health coach marketing mistakes

Discover these 7 marketing mistakes that prevent health and wellness professionals from success!

Your marketing efforts may not always work out as planned as a health and wellness business - even the most well-intentioned. Creating a marketing plan and process can be daunting, from crafting the perfect message to choosing the proper channels.

But making mistakes is part of the learning process. By examining a few common business marketing pitfalls, you can learn what to avoid doing that could hurt your marketing efforts.

Here are seven marketing mistakes to watch out for while trying to grow your wellness business:

1-Not Defining Your Target Audience

You must complete a customer profile of your target audience before you even consider marketing your wellness business! 

One of the most common marketing blunders that health and wellness professionals make is failing to define their target audience.

Without a clear and concrete understanding of who you’re trying to reach, creating messaging that resonates with these individuals will be challenging. 

You must understand your target market thoroughly before you start marketing to them in any form.

You must know their desires, wants, problems they face, goals, etc. Once you do, speaking to them in any format becomes easy, more natural, and you're better able to connect with them on a level that will allow them to value your input and effortlessly gravitate towards your products and services.

2-Not making a customer profile of your most valued target customer

Not having a customer profile before creating your marketing is a recipe for disaster. By failing to research your customer and establish a customer profile, you will be wasting time, money, and resources marketing to people who are not your ideal buyer.

Having a Customer Profile is critical! 

If you want to find out more, you can sign up for this detailed report on Profiling Your Market.

3-Failing to Plan Your Marketing Strategy

Another mistake that health and wellness professionals make is failing to plan their marketing strategy. Without a plan, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day details and lose sight of your overall goals.

A well-crafted marketing plan will help you stay focused and on track, ensuring that your efforts are aligned with your business objectives.

Your marketing strategy also pertains to every aspect of your content - whether your blog posts or content that you use to market your business online.

Not having a content strategy is one of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make as a health coach or wellness professional.

If you don’t have a content plan, it’s likely that your efforts will be scattered and all over the place. This will only frustrate you and make you lose money because your marketing is not being targeted to the right people or areas, and you'll fail to gain the right clients that will ultimately help grow your business.

You must do the homework first and take the time to plan appropriately. This will help you invest in the right areas and spend your time on the right things, but you'll also be able to come out on top - over your competitors.

Having a content strategy and proper plan for your business will help you focus your energy on creating content and marketing aligned with your business goals and serving your audience.

Also, note that marketing also includes SEO!

Failing to integrate SEO into your content strategy is another big mistake.

SEO should be the central aspect of your content marketing strategy to ensure that your content is visible to your target audience.

Your content may be lost without SEO and show up only on the furthest search result pages. This ultimately means that it is essentially invisible.

Your website/blog needs to be seen by those who need you, and adequately investing in search engine optimized (SEO) content is one of the best investments you could ever make in your business!

4-Investing in the Wrong Marketing Channels

There are many channels to choose from when it comes to marketing your wellness business. You have social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.), email, blog content marketing, paid advertising, etc.

Trying them all can be somewhat tempting with so many marketing channels available. But it can also feel very overwhelming.

Which do you choose?

Do realize that you can't be everywhere simultaneously and nor should you be.

Not every medium hosts your target audience. However, the “spray and pray” marketing approach in every channel available is rarely practical, as it’s often difficult to generate a good return on investment when you’re spread too thin.

Instead of being everywhere at once, focus your efforts on the most likely channels where you know your target market engages. That is where you need to go to reach your target audience.

For example, if your ideal customer is not active on Twitter, there’s no point in investing time and energy into building a presence there. But if you see they are actively on YouTube commenting and engaging there, you also need to ensure you are hosting your content there and engaging with your audience.

But don't just share content…

Be sure that you are engaging with them consistently.

Answer their questions and comments and make videos specifically responding to their concerns, comments, and questions.

The more engaged you are with your target audience in the location they hang out the most, the better you'll be able to serve them since you'll understand their needs better and ultimately provide them with the solutions they are looking for.

5-Failing to Set Measurable Goals

When it comes to marketing, what gets measured can be improved. Without setting clear and measurable goals, it’s impossible to know whether your marketing efforts are successful.

Some measurable goals could be:

• What monthly revenue do you want to make? 

• Answer: I want to make $20,000/ month in Q2 of this year.

• How many new social media subscribers do you want to gain each month?

• Answer: I want to gain 10,000 more subscribers in the next 2 months.

• How much engagement do you want on the YouTube videos that you post?

• Answer: I want at least 20% more comments on each video I release by Q2 of this year.

Measuring the results of your marketing efforts is key to growing your business.

When you see the shortcomings or positive results, you have a better idea of where you need to invest and where you need to pull back and focus on the areas that give you the most significant results!

To begin to set goals that will help you move the needle, make sure they are specific, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (aka - S.M.A.R.T.).

For example, a goal like “Increase website traffic by 20% in the next quarter” is more effective than simply saying “Generate more website traffic.”

6-Investing Time in the Wrong Areas of Your Business

There are a lot of different business areas and marketing tactics available to health and wellness professionals, from online ads to public relations to content marketing. It is hard to do it all. If you are writing blog posts and searching for images for each post, this may not be the best way to spend your time.

Focus on your area of expertise and helping your market. Perhaps hiring a writer and/or virtual assistant to add the content to your website is a better way to do things.

Your time is better spent helping as many people as possible. Perhaps you can jot down things you want to address in your posts and hand it off to a writer and editor. Then once complete approve it for publishing, Not only will this save you time and get that much-needed information out to your market, but you’ll also focus your energy in area that benefit your market and business better.

So be smart, use help where you can, and focus on helping your market. After all, the more people you help, the healthier and more active lifestyle they’ll be able to live!

7-Not creating the content your audience values is a huge mistake for health coaches and wellness professionals.

Failure to create content that resonates with your audience will lead to disastrous results. Your content must be valuable and speak to the needs of your audience by solving their problems which ultimately leads to results.

In conclusion, these are the 7 common mistakes of wellness professionals. If you can avoid making these mistakes, you will put yourself in a much better position to succeed with your marketing efforts.

By understanding each of the above-mentioned errors and avoiding these mistakes, you will be able to create a more successful marketing strategy for your health coaching or wellness business and better meet the unique and individualized needs of your clients and customers!

Simple Things to Make and Sell Online for Money

If you're a creative do-it-yourself type who likes to dabble in making things, then why not consider earning some extra cash doing so!

We are all natural-born creators and there is no better joy than being paid to do something you love! And now with the vast array of innovative technologies, there is no better time to start than now.

The internet has opened up a whole new world of opportunities, where your location is no longer a limitation to making sales. The evolution of e-commerce, not to mention new software and apps being created daily coupled with various social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tiktok - you name it! There are so many new media applications out there to help share your newest creation.

Television is no longer the medium of choice.

New media is here to stay. And if you can evolve and take advantage of just a few of these few players, it can be enough to take your creative venture to the top!

Some things to consider before you decide what you’ll make:

Before you even start creating, it’s important to first think about what takes you the least amount of time to create. You would also have to ensure that the item you choose to create can be made in a decent amount of time to make it a worthwhile venture.

Can you make it fairly quickly?

This is important to ask yourself because the quicker you can create and sell the item, the more money you can make. Now if you can create a bunch and sell in bulk then that’s even better. You’ll be able to turn-over more - meaning you can sell more of your items in less time. And if you can market this product well, you’re in an even better situation in terms of adding to your income and bottom line!

The key to your success is to have systems in place that you can leverage your efforts to create the most rewarding results for both you and your customers.

So the question remains …

What things can you make and sell online?

Well, you'd be surprised at the selection of simple things you could easily make and sell online. I have over 40 ideas, but I know there are plenty more.

Now if you are one who wouldn't mind earning some extra income from selling things you make online, then this vast list is going to be a real treat!

Ready to start creating?

Here are 40+ Things to Make and Sell Online (with Examples)

1. Templates - Ready-made templates that people can use to complete projects are often an overlooked sale item for many businesses and solo-entrepreneurs.

There are a wide array of template choices. Templates are basically a framework by which a project can be completed.

For example, Powerpoint Templates are pre-formatted and pre-designed with placeholders for text and images. So all you have to do is replace the image holder or dummy text area with your own text and images and voila! You have a professionally looking Powerpoint presentation that you can now use to present your work.

As long as the template is designed by a highly-skilled designer who understands layout and presentation styles, there is no reason why you cannot have your own professionally made presentation that looks highly professional and functions like a charm without you having to put in grueling hours of work trying to format and design your presentation. A pre-built template is an excellent option.

There are so many templates from content templates, email templates, and business plan templates to web design templates (just to name a few), creating templates for others can be a very lucrative business.

2. Checklists - People need to stay organized and checklists are one of the best ways to do it. Think of a checklist as a type of to-do list to get tasks completed. Now if you can create a system where the task can be completed well and have a checklist for that particular task that guarantees success upon completion, then your checklist has value! So many people would benefit from your checklist. Actually, there are apps that can help with this. Apps like Planable.io or Redbooth.com make the process of creating checklists easy. However, with their easy online app tool, you can create checklists from anywhere even on the go! They even give you access to other checklists created by others for tasks that you too may need to create a checklist for. You can use these checklists as is or tweak them to add minor tasks to the list where necessary. This makes task creation easy - not to mention it will keep you organized!

3. Planners & Journals - Planners and journals can make staying organized fun and easy because you’re adding some creative flare with the use of stickers, doodles, and drawings. You can even add fancy lettering with calligraphy to make your planners and journals even more beautiful! Now if you sell these planners and journals to the right people (and there are a ton of people to sell them to, you can make a nice little income from this business).

4 E-books - Ebooks, manuals, reports, etc., that inform, educate, or entertain your audience can sell well. The fact that they are instantly downloadable after your customer purchases it saves you the time and money to have to ship the product. This is what makes digital downloads so appealing.

5. Online Courses - educating your audience with a course can make learning fun and easy for your students, while allowing you to support them and earn an extra income. It’s a win-win situation! Online courses are in a wide variety of topic areas, from calligraphy, drawing, and graphic design classes, to writing, coding and photography! If you have something you have expertise in, then an online course may be just the thing you could sell online!

6. Affiliate Products - If you have a blog or website, promote industry-specific products to your audience. What’s create about this method is that you’re still meeting the needs of your audience by sharing a product you know they can use and benefit from. And best of all, you don’t have to go through the work to plan, create and market the product. You simply need to sell an existing product that someone else made, but you get to make a commission off of any sales when your audience chooses to buy through the link you place for the affiliate product on your site. A cool and easy way to sell and make a bit of cash online.

7. Services (tutoring, writing, designing

8. Paintings - Whether you paint on canvas or digitally, you can use online print-on-demand sites like Printable.com or Etsy to sell your paintings to happy customers who admire your work.

9. Cakes / Food - Love baking or cooking? Create and ship/deliver your tasty treats for the right price.

10. Sell Old Clothing (sell on sites like Poshmark.com) - Sell your used clothing that’s still in good condition on a site like Poshmark.com. Clothing, bags and purses sell quite well and many people are willing to invest in your old treasures!

11. Old Textbooks from school or old novels etc.

12 Sell Your Notes (if you've taken a class and are neat and detailed, good notes are a commodity!)

13 Music

14 Art (Paintings, Wall Murals, Prints)

15. Rent Your Home or room with nice decor - If you have some skills in interior design and decor and are skilled in making a living space unique, comfortable, and aesthetically appealing and you have a property you’re willing to rent out, there are people willing to pay you.

Many have gone this route and it’s a global phenomenon since it can be a lucrative business for many. Now if you are creative or know someone who is who can help you create a memorable living space that can accommodate those looking for a relaxing getaway, then Airbnb.com may be something worth pursuing.

16 Merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, home goods) - Design and sell your own merchandise on sites like Printful.com, Etsy.com, or Teespring.com.

There are a ton of sites popping up all the time that allows you to create your own designs on merchandise and sell them from their platforms.

What’s great is that these sites have already built their brand and people are already making purchases on these sites. So you already have a built-in audience.

It’s just up to you to market your site well using the right keywords and descriptions to effectively make the sale. Many people have taken this online route and become quite successful at it!.

17. Soaps and Bath Products - Love getting creative in the kitchen? How about selling your own beauty products like handmade soaps and bath products? And if you can go the all-natural route making healthier products with delightful scents, then you’ll most likely have no shortage of buyers. Soaps and bath products like bath balms and creams are doing very well selling online. It’s a fast and easy way for your customer to access your unique blends while being incredibly convenient too.

18. Consultant Services or Teacher - You can sell packages of your services online. If you have knowledge and expertise in something package up those ideas into a kit or package with accomodating worksheets or workbooks to add even more value! This model has been very lucrative for many and is worth pursuing if you have a skill with expertise that your audience values. If you can take your audience through a transformation so that they get the result they are looking for, you will be highly sought after and may find more success than you ever thought was possible.

19. Carved signs - Wood, plastic, bamboo, metal signage etc., have always been sought after. If you have a lot of sign ideas, why not create and share your work and see the response from your audience. There are a ton of people on Etsy.com doing this right now. And many are very successful at it!

20. Car Decal Designer - dell and ship the sticker decals as kits for people to use to decorate their cars. As long as you include instructions, this could be a nice little venture.

21. Language Teacher or Tutor - If you speak a language or are good at teaching others, you can easily sell your services online. Sites like Udemy.com, Udacity, LinkedIn Learning or even your own website could produce some happy clients.

22. Kits (art kits, sewing kits, craft kits etc.) - Creative kits are big sellers. From sticker kits, to sewing kits, the make-your-own candy kits, if you can package your product in a way that appeals to your audience, you may very well have a successful venture worth pursuing.

23. Tea/Coffee baskets - basket sales are always a favourite!

24. Beauty Services (eyebrows, makeup) - If you’re a beauty lover, why not serve others to make them more beautiful. They’ll appreciate it by paying you for it!

25. Sticker Designer - If you love stickers and decals and you have a knack for designing, then sticker designs could be your next venture. Using sites like Etsy.com, Society6.com and others could be worth looking into.

Nowadays, people love placing stickers not only on their cars, but also on their laptop computers, bags, bikes, doors, and just about anywhere!

Students are a great market to also consider since they are often seen with stickers on their laptops, lockers, and love placing them in their planners, journals, and schedules. People still love paper and stickers are a great way to add some creative juice to add a bit of flair!

26. Video Creation Expert / Video Editor - sell pre-made videos, teach courses showing others how to do what you do, or offer your services to YouTubers! This is huge in the YouTube community! If you can network well and market your expertise, you could go very far with this creative idea!

27. Ceramics - Online ceramic classes or printable lessons or even selling at-home ceramic kits is an idea that could make a nice business.

28. Calligraphy - Sell quotes, sayings or offer calligraphy classes online!

29. Personalized Cards - for business or personal events

30. Chalkboard Art - Cafes love this and chalkboard are is selling very well. Many even love them in their home kitchens! Check out etsy.com for some amazing creators doing just this!

31. Websites (pre-made and designed)

32. Essential Oil Blends for sale.

33. Flower Arrangements - Ship or offer a how-to DIY class online

34. Wall Mural Art (e.g., painted designs on wall … think kids bedroom)

35. Printed Wall Art i.e., prints for office or home

36. Wrought iron fences (stairwells, gates of properties etc). If you’re a welder, there is a huge opportunity to customize gates and fences for homes. Most stores have limited designs etc., If you’re skilled in this area, there is a huge opportunity. Even just drafting out the designs for customers and linking up with welders who will actually do the work in different cities, this could all be done online if your process and online tools are set up well. Huge opportunity here!

37. Candles - making and selling nicely scented candles never goes out of style. People love candles! And if you can make beautiful scents, then you could be quite successful in this new venture.

38. Meals (especially cultural meals that are not widely available). E.g., Kimchi, side dishes, BBQ meals, etc.

39. Garden vegetables or fruit you grow. Sell them a set, kits or get a bit fancy and make them into healthy gift baskets.

40. App Design - There are many no-code app tools out there. If you have an app design idea, sites like Figma.com can make your idea come to life without any coding experience. If you’re more of a visual creator, tools like this can easily make your vision come to life in less time and without the use of programmers or extra programming experience. Don’t you just love technology! Then you can make your app available for a small fee or make it free and perhaps the ad route may be another lucrative option.

41. Logo design can be quite lucrative if you have design expertise.

42. Sell prints and textures! Did you know that you can make an art brush with a textured surface you took a picture of? Well, it’s true!

Take a picture of those wood floors, the knit on your sweater or the textured fabric of your towel.

Programs like the popular Procreate artist app has amazing brushes built within the app that you can use to draw, color, and paint with. But what’s amazing is you can also create your own textures or prints too to make unique creations! Best of all, you can sell these brush textures and prints to others - even big companies like Target or Lulu Lemon! If you love dabbling in art and are a curious creator who loves seeing new outcomes with your creations, then I think creating and selling your very own prints and textures could be something worth looking into. It’s become a lucrative side business for many creatives and it could for you too!

43. Make and sell your own icons! Icon art that is unique and distinctive are big sellers - especially with businesses!

There are many easy things to make and sell online for cash. You just need to think about your skills and what you’ve seen sell well online. After all, if you see a market for it, then most likely it’s selling very well. And there is always plenty of room for new creative types just like you!

So, brainstorm and start working on this next venture. Even if you don’t make it a full-time gig, it never hurts to earn a bit of extra income doing something you really enjoy that doesn’t even feel like work.

Why not right!? You’re worth it!

Buffer Social Media Management Tool | Pablo for Small Business Marketing

The Buffer social media management app - Pablo, is a tool that all small businesses should consider adding to their toolkit. This social media app is essential to your productivity as it allows you to build your online presence by giving you the ability to post on the various platforms with ease.

You can easily build your brand using this tool as it allows you to instantly choose topic related images, choose appropriate image sizes for each social platform along with the ability to add text in various font formats.

The Pablo social platform makes it easy to post on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social management platforms.

This ease-of-use allows you to connect with your audience faster while saving you time. It's like a personal assistant - but at the click of a few buttons.

According to the Buffer website, you can: 

"Plan, collaborate, and publish thumb-stopping content that drives meaningful engagement and growth for your brand."

As you can see, Pablo's easy to use dashboard also makes posting to each social platform a breeze. It not only saves you time, but it removes any frustration you would have experienced having to log in separately to post to each social platform.

Everything is done within the one dashboard!

A Better User Experience 

The layout of the Buffer App is clean. They haven't compromised your user experience with overly complex features or layout. 

Everything is so simple, that it makes using this app a pleasurable experience!

What's also a bonus is that you can collaborate with your team and do draft copies of your posts before they ever go live. This is an excellent feature for small business owners who outsource staff or for agency teams.

The Buffer App - Pablo also offers some other features that can help increase your productivity. 

Some cool features are:

• - You can schedule the publishing of each post.

• - Customize each post for the various social platforms.

• - You can create a calendar for a nice overview of all of your content for any given month.

Here is a sneak peak into the Buffer App - Pablo, just to give you an idea of how intuitive and user-friendly the app really is ...

If you need more details on this social media management tool, check out their site at https://pablo.buffer.com. It also offers a Chrome extension, so feel free to check it out.

Know any more social media management tools that you love that you would like to share? Add your experience below. 

I'd love to hear what you think and so would our readers!

Why Businesses Need A Social Media Marketing Strategy (template included)

… and how having a Social Media Strategy Template can help you plan content for your business

 One of the most rewarding attributes of any successful business is its ability to evolve and embrace new and innovative concepts, while also building new relationships, ideas and strategies to improve the overall delivery of your product or service.

In recent years, there has been a growing trend for businesses of all shapes and sizes, to engage with social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram (just to make a few), in order to boost their business performance and sales results. It’s no wonder that businesses are seeing the value of these platforms.

 As of the most recent statistics of 2019, Facebook boasts a membership of over 2.38 billion monthly active users, while Instagram in 2018 had hit 1 billion users per month and Twitter follows with 330 million monthly active users (as of the first quarter of 2019), according to this recent Washington Post article. With numbers like these, no business should ignore the influence of such social media sites. Their large communities can mean big money for businesses!

 But why else are social media websites like Twitter.com, Instagram.com and Facebook.com such an invaluable tool for business owners?

 Here are some reasons …

These Social Media Sites Foster Better Customer Relations

 Customers love having their opinions heard. But what do they love even more than this? Users of these platforms love when the feedback they provide about a company gets noticed!

It’s this type of feedback that should be encouraged and welcomed. If a company can see what their users are talking about pertaining to their experience with their products and services or of the services of their competitors, this can better help them make improvements. After all, most people commenting on these platforms love to share their experiences and these are the types of conversations that businesses should be engaging with and listening to as well. Furthermore, when the company actually implements the suggestions of a customer, this leads to greater trust from not only existing customers, but also from those considering using their products or services!

This open communication by these social sites not only helps to improve customer satisfaction, but these types of conversations can also result in a better user experience – which benefits not only the customer, but ultimately the bottom line of these companies.

 Social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter etc., have directly enabled business owners to more actively involve their customers by encouraging their feedback. Businesses have realized that listening to the needs of their customers through the help of social media websites such as these should be welcomed.

It is this “community” of people within these platforms that has created a tightly woven circle of like-minded individuals who want to share their experiences with the world, while having a community that they feel they can freely engage with 24/7.

 The viral aspect of social media networks has given the customer more of a voice and businesses realize that this voice should not be ignored. Many companies are now implementing contests, quizzes, polls and giveaways. This enables them to get feedback for free from their customers. If you’re a business owner, implementing this type of strategy will allow you to identify areas in your business that needs improvement.

Social Media Enables Your Business to Highlight and Showcase its Strengths

 As a business owner, in order to succeed within the business world, you need to showcase and highlight those parts of your business that make it superior to your competition. Not only this, but you also need to show that your business is more valuable to your customers in general. Showcase the benefits of your products with photos and videos of how well your products work. Why not consider providing tutorials and how-to videos or why not offer tip sheets to help your customers engage better with your offer.

 Here is an example of a video of this concept in action:

 This video is showing food alternatives to help someone who chooses not to eat meat. Then if the video is playing on YouTube or other video site, they can add a link for the viewer to followup. Someone who is vegan, vegetarian or a person becoming a non-eater of meat would appreciate this type of information. They’ll be able to see that there truly are more alternatives to having meat. But best of all, if you follow-up a blog post like this with a Content Upgrade or Bonus Recipe E-book filled with recipes using these meat alternatives, that’s a great way to add more value and ultimately gain the trust of your viewer. And we all know that trust leads to the sale!

Often time’s people need to see something visually in order to fully understand how good your offer really is.

For example, if you’re a company that sells blenders, why not show a delicious smoothie blend being made using your product! Along with your video or photo demonstration, you could also capture your audience’s information by having them opt-in to get your free recipe book.

An opt-in is simply a form on your website that asks for your readers name and email address and in return, you give them valuable content in any format. It’s this “extra” content, that’s going to help them make their lives better in some way. Often times, this offer solves an issue they’re having. In this example, the offer of the free recipe book solves the users problem of what they could use the blender for. They are no longer limited to what they can make. They now have an unlimited amount of delicious, healthy smoothie recipes! Do you see the power here!

 Check out this video that demonstrates this strategy in action.

This video shows how someone looking to gain more muscle, can choose more protein fueled foods or “muscle building foods” in order to build stronger, bigger muscles. If this video went even further showing an image of a recipe book called “20 Delicious Recipes for Building Bigger Muscles” and making it a free offer through an opt-in email signup, they could gain a bigger list of signups for the offer. And if they then give that list a related offer that they charge money for, they can ultimately gain more sales to build their business and brand!

 Featuring visual messages, for example using videos and photos in your social profiles, which lead to your offerings, makes it easier for you to then reach out, inform and entice your existing and prospective customers. It also helps to build a stronger relationship with your audience. And we all know that stronger relationships foster greater customer loyalty, trust and lead to life-long customers.

Social Media Allows for New and Cost Effective Marketing Strategies

 Social media has opened the doors for business owners to experience and leverage the size of these platforms to better market their business.

 Look at these numbers again! To have access to these amounts of users offline, there is no comparison! The number of users on these platforms is a goldmine!

 Just look at these numbers:

 Now, with such a huge selection of social media websites out there, as a business owner, all you have to do is engage with them by giving more. For example, why not host a competition, where the person who manages to attract the most fans for your business, wins a hefty prize! After all, everyone loves prizes! Now, when you compare the expense of the prize, versus the extra earnings and new customers you will gain, there is no comparison.

Social media has become not only the most influential marketing method, but it has also become the most beneficial marketing method in comparison to most of the traditional marketing currently available. The use of traditional outdoor billboards, magazine ad spots and flyers are not cutting it when it comes to marketing. With the introduction of the internet and its viral opportunities, not to mention it giving you the business owner the ability to track and tweak your ad campaigns and website offers, has provided businesses with more value for their ad spend, not to mention their ability to control their ads and other online content so that they can see the results that they’re returning.

 The power of social media must no longer be ignored. If your business is not on the social media bandwagon right now, you’re limiting your businesses potential.

 Get out there and communicate with your audience! Share great information that’s going to help them. Let them know about your products and services to help make their lives easier! The more you get the word out there about your business in a way that is authentic and provides guidance and assistance to your audience, there is no doubt that you’ll gain more customers who will grow to like and trust you, but most importantly, they’ll eagerly want to share your message with others.

 Stumped on what to share on these social media sites? No worries…

 Here are some ideas on what type of content you should consider posting to these social sites. These posts have been a huge success for many companies.

 Social Media Marketing Ideas:

 1.    Links to your most recent blog post. Not blogging you say! You’re missing out big time! Blogs allow your business to educate and inform your audience about the things they need to know to make their lives better. Just think, if you sell yoga mats, why not provide exercise tutorials for your audience so that they can be healthier (of course, using your yoga mat)! Show them how your yoga mats are better than the competition because of the materials used to make it – sweat-proof, easy to wipe down and anti-mould etc. You see, you need to inform with your audience in a way that adds value and is beneficial to them, but also compels them to want to buy from you. You’re providing them with great information and they now trust you because you’re finding a way to consistently keep in touch with them through these social sites in a way that’s going to help them. This shows you care. Remember, not all companies do this and that’s what can make you stand out.

2.    Free Bonus Offer i.e., The Content Upgrade. Go a step further and offer a bonus guide to add to your blog post to help your reader do whatever it is you’re talking about even better! So, let’s go back to the yoga mat example. After your article on Top 10 Yoga Exercises for Better Posture… Why not offer more value with a bonus guide that goes a step further on the topic! This bonus (in the online marketing world) is referred to as a “content upgrade”. It’s this content upgrade or bonus, that helps your reader achieve even better results on top of the amazing tips you provided in your article.

A good Content Upgrade for this example would be to have tips on the best chairs on the market that can help with posture. What’s great about this type of offer is that you could partner with chair companies whose focus is on a healthy back and having good posture. You could mention the benefits of their chairs in the guide. What’s great about doing this is that you could get compensated by doing so! This type of collaboration is often done through a private partnership or through an affiliate program or affiliate network.

There are a ton of these programs around like Linkshare, Amazon and so many other. Another option is simply going directly to each company to work with them on some sort of compensation for anyone who purchases through the link you placed in your guide or on your website. Most companies offer this to website owners that choose to feature their products. It’s a great way to provide value and be compensated for it! But best of all, purchases and payments are all automated online saving you time and giving you a nice passive income in return.

3.    A simple 15 second ad promoting your most recent product or service.

4.    An encouraging quote to inspire and encourage your audience.

5.    Your process and how you run your business

6.    A day in the life, so that your audience can get to know you better and make a personal connection to you and your staff.

7.    A tour of the office.

8.    An interview with a happy customer ie., a case study. This could be a video, audio or a post on your website.

9.    An Infographic of any of the above mentioned points. Visual content can be a huge driver of traffic, leads and sales!

10. Share a presentation you did recently. This showcases your expertise adding to your credibility and brand awareness.

Do you see how you can give your audience and customers that extra something to build better relationships and ultimately building a stronger brand! Your customers value this type of interaction and so should you.

 Building relationships is essential. And joining social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram is a smart choice. But be sure that you first know who your customers are and where they are hanging out before you decide to invest in paid ads to these platforms. Once you find where your audience is hanging out, go there! Engage with your audience. Provide them with so much value that they’ll find it difficult to even consider going to your competition. Engage with them while also giving them offers you know they cannot refuse. This is the best way to add to your business and its overall profits.

 Social media isn’t going anywhere. It’s only going to get better. And now with AI in the mix, well… Let’s leave that for another time. But social is here to stay!

 Remember this … If your business is not investing in a social media marketing plan, you’re truly missing out. Your audience could benefit so much more when they know you’re out there. Your message, products or services could be shared with so many people.

 It’s these types of social sites that can help you lift your business to levels you may have never imagined!

 If you want to get expert help with creating compelling ads and content marketing drivers to help increase the ROI for your business, get in touch.

And while you’re at it …

Free 4 page Social Media Template

Your Personal Social Media Marketing Guide

Grab this Social Media Marketing Template that includes a guided checklist to help spread your message even further. It’s your personal guide to help your audience see your message and benefit from it in the best way possible.

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If you take the time to plan your content on a weekly or monthly basis, it will allow you to take action quicker and get better results by using a planned schedule.

How to Increase Views & Engagement for Your YouTube Videos

YouTube is a growing platform that has mainstream credibility. Its strong branding and popularity have made it one of the top search engines even above the very well-known Facebook platform. And with 2.38 billion monthly logged-in users on average - worldwide, you can see why this influential website is one of the most important platforms to use to grow your business.

Now if you’re a savvy business owner who has decided to jump on the YouTube bandwagon and you’ve begun creating videos for your business, great stuff!

You’ve definitely made the right decision.

Now if you’ve created your videos on YouTube, but you’re struggling to increase views and engagement for your videos…

Here are 5 essential things you need to do:

1.       Be the first to comment on your video. By doing this, you are encouraging your viewers to also do the same. Something you could do is to mention in your comment what you’re discussing in the video and then actually tell your viewers to please comment below. You could also simply make a funny statement about the video and follow it up with a question for your viewers based on the topic of your video. Your viewers will always be excited to see that you are actively commenting, and they’ll most likely want to comment right after you do. It makes them feels more connected to you and a part of your online community!

2.       Encourage viewers to leave a comment on your video. As stated in the above point, when you first upload your video to YouTube and create the first comment on your video, this automatically shows that you are active in the comments section. However, if you actually ask your audience to leave a comment below the video, this adds that extra push, to make your viewers eager to follow-up your comment with a response. It’s a great way to add more engagement to your videos as this is something YouTube loves. And more comments and engagement shows YouTube that your video is resonating well with your audience whereby helping to shoot your video to the top of the YouTube search results for your topic area. Of course your title keywords and descriptions play a role too, but viewer engagement is a key role in how YouTube ranks your video.

3.       Reply to viewer comments. If you want your viewers to comment more on your videos, you should comment by adding a response to their comments. By responding to your viewers comments, they will see you as a real person who truly cares about and appreciates them. This helps to build your community and one of the best ways to grow a loyal following.

4.       Tell your viewers to subscribe to your channel. Sometimes it’s easy for people to forget to subscribe to a channel. They may watch your video and then see related videos on the side of your video, which can easily distract them. So, if you give your audience the clear instruction to subscribe to your channel by clicking the link below your video, it can help to improve your subscriber base as well as help to boost your channel further up in popularity within your niche. (Be sure to tell your viewers where the subscribe link is located to make it as easy as possible for them to subscribe, especially if they are not accustomed to doing so). As you know, YouTube is growing and evolving daily and there are always new viewers joining the pipeline. Clarity is key!

5.       Tell your viewers to click the bell icon for notification of new videos & share your new uploads on your social networks. YouTube continuously makes changes to their platform. It’s important to keep up-to-date with all of their new additions. Now viewers must click the bell icon to receive notifications of new videos. This feature did not exist in the past, but once YouTube implemented it, YouTube creators had to share this information with their audience to ensure that their videos continued to gain traction with viewership.

Although most people who watch YouTube videos know this, it’s important to be extremely clear and proactive in your communications by telling your viewers exactly what you want them to do. Oh, and also share you new uploads to your social networks as well. Consider this your must-do YouTube call-to-action. Not only will you gain more subscribers by doing so, but you’ll also improve the amount of views you’ll get on your videos. After all, this is what everyone wants because it leads to more opportunities in terms of ads, but it also encourages more collaborations and ultimately exposure for your channel. And we all know, many lives have changed just because a video was seen by more people.

Don’t forget your keywords!

Of course you need to also be sure that the main keywords your audience is searching for is placed first in your video title along with your tags and video description. You can use keyword tools like Google Planner, Moz.com or Ubersuggest to help you in your keyword research. As long as you are using terms that are highly searched for and there are not enough sites overusing that keyword, you have a good chance of making it on the first page of Google. But thorough research is key.

So, now it’s your turn. Go out there and get your video created. And if you already have some videos created, be sure you’ve followed the points above for greater reach within your market. By doing so, you’d be surprised by what opportunities may come your way. This may be just what your business needed to gain greater recognition in your industry.

How to Start a Health & Wellness Business

Invaluable Tips on Starting a Health and Wellness Business with Ease

If you are thinking about starting a health and wellness business, it's important to think about the area you plan to focus on. Your defined area of expertise will not only help you to create the right informational content that your target audience will want to learn and engage with, but it will also help you to better reach the right people. And by being laser-focused on the right people, your message is more likely to help you gain more clients and customers to your wellness business.

Of course it takes work, but if you ask the right questions and clearly understand the intent of your business and its overall goals, you can take the right steps towards building a successful wellness practice!

Every successful health and wellness business only became a thriving business once they fully understood their target market, their markets needs and angled their business goals towards helping their audience solve the issues that they were battling.

So …

Your guide to starting a wellness business …

Here are some steps you need to take if you're considering starting a health and wellness business:

1. As mentioned earlier in this article, think about the market or niche you want to serve. Will you focus for example, on the people with chronic illnesses or diabetics, or those with digestive issues? Think about the area of health that you know the most about and always seem to gravitate towards helping not only yourself, but those around you.

Try to think about the area where you have the most interest and expertise. By doing so, this becomes a good indication and most often a good guide in helping you to choose the niche area of health that is properly aligned with your values. This is where you'll want to focus for your business. Once you know the area of health you plan to focus on, it will be much easier to find your people -- who are going to be the right people who you'll want to market to.

2. Number one above will help you to now more easily choose your target audience i.e., know who your ideal customer is so that you can focus all of your messaging around them.

3. What do you do? Know the purpose of your business. What is its main/sole function?

4. How will you get the attention of your ideal client/customer?

5. Where will you connect with them and how?

These are some of the fundamental questions you need to begin to ask yourself well before starting your business.

It's not uncommon for most people venturing out in the world of business ownership to just have an idea, but failing to have a real plan on the direction of their business. Not having any business direction or not knowing the main goal of your business only leads to frustration and back-tracking and almost inevitably -- failure. It's essential that you plan. However, proper planning is only possible when you have clear intentions for your business and its growth.

So, what can you do?

Start working through the above five questions and write your answers down. Be as detailed as possible.

Want more?

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It's an easy guide to take those ideas in your head, and it will help bring clarity to your business planning in less time and with less frustration.

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