One way to attract more clients and a bigger audience is to use content marketing. In this article I explain what content marketing is and how you can use it in your wellness business.
What is content marketing?
Marketing is anything you do to get more awareness of your products and services.
Any information you post in a blog post, podcast, video or social media post is a form of content marketing. Content marketing helps you to get more visitors to your website and social media accounts and if done right it helps you get more awareness of your business, products and services.
This is different from more traditional forms of marketing - placing an ad, putting up a sign, or making cold calls.
Why you should use content marketing for your wellness business
Like many coaches, when I started, I thought that my ideal client would just come knocking as soon as I opened the doors. It wasn’t until I started with content marketing that I started to see some growth in my business. Here are some reasons that content marketing works for health coaches:
Content marketing also helps to develop authority and trust. If your potential clients see an article you wrote about a problem they have, they are more likely to trust you when they are looking for a solution.
Using content marketing also helps you to build your knowledge. Every time you write a new blog post, you are likely doing some research to get the latest information on the topic.
It can be almost free. Aside from the cost of your time to create content, and the cost of maintaining the content, content marketing is free. This is opposed to paid advertising.
Why you need a niche to take advantage of content marketing
One thing that is really important to make content marketing work is having a well defined niche. A well defined niche means that you can always find topics to write and talk about that your niche is interested in. It also means that you can become a big fish in a small pond instead of being drowned out by the noise of all the other general health blogs and podcasts.
Yes, big players like Women Health, or Mind Body Green can write about many general topics, but if you try to do this you’ll never be found. But by narrowing your niche you’ll be discovered by people looking to solve that problem. And if they like what you are writing about, they’ll be more likely to come back and read the next article or to subscribe to your podcast.
Good content in a narrow niche will also help you to rank on Google, although this will take a while.
How to do content marketing
In order to take advantage of content marketing you need to create content. It doesn’t have to be a blog. If you have a podcast or a YouTube channel, those are both forms of content marketing.
When you do content marketing, you post about a piece of the problem that your ideal client is dealing with. You want to be specific enough that your client will find you when looking for the answer to their problem.
You want to be fairly regular with your content. If you think you can stick to a once a week schedule, then that is great.
On the other hand, producing content just for the sake of getting a weekly blog post or podcast out isn’t helping anyone. Your audience will likely not be engaged by obvious fluff pieces and
How long should your content be?
The length of the content depends on what you have to say, the format of the content and what your audience likes to consume. Google apparently likes longer content, but if your audience prefers shorter content you might want to break it up.
Examples of content marketing
Here are some examples of content marketing:
- An educational piece detailing the causes of type 2 diabetes
- A personal essay about your experience with a diet that you promote
- A case study showing how one of your clients solved a problem
- A how to video explaining exercise modifications
- A how to video explaining your food preparation tricks
- A podcast where you explain your top 3 tips for reducing hot flashes
Of course these all depend on your choice of medium and your niche.
5 Things That Hurt Client Experience
In your online wellness programs
Worried about giving away too much for free?
Think of the free content as the why and your paid programs as the how. By this I mean the free content should explain mostly why the problem occurs, but not too much detail on how to fix it. Your paid programs are how to fix the problem. You can use your free content to help build awareness of your paid programs.
You can include some tips on how to fix the problem. An example would be that exercise is a good way to reduce hot flashes. But your paid program would actually provide the exercise plan and the steps for someone to implement the plan.
Summary
Content marketing is a great way to build your authority in your niche and build awareness of what you do. Content marketing can take on many different forms. Choose the one that feels right for you. If you need help executing your content marketing plan, then book a free call to find out how I can help.
