There are endless ways to market yourself as an ACE Certified Professional. The evolution of digital advertising, email marketing and social media has made promoting a business more accessible to all businesses, and even traditional marketing such as direct mail, print and broadcast advertising are now within reach of smaller organizations with modest budgets. With the addition of affordable graphic design programs like Canva or Adobe Creative Cloud Express, even a novice can create visually appealing promotional materials and advertisements.

All these advancements have made it easier than ever to get the word out. However, for many health and exercise professionals, the real struggle lies in what to say or communicate when promoting their products, services and skills. After all, even the most aesthetically pleasing ad or social media graphic will fall flat if the content doesn’t connect in a compelling way.

Your message is the magic that will have clients lining up to work with you. So, as you create messaging for marketing purposes, keep these five tips in mind:

1. Get specific about who want to you serve (and no, it’s not everyone!) and why you want to serve them. Do you know your ideal client? Do you know their lifestyle, struggles and desired outcomes? Before you create marketing materials, think about who you want to serve and why. Is it women during the postpartum period, busy executives, aging athletes or kids who need to be more active? And why do you want to work with them? You need to have a connection with your ideal client before you can help them. It doesn’t mean you have to be a mom to work with moms, for example, but it’s important to dig deep as to why you want to help a specific group of people.

2. Create your client avatar. Spend 15 to 20 minutes creating a fictitious ideal client. Go beyond the typical demographics such as age, gender, income, etc. What do they do from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to sleep? What kind of food do they eat? What is their job like? How stressful is their life? Get in their head and think as they do so you can speak their language in your marketing.

3. Break down their biggest problem. What is likely their biggest health challenge? For example, is it extra weight, low energy, high blood pressure or diminished strength? Next, think about what’s stopping them from fixing it on their own (i.e., why do they need you?). Is it a busy schedule or lack of motivation, knowledge, accountability or confidence? Finally, what happens if they don’t fix it? Will they feel defeated, gain weight, or injure themselves? Once you have identified the problem, the barriers and the consequences, write out how you can help them solve it. For example, your client avatar might be a busy professional who has no time to exercise and, as a result, has gained weight and now might need knee surgery due to a recent injury. Write down what you offer that helps solve their problem and come up with a few points to support your solution.

4. Create your elevator pitch. How would you describe who you are and what you do in just a few words? Use a simple formula such as I’m (insert your name), and I help (insert your ideal client) solve a problem (one of their top concerns) so they can (insert benefit) without giving up (what the client doesn’t want to give up). Here’s an example: I’m Niki Campbell and I help stressed-out professionals find the time to get fit so they can lose weight and regain confidence without spending hours in the gym.

5. Create solution-driven content that serves. While you played out your ideal client’s struggles in tip #3, you never want to scare them into working with you. Use that exercise and your elevator pitch to create content that speaks to their challenge and offers solutions. Take the example of the stressed-out professional with no time to work out. A piece of marketing content might look like this: Fact or fiction: You must work out an hour a day to lose weight. Fiction! You can get fit in 30 minutes a day if you choose the right exercises and equipment that maximize your time and accelerate your results. Contact us to get your free fitness assessment. This allays their fear that they need hours of time to exercise each week and gives them some knowledge with a call to action. That same content could be turned into an ad, blog post, email newsletter or presentation for the local chamber of commerce. You are creating one piece of content that offers multiple marketing opportunities.

Long-term business success is built on reputation and credibility and that comes from delivering on the promises you make and being consistent. That’s why it’s important to ensure your communications and content support those efforts and strengthen your reputation. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just remember that all your content should speak to your ideal client, address a problem they have and offer a solution or resource.