As healers, helpers, practitioners & coaches, we have an amazing opportunity in today’s digital era, to reach a wider audience and make a bigger impact for more people, through all the channels available to us. Right now you have available more FREE marketing than ever before. However, to effectively market your services and build a successful online presence, you need to leverage the right tools. In this blog post, I will explore five must-have marketing tools that can empower soulful online entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and connect with their target audience.

1. Online Platform for Courses, Content & Email Marketing (oh, and a website!)
A professional and user-friendly website is essential for every entrepreneur. As much as you could hire someone to do this for you, when you’re starting out or in a growth phase, doing as much for yourself as possible can be cost saving.  I recommend whenever possible to get an “all in one” platform, that saves the wasted time of cross managing – the more one platform does for you, the easier it will be to manage.

My recommendations for this are:

1 – FEA Create – this platform will hold your online courses, programs, memberships, all your contacts, your products and services, emails and all email marketing, as well as all your invoicing and sales (syncs with Stripe and Quickbooks. You can also use it to create a website, sales page, sales funnels – and more features coming every week.  This is the platform I currently use and recommend. Check it out HERE.

2 – Simplero or Kajabi – I’ve used both of these, they are pretty similar although I believe Simplero has a nicer user interface.  They both are a bit techy and clunky to use, but with time you’ll get the hang of it. They will hold online programs and courses, as well as email marketing and some CRM functions.  Note these are both costly platforms.

3 – Kartra – very similar to the last two but is a little cheaper. It will hold email marketing, courses, programs and memberships, with some CRM. I feel this is a rather basic user interface for the price and not particularly pretty or customisable.

4 – Free options – people often ask me about the best free option for this.  Frankly, there really isn’t one.  To do this for free, you’ll have to use a tech stacking approach, which means you’ll have a separate email platform, a separate course platform and a separate CRM platform.  Email Octopus is a “new kid on the block” that is getting some good reviews, and on their free plan you can create a basic sales funnel and manage email marketing. 

A word of caution…. think carefully before adding courses and programs to your existing site. Adding that volume of content to your site will slow it down and with a volume of users, your site may crash and you’ll get the ‘white screen of doom’… ie, your site has gone down. Be sure you know how to fix this incase it happens, before you go loading programs onto your existing site.

2. Social Media Management Platform:
Maintaining an active and engaging social media presence is crucial for online entrepreneurs. Utilize a social media management platform like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social to schedule posts, monitor mentions and engagement, and analyze the performance of your social media campaigns. These tools help you streamline your social media efforts across different platforms and save time.  I personally use Metricool, and FEA Create does have the scheduling functionality. 

3. Online Scheduling and Appointment Booking System:
For healers, helpers, coaches & practitioners offering services and consultations, an efficient online scheduling and appointment booking system is a must.  The number of practitioners WITHOUT an online booking system still surprises me!  There are heaps of options for this, from free and cheap, to pricey and feature rich!  Personally in clinic I used Cliniko for many years, then Practice Better when I started running programs (however Practice Better was very limited in the content I could upload, and file size was limited).

Other booking systems you might like to consider are MyAppointments, Calendly and Acuity Scheduling to allow clients to book appointments directly from your website, sync with your calendar, and send automated reminders. My favourite FEA Create has a great calendar function as well, so worth considering. (If you’ve ever booked a call with me, you’ve used the FEA Create system first hand!).  An online booking tool simplifies the booking process, reduces scheduling conflicts, enhances the overall client experience and mitigates lost bookings

4. Content Creation and Design Tools:
Creating visually appealing and engaging content is essential for attracting and retaining your target audience. In my opinion you can’t go past Canva for this and with a monthly cost under $20, it’s really a no-brainer.  Other tools like Adobe Creative Cloud (which is quite costly), or PicMonkey (which is free, or very cheap…) provide user-friendly interfaces and pre-designed templates for creating graphics, infographics, social media posts, and other visual content. These tools enable you to maintain a consistent and professional brand image across various marketing channels.

5. Video Conferencing

With everyone online now and telehealth / online appointments becoming the norm, your clients will expect to have this convenient option.  Some platforms include video conference framework, other work through an external platform.  I still think  Zoom is the best for this, it integrates with so many platforms and their recent upgrade to add apps that give a range of additions to your sessions, could be really beneficial.  A free Zoom account will allow you to hold meetings of up to 40mins, a paid account will allow you to have longer meetings.

Conclusion:
As an online entrepreneur in the healing, helping, coaching or practitioner space, leveraging the right marketing tools is crucial for success. A website builder and CMS, email marketing software, social media management platform, online scheduling system, and content creation tools can streamline your marketing efforts, enhance client engagement, and position you as an authority in your field. By incorporating these must-have tools into your marketing strategy, you can build a strong online presence, reach a wider audience, and ultimately grow your business.

Remember to assess your specific needs and goals before selecting the tools that best suit your business requirements. Regularly evaluate their effectiveness and make adjustments to your marketing toolbox as needed. With the right tools and a well-executed marketing strategy, you can make a significant impact and thrive in the digital realm!

Cass Duffill

*please note I am a passionate user of FEA Create and as such, I am also an affiliate. I do earn a small commission on sign ups using my link, which will also give you a FREE two week trial.