10 Ways to Promote Your Wellness Business
Computer with growth charts.
Maybe you’ve been in health and wellness a long time. Maybe you’re just getting started.
Whatever stage you’re in, you know that marketing is important for your business.
But the trickier thing to figure out is where to start. In 2022, there are countless options when it comes to marketing your wellness business.
And you’re busy. You don’t have time to sift through every marketing strategy and figure out whether it will work.
You also know you only want to use strategies that are authentic to you. You don’t want to come across as salesy if that doesn’t fit you.
Fear not!
Let me break it all down for you. I’ll share a few marketing tools you can use to move your business forward — in a way that works for you.
Choose Your Target Audience
One of the very first steps in your marketing plan should be to choose your audience.
Who should you target?
You can answer that by looking at who you serve.
If you’re a massage therapist specializing in sports massage, then your website, your emails, your blog posts, should all reflect that. You’re serving athletes, so your writing should target that audience.
Your blog posts could focus on:
How to prevent injury
Easy stretches to do at home
Hip strengthening exercises
Whatever you choose to write about, keep your audience in mind.
Calm their fears. Answer their questions. Enhance their lives.
2. Move Your Business Online
Even if you run a brick and mortar company, it’s vital to have some kind of online presence.
Many of your clients are already online, looking for services like yours.
Moving online is an effective way to meet your clients where they are. So when they go to Google, you’re already there to answer their questions.
When you’re taking your business online, a website is a great starting point.
And in 2022, it’s easier than ever to build your own website. We have endless options available to us today to create stunning, high-performing websites.
A few important elements of a website are:
Homepage
About Page
Contact Form
FAQ Page
If you have these key pages up on your website, you’re in good shape. And if the writing on your site is written (and formatted) well, then when someone visits your website, they know:
who you are
who you serve
how to get in touch
If these tasks already look like too much to tackle, or you just want to bring on an expert, know that you can always outsource. When it comes to online writing, hiring an experienced copywriter can be a game-changer for how your website performs in the long run.
But remember, when it comes to websites, you don’t need endless pages or complicated systems to start out. Just make sure you’ve got your basics covered.
3. Grow Your Email List
Woman typing on a computer.
This may surprise you, but email lists are a major marketing tool when it comes to online businesses.
Well-crafted emails have proven to be:
More effective than social media1
High in open rates
Exceptional for click-throughs (meaning your readers are clicking on your links)
So even though they’re the oldest trick in the book of online marketing, emails are powerhouses when they're written well.
Because not only do emails keep you connected with your readers, they help you build trust and establish your expertise. You're providing your readers with value-packed information — delivered right to their personal inbox.
4. Invest in Opt-Ins
Email lists are great and all, but how do you convince your reader to sign up for yours?
Opt-ins are an effective way to accomplish this in a non-salesy way.
An opt-in can be anything from an ebook to an infographic. According to Orbit Media, lists, guides, and e-books are some of the most popular opt-ins.2
When choosing an opt-in, invest in a high-quality one that fits you and your website. Make sure it aligns with both your mission and your message.
Another thing to keep in mind: you must provide your readers with something that they’re interested in. (Take it from someone who signs up for waaay too many email lists).
So if you’re a naturopath specializing in mental health, you could offer an e-book on “The Top 10 Foods to Help Anxiety”. By offering something relevant to your field, you’re not only ensuring a high sign-up rate — you’re also serving your audience.
5. Respond to Reviews
Pew Research shows that over 80% of Americans research before making big decisions3. And many of those people are conducting their research online.
Online reviews play a key role in people’s decision-making.
Did you know that 97% of people make a purchase after visiting Yelp?4 That means it's vital to your practice that you stay up to date on reviews.
But make sure you’re not just reading reviews — you’re also responding to them. Not only to make sure the reviews are accurate (let’s face it, not everyone’s honest), but also to show others that you’re active online. Plus this is an easy way to engage with past clients and keep the conversation going.
A little communication goes a long way.
6. Use Social Media
A cell phone with social media icons.
While social media isn’t nearly as effective as an email list, it’s still a useful tool to engage your audience.
A few features of using social media for marketing is you can:
Talk to your followers in real time.
Post specials and promotions.
Share helpful tips
The best way to make social media work for you is to post content that your clients are interested in. The secret to success here is to provide your audience with value.
It can be daunting to try to keep up on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and all the rest. I recommend picking one to focus on and then see if you’d like to expand.
Just be sure to treat your work social media as exactly that: work. There’s plenty of research that shows how excessive social media negatively affects our brains.5
When I’m using social media for work-related tasks, I try to jump on, like or comment on posts (whatever the algorithm requires), create my post, and then hop off. If I catch myself scrolling, then I immediately exit the platform.
There are also app blockers you can use to prevent you from spending too much time on social media.
Find the method that works best for you.
7. Automate Tasks
Tired of posting on social media constantly? Losing track of your email templates?
There’s an automation tool for that!
Use a service like Tailwind or Hootsuite to batch your work and schedule social media posts ahead of time.
You can also stay on top of your email lists with MailChimp or Constant Contact.
There are loads of automation tools out there that will save you time and energy. So you can focus more on your clients and customers — and less on marketing.
8. Use Google Maps
Moved locations? Is your practice in a hard-to-find spot?
Make sure you’re keeping your location current — but not just on your website. Adding your location to Google maps is an easy but often overlooked way to advertise your holistic business.
So be sure to add your practice to Google maps so people can find you when they’re looking for service providers like you.
Usually when someone is looking online for providers — functional medicine doctor, for example — they’re literally typing “functional medicine doctor near me” into Google’s search engine. So updating your location on Google maps will keep you ahead of the competition.
9. Start a Health and Wellness Blog
Person typing on a laptop.
I could talk about the power of blogs all day, but I’ll try to keep this short.
Blogs have evolved significantly over the years. They’re no longer just quick journal entries. Blogs actually perform the brunt of the marketing legwork for your website.
And blogs are effective marketing tools because they help drive traffic (your readers) to your website. And they’re actually very common for successful businesses. One study found that half of the top 200 Fortune 500 companies use blog posts as part of their online marketing strategy.6
The reason why so many successful companies have implemented blogs is because they’re long-timers. If you invest in one blog post, it’s constantly working for you.
Now, to be clear, I’m not talking about just any blog. If you’re going to implement this powerful tool into your wellness marketing strategy, make sure you’re writing (or paying for) a high-quality blog.
A high-performing blog post includes:
Consumer research
Topic research
Clear formatting
Concise language
Keywords and SEO strategy
If a blog post features these elements, rest assured that it will help boost your website’s ranking online. You want this because it’s much easier for people to find your website the closer to the first page of Google you can get.
And if you’re blogging consistently, you increase your chances of showing up on the first page of Google. Right where your target audience can find you.
10. Outsource to an Expert
As a holistic practitioner or wellness business owner, one of your main marketing struggles is probably time, right?
Some of the marketing strategies I’ve mentioned so far are quick fixes — like adding your location to Google maps. Others can be time-suckers — like writing blog posts or opt-ins.
For example, between research, writing, and SEO strategy (aka making Google happy), a stellar blog post can take between 4-6 hours to complete.
Yikes.
Odds are you don’t have 4-6 extra hours a week to throw at blog posts, right?
But don’t worry — if you’re excited about a strategy I mentioned above, but don’t have the time commitment to make it happen, you can always outsource.
If you’re set on quality blog posts coming in consistently, bring on a copywriter to take that task off your plate.
You’re doing so much already.
Remember you don’t have to do it all.
Conclusion
To sum up, there are plenty of marketing tools available to help you promote your wellness business. And don’t worry about using all of them — just pick a few that you like. Make sure they fit well with where you are in your marketing journey.
Remember to outsource if you love the idea but lack the time.
And online marketing is ever-evolving, so don’t hesitate to reevaluate your strategies from time to time.
Most importantly, market yourself in a way that's authentic to both you and your online audience.
Your readers will thank you for it.
References
1https://neilpatel.com/blog/low-budget-online-marketing-strategies/
2https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/blogging-statistics/
5https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/dopamine-smartphones-battle-time/
6https://fitsmallbusiness.com/business-blogging-statistics/