BEST OF: 5 Ways to Market Your Health Coaching Business
One of the top struggles we know most wellness business owners have is knowing how to market their business, so they can get a steady flow of new clients. Since this is such an important topic, we are bringing back an episode we did a few months ago that shares 5 simple but effective marketing strategies you can start using right now.
Marketing can be kept very simple, especially in the beginning as you’re testing things out and you’re feeling more confident about your niche and your skills as a coach. You don’t need a complicated 5-step sales funnel or any high-tech tools to be successful. You just need to make a plan that includes some foundational concepts and be consistent. Just like everything else, you’re going to keep learning as you go, so be patient with yourself and realize that not everything you try is going to be home run, and it’s all part of the process to test and experiment.
Before we cover the 5 strategies, it goes without saying that you must first be clear on who your ideal client is – your niche, so your marketing and your messaging is reaching the right people. You want people to know right away if you are for them or not. You don’t need a build a huge audience, you just need to build an audience of people who want what YOU are offering.
If you are still working on narrowing down your niche, be sure to check out episode 265 where we covered 3 Simple Steps to Validate Your Niche Marketing Message.
Let’s start with strategy #1 – Publish content on a regular basis.
Share content on social media and email that is related to your niche and how you help people. The most effective form of content is video because it helps people get to know you much quicker than just image posts. Not all of your posts have to be video, but you want to include it as part of your strategy. Short form video such as Reels are good for reaching more people and allowing others to find you when you use trending music and hashtags. Pick 1-2 social media platforms and go all in rather than dabbling in a few and not being consistent.
Other forms of content are good too such as blogs and podcasts.
TIP #1: Focus on the forms of content you have time for right now and that you will enjoy the most. The most important part of the success of your content is being consistent, so make a plan you can stick with on a regular basis – whatever that looks like for you.
TIP #2 – Repurpose your content – you can use your blog content for part of your emails, social media posts, and vice versa. One topic can be broken up in several ways to be used in multiple places in different formats.
2. Have an opt-in on your website to collect email addresses.
Growing your email list will be one of the most important things you do for your business and it will also be a key indicator in the profitability of your business. When you’re feeling discouraged about your reach on social media and/or the algorithm changes again, you are still in control of your email list and no one can take that away from you. Even if your email open rate is 20%, that is still much higher than your reach on social media.
We recommend you have your opt-in showing on your home page, and also use a pop-up opt-in if possible. A pop-up opt-in is where your free offer pops up after people are on your website for a certain amount of time. At a minimum, be sure to have your free offer on your home page towards the top, so visitors see it as soon as they land on your page.
If you don’t have a website yet, that’s okay. You can still promote your freebies on social media to grow your email list. You can use something like MailerLite where the free version includes email management for up to 1,000 subscribers as well as landing page templates for your freebies and sales pages. Having a website is not a must as you get started, so don’t let that hold you back.
3. Email your subscribers weekly, if possible, so you stay top of mind.
You may know this is a good idea, but you might be wondering what your emails be about. Topics, can be taken from your social media posts, and it can also come from questions you get from clients or prospects, any myths you want to bust or common misconceptions about your area of expertise are some ideas to consider.
Most people will not be ready to work with you when they first get your freebie or follow up sequence, so this is why keeping top of mind is so important. If people opt in for your free offer and they don’t hear from you for 2-3 months, when they do get an email from you, they are likely to unsubscribe because they don’t remember who you are.
4. Host a Facebook group or other online community.
One of my zones of genius and favorite topics to talk about is Facebook groups, and that’s because you get to build a community around your area of expertise. A Facebook group is different than a Facebook business page because your group is where people will gather, hang out and interact with other people – they aren’t doing that one business pages. Your group is also where people get to know you, and you get to know them and find out more about what they want and where they struggle. This is important for your marketing and for ideas for your content – for your free content as well as ideas for your coaching programs and other offers. Some ideas for this podcast come from questions in the groups that Karen and I host. They sometimes also give us ideas for webinar topics and other offers. When you can find out where your ideal clients struggle the most and you find out more about their Why – that’s priceless.
If you want to host your own Facebook group but you aren’t sure how to run one, and how to get your ideal clients to join, my Group Accelerator mini course, walks you through everything you need to know, step by step. You’ll learn how to grow a highly engaged group that turns members into clients, and the mini course is 50% off right now.
5. Be a guest on podcasts
One of the best ways to grow your audience and your following is to leverage other people’s audiences, and podcasting is one great example of this. We did an entire episode all about how to get booked on podcasts, including how to research podcasts for possible guest opportunities. It was back on episode 89. If you set a goal to get on one podcast a month, you would be amazed at the growth of your business in a few short months. Plus, it allows you to make new connections with the hosts and you never know what opportunities can come from that. Sometimes, another podcast host will hear your interview and they may reach out to have you on their show too.
Before that imposter syndrome creeps up, just know that you don’t have to know everything to be a podcast guest – just focus on that topics you are most passionate about and feel the most comfortable talking about. Of course, you want the topics to be related to your niche, but you can be newer at what you do and still be a great guest who can share helpful information.
Where can you begin?
Don’t let this overwhelm you; start with one thing for now and do that until you can add something else. Maybe you aren’t able to outsource anything at the moment, and that’s okay too. When you are able to, hire a virtual assistant or social media manager who can take some of these tasks off your plate. A virtual assistant can even help research potential podcasts for you to be on.
We can’t wait to hear where you are in the process and what strategies you can add or be more consistent with in the coming months.
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