This blog post is adapted from a talk that I delivered for The South Yorkshire Health & Fitness Network on 20 June 2024.
QUICK LINK: Skip to explainer on how to create a social post using ChatGPT
My name is Will Hitchmough, I run a business called Wildcat Digital and we do digital marketing for businesses of all shapes and sizes across the UK. Last year we won an award.
That was a rubbish intro wasn’t it. I made it rubbish on purpose.
It was rubbish because all I talked about was myself, and no matter how much you tried to pay attention, you don’t care what I do – a skinny computer nerd from Sheffield with long hair who sits at a desk all day. You certainly don’t want me to tell you how to run your business.
And this is where so many businesses go wrong with their marketing messaging and personal branding.
That’s what I want to talk to you about today.
I could wax lyrical about the values of website speed or the core fundamentals of search engine optimisation, but what I’m about to tell you about is more likely to help you gain your next three clients.
Important Note: I didn’t create this philosophy. It was adapted from a famous marketing book called Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller. You can read this book at some point and it will be well worth your time. But unfortunately, our event organisers couldn’t afford Donald’s appearance fee so you’ve got me instead.
So if we jump back to the start now. Not to the start of this talk, but to the start of our lives…
We’ve all probably got a favourite film that we enjoyed growing up. It’s likely that the reason we liked that film was because it followed a very simple formula that many films follow.
It’s this same formula that you can apply to your marketing messaging to speak more directly to your target audience.
Now the example that I’m going to use is Lord of the Rings. The reason I’m using Lord of the Rings is because if you haven’t seen it yet, you’re probably not going to mind me spoiling the ending for you.
Lord of the Rings has a hero, that central character in the story, Frodo Baggins.
Our hero has a problem. He inherits a ring that has the potential to end the world.
To help him solve his problem, he enlists the help of a guide who knows what he’s doing in these matters. Gandalf is a 55,000 year old Wizard who’s been around the block a bit.
Being a reliable guide, Gandalf provides Frodo with a plan to head to Mordor and destroy the ring, and in doing so saving the world.
Now Frodo is low on confidence and he’s only 3 feet tall, so Gandalf assembles a team of misfits to help him. This is his Call to Action.
Three films follow. Frodo reaches Mordor, destroys the ring and they all live happily ever after. The Success.
However, throughout the film we’re made abundantly aware of an alternative failure that exists if he doesn’t meet his goal. Death, peril and the end of Middle Earth as we know it, reiterated through 10 hours of cinema.
A hero. A problem. A guide who knows what he’s doing. A plan. A call to action. The success. The potential failure.
Now for you to truly engage your potential customers in your website content, in your social media posts and in the way you speak to them on a daily basis, I’m going to recommend you follow this same formula. No one wants to know how much you lifted in the gym this week or what qualifications you have, they want to know how you’re going to help them.
So back in the room, now we’ve dissected 100 years of Hollywood script writing…
You all have a hero ready to go in your marketing messaging don’t you. Who do you think the hero in your marketing messaging should be???
Of course, it’s your client!
Now, I appreciate you probably thought you should be the hero in your story, but no. You’re the guide. You’re the 55,000 year old wizard who can solve your clients’ problems.
What I want you to do at this stage is imagine a client of yours. A typical client.
Could it be that they’re a good runner? Could it be that they work long hours? Could it be that they have kids?
The Hero: What I want you to do is write down on a piece of paper, what makes your client a hero in their world?
Now we have your hero, I want you to summarise what this client’s problem is. Why did they reach out to you in the first place?
Maybe they’ve got a holiday coming up and they need to lose a few pounds. Maybe they’ve got an injury and it’s stopping them running. Maybe they want to win a competition, but they don’t have the expertise to help them train correctly.
The Problem: Summarise your client’s problem on the piece of paper… Why did they reach out to you in the first place?
Now we need to think about what makes you the wizard that can solve their problem. Is it your qualifications? Is it your specialism? Maybe you’ve worked with 100s of clients before with exactly the same problem.
This is the part where you get to big yourself up.
Why are you the guide?: Summarise on your piece of paper, what makes you the knowledgeable guide they’re looking for?
Now for the plan, thinking of that client and their particular problem, how would you help them solve that problem. Now this can be as detailed as you think it needs to be, but for the purpose of this exercise, try to summarise it in one or two sentences.
Your Plan: What’s your plan for them? Write this down on your piece of paper.
Now for the call to action. What is the first step that your client needs to take in order to work with you?
Do they need to book a free consultation? Do they need to visit a taster session? Do they simply need to pick up the phone?
The Call To Action: Write down on your piece of paper what that first step is for your business.
Once you’ve done that I want you to summarise what the outcome is if they work with you and stick to it.
Is it the body of their dreams? Is it being injury free and enjoying their sport again? Is it achieving a PB?
And summarise what happens if they fail… Low self esteem? Lack of organisation in the gym? Does their injury get worse?
The success and failure: Summarise what the positive outcome is and what the alternative failure will be if they don’t work with you.
So now you have: a hero, a problem, a guide who knows what they’re talking about, a plan, a call to action, an Outcome and an alternative if it fails.
What you have on the sheet of paper in front of you is the blueprint to how you can talk to clients just like the one you had in mind. You can tailor this message to see what might perform best and of course you can follow the framework for clients’ with slightly different problems, but this will help you connect with your clients on a personal level no matter which platform you’re using.
It could be your website, your social media or it could be how you communicate on your sales call or consultation.
So if we look at how this can work in reality, let’s go back to that rubbish introduction that I did at the start. How much better would it have been if I’d have said…
You’re all successful, well trained and knowledgeable fitness health professionals who can help anyone lose weight, get fit and get healthy…. You really are heroes.
The problem is, you need more clients so that you can make more money, but many of you struggle with confidence when it comes to communicating with potential clients on social media or your website….
Well that’s where I come in. Let me be your guide… I’m a marketing wizard called Will and we currently work with over 60 businesses just like yours helping them get more leads…
The plan today is that in the next 10 minutes I’m going to talk you through an easy framework that will help you create killer social media posts and content. It will even help you with networking events like this one.
All you have to do is listen and engage.
By the end of this talk you’ll no longer suffer from writer’s block with your marketing and you’ll be able to craft your message so your clients know exactly how you can help them.
Or… You can carry on creating dull posts that no one likes, and that fail to generate you any leads or interest.
I hope that sounded more exciting and I hope you enjoyed my talk.
Just quickly, if you scan the QR code on your exercise sheet or on the screen, this will take you to a transcript of this talk and BONUS PRIZE, there’s a video on there showing you how you can turn your scribbles into your next social media post using AI.
I don’t normally recommend using AI to create social media posts or web copy, because it tends to be dull and generic, but with this framework it will be unique to you.
Creating a social media post or other content using ChatGPT
Watch this video to see how you can turn what you’ve learnt today into an unique social media post that speaks to your target customer.
Will Hitchmough
Managing Director
