If you’ve listened to me for a while now you know that your message to your market is one of the first things you need to really nail in.
Who you help, how you help them and what the ultimate benefit of that help is what is going to allow your voice to stand out from the crowd?
Sometimes though, it feels like we are saying the same thing over and over again…
So how do we come up with fresh ways to put our message to the market?
Well, today I want to introduce a new concept to you that is going to help with that…
Symptomatic Messaging.
To fully understand how symptomatic messaging works, I’m going to use the human body as an example.
Let’s say you get cut yourself on a piece of broken glass. The fact that you have cut yourself is the primary problem, but there is a whole heap of symptoms that that cut has created.
Firstly, you are bleeding, then there is inflammation, maybe there is swelling, there is going to be pain for sure.
One or more of these symptoms may be enough to drive you to the doctors. Maybe you can’t stop the bleeding. Maybe the swelling has you concerned. Perhaps you have a secondary infection.
Can you see how this one thing – this one problem – has created many different symptoms.
Well, the same thing happens within our businesses.
Your clients have a problem, but it is not the problem itself that will drive them to get help, it is the symptoms of that problem.
SO for me and my clients, their number one problem is that they are having trouble getting clients.
So how does this show up as symptoms?
Well, they hardly have anyone in their appointment book…
They’re stressed about where their next client is coming from…
They’re spending all their time trying to work out how to get clients, rather than working with them…
They’re worried about where their rent is coming from…
They’re telling everyone about how amazing their business is when inside they feel like dying…
They can feel their dream life slipping through their fingers…
They are starting to lose confidence in their ability to coach…
They’re frustrated with giving out free coaching sessions to people just to have them say, ‘No,’ when they ask if they want to come on as a client…
They’re starting to fear they are going to have to give up and get a job…
Or they’re giving up on the idea of being able to quit their job and work as a coach full time…
You see how this works???
All of these things are symptoms of the primary problem, that they don’t know how to lay down the foundation to their online marketing that will allow them to get clients online.
So now I can take each of these things and I can create something around that. I could do a post, or an email, or a live video, and I would be calling out those coaches that have this very problem, and talking just to them…
Which makes my message infinitely more powerful than if I were just talking about having trouble getting clients.
It is the symptoms of the problem that causes the pain, which is why we need to use symptomatic messaging.
So sit down and write down your clients' primary problems. Now make a list of all the ways those problems show up in their lives. These are the symptoms, the secondary problems, that you can use to expand your messaging.
Now, whenever you are stuck for something to talk about, use that list to give you inspiration.
In your corner,
Donna Joy
