Remember, your goal is to change lives through the work you do.
There is no greater gift to give than the gift of health, and there is no greater reward than to watch someone break free of the shackles of chronic disease.
To do this work, however, you must transform the way people think about functional health by clearly communicating the benefits of your whole-body approach to healing.
They have to be able to find you, understand how you can help them, and be given everything they need to begin a lifelong journey of healing, with you as their guide.
The problem?
A Website With The Words “Long-Lasting Preventative Healthcare” Feels Sterile, Unimaginative, And Lacking In Its Ability To Fully Communicate The Powerful Transformation You Provide
In order for a functional health provider’s website to stand out, there must be a shift in understanding.
Just like those who come to you in pain, with no idea how much better they’d feel if they just altered their lifestyles slightly, you must realize that your message of hope should only be shared with people using words they can understand.
Knowing this gives you the power to transform the copy on your website from this:
Customized Treatment Plan Using A Lifestyle Approach To Health
To this:
A Modern Approach to Holistic Healing For Anyone Eager To Discover The Source Of Their Illness So They Can Treat The Underlying Issues And Live Pain-Free (Without Relying On Medication Or The Healthcare System That Has Failed You)
When I started out almost 10 years ago I was writing blog posts for supplement companies on Upwork.
Since then I’ve gone on to work with hundreds of businesses. I was the head copywriter at Conscious Copy & Co., one of the most sought-after copywriting agencies in digital marketing, with clients like Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Joe Polish, JJ Virgin, and a ton of others. I worked directly with household names in business on their marketing and copy.
Here's me and a handful of entrepreneurs at a live event where they got one-on-one help with copy and messaging.
And I can tell you right now that all your website needs to do to shift the paradigm of your future patients is communicate four key messaging components:
The Core Of Any Marketing Message
- Who you are
- Who you help
- What you help them do
- How you help them do it
Your core marketing message is what makes you unique, and someone who lands on your site should immediately understand the four components above.
In order to do that like an expert, here are 8 professional content writing tips you can use to stand out as a functional health provider.
Tip #1: Keep It Simple
We are going to keep this simple. Please. You don’t want to be the person who obsesses over their website. If you’re a newer business owner, or you’re just new to having an online presence, don’t waste time working on your website when you could be working on your business.
Don’t overthink this.
Focus on the essentials, then build your way up from there.
Remember: this is about helping more people.
Your priority is communicating directly with potential patients in a way that gently guides them toward taking the leap into transforming their health.
It’s not about copying what you saw someone else in your industry doing.
Trust me, I’ve seen under the hood of some posh websites that didn’t perform well at all, as opposed to more basic layouts that generated tons of organic traffic.
Just because someone else is doing it doesn’t mean it’s working, and it definitely doesn’t mean it’ll work for you.
Keep it simple and channel all your energy into a website that makes people decide to better themselves.
Tip #2: Talk To Those Who Are Ready
The copy at the top of your website’s homepage should clearly communicate who you can help and what you help them do.
This allows people to self-identify and either say, "Yes that’s me, I’d like to know more," or, "No thanks, I’m out of here."
This is good.
You only want people who are either ready to work with you or eager to know more about how you can help.
For anyone who’s ready a Call To Action should be placed prominently on the main header, ideally below the headline and subheadline.
The call to action should be clear, and lead anyone who’s ready to work with you to take your most desired action step, whether that’s to book a call, fill out an application, or make a purchase.
Tip #3: Help Those Who Aren’t Ready
For anyone who’s not ready, the next available option for them would be a resource that answers their biggest questions or provides them with a valuable solution to a problem related to your overall product or service.
Remember, the words on your website should use the same words as someone who’s not familiar with what it is you do.
Someone searching for natural ways to boost energy may be suffering from chronic fatigue as a result of abnormal hormone responses based on a number of lifestyle choices.
But they wouldn’t explain it to you that way.
They’d probably say something like:
“I’m just so drained of energy throughout the day, it’s like I wake up exhausted and can barely get things done or focus on the little things, and all my doctor did was give me a prescription for some medication that made me feel numb. I’d like to see if there are any natural ways to bring my energy up.”
I’m sure they’d love to read an ebook with a title like this:
12 All-Natural EnergyUp™ Boosters:
Keep Your Mind Clear, Calm, And Focused All Day Long
Tip #4: Know Their Stressors
I was once coaching a very successful healer, who had all the right pieces in place to launch several different offers at scale using Jeff Walker’s PLF system.
Everything was dialed in, but I noticed a problem when I double-checked the copy.
“This isn’t going to work,” I said, which made him a bit upset since he’d followed the proven launch formula down to every last word.
“Because,” I continued, “the outcomes you’re selling are based on what people who’ve already been healed said—you want to talk about the desired outcomes of those who are still in pain. They’re very different.”
Eventually, I got him to see what the problem was.
The templates he followed called for descriptions of what life could be like for the people in his market who hadn’t taken action to heal yet.
But he filled in the blank spaces with verbatim quotes from people who’d already experienced the healing benefits of his product.
“I thought the best copy came straight from the prospect’s own mouth?” he said. And he was right. But he was defaulting to copywriting techniques he didn’t understand fully.
So I explained:
- Those who’ve been helped already are saying things like: “Such a relief,” which is obvious, or, “I feel so light, like I could float away,” or, “I feel alive again.”
- Those still in pain may want relief, but they definitely don’t want to float away, or understand what feeling alive again even means.
- They want to be able to get out of bed without feeling like their back is going to snap in half, or to visit their grandchildren without the creaking of their bones leading to exhaustion that forces them onto the couch for the rest of the day.
Make sense?
He was attempting to define a feeling his market couldn’t understand because they hadn’t yet felt it.
Always speak to the stress and pain your market feels based on their current reality, even if you know what’s truly going on.
This is how you’ll stand out through your website copy and messaging because consider the difference between stress framed this way:
“Your thyroid hormones are dysregulated which is why you feel tired all the time and your metabolism doesn’t seem normal.”
And stress framed like this:
“It’s almost like you can feel your bones weakening by the day, and on top of the weight you’ve gained and bloating, when you saw a clump of your hair on the shower floor it didn’t phase you because you’ve felt like your body was slowly falling apart for years now.”
Tip #5: Show Them Peace
Just like you must speak to your market’s pain in a way they’ll understand, you must do the same for their vision of hope.
Don’t assign the vision you have for their future, but show them the peace of mind they currently desire is within reach (get into the details once they’ve already started their journey with you).
The woman searching for relief from her menopausal symptoms isn’t lying awake at night saying:
“I want to rejuvenate and reclaim my health.”
The peace she seeks likely sounds more along the lines of:
“I wish I could get a full night’s sleep and not feel so out of it all the time. I’d like to go more than a day or two without my depression turning to a panic attack when I’m out in public and I feel my heart start to beat faster. I just want to feel normal again.”
Take that experience and turn it into a piece of web copy like so:
Sleep Through The Night And Let The Emotions Boiling Up Inside You Melt Away As You Finally Become A Normal Human Being Again
Tip #6: Be The Different One
Why should someone listen to you? Why not one of the many other health professionals?
Sure, maybe you can benefit from being the most local provider in a small area.
But that only lasts so long.
To stand out you must be different in some way.
Is it your approach? Your philosophy? Your unique experience?
She’s not just a fertility coach.
Maybe you’re one of the only functional medicine providers that uses plant-based nutrition to focus help recovering addicts and alcoholics rebuild the damage they’ve done to their bodies.
Who else can say that?
Or maybe your focus is on hormone resets for menopausal women, but specifically for athletes or those who lead very active lifestyles.
What will allow you to say, “There’s everyone else, and then there’s me.”
Adding a personal philosophy to your website that differs from what everyone else is doing can help raise your profile and put you in a better market position.
With one caveat: it must resonate with the people you want to help.
Like any good piece of marketing, a rebellious philosophy will turn many people off to what you have to say. But the ones who feel moved by your messaging will be incredibly loyal.
If that’s too scary, a unique experience can showcase your “why” to set you apart.
I once coached a healer who survived a suicide attempt. Her husband found her in the tub just seconds before she was gone for good.
She dedicated her life to helping trauma survivors live happy lives as a result.
Figure out what makes you different and tell everyone about it.
Tip #7: Nudge Them Towards Transformation
Your website should give people multiple chances to further their relationship with you.
Resources can be sprinkled throughout your home page, with dedicated forms, or even pop-ups.
Blog posts should end with calls to action, and reminders to learn more about your services should present themselves in a way that’s natural and not overbearing.
Come to think of it... I've got 24 easily implementable SEO hacks you can use to help immediately improve your site's search rankings!
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These friendly nudges won’t do all the hard work of convincing someone to start their health journey with you.
But when they are ready they shouldn’t have to dig through your site.
At all stages of the customer journey, they should know you’re there for them, ready to help them heal.
You can also make use of downsells and thank you page offers to guide your most interested prospects closer to a decision.
Not ready for the metabolic reset program? Try this 14-day detox first.
Did you like the Anti-Aging Superfoods Guide To A Healthy Heart? Check out the 30-Day Heart Reboot.
Never miss an opportunity for a friendly nudge.
Tip #8: Soothe Their Wounds
If you truly want to help people transform with a whole-body approach, then understand that skepticism and concern are part of the process.
Resistance to change stems from fear.
You must help soothe the pain causing those who are most afraid to put up their walls.
It’s not your fault.
How many of your patients were at their wit’s end after walking in and out of doctor’s offices only to get nowhere?
Why should they believe you can help them?
Practice this form of pure empathy with anyone who’s hesitant to take what they see as a chance on you; give them the stories and resources they need to come to a decision for themselves.
This is key.
The ones that don’t want to believe in your ability to help them but truly have nowhere else to go are living in a state of painful rebellion, holding themselves back from a better life by letting trauma run the show.
They have to feel like their decision was made on their own, without influence.
Create resources in the form of blog posts, webinars, emails, or other delivery methods that address their greatest fears.
Maybe they’re asking themselves:
What if it doesn’t work?
A blog post titled “What To Do When Functional Medicine Is Your Last Option” can show them you understand their fear, anger, and desperation.
And by the end of it you can have helped them to reframe the question to be:
What if it does work?
Do this for every resistant thought they can throw at you, then give them the space to step forward into a better life.
You don’t need credit, you’re not here for that. You’re here to change lives.
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