Unlocking Success: Marketing Made Easy for Health and Wellness Entrepreneurs

Want to know how to unlock success with your marketing, so you can start crushing your marketing goals – and stop being a slave to your socials? In this blog I’ll cover the exact steps you need to take, to make sure your marketing starts to gain traction and impact!

First Up, The Importance of Marketing for Health and Wellness Entrepreneurs:

As a health & wellness entrepreneur you know the market is getting more cluttered and competitive. With a wide range of practitioners & health entrepreneurs promoting themselves in the online space it can be hard to stand out.

Plus, when you’re struggling to stand out – your ideal client will struggle to see you!   I see the following common issues becoming a barrier to health & wellness practitioners marketing successfully and stand out online:

1. Being unclear about your ideal client, your niche or or target audience (yes, these are all effectively the same thing). If you are unclear about who you serve, how is your ideal client supposed to find you?
2. Blending in. You need to stand out so need a compelling brand or origin story to get people’s interest.  A qualified practitioner is a dime-a-dozen, you need more than just qualifications to stand out.
3. Creating your Holistic Marketing Ecosystem – not all marketing plans are created equal!
4. Lack of marketing strategy.  Marketing without a plan or strategy is wasting your time. How do you know if it’s working if you don’t have a goal?
5. The struggle of content creation, not knowing what to say and struggling to find the time to create your marketing content.
6. Leveraging the power of social media. This is more than having an account you semi-randomly post on.  There is massive marketing power in social media, are you missing out?
7. Email marketing, the gold nugget many practitioners ignore.  This is the under-utilised GOLD in your marketing toolbox and it’s more than a few newsletters a year.
8. Knowing what you don’t know.  You’re a practitioner, not a marketing expert. Are you getting help where you need it, or wasting time winging it?

Let’s walk through each of these and how you can implement these to unlock the power of your marketing and bring impact to your activities.

1. Understanding Your Niche / Ideal Client / Target Audience:

Knowing your niche / target audience / ideal client (pick whichever term floats your boat, I’m talking about the same thing), is a foundational aspect of getting your marketing right.  The majority of practitioners who come to me for marketing help, this is the first area they haven’t nailed.

If you don’t know your niche or ideal client, it’s impossible to communicate it effectively. Making it impossible for potential clients to see themselves in what you do or offer. Making it highly unlikely they will book with you.  Can you see the vicious cycle created here?

If you need a hand getting this right, download my free guide to Nail Your Core Message & Connect With Dream Clients.

You need to be crystal clear on your niche so you ideal client can find you – Cassandra Duffill

2. Stop Blending In – Create a Compelling Brand Story

Unfortunately the day of standing out due to be qualified are long gone. These days in marketing potential clients are looking first for someone who understands their issue, has “been there” and “get’s it”.  After they’ve decided they like and trust you on these points, they’ll check your qualification as back up.

That is why storytelling has become such a key piece of the marketing puzzle. Plus, it can really help to speed up the know-like-trust factor with your audience.  People will feel like they know you, and like you know them, which allows connection on a deeper level.

To get this element right, think about why you started your health & wellness business – did you have a reason or a passion? Did you overcome health challenges or see a gap in the market? Do you have new ideas and a novel approach?

If you need help to get your brand story on point, I invite you to check out Brand Clarity Bootcamp, a DIY 3 module training series walking you through the steps of getting your brand story and message right.  (Plus, it’s only $47 at the moment).

3. Create Your Holistic Marketing Ecosystem:

What is that you ask?  Your marketing ecosystem is the blend of activities in your plan that makes up your entire marketing program.  An holistic marketing ecosystem, is a marketing plan created with me, with YOU in mind. You have a limited amount of time to commit to your marketing, so we create a marketing plan that is achievable with that in mind.   How do we do this?   3 simple steps…

 Step One: work out (honestly) how much time you have available to commit to marketing your business

Step Two: determine the best avenues for your marketing, where will you get the most impact for your time spent? For example, if your ideal client is on Tiktok but your on Facebook, that isn’t time well spent! Work out where they are and focus your limited marketing time there.

Step Three: plan in advance so you can batch and schedule.  When you have limited time, productivity is key.  Batching & scheduling content in advance is the BEST way to maximise and leverage your marketing efforts.

Believe me, I know how hard it is! When I started my naturopathic practice I was a solo mum, with two little boys under 6.  So when spent time marketing my practice it had to be quick & easy – and super impactful. This is how I created my Holistic Marketing Ecosystem strategy.  

Holistic Marketing takes into account your limited time & blends this with the most impactful marketing for your practice

4. Build a Solid Marketing Strategy:

A strategy is just a plan, and every business needs one. Without a strategy or plan, you’re floating and lacking direction. Your marketing reverts to the “spaghetti strategy” (you know the one where you hammer out all sorts of content for a while, hoping something “sticks”, but it’s doesn’t get traction so you stop? Yep, that’s the Spaghetti Strategy!).

Your marketing strategy should cover 4 key areas:

Key Area 1. Marketing Activities & why you’ll do them (ie, I’ll post on Facebook 3 times a week because my ideal client is 30+ and hangs out there)

Key Area 2. Your Ideal Client / Target Audience – so you can keep focused on who you’re aiming to connect with

Key Area 3. Clear Goals that you can assess your outcomes on (these could be follower numbers, engagement metrics, email sign ups, lead magnet downloads, or any other relevant metrics)

Key Area 4. Budget & Resources – what budget will it take and what help will you need?  (We have a huge benefit in  2023 that so many free marketing channels are available to us, which is a great starting point).

With this plan in hand you have a guide that will direction your marketing activities moving forward. 

5. Content Creation and Marketing:

Content creation is the one area that leaves health and wellness entrepreneurs in one of two camps  – staring at a blank screen unsure of what to say; or so overwhelmed with ideas and actions they are frozen!

I like to make marketing easy, and to do that we need to make content creation simple. To do this I use my Cascading Content Framework.  Using my Cascading Content Framework, one piece of content turns into 7! I will walk you through my framework in detail next blog, but in brief, this what you do:

Create one long form piece of content – a blog, podcast or script for YouTube works well.

Take 5 to 7 points from this long piece of content and create social media posts for your preferred platforms.  (Get double value by using Meta Content Scheduler to duplicate your posts to both Facebook & Instagram).

Take those same points and use them in your weekly newsletter.

And there you have it, at least SEVEN pieces of content from the ONE! Cascading Content at it’s best!

Cascading Content Framework – create at least 7 pieces of content from the ONE long form piece of content – Cassandra Duffill

6. Leveraging The Power Of Social Media:

Social media plays a huge role in helping you connect with a large audience of potential clients.   You have access like no other time in history and marketing on these platforms takes nothing more than your time (unless you want to have a paid marketing strategy, which is another discussion😉). 

If you’re not using social media you really are missing out on a potentially lucrative, massive area of marketing.  Here’s some basics & best practices you can start implementing today to make the most of social media.

Firstly, be consistent. I know you’ve heard this before, but I mean it! If consistent for you is only once per week, 3 times per week, or daily – it doesn’t matter. Whatever is achievable for you, start there.

Secondly, share value, be fun and insightful.  Many practitioners make the mistake of only using educational posts, which can get really boring for viewers if your feed is full of them.  Remember light and shade, sprinkle some fun and motivation, ask questions and engage,  

You don’t have to be a slave to your socials to get success online. My practice turned over multi six figures every year, without me being tied to the computer!  I recommend as a starting point that you create a schedule of at least 3 posts a week, pre-schedule them for ease, then jump online for 10mins once a day to engage with your audience. This, with an email marketing strategy and Adwords is what built my clinic, so socials need to be a part of your strategy, but not the bulk of it.

7. Maximizing Email Marketing:

Email marketing is the gold nugget of marketing (in my opinion) that so many practitioners in the health & wellness space aren’t ultizing as well as they should.  Merely having a list that you send a newsletter to a couple of times a year – or worse yet, just when you want to sell something – doesn’t work. You need to nurture your audience with regular, valuable content, and let them get to know you through your emails.

The second element health & wellness practitioners need that relates to email marketing is a lead generation funnel.  The type where you give away a freebie, in exchange for someone’s email address. This builds your list with people who are interested in what you do, so when you do make an offer, you are more likely to get conversions.

Best practice for email marketing in relation to health and wellness practitioners is:

1. Nurture your list with a regular newsletter with tips, helpful information, healthy recipes, invites to a free workshop or webinar… there are so many ways you can add value here.

2. Deliver your newsletter regularly. If you’re not able to deliver a minimum of one per month, it’s something you should stop doing. Statistics show that any less regularly just doesn’t get traction. I recommend weekly or fortnightly if you can.

3. Create a lead generation / sales funnel.  Deliver a lead magnet (free value info) to build your list full of people who are interested in what you offer.

Best practices for email marketing – a weekly or fortnightly newsletter plus a lead generation sequence or sales funnel is a must for practitioners – Cassandra Duffill 

8. Know what you don’t know

Right now you’re probably thinking “gee, there is a lot to marketing my practice”… and you’d be right! But, with the right help and direction, it’s really pretty simple. It’s about creating a process (ie a strategy or a plan) so instead of spinning your wheels when it comes to marketing, you have a simple plan to execute.

Believe me, when you have a plan to follow activation becomes easy! No more staring at a blank screen and no more time wasted on social media. Your actions will have purpose and from that, you’ll get traction and begin to make a greater impact with your marketing.

As a qualified naturopath and a degree qualified marketing & business strategist, I help health & wellness entrepreneurs to create their own Holistic Marketing Plan – one that suits both their business, and their life.  I’ll show you how to get impact and no longer feel like a slave to your socials! 

If you’d like to work with me to get your marketing on track, I have places opening in June for Create & Elevate, my 1:1 marketing mentoring journey.  Through my process we’ll create & activate a marketing plan for your practice, that is easy for you implement, provides maximum impact, and makes marketing a joy – not a chore!  

I have limited spaces left for Create & Elevate in June 2023, and this will be the last time the program is available at the current pricing (believe me, it’s the most affordable yet most comprehensive mentoring available in our industry – fortnightly 1:1 zoom calls, clear action points, creating a solid marketing plan & executing it with my help). It is EXACTLY what you need.

Check out the program via the links, or jump on here to book a call to speak with me about it and see if it’s a good fit for you >> BOOK CONNECTION CALL.

Thanks for reading, I know this post contains so much marketing goodness for your health & wellness practice! My goal is to help you unlock the potential of your wellness practice, so you can make the income – and impact – you long to make.  Let me liberate you from marketing overwhelm with simple, step by step, strategies! 

If you’ve found value in this post, please share it with your network and practitioner friends. It’s important to me that my free content reaches as many people as possible, as the more people I help, the better off our entire practitioner industry becomes. 

Wishing you marketing success!

Cass x