Differentiating Yourself: Having a Brand and Being Memorable: Keys to Gaining Your Ideal Client’s Mindshare and Achieving Your Business Growth Goals

By Nina Price, LAc

The more your “ideal prospect” knows about what you can offer them, and the more visible you can be on their “radar,” the more likely they will purchase your services when they need them.

Differentiate Yourself Using Your Personal Brand
As a self-employed service professional, you must differentiate yourself, clearly presenting why your “ideal prospect” should choose to do business with you rather than any other equally qualified practitioner. To do this, start with your personal brand.

If your “ideal prospect” is, for example, a serious cyclist, and you are an acupuncturist who specializes in issues unique to cyclists, your brand might be:

“I help serious cyclists training for challenging rides and races to minimize their downtime due to injury during training so they can ride as many days each week as they choose. I do this because I’m a serious cyclist myself. I enjoy supporting my fellow cyclists in achieving their cycling goals.”

This is a clear statement aimed specifically at serious cyclists telling them why they should choose you as their acupuncturist: I am a serious cyclist. I understand their problems and specialize in solving them. I may belong to the same cycling clubs and race at the same races as they do; I may post on email lists they subscribe to or even be a friend in their online social network. Serious cyclists may thus decide to travel significant distances to get to My office because they want My services rather than those of their local, non-cyclist acupuncturist.

Differentiating Yourself By Being Memorable
Once your “ideal prospect” knows about you, how can you stay on their radar so that they remember to book an appointment with you when they really need your services?

As a cycling acupuncturist, I may want to develop specific packages of services for cyclists to support their training for specific events.

I may give regular talks or a blog about the kinds of problems my clients may have. I might want to offer a calendar or a cycling-oriented chotchke that everyone will use regularly Listing my name and contact information. I might even even sponsor cycling events for young people needing my services. Even simple things like a bicycle-oriented logo on my business card, or a unique email signature that gives complete contact information and brand, will keep me visible every time I hand out a card or post to a cycling list.

When your target client group knows who you are and why you’re an ideal choice for them, staying visible and memorable is the key to turning your ideal prospects into paying clients. Of course you must deliver on your promise in a way that provides the value they expect, but assuming you’re good at that, once word of mouth kicks in you’ll achieve your business growth goals.

Nina Price is a licensed acupuncturist and a business and wellness coach who helps people “push the reset button” on their health, their careers, and the rest of their lives, so they can prevent burnout and have the professional life they want, no matter what happens.

She is a former Silicon Valley high tech marketing exec who also teaches “Marketing Charm School” to independent service professionals so they can become top notch at marketing themselves and their practices.

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