Now, if you have a hard time finding your Pixie Dust, you’re not alone. It’s hard to do when you’re so close to it because you have the curse of knowledge. So what will seem revolutionary to your ideal client may seem obvious to you.
There’s a classic advertising story that illustrates the curse of knowledge beautifully…
About 100 years ago, a man named Claude Hopkins was hired to create a new ad campaign for Schlitz beer. His first stop was the brewery. He wanted to understand every step in the making and bottling of Schlitz.
Hopkins watched the beer being filtered through wood pulp …
He saw it cool in a room with purified air, where the beer dripped over special pipes …
He found out the machinery … every pump and pipe … was cleaned twice a day. And that every bottle was sanitized 4 times before it was ready to be filled with beer …
Hopkins was astonished by Schlitz’s intricate process. He wanted to feature it in his ad campaign.
But his client wasn’t impressed with the idea.
His client said the process isn’t anything special … that every beer company does the same thing. But Hopkins knew that what was obvious to people in the beer business would be revolutionary to people outside the business.
Luckily, he was able to convince his client it was the right thing to do. And that ad campaign put Schlitz beer on the map.
In just a few months, Schlitz jumped from being the #5 beer to being neck-to-neck with the #1 beer.
This story shows how important it is to know your ideal client. You need to know what they know about their problem and the possible solutions. Then you can find something that will “wow” them.
Health coach branding that stands out
In many cases, people in health & wellness use new research or discoveries to get clients results. That makes for great Pixie Dust. For others, it may be something that’s not new in the industry but will be new to their ideal client.
Whatever it is, your Pixie Dust should introduce a new variable to your ideal client. This will release them from any blame they feel about having the problem. And it will give them new hope that they’ve found the perfect person to help them finally solve it.
If you’d like to know more ways to find your Pixie Dust, here are a few ways I can help.
