Authentic Marketing Strategies that actually work for YOU.
I was standing outside the hotel lobby after an incredible weekend attending Microbiome Labs Keynote Symposium when this happened…
A man walked up to me and asked if I was a practitioner who had just attended the conference.
Me: Yes.
Him: I came here looking for someone who can help my daughter. She’s been struggling with food sensitivities, and when I saw this event was happening, I was hoping I might find someone here.
I told him I don’t work with kids but could help him find someone – so he asked to follow me on Instagram for health info and tips, and so we could stay in contact to find him a practitioner.
LITERALLY PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU TO HELP THEM!!!
You need to get louder, be more visible and step out of your comfort zone – you have a responsibility as a health expert to help people like this with the wisdom you hold – so don’t hold back because people will suffer for much longer than necessary if you do.
I had no clue how I was going to consistently find clients and build a profitable business when I first started my virtual health practice back in 2013.
I tested various marketing approaches, everything from in-person workshops to online webinars, trying to figure out how to create consistent enrollments and financial stability.
I secretly panicked every month like most of us do, until I figured out a proven formula for finding ideal clients that felt perfectly aligned for me.
There are a LOT of places you can invest your time and money when it comes to marketing; print ads, social media ads, online summits, webinars, podcasts, YouTube videos, guest blogging, online health journals, and in-person talks, to name a few.
But that does NOT mean you need to market yourself everywhere, AND NOT all marketing methods will be right for you.
So how do you know what marketing strategies you should focus on?
It’s actually quite simple.
I created a 3-step process to help you leverage the targeted marketing strategies that are perfectly aligned for you.
Step 1: Personal Story Marketing Data.
Think about this…
When you were trying to solve your health problems or a loved one’s, where were you looking for information?
Were you listening to podcasts, following health influencers on a specific social media platform, or attending webinars, local talks, or online summits?
Or were you an online research guru scouring the Internet for blog posts and articles?
Your ideal client is a version of you. Wherever you were looking for health information, they are likely looking there too.
A perfect example of this is a health practitioner who wants to work with moms and thinks they should be doing in-person workshops at their local health food store or chiropractor’s office, as many health practitioners do.
But in reality, do moms in a health crisis or journey have time to attend an in-person workshop?
If she is like most moms that I know, she hardly has 5 minutes to take a daily shower, let alone a full hour or more to attend an in-person workshop.
In this example, the health practitioner who is also a mom and shares a similar story with her ideal client, can reflect on personal experience to see what the easiest ways for a busy, rundown mom to get information about her health problems are. Maybe the health practitioner will find that as a busy and rundown mom herself, she listened to podcasts while running errands and taking kids to and from school, and she scrolled a certain social media platform while sitting at soccer practice.
So, for this health practitioner mom who wants to work with moms, her ideal clients are likely podcast listeners and enjoy a specific social media platform. With these insights, this practitioner can then focus on either starting a podcast or being a regular guest on podcasts geared towards moms, building her social media presence on the platform she enjoys the most, and using herself to help solve her personal health issues.
Step 2: Personal Alignment Assessment.
Complete this exercise to help you figure out where you should focus your marketing efforts:
- Make a list of all the possible marketing outlets
- Rank them according to the ones that you personally like to engage in
The top 1-3 that you personally like to engage with are the ones that will get you the greatest return because your energy is aligned here.
When you use this approach to marketing yourself, it’s joyful, easy, and authentic because you’ll be funneling your efforts into areas that YOU actually enjoy instead of forcing yourself to use marketing tactics that you don’t personally resonate with.
When we force ourselves to do things because others are doing them, or because we think we should be doing them, there’s an energy of resistance or resentment circulating in the background making it practically impossible to show up authentically with positive energy to attract ideal clients (plus from Step 1, you already know your ideal clients are a reflection of you, so they probably aren’t hanging out in these places anyways).
Step 3: Target Market Research.
The third step is to conduct regular Target Market Research calls to collect data about where your ideal client might be searching for information and the words they are using, so you can weave these data insights into your marketing to produce magnetic content in places it will be seen!
Similar to how lab test data guides recommendations for lifestyle changes to help clients get results quickly, Target Market Research data tells you where and how to get the best results with your marketing efforts.
Every 6-12 months, I conduct Target Market Research calls to help me reevaluate my ideal clients and develop the most effective marketing strategy.
For example, at one point in my business, during research calls, I discovered my clients had evolved from reading online journals to listening to more podcasts. So my marketing strategy shifted from being published in online health journals such as Mind Body Green to being a podcast guest based on these findings.
I pivoted my marketing strategy to align with where my ideal clients were spending their time so I could become visible to them to generate consistent enrollments and income.
Implementing and revisiting these 3 steps regularly will help you connect with your ideal clients and generate consistent enrollments for financial stability, no matter what stage of business you’re in.
And here’s a bonus tip…
Aside from identifying where your ideal clients are in the marketing world from your story, what is aligned with you, and Target Market Research calls, the last and probably most fruitful place to find clients is by word-of-mouth referral.
If you follow me at all, you’ll see that I dabble in social media marketing, webinars, podcasting, and a few other types of marketing with the goal of building an email list and nurturing those leads into clients one day.
But 95% of my clients, particularly the ideal ones, came from word-of-mouth referrals. This is an opportunity that every good health practitioner should leverage in their business more.
Just as your story is your most powerful marketing tool, so are the stories of your clients. They are walking billboards for you. And similar to how you attract like-minded people, so do they.
We tend to surround ourselves with people who share the same interests and struggles as us, so your ideal clients likely know people who are like them, and who could use your help too.
To encourage word-of-mouth referrals with your existing ideal clients, you should have a client referral incentive, and they should know about it.
I find that a bonus 45-minute session for each referral who enrolls with me is a great incentive for my clients. It’s over a $400 value for them, but it doesn’t cost me anything, except for my time to deliver even better service for them and get them one step closer to feeling like their best self.
Your referral incentive can be anything you want it to be; a free supplement, a skincare product package, or a box of your favorite protein bars.
Now it’s time to get to work on sourcing some ideal clients for yourself.
To help you with the Target Market Research step, click here to get my Target Market Research Guide.
Once you complete these 3 steps, I would love to hear what your newly aligned and data-driven marketing strategy is.
Simply hit comment to share your new authentic targeted marketing strategy with me.