Does your fitness or wellness business sound just like everyone else? Yes, if you’re using these five phrases. Get rid of them and zero in on what makes your business special.
1) “Wonderful client service”
We’ve never met a wellness business that bragged about its rotten customer service. But plenty say they have great service when what they actually provide is mediocre service.
Let your customer service speak for itself. If you do a great job, your clients will tell their colleagues, family and friends about you.
Let’s say you specialize in eating disorders and make it a point to provide 24×7 access to your highly-trained staff of nutrition professionals. Emphasize that in your marketing material. A medical office that minimizes paperwork and appointment delays could easily market that special feature. Or a wellness center whose floor attendants routinely offer cold spring water and fresh soft pleasant-smelling towels to folks in the middle of sweaty cardio workouts could also score points.
2) “Highest quality”
When’s the last time you saw a wellness business announce that it provided poor-quality products and services? Um, never. This phrase is so overused that it’s become meaningless.
If your massage therapists use “the silkiest, softest, 100% Egyptian cotton towels made”, say so. Perhaps your wellness coaches all trained at The Cooper Clinic. Maybe your system for following up with clients for a year is what really produces permanent lifestyle changes.
3) “Great value”
A great value for one client is a waste of money for another.
Jenny may love her $20 health club membership and feel that it offers a fun workout environment with a wide variety of classes and equipment. Jose may feel that the personal attention from experienced trainers at his local Y makes the $80/month membership an excellent value. And Anna, a heart patient, may value the feeling of security she gets from exercising at her local hospital fitness center.
Since “value” is entirely in the eye of the beholder, saying that you “provide the best value” can’t possibly be true for everyone. Instead, focus on the aspects of your programs and services that your best customers rave about.
For example, if your business focuses on sports-specific training, highlight your track record of success with prominent local high school athletes. Put your rates in the context of an improved ability to win a college scholarship or get playing time or a starting position on a college team.
4) “Amazing results”
Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.
Consumers have become extremely skeptical of health and wellness businesses that claim “extraordinary results”. After all, if it were that easy we’d be living in a society inhabited exclusively by strong, lean, unwrinkled super-people.
If your wellness business says that it routinely helps customers achieve amazing results, include plenty of believable real-life examples to prove it. That’s what we mean by extraordinary proof.
5) “Caring service”
One of the nicest things about health and wellness businesses is that they really do care about their customers. Unfortunately, overuse has drained the meaning from this term.
Customer successes and “above and beyond” stories are great ways to illustrate this message.
For example, your newsletter might share your excitement at a customer’s weight-loss success story with a picture of her celebration party when she reached a major milestone.
And if your business routinely goes above-and-beyond to help clients, share some examples. We know of one wellness coach who started visiting an older client at home when weather didn’t allow his client to drive safely.
More resources
Still feel stuck in a marketing rut? These extremely handy books are a great way to start revitalizing your marketing copy:
Words That Sell, by Richard Bayan
6000+ words and phrases you can use in your marketing copy — for example, 28 different phrases for offering a free trial, dozens of words for describing “healthful” products and services, an entire page of words that you can use to talk about self-improvement, and more
More Words That Sell, By Richard Bayan
Another 3500+ words to help you write marketing copy for seniors, kids, health and fitness, personal growth, upscale markets and more
Phrases That Sell, by Ed Werz
Descriptive phrases for healthy living, beauty, and qualities like “nature’s best”, “tranquil”, “mood-related”, “the price is right”, and “quality counts”.
How To Write Words That Sell, by Jim McCraigh
Outlines a process for writing words that convince potential customers, make believable claims, encourage them to take action, and more. Includes tips for writing web copy and blogs.
Great marketing copy zeroes in on what makes your business special. Think about Curves for a minute. The “power to amaze” is a memorable and attention-grabbing tagline. However, what Curves really promises is the “power to amaze yourself”. That’s very different from guaranteeing amazing weight-loss results.
