A lot of people in the non-business realm (like therapists and personal development coaches) tend to struggle with vague messaging – and therefore attract few clients – because their work can solve many problems.
Ya feel me?
I know you do. The non-biz folk have brought this problem to me countless times. 😉
One big piece of the solution is to actually allow yourself to talk about MULTIPLE problems/outcomes.
Say what? That’s allowed?
A lot of marketing gurus would tell you it isn’t, but (surprise!) they don’t make the rules for what does or doesn’t make sense to potential clients.
Many of my clients have crafted an outcome message that spoke to more than one outcome – and the world didn’t catch on fire. 😉
In fact, they started attracting more people who were interested in their work because their messaging made more sense!
(Side note: I sometimes wonder if any of these “gurus” have ever hired a non-business coach themselves – to even have a clue what would attract that type of client.)
The key point here is that most folks who struggle in this area aren’t talking about ANY outcomes AT ALL. They’re talking more about their process (often: things like self-sabotage, limiting beliefs, etc.).
And talking about more than one outcome makes way, way more sense to potential clients than talking about NONE.
Now, I have an actual method for crafting offer descriptions and marketing posts that slot your multiple outcomes in the places that make the most sense (so it feels cohesive and not all-over-the-place to readers).
But that whole method is a lot to describe in one post (and, tbh, it’d be a lot easier if we worked together 1:1 and I helped you figure out how to customize the method to your business and your different outcomes).
So I’m just going to give you a couple of examples here, of how you can talk about multiple outcomes in a way that makes sense.
One time someone did a Facebook Live video in my free Facebook group and wondered why no one joined, out of thousands of members.
From my perspective it was because of the title:
“Kick limiting beliefs to the curb!”
Lots of written posts start out with similarly vague wording.
Readers/viewers have no idea where you’re going with that, or even whether or not they’d be interested – because there’s NO OUTCOME.
What’s the CONTEXT for your clients’ struggles with limiting beliefs?
For that matter, do they even know they have them? (This is a notorious blind spot for so many.)
Zoom in. What’s a client trying to achieve and why do you feel compelled to mention limiting beliefs in that context?
Maybe they’re worried about being able to buy their dream house within a certain amount of time, and they don’t see that they have a limiting belief about the timeframe in which it must happen.
Then the beginning of your post (or the title of your video) could be something like, “Worried about making a big life transition (like finding the perfect home) in a specific time frame?”
There you’re not even mentioning limiting beliefs – you’re speaking to a much more basic, relatable problem (and it would still be relatable even to the subset of people who might suspect that they have some limiting beliefs).
That proposed title doesn’t even limit it to finding the perfect home – it’s broad enough to encompass other life transitions (hey, maybe that’s your “theme” or way to state multiple outcomes!).
Then OTHER content of yours could speak to OTHER life transitions – and each piece of content could wrap up with an “umbrella statement” of all the types of problems that your work can solve, and tie it to your main offer.
(My method has a protocol for exactly how to write this up)
Let’s take another example where a “theme” might not be so easily discernible.
I’ve had a number of clients now who help women to attract men and/or money (and those two things are a theme because the COACH sees how those two things are related – but clients don’t necessarily appreciate the connection immediately; they often come for coaching on just one thing or the other).
It’s actually not a problem to offer (and talk about) two outcomes in this case.
Some of your content can talk about attracting men. (“Ever wonder why you end up attracting men who aren’t at the same level of spiritual development as you are?”)
Some can talk about attracting money. (“If you find that money seems to slip through your hands every time you earn or find some, here’s what could be going on…”)
And some can talk about both, and explain the connection between the two. (“The process for attracting money is energetically the exact same process as attracting a man. Let me explain…”)
And ALL of your content would include an umbrella statement at the end (at the part where you pitch your offer), something like:
“Helping successful entrepreneurial women to attract spiritual men and/or a new abundance of cash in their already-successful business (note: it’s the same process for attracting both things) is what I do in my 8-week intensive…”
And a version of that umbrella statement would also lead off your pitch/description for your offer (in my 500-word framework):
“I have a great offer for successful entrepreneurial women to attract spiritual men and/or a new abundance of cash in their already-successful business.
“(It’s the same energetic process for both, so even if you just want one right now, you can use the process to attract the other)!
“Here’s what we work on…” (THE REST OF THE OFFER WOULD CONTINUE FROM HERE)
Do these examples make sense?
Let me know in the comments here.
When I help people to craft their messaging in this way, it’s usually a big relief to them – but sometimes they have some panic over the fact that the outcome message seems “long.”
Usually their panic is because some marketing guru told them they had to compress their outcome wording to 5 words or less – or something crazy like that.
Or they’re trying to do one of those webinar funnels that try to sum up everything about their work in one short webinar title that’s going to be a Facebook ad.
Sometimes it’s beneficial to be this concise. I won’t deny that.
But other times, when you try to be TOO concise, you lose meaning – and people have no idea what the heck you’re talking about, nor what you could actually help them with.
The more I work with people on selling complex high-end services (and work on selling my own) to sophisticated clients, the more I believe that longer-form content makes the most sense to attract the clients for these offers.
And that trying to cram messaging for these things into a few words is pointless and can even be counterproductive (sometimes attracting less sophisticated clients who think of their problems in more simplistic terms, and definitely aren’t expecting your help to cost as much as it does).
Figuring out how to express outcomes for non-business experts and coaches has become something that’s quite intuitive for me, and pretty much everyone I’ve worked with has felt like we nailed it (after they get over their initial worries that it goes against what other marketing folks have told them). 😉
So if you want my help to figure this out for yourself, you might be interested in my 1-on-1 program or in my Outcome Workshops that I do with groups.
In the Outcome Workshops we work just on a one- (or two-) sentence version of the outcome you help clients to achieve.
In the context of this post, that’s the “umbrella statement” that I mentioned earlier, which can be used at the beginning of your offer statement (if you use my framework for that) and in the calls-to-action for your paid program at the end of your other content.
In my 1-on-1 program we do the same thing as in the workshops (except if we’re 1-on-1, you don’t get to observe other participants being coached on their messaging, which many tell me they love) AND we do a lot more than what the workshop covers.
We also write that full offer statement, plus a bunch of examples of content that would speak to all the outcomes you provide yet make sense together as a whole (i.e.: they won’t confuse potential clients).
If needed, I also help you to implement my protocol for growing your organic audience and for qualifying and enrolling clients over DM or a very short phone call (sales can be pretty simple when your content is as specific as we get with my method – i.e. you’re almost always talking to the right person!).
You can join the 1-on-1 program anytime I have availability (and I do now!), so the next step if you’re interested is to DM me on Facebook.
And I offer the group Outcome Workshops on a regular basis (you can always click here to find out when the next one will be), and you can also DM me on Facebook if you’re interested in one of those.
More information about the 1-on-1 program can be found here.
And more information about the Outcome Workshops can be found here.