How I Took A Sensitive Health Topic (that Women Feel Shame Around) And Created A Warm, Funny Brand Voice
Photo by Renate Neurauter
What would you do if two successful entrepreneurs asked you to help launch a suite of six new products, create their unique brand identity from scratch – oh, and build out a 5-page website – all by January 24th?
Why, you'd say yes and write copy in-between mouthfuls of Christmas pudding, of course! 🎄
That’s exactly what I did when Trust Your Gut came a-knocking with their ambitious project. On a tight timeline that would send most sane people running for the hills, Phoebe-from-Friends style.
The mission? Make the uncomfortable niche of gut health solutions feel accessible and trustworthy for target customers. Let’s dive into how that was achieved.
The Challenge
Deadline crunch:
While everyone was stuffing their Christmas stockings with dollar-store gifts – I was stuffing my schedule with deliverables. Yup, I had to cram a three month sized project into just one month.
Why the rush, you ask? My lovely designer collaborator Whitney Zimmerman was heading off on maternity leave. Some deadlines can be pushed… a young mammal popping out your womb, not so much. (I should know, I just did so myself!)
Luckily, I love a challenge. Here was the plan:
Conducting qualitative Voice of Customer research
Developing a brand voice and identity (that was differentiated AND felt good to the founders)
Writing persuasive copy for a 9-page website (and ensure this messaging was reusable in the future)
I worship efficiency in business. So Whitney and I scoped out mini-deadlines to track the project progress. Almost every single day had an assigned task to complete.
Snippet from our project sprint To-Do list. Usually my holiday task list looks something like “Tell husband that a pink bathrobe for the 7th year in a row is the best present ever” and “Overconfidently slur the words to Auld Lang Syne.”
We worked all around the holiday period to meet those icy timelines.
Spoiler alert: We did it. 😎
Identity execution:
Trust Your Gut, a new e-commerce biz under Scottsdale Hydrotherapy, wanted to be an authentic, accessible gut health brand in a niche otherwise overloaded with “cute” branding, led by snake oil salesman. Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
I was impressed with the co-founders’ fiery passion – but there was no clear business or marketing plan to bring this brand idea to life. No website, no brand identity. We had to start from scratch and battle questions like:
How can the messaging make customers feel comfortable about something so, well, uncomfortable?
How can the client stand out in a market full of disappointing products promoted in TikTok feeds?
I needed to create sales copy that worked with a very sensitive topic. We’re talking about backed-up bowels that have kept women from using the bathroom for weeks. Not exactly a light dinner table conversation….
The Solution
I started with a two-hour kick-off call, a must-have for all my website clients. That’s when we dive deep on the product, audience, competitive landscape, branding vision, etc.
First phase: Creating a warm brand personality to gently handle a sensitive topic
It quickly became apparent that the two co-founders, Marina and Steve, have super different personalities.
Marina has a nurturing, smart vibe. She speaks about important insights from her 20 years of hydrotherapy work.
While Steve is cheeky and ambitious - he speaks about what’ll happen 20 years into the future!
I sat there like a mad scientist thinking: “hmm, what if I combine these two personality types? I could create a really original brand voice here…”
The co-founders’ yin-yang personality traits became my guiding star for the project.
I started the next phase of customer research to flesh out the brand identity, using qualitative methods like:
Founder questionnaires
Customer case study calls
Reviewing competitor testimonials
Reddit threads with ICPs discussing pain-points
Instagram comments
After synthesizing all my research insights, I landed on three key tone-of-voice pillars for the new brand voice.
Voice Pillar #1: Confident ✨
I coined Marina as the “OG Gut Coach.” And I positioned Trust Your Gut as the voice of reason in a crowded market, the “Health Herald”; also tacking on a new tagline for them “Expert Gut Health.”
This touched on a solid USP: Marina is a legitimate expert as a certified, practicing colon hydrotherapist for two decades. This differentiated us in an industry full of quick fixes and gut guru’s du jour.
Source: Trust Your Gut’s Brand Identity and Voice Guide. Created by moi and designed by WildHive Studio.
A lot of target customers have had their hopes shattered by disappointing products shilled by TikTok influencers. So Trust Your Gut needed to sound authoritative. Not in an intimidating, overly-scientific way – the copy had to make people feel comfortable and well-informed.
I defined the important differentiating factors that help the client gain trust, so customers feel assured they’re making the right decision.
Source: Trust Your Gut’s Brand Identity and Voice Guide
Voice Pillar #2: Supportive ✨
From my research, we knew that target customers often feel intimidated and uncertain about using at-home enema products. This feeling of doubt can be a bottleneck to gaining their trust.
So I used sympathetic, supportive language to help guide prospects and boost their confidence.
Supportive tone-of-voice examples:
Source: Education page (FAQ)
Source: Education page (dreamstate section)
It was noted that this tone may come out more in emails, user manuals, and guides, as it works better for readers further along their journey with the brand – i.e., curious to or ready to use the products!
Voice Pillar #3: Cheeky ✨
Gut health isn’t the easiest topic to digest. (ba dum tss 🥁 thanks folks I’m here all week.) So I knew humor was our “in.” Cheeky copy had a double job: get customers to give us a chance AND help ease their nervousness.
As you can imagine: toilet jokes were ripe for the picking. But I didn’t want my client’s brand to feel cheap or flippant about such a sensitive issue.
I analyzed bold brand voices like Poo-Pourri and Who Gives a Crap. While their marketing is hilarious, that scatological tone-of-voice works better for a common commodity like toilet spray. Not a serious, science-backed product like an at-home enema.
So when I created guidelines for exuding a cheeky voice – I made sure the humor was intelligent, playful and witty. This involves clever wordplay that disarms and engages readers.
At the same time, we didn’t shy away from referencing poop. After all, that’s the reason prospects visit the website in the first place!
Here are some cheeky tone-of-voice examples:
Source: About page (hero section)
I used puns throughout the product description pages, to add a sense of lightness to a heavy topic:
Source: Coffee product description
This playful tone came out a lot in headliners – the perfect place to try to capture a reader’s attention if they’re scrolling too fast.
For example, I played around with the headings for the FAQs. (Because using the title “Frequently Asked Questions” is, like, way too mainstream. 😉)
For the digestive tea 🫖:
For the at-home enema 🚽:
For the non-toxic candle 🕯️:
For the enema coffee ☕️:
Email opt-in sections usually contain generic copy, some variation of “sign-up to hear about discounts and more!” It’s now jazzed up a bit more:
Along the same lines, I created a witty legal disclaimer – not just bland “terms and conditions” text:
Tickling your customers’ funny bones can help you form an emotional connection, so you can resonate. It breaks down defensive walls too – a study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that humor in marketing is less likely to be met with skepticism or resistance.
Now that I’d defined the brand identity and voice, we knew exactly how to talk to customers and get them to trust us. Boo-yah.
My client’s feedback to the Brand Identity and Voice Guide. (Whitney’s the talented designer.)
Next stop: Building a relatable, customer-centric website
Since I’m a trained conversion copywriter, I know that a warm personality on the website doesn’t just need to build trust…
…it has to sell moolah too.
So I brought my A-game to finish up the must-have website pages:
Home
About
Product (various)
Contact
Education/FAQs
The only thing out of the ordinary here is that this client wanted an educational page that delivered helpful product information, i.e. clarifying how the enema product and protocols work.
But I saw even more potential. Rather than just educating, here we could create a powerful sales page that directly leads to a purchase.
You see, in Eugene Shwartz’s classic book Breakthrough Advertising, he pioneered the 5 stages of awareness. All prospects have a level of understanding for our category that is situated within that spectrum.
So every single marketing asset should be created intentionally to move them to the next stage. I knew this Education page needed to move potential customers from Problem-Aware to Solution-Aware.
Source
Our website audience is at the problem-awareness stage.
This means that the copy has to hook readers with their problems. Only… these customers didn’t need to be educated on their gut health condition. They felt the uncomfortable impact every single day – no reminder was needed.
Instead, our target customers needed to understand why TYG wouldn’t let them down like all the other solutions they’ve tried. That’s the real pain-point: being burnt by other sham products.
So here’s how my copy convinces customers that we’re not “just another disappointing solution” on the Education page:
“Staying up past midnight desperately searching TikTok”... “20-35 supplements a day that cost you thousands of dollars”… this language is super specific and vivid, right?
I didn’t conjure those phrases out of thin air, pulling a rabbit out of a hat. (I’m good but I’m no Copywriter Houdini!)
This copy was directly picked up while eavesdropping on real ICPs speaking online about their disappointment with other solutions. Remember the Reddit threads, competitor testimonials, etc that I mentioned earlier? Goldmines, my friend.👂
That’s where you’ll find sticky messages that you (the company) and me (the strategist) cannot come up with ourselves. To truly make the copy sound relatable – we have to get the goods straight from the customers’ own mouths.
I’m not a regular process. I’m an Indestructible Protocol:
My ears pricked up when co-founder Marina described her 5-step process to me – because she kept using the word “protocol”. Some words just sound authoritative, right?
So I coined Trust Your Gut’s process as the “Indestructible Protocol.” This can help build trust and make the brand sound super confident.
This also speaks to an important USP – the client has a holistic approach. Whereas most of their competitors focus on a specific, limited part of the process.
Source: Education sales page
Packaging up the process in this way can also boost the client’s Average Order Value. Customers are more likely to buy the full product line when they know there’s a protocol to follow.
The About page with empathy-led storytelling:
I had a juicy background story to work with, since co-founder Marina has experienced the pains of gut health herself. So I explored her struggles, picking out relatable phrases to hook readers on the About Us page.
That way, you’re not viewing her as an aloof seller who feels pity for your bowel problems… no, she’s someone who’s been in your shoes. She’s not above you - she’s with you.
Source: About page
Once I set up the pain and conflict, I then introduced the solution – the products.
Knowing someone has felt your exact pain AND managed to overcome it – when you feel so alone and ashamed – man, that’s a powerful moment for a reader.
This can gain empathy and buy-in before going for the sale.
The Results
Trust Your Gut got a brand identity guide and nine web pages that are fun, relatable and true to the founders’ vision.
Launching new products is usually an anxiety-ridden time that drains a founder’s energy. Much of the success hinges on the quality of the marketing.
So I was there to consult for my client when they had burning questions. This support gave them a calming guidance on what to do next.
“One of the benefits Kaleena brings is that she’s the voice of reason – because we're so close to the business. Sometimes we say and do things, then Kaleena goes ‘Mmm. No. Here's why.’
– Steve Shook, co-founder of Trust Your Gut
There were no major revisions to the copy, as we stayed aligned on the branding approach throughout the project.
Co-founder Steve was particularly pleased with the tactful, value-driven approach to selling:
“We’re differentiating ourselves big time from our competition – they’re focused on selling their product. Whereas we’re saying to people: ‘This is what you need to do and it makes perfect sense. And by the way, we have a set of products that will stop those problems.’ That’s a much more effective way to create a community with long-term relationships.”
My best clients want to stand out as something much deeper in an industry full of quick fixes. Which means customers need to connect not to your brand as an entity – but to your brand as a personality.
No overly salesy gimmicks. Just a fun, relatable brand identity that speaks directly to your customers. That’s how you resonate.
Want me to bring your brand to life?
If you want a brand voice that’s as personable and engaging as you are, let’s chat. Whether you need a fun brand identity or killer copy - I’ve got you covered.
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