A few weeks ago, Joe Delfgauw’s team reached out to us about getting a short code for a project he’s working on called, “The Diabetic Influencer.”
Health and wellness can be a tough category to get approved by the carriers in the ungating process and there’s a good reason for that. They look at these applications pretty closely because there are so many programs making health claims or trying to sell some kind of miracle cure. That wasn’t really the case here. Joe has type 2 diabetes and he’s pretty open and transparent about how he got there. His diet wasn’t great, he knew it, and he decided he needed to make some changes in order to see a new result.
Instead of doing it privately and showing up six months later with a before and after picture, he decided to put the process out there while he’s actually going through it and starting where he’s at. “I figured if I create a brand and talk about it, I can hold myself accountable,” he told us. That’s basically where the idea for the Diabetic Influencer came from.
Most of the texting is pretty straightforward. Joe goes live on Tuesdays at 2pm Eastern, so people can get a reminder before he goes on. There are verification texts for the member area, community updates and occasionally things like merch drops. One of the shirts they’re working with literally says “F$#K You Type 2.”
There are a few different types of messaging involved, so we’re not trying to force everything through one number. The short code will handle the larger program once it’s approved, while 10DLC can be used for member conversations and toll-free for things like verification. RCS gives them another option for anything visual. If you’re announcing a new shirt, it makes more sense to actually show people the shirt.
On our side, a lot of the work comes down to the stuff nobody really sees. Consent needs to follow the person across those different messaging channels and there needs to be a clean record of the opt-in. That matters with any messaging program, but especially with health-related applications where carriers are going to take a closer look.
At one point Joe said,”If I ask ten people what a diabetic should eat, you’ll get ten different answers, and half of them are wrong.” The point of the live sessions is to establish a dialog with other diabetics on their journey and bring them into the conversation. There’s no shortage of conflicting information about diabetes online, and Joe isn’t trying to position himself as the guy who suddenly has all the answers. He can talk about what he’s doing and what he’s learning, and bring in people who know more about a particular subject when it makes sense.
For Text-Calibur, it’s also been a good example of why it’s worth figuring out your messaging setup before you start building a big list. If you’re in health and wellness, finance or another category that gets additional carrier scrutiny, your opt-in process and messaging structure shouldn’t be an afterthought. It’s a lot easier to get those pieces right with your first 100 subscribers than it is to fix them after you have 100,000.
You can follow Joe’s journey at thediabeticinfluencer.com. Read more about Joe at joedelfgauw.com
Joe isn’t a doctor, and The Diabetic Influencer isn’t medical advice. Anyone considering changes to their diet, supplements or medications should talk with their healthcare provider.