People probably assume my superpower should be understanding the algorithm, or making content pretty enough to get noticed. And yes, ok, that’s part of what I do. But any social media strategist worth their salt should be able to say that.

Mine goes deeper, and it’s the reason I was able to scale 7, 8 and 9-figure brands and make millions for the businesses I worked for.

I know what makes women part with their money.

Not in a creepy Derren Brown way. In a twenty-years-of-getting-it-right-because-getting-it-wrong-was-expensive way.

Where it comes from

I spent over 20 years in head office working for brands that sold to women, across buying, merchandising, marketing, product and sales. One wrong call could cost thousands of customers, millions off the bottom line and, if not your bonus that year, possibly your job.

So we sweated everything. We’d spend hours in boardrooms debating whether a colour should be ecru or bone, the shape of a heel to the nearest millimetre, which beauty model shot was going to sell the brand best and which one would make it disappear, the four words in a hook that had to carry a whole season. Tiny details were never tiny when that much money was riding on them.

Do that for long enough and it stops being something you think about and becomes instinct. You get very good at spotting the small things that change how a customer sees something, what makes it feel worth more, what makes her trust it, what makes the price make sense and what puts her off before she’s even properly thought about buying.

What I actually mean by buyer psychology

Buyer psychology gets a bad name, like it’s about tricking people into things they don’t want. For me it’s always been about knowing what she cares about, what she needs to believe and what would make her feel confident enough to say yes.

Selling to women was never just about giving her something she needed. It was about understanding how that thing was going to make her feel, so well that she couldn’t imagine going without it. You touch her deeply (oo err), you make her feel seen and understood, and what you’re selling becomes the obvious answer.

What I see when I look at your socials

So when I look at a clinic, salon or service business’s socials now, I’m not asking whether the content is pretty. I’m looking at whether it’s speaking to the right customer at all.

The first thing I notice is whether the content is about the business or about her. Most of the time it’s about the business. The treatments, the qualifications, the shiny new machine. All lovely, but she’s sitting there wondering what any of it means for her.

Then the bio. Is it telling me how fabulous you are, or is it making her think “this is exactly what I need, how do I book”?

Then the language. The wrong words will put off the woman who’d happily spend thousands with you and call in the one who never will. Sometimes they make her feel rubbish about herself before you’ve even shown her the offer.

Then the branding. If it’s inconsistent, or there are spelling mistakes, or it looks homemade, it undermines a premium price before anyone’s read a word. The woman who’s ready to spend notices every one of those things.

And then the path. Can she find you, understand how you help, trust you and actually work out how to book?

One woman, three moments

I always say we speak to one woman. But she isn’t always in the same place.

Sometimes she’s just found you and has no idea who you are. Sometimes she’s been watching for months, saying nothing, deciding whether you’re the one. Sometimes she’s ready to spend today and just needs you to make it easy.

If your socials only ever talk to one version of her, the others are left standing there. Good content meets her wherever she is and moves her a step closer.

Why “you need more clarity” isn’t advice

Everyone talks about strategy now. You need more clarity, you need a consistent strategy. But nobody tells you what that actually means, and it’s really quite simple. Start with her. Her problems, her desires, the language she uses, what would make her choose you over someone else. Then position yourself as the answer, in words that sound like they were written for her.

I see people chasing reach with trial reels without ever checking whether the people they’re pulling in are anyone they’d actually want as a client. Reach from the wrong people is just noise.

The whole point

Pretty content is lovely. Posting consistently, fine, it’s ok advice. But if you’re selling anything, the customer is the most important part of your world, and not enough people really think about her.

The customer is the whole point.