Marketing your health coach business always takes time when you're first establishing your practice. But even if you've been in business for some time, it's important to know the best places to market your business.
However, it's also equally as important to note that the most successful health coaches focus on one area of expertise -- meaning, they have chosen a particular niche in their industry.
This chosen niche may be to focus on a certain condition like back pain, diabetes or celiac disease. This clear focus allows them to strategically recommend healthy ways to deal with their condition through healthy meal planning and lifestyle changes.
By having an ideal customer in mind, you’re able to more clearly share your message to an audience who will be more receptive to your offerings!
As a health coach or nutrition expert, once you've established your area of expertise or niche as it's most commonly referred to as, this will ensure that you can create the right message for your audience.
You want to know exactly who your audience is even before you begin to market your business. After all, if you don't know who your market is, how can you effectively ensure that your content, communications and content marketing message is speaking to the right people!
Often times, many health coaches are reluctant to choose a particular area of expertise or niche simply because they think they'll be losing out on business if their market is too narrow. They feel that they must appeal to everyone in order to be sure they'll appeal to someone or anyone who may need their expertise. But focusing on such a broad market share is a huge mistake.
The most successful coaches find their ideal clients (and most successful client base), simply due to the fact that they are specifically channeling their area of expertise to one particular niche within their industry.
Having one particular segment of their market in mind means they'll get a better response from their audience.
By staying laser-focused on a particular market within the health arena, you can more easily gain more clients and customers with your marketing.
For example, a health expert who says their focus is on creating healthy meal plans for the masses is going to have a harder time finding clients than a health expert who makes healthy meal plans for working women with diabetes.
Do you see how specific this market is!
A working career woman with diabetes who sees your blog post or video that's specifically creating meal plans with ingredients specific to her health situation and lifestyle. By encompassing a plan of action that she can easily follow and use to help better control and manage her diabetes, she would most likely contact you over the 'generalist' health coach who tries to appeal to everyone and anyone by just making healthy meal plans for the masses.
This woman sees that you're speaking directly to her, and she feels that instant connection because your message is personally directed at her and her situation.
The generalist coach doesn't intimately know the needs of this woman simply because they're appealing to everyone and their expertise may appear diluted and unappealing to someone like her. However the coach who only addresses the needs of busy corporate female diabetics fully understands her lifestyle needs and how important those needs are to her overall health.
Being this specific can really alter the results you get in your marketing.
When your message has an ideal client in mind, and you tailor your message specifically to them, you can get great results! After that, the key point that health coaches need to know is that you need to then go where your prospective customers are.
Visit Your Peeps Where they Are & Then Lead Them to YOU!
Social Media Marketing Made Easy!
Continuing on the chosen niche of diabetes …
If you're a health coach focused on helping those with diabetes, you need to converse in areas where those people congregate.
Think of online nutrition forums dedicated to conversations about diabetes. Where are people asking questions? Answer those questions! Once you do, not only will the poster of that question gain insight, but also every other person who is also reading that post who is seeking information on that topic.
Of course then there are the many social networks and online websites dedicated to the topic of diabetes.
YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are just a few of the many platforms available to get the word out about your business. But use these platforms to also inform your target audience.
Observe the response you get from these platforms and tweak your marketing accordingly. But by placing content on various online platforms, you have a greater chance at that ideal client finding you -- and this could mean hundreds or even thousands of dollars to your bottom line.
Just think, if you were never posting content and actively making an effort to be visible online, you would never have a chance at gaining any level of success. And if you look at the most successful health coaches, you actively see them. They do this because they know it works and that's why they have achieved such huge business success. It doesn't mean their offer is necessarily better than yours, they just know that being visible where their target audience is present is necessary for their success!
LinkedIn although a professional platform, LinkedIn can also give you a great deal of exposure regardless of industry.
Linkedin allows its users to create professional profiles so that others in their industry or related industries can easily find and connect with them.
Just think, if there is an organization that holds yearly events, they may seek out an expert focused in the area of diabetes. If you're a Diabetes Health Coach and you have a profile on the LinkedIn website, not only will they see you, but they'll also most likely visit your website to learn more about you. However, if you failed to take the time to create a LinkedIn profile, they may never have found you. And not being able to find you could cost you thousands of dollars in lost revenues!
If you can add informative articles as well to your profile, this elevates your status on the platform since your competition only has a profile and lacks any article content. LinkedIn has grown and given their users so many new features that they can use to share their message. If you can take advantage of all of these features, there is no limit in how many opportunities may come your way!
Podcasts are also another great place to share your message. Yes, I know, it takes time to set up a podcast. But even if you don't not have your own Podcast, why not consider being interviewed on another health related podcast where you know your audience frequents!
Consider the situation above of the working woman with diabetes. Imagine a podcast dedicated to someone like her! Even if the listener of your message does not have diabetes, it's most likely that they may know someone who does. And guess what! If they heard your podcast interview, they'll feel more prone to refer their friend or family member to you because they listened to your podcast interview and saw that you had an extensive amount of knowledge and expertise on the topic.
Get yourself out there and you'll see how many opportunities may come your way with new leads and sales! Remember, referrals are always one of the best ways to get the word out about your business!
Networking events and meetups are also an excellent way to meet people in and around your industry who value your offerings. Although online marketing can reap huge benefits, sometimes good old-fashioned offline marketing and meeting people face-to-face can result in a good amount of new clients. People will always value that face-to-face human connection, so don't overlook it.
Check out websites like Ning.com, Eventbrite.com, Meetup.com and the TedEx extension in your city or town. Look for events specific to your industry in your city where you know people would be more than welcome to hear about your business and value the information you have to share.
Your website Matters! Be sure that your website is clear and states your purpose. Be sure that visitors know what it is you do by being clear on who you serve and the results they can get by working with your and/or buying your products. Also be sure that your site is on an easy to use platform like Wordpress, Square Space or Wix. I’m sure you’ve heard of these website platforms. Wordpress is one that’s been around for a long time. However, some have complained about the number of additional plug-ins needed over time as your business growth and needs improve. However, now website building platforms like Square Space and Wix (along with many others) are giving non-web designers more ease of use and giving them all of the perks without all of the additional plug-ins.
Regardless of what you may choose, be sure you can easily make changes to your website on a whim. The last thing you want is to have to rely on a web designer to make simple changes. You can easily do-it-yourself with platforms like SquareSpace.com and Wix.com. Their support is amazing and always there to help if there is a time you need some extra help. After all, as a health coach you need simplicity and ease. You’re running a health coaching business and you need to provide your visitors with detailed information on a platform that is simple to use. If you have a contest, new launch or last minute offering you want to get out to your audience, being able to alter your website on a whim with ease not only makes running your business that much easier, but it also puts you in the drivers seat — giving you greater control. And that’s worth something!
Capture By Adding More Value
Most importantly, when you provide valuable content and insights on these many social media platforms and websites, be sure that you have created a landing page to capture the information of those who are interested in your offer. Be sure that each of your content pieces has a landing page on your website dedicated to that topic. And offer your visitor some sort of incentive to gain access by allowing them to enter their name and email address so that you can have a way to get in touch with them.
(Note: Although asking for both the name as well as their email address is ideal, studies have shown that you'll get a better response in signups by just asking for their email address alone. My guess is it makes the process quicker for the individual and its less work. People are so busy these days with so many distractions, so the quicker and easier you make it for them the better. Although you won't be able to personalize your message with their name, as long as the content in your emails resonate well with them and you know how to effectively market to them within your message, you'll have no trouble converting them.)
Capturing the email address of your prospects is your first goal once you lead them to your website. Your next goal is to offer them valuable information so that they'll ultimately purchase your product or session.
Remember, you're in business to help them, but you also need to earn a living. The more value you provide them the more eager they'll be to choose you over another health coach in your area. They'll also be more likely to refer you to someone they know that may need your services.
Leverage Online Health Coaching Tools to Grow Your Business!
Learn how to work smarter with the right tools and the right people!
Here are a list of other tools you can use to expand your reach. These tools will help you to save time, gain more leads and better automate your process by leveraging tools to help you get closer to your ultimate goal of more leads and sales!
Tools Many Health Coaches are Using & You Should Consider These Tools Too:
Squarespace.com - Easy website builder with absolutely the best support team!
ConvertKit.com - Email marketing sign up forms and landing page software
Mailchimp.com - Free email capture software
Freshbooks.com - Invoicing and accounting online platform
Canva.com - Design tool for social media and other digital marketing needs
Youtube.com - Create videos and have them work for you 24/7 optimized for search
Facebook.com - build communities for free
Pinterest.com - market your business visually and link to your most recent blog post
TailwindApp.com - automates your scheduling of Pinterest Pins
Basecamp.com - great for working with outsourced teams
Gumroad.com - sell digital products online like e-books, manuals etc.
Teachable.com / Thinkific.com - online course software to sell your courses automatically. (Offering an online workshop or course can grow your client base as well as your business).
Hootsuite.com - another great tool to help you manage all of your social media in one place
There are many other social media scheduling apps that help to organize and save you time. If you're using Pinterest for example, TailwindApp as mentioned above, allows you to put in an hour of your time to schedule out your pins -- giving you two weeks worth of Pinterest pins automatically scheduled for you that will be pinned instantly on the specified dates! It's an excellent time saver, not to mention giving you great exposure to find potential clients!
Remember, if you want to improve people's health and have coaching clients knocking at your door, you need to effectively plan your marketing plan and content messaging, while meeting the needs of your target market.
In order to find existing health coaching clients and sharing your message at the right places at the right time, you can gain the results you're looking for and your audience will be much more receptive to your offer.
To be a successful health coach, one that can help more people, you need to use your time wisely by having the right tools in place so that you can leverage is everything. The right tools can help you spread your message even further. Although one-on-one sessions add that personal touch, you cannot forget that online marketing through the use of promotional platforms like the ones mentioned above as well as having a mastermind group or other online community base is a great way to elevate your business growth.
Now, take a look at the above mentioned tools and see if there are any you can add to your business to help strengthen your marketing plan so that you can grow your health coaching business even further.
Your rewards only come when you set the wheels in motion.
Now take the action you need to do for your business!
And if you haven’t already, check out the wide selection of health coach marketing materials offered. From booklets, to licensed content packs, you name it. You can find them here!
Oh, and the selection of marketing materials is growing, so keep visiting to see more great goodies you can use to grow your health and wellness business!