You’re Not Bad at Marketing. Your Words Aren’t Working.

By Rachel Medlock - Guest Editor, Mocha Beauty

You’ve posted the reel, begrudgingly danced to the trending audio, booked the rebrand, signed up for the course, and rewritten your treatment menu in your Notes app while eating a protein bar in your car. So why does planning your marketing still feel like trying to fix dehydration with micellar water?

Maybe it’s the awkwardness that creeps in when you try to talk about what you do. Perhaps your captions feel beige. Your website doesn’t quite sound like you. Every time you try to explain your treatments, you catch yourself using the same recycled spiel as every other clinic on the internet.

It’s frustrating and it’s exhausting.

You’ve built something worth booking, so why doesn’t it sound that way?

The thing is, you’re not bad at marketing. Your words just aren’t doing their job.

Marketing without a message is just noise

There’s a lot of pressure in this industry to show up online.

You’ve been told to “show your face, but not too much.”

To “stay consistent, but don’t over-post.”

To “tell your story, but don’t make it about you.”

To “build trust, but keep it professional.”

That’s great advice until you sit down to write and realise you don’t know what to say or how to say it.

You end up staring at a blinking cursor while your brain offers you the same sentence you used last week. You tweak a few words, you upload it anyway, and you get the same result.

This is where so many clinic owners get stuck. They don’t need to try harder. They need clarity and connection — the kind that comes from words that speak directly to the right person.

Marketing without that? It’s just noise.

You can’t connect with someone you haven’t met

Your words either reflect the world of your dream client, or they don’t. If they don’t, they’ll move on. That’s a messaging problem.

Before you write anything, you have to know who you’re speaking to.

Not vaguely. Not “women 25 to 45 who like skincare,” and for the love of glowing skin, it’s not “everyone”.

Once you know who they are, you need to know what your dream client believes, desires, fears, scrolls past, leans in for, and absolutely cannot stand. You need to know how they talk, what keeps them up at night, and what they’ve already convinced themselves no one can help with.

Now, your tone of voice stops being a guessing game and starts becoming a bridge to connection.

If you confuse, you lose

There’s this unspoken pressure to prove yourself with words. To sound polished. Professional. Qualified. You start stacking up ingredients, modalities, and skin functions. Suddenly, your facial reads like an academic abstract, but the thing is, you’re not writing to impress your competitors or present a thesis.

You’re trying to talk to a real person; one who’s sitting on their couch, in their pyjamas, trying to decide if they trust you enough to touch their face.

Your dream client isn’t waiting to be impressed. They are waiting to feel understood.

If they have to read your copy three times to understand it, they’re gone.

If they don’t see themselves in your descriptions, they won’t reach out.

If they feel like your brand is talking to someone else entirely, someone with more money, more knowledge, or more flawless skin, they’ll assume your space isn’t for them.

Copywriting isn’t about the fanciest words. It’s about the right words. The ones that make your dream client exhale. The ones that sound like something they would say to a friend. The ones that permit them to put themselves first.

The job of your words is to create connection

That’s it. That’s the job.

To create a moment, however brief, where your dream client feels seen. Where they read something on your website, in your caption, or your email, and think, “That’s me.”

Sometimes that happens through highlighting pain points, like they’re sick of their skin reacting to everything, scared to ask questions because the last clinic made them feel dumb, or simply overwhelmed by choice and secretly hoping someone will take the lead.

Sometimes it happens through joy (aka pleasure points). Think radiant skin for their wedding, investing in her self-care after years of coming second, skincare that feels like a ritual, not a routine.

Whether your clients are driven by pain or pleasure, your words should meet them exactly where they are and gently guide them toward where they want to be.

That’s what good copy does. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t show off. It doesn’t sell through fear or fluff. It invites them to imagine the version of themselves after investing in that product or service.

So, what now?

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably not someone who’s ignoring their marketing. You’re in it. You care. You’re trying.

That’s the part no one sees — the hours spent rewriting captions, tweaking treatment names, trying to sound confident when truthfully, you’re exhausted.

Start by coming back to your dream client. Not the demographic tick-box version. The real person. The one sitting in their car after school drop-off, looking at their skin in the rearview mirror, wondering if anyone can actually help. The one reading your menu at 11pm, comparing five open tabs.

What do they believe about their skin? What are they sick of hearing? What do they secretly hope is true?

Then take a look at your current copy and ask yourself — is that who I’m talking to? Or am I trying to sound like every other clinic with a candle and a clean font?

From there, match your tone of voice to theirs. If your dream client values honesty and education, don’t tiptoe around results. If they’re craving calm, don’t overcomplicate your messaging with jargon and noise. Like attracts like, speak their language.

And please, showcase your point of difference. There’s no shortage of clinics offering treatments for acne, pigmentation, or ageing. What makes yours worth booking?

Don’t gatekeep your secret sauce.

If your consultation style is different, say that. If your treatment blends science with serious nurture, explain how. If you go beyond the skin and offer holistic support, put that into words. Don’t make them guess why you’re special. Show them.

You don’t have to rewrite everything overnight. Pick one place to start — the page that comes to mind when you think of this message disconnection.

That might be your most booked service. Read the description through their eyes. Does it clearly explain the benefit? Does it reflect your tone of voice? Or does it sound like it could belong to any clinic, anywhere?

Or it might be your About page. The one that still sounds like the version of you who opened in 2010, before you evolved, specialised, and grew a waitlist. If it doesn’t feel like you anymore, that’s where your rewrite begins.

The point is to start—one page, one rewrite, one clearer message. When your messaging is aligned, you stop overthinking every caption. You stop trying to explain your value in the DMs. You stop hearing “I didn’t realise you offered that” after someone’s been following you for six months.

Your website finally sounds like your clinic. Your treatment menu makes sense to people who aren’t therapists, and your content brings in the exact kind of client you’ve been dreaming about.

They get it, they get you, and that means they’re ready to book, trust, and stay.

You’re not bad at marketing. Your words need to match your worth.