Episode 72: Creating “You Get Me” Moments in Your Brand Messaging
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Brand messaging is the way you communicate with your audience. Everything you share on social media is part of your messaging as well as the copy on your website, what you say in your emails, and the words on your sales pages. All of the words you put out there = messaging!
If you’re just getting started with figuring out your brand messaging, I recommend starting with this full messaging exercise. It will take you through the entire process, and it’s one of the most impactful things you can do for your marketing.
In today’s post, we’ll go through an abbreviated version of this messaging exercise so you can get a quick win without sitting down and working through a million details!
Brand messaging starts with your patients
The first step of this exercise revolves around your patients or clients. Think about one of your most recent patients or clients who left you feeling energized and fired up.
You know – the patient who made you think, “Yes! This is why I do this work.”
And if you’re brand new and have never had a client, think about someone in your industry who you admire and pop over to their website or social media. Find a testimonial from someone that sounds close to what you hope your clients will say about you one day.
Now that you’ve got your person – write down their chief complaint. Why did they come in to see you? What was their biggest struggle?
You’re looking for the final straw… the thing that got them to finally call up your office and schedule an appointment. (This can be more than one thing!)
When our Holistic Marketing Hub members do this exercise, they often share that they hear things like:
“I had my fourth migraine this month and I’m over it!”
Or
“I don’t have any energy after 2 pm and I can’t stop snapping at my kids!”
Get clear on the reasons and write them down.
You’ll also write down any additional things that came up in their initial appointment that keep them up at night, cause them stress, or cause pain.
Consider the emotional impact
Once you’re clear on why your patient came to see you and what they’re struggling with, you want to turn your focus to the emotional impact of these issues.
How is this pain or struggle showing up in their life?
If they’re struggling with migraines, they may be feeling frustrated with having to cancel meetings and reschedule appointments.
If they have debilitating pain, they may be feeling like a bad parent because they can’t run around and play with their kids.
There’s always an emotional toll.
If you’re having trouble tapping into this – trying asking “What is it this patient can’t do that they want to do?”
When you’ve clarified the emotional impact, next you’ll write down their desired outcome. Look at what they struggle with and put a positive spin on it.
For example, if your patient was anxious about not being able to enjoy an upcoming family trip to Disney due to foot pain, the desired outcome would be: My foot is strong enough to support me so I can enjoy my Disney trip!
When thinking about the desired outcome, you should also write down other things they’ve tried to achieve that result that haven’t worked. Maybe they’ve tried medications, another modality, or physical therapy – whatever it is, you want to write down the failed options or attempts, too.
You’ll also include what you are going to do that’s different to help them actually achieve their desired outcome. (This is where your expertise and approach shines!)
Strong brand messaging is unique and specific
Finally, you’re going to write down how you’re different and why someone should listen to you.
This is almost always the hardest question for our clients to answer, so if you’re struggling with it, you’re not alone. It’s hard to reflect on yourself and acknowledge your uniqueness.
If you’re not sure what sets you apart, try asking someone who knows you well – a partner, coach, or coworker.
There are no right or wrong answers! You just want to tap into the things you do, the skills you have, the approach you take, and the experience you bring to your clients that sets you apart from other people who do the same thing you do.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully compiled all the information you need to jumpstart your brand messaging.
Now that you have everything in one place, read through it and put together a “You get me!” moment.
This is the post that resonates deeply with your ideal client. It feels like you’re in their head, reading their mind and solving their specific problems. And this is the kind of content that turns readers and followers into booked patients.
I love using a “3 things framework” to make this easy.
Choose what your ideal patient wants to learn more about or is specifically struggling with and then share three tips or recommendations about it.
This could look like:
3 supplements I encourage all women in menopause to take
or
3 ways I help exhausted moms get more restful sleep as an acupuncturist
These little “you get me” moments are so powerful!
Try to include them regularly in your content to build deeper connections and turn more followers into booked patients.
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Hello, and welcome back to these summer short series that I'm doing where I'm doing podcasts that are bingeable and 10 minutes or less, just to bring you like little tidbits of information. Cause I know the summertime, a lot of us have like summer energy, if you're like me, and I didn't want to really take a full break from the podcast, but I thought this would be a really cool way to still give you a lot of information.
And a lot of people prefer the short form short version. So on today's summer shorts, I'm going to be giving you a very quick messaging exercise. And I've done more like thorough messaging podcasts before. So you can definitely check out some of the past episodes about messaging. But today I'm just going to give you a really quick exercise.
So here we go. Welcome to Holistic Marketing Simplified, a podcast for health and wellness professionals. Looking to simplify their marketing. I'm your host, Molly Cahill, and this podcast is brought to you by my marketing roadmap, which is a five episode private audio training that's kind of like this podcast, but not exactly because it's not available to the general public when you search on your podcast feed.
So the great thing about consuming free content like this for me or on my Instagram or my blogs or whatever, is that yes, it's free. You will learn a lot, but you kind of have to go searching for what it is exactly you're looking for. This five episode private podcast is broken down in a logical step by step order.
It's why it's called a roadmap. If you're ready to get started on your Instagram marketing journey, or if you already are started and you're just feel like you're kind of like overwhelmed with all of the different free information. This is a. Super clear roadmap with lots of tangible step by step action items that will get you from point A to point B for just 27.
So all you have to do is head to mollycahill. com slash private training. And based on the reviews I've had so far, I know you won't be disappointed.
Hi, I'm Dr. Carly and I'm a mentor for other chiropractors. It's from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And I listen to holistic marketing, simplified podcasts.
Okay. Quick messaging exercise. It's kind of like an oxymoron because truly if you want to like really dive in, it's probably going to take you a little bit longer than what I'm just going to go over in this podcast. But if you're like, I don't have time, I don't want to think about it. I really don't want to go back and like, you know, really work through.
You know, your full messaging exercise. That's totally okay. Totally understandable. Um, the full messaging exercise I'm talking about, you can find for free at molly cahill. com slash branding. And it's probably one of the most impactful things you can do for your businesses, marketing, and it, and it just, it also permeates the way you talk to your patients or clients.
And the way you talk about what you do out in the wild. So, um, we're just going to do a very short. Lifted version of this messaging exercise. Okay. So you can go ahead and listen to this. If you're driving or whatever, I would just go ahead and still listen to it. And then you can just always come back to this when you have a like pen and paper, you have a Google doc open or something like that.
So the first thing I want you to do is to think of one of your most recent new patients or clients who you have already had the first appointment or meeting with. And after that you were like energized, like, yes, this is like, this is why I do what I do. Don't overthink it. Literally just doesn't have to be anything specific.
If you're brand new and you've never had a patient or client, then maybe this is somebody you can. Go to someone you admire in your field and you can look at their reviews and maybe pick someone from their reviews and go, Ooh, okay, this is going to be like my fictional person. Okay. For this person, I do not care about the demographic information as much as I think a lot of times when it comes to like niching or ideal patients, we get caught up in the like woman over 35 who has 2.
5 kids and a dog. I'm not saying that's immaterial. I'm just for this quick exercise. We're not going to care about that as much. Okay. The next thing after you've got this person in your brain, you're going to think about and write down whatever their chief complaint, chief complaint in quotes, because whatever, what was the reason that they booked for you?
Like what was their final straw? What was the thing that's happening in their lives that they were like, okay, I finally am booking with you because blank. And this could be more than one thing. So if it's more than one thing, that's also okay. Some examples of what that might look like is. I had my fourth migraine this month and I am fed up or I can't seem to snap to stop snapping at my kids and I don't have any energy in the afternoon or whatever.
Whatever is the thing that they listed. Okay. Then the next thing is you're going to list any ancillary things that either came up. In that initial appointment with them that maybe they didn't list like, Oh yeah. And also it takes me two hours to fall asleep at night or, Oh yeah. And I have to get up to pee in the middle of the night three times or, Oh yeah.
And my left knee aches so much that I have to take ibuprofen every day. Like, you know, sometimes, and they might like your, your intake form might be so complete that they like, there's nothing new that comes up. So if that's the case, don't overthink it. Skip over this question. Then the next question is, how does this, how do these complaints, not just if it's more than one, how do they show up in their life and how do they feel emotionally?
And you're going to go, Molly, that's a hard question, but think about it like this. It's like, are they like. I am feeling defeated and annoyed that I've had four migraines this month and then, you know, list out the cascade of things that happens when, you know, I'm going to use the migraine person. I have to cancel my meetings.
I have, I can't take my kid to soccer practice. I can't go to my orange theory class, like whatever those things are, like I said, write those out. And then like I said, maybe, you know, however they're feeling about those things. Because that also is kind of like what can't they do that they want to do that falls under this.
So that might be a better way to think about it is what can't they do that they want to do. So like I said, um, you know, if it's somebody who's got really bad, uh, plantar fasciitis, maybe they're like, I'm really anxious because we are supposed to take a family trip to Disney. And my foot hurts so bad, I'm afraid I'm not gonna be able to walk around the park.
Okay. So just write that out. Uh, the emotion that goes along with that as well. So it's just like, like I said, like feeling anxious and like, uh, like maybe they're feeling like they're not, they can't trust their body or whatever. The next thing is what is their desired outcome? So it's basically the same exact thing you just wrote down, but with a positive spin on it.
Like if this weren't happening, so let's use the Disney example. The desired, desired outcome is I can walk around Disney with minimal foot pain. Or I can not have to cancel or, you know, worry that, um, so much of my schedule is going to get canceled because of my migraines or whatever, or like I have a girl's trip coming up, but I'm worried I'm going to get a migraine on the trip, that type of thing.
So it's like the desired outcome is I get to have the girl's trip and know that I'm not going to have a migraine. What have they tried before? Love this one. Is it prescription meds? Is it another modality? Is it, like, if it's, if, if you're a massage therapist, maybe they've tried another massage therapist, or maybe they've tried acupuncture, maybe they've tried ibuprofen, maybe they've tried physical therapy.
You know, like I said, whatever is, what else have they tried before? And then what are you going to do differently to help them achieve their goals? And this is where you can just write out like, yes, you can write out things like, I'll listen, like, you know, things like that. But you can even write out specific things like, I'm going to use my.
Plus four laser, uh, two times a week. And then I'm going to also recommend massages in our office. And then, you know, once a week adjustments. And then if you're a health coach, it might be like, I am going to give them three high protein breakfast that they can have on hand super easily throughout the week or whatever.
The last thing to do for this messaging exercise is how are you different and why would I listen to you? So let's just pretend for a moment that every other business in the world or every other Instagram user or whatever does the exact same thing you do. What makes you different? For some reason, this is always the hardest question for, for my people, because you can't see what, you know, It's hard to reflect that back in yourself.
So you can ask a partner, ask a coach, someone, you know, someone who might work with you. Even ask like a trusted patient or client for this if you're having trouble with it. Um, there are going to be no gold stars awarded for this exercise, so there's no right or wrong. Um, anything you can get out for that is great.
And then after you've called all of this beautiful information, then we're going to brainstorm a you get me moment with that. So that looks like typically you can kind of build off of it. Like if you want to use my, I used to teach a three theme, three things framework and I still teach that just with a little more color added to it.
Just things. So my three things framework used to be like, okay, when in doubt, if you're looking for an idea for a real or a post or whatever, then you can always just say three tips for better sleep or my top three supplements that. menopausal women, you know, my top or my top three supplements or something like that.
So I wouldn't recommend that you phrase them like that anymore because now we need to be even more specific. Like I said, add some color to journalism speak. So instead of just saying my favorite three supplements or my top three recommended supplements or whatever, you would say something like my three favorite supplements that I encourage all of my clients to take as a health coach to women and menopause or something like that.
So like I said, see the difference in the specificity there. And then instead of saying something like three tips for better sleep, instead we would say three ways I help my patients get more restful sleep as a You know, let's see. What do we want to say? You are three ways. I help my patients get more restful sleep as an acupuncturist.
So they stop snapping at their kids and don't need to mainline coffee. So again, just these little, like you get me moments. So we're just going to do this. Like I said, one ideal person, I'm not ideal. Well, yeah. One ideal person. I'm going to go back to like when your most recent new clients or patients.
And then you're going to answer all those questions and then once you answer them, then you should be able to brainstorm a, like, they get me or I, oh, wow, like Dr. So and so really gets me or health coach Kate, like really understands what I'm, what I'm going through here. So a quick recap, the questions are, like I said, thinking of one of your most recent, um, new patients or clients, you've already done the intake with them.
They were a great fit. Not just on paper. They were a great fit. Okay, this isn't like I like to see pregnant women and they were pregnant. So there go, ergo, there go. They're a great fit. This is like, no, like, truly, I've already seen, um, like the energy everything was on. What was their quote chief complaint or like final straw?
Uh, what were their other issues? Um, if they were different than that chief complaint, How are those showing up in their life emotionally and what can't they do because of that thing? What are their desired outcomes? Again, remember that's just kind of like the opposite, like the flip of the question before.
What have they tried before? And how are you going to help them achieve those goals specifically? And why are you different? So that's it. I hope this was helpful and I can't wait to see you next time on these episodes of my summer shorts. Thank you for listening to Holistic Marketing Simplified, and hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast?
Well, that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce, to bring you free information. So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could, please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day.
To leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag at Molly A. Cahill, that's C A H I L L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support. I know your time is valuable and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.
