Using Mobile In Your Wellness Business

As you sit behind your computer working on your online health coaching or personal training business, there might be one thing you are forgetting. Many if not most of your clients will be using their phones. There are many aspects of your business that mobile is important.

Here are a few things to consider.

Your website

Have you checked your website on your phone? You may be surprised to find that your beautiful desktop website doesn’t look that good on mobile. And Google actually considers your mobile site before the desktop site when looking at indexing and ranking.

The other thing that’s important is speed. If you are checking your website at home, you’re probably using a fast Wi-Fi connection. Try it with Wi-Fi turned off so you have a cellular connection. Or better yet, use Google’s Page speed tool to check the mobile performance.

Also make sure that your website has good accessibility on mobile. The Google PageSpeed tool also provides some insights into this. It’s important to have text that is large enough to read easily on mobile and with good contrast.

If you’re using pop-ups on your website make sure you check them using mobile. Nothing is more frustrating than pop-ups that you can't close on mobile because the button is hidden.

Emails

Many people will receive your emails on mobile. So your emails should load quickly and be easy to read on mobile. Check to make sure that the text size is not too small and that images show up correctly. Long or complicated emails might not work as well when opened with a mobile email service. If you do have a long email, break it up with some bold font, bullet points or headings. 

Sales and opt in pages

Make sure that your sales pages and opt in pages work well in mobile. Sometimes a background image won’t scale properly or a form may not fit on the screen. You’ll also want to make sure that the text size is chosen so words on not broken up like this:

Attent

ion

Other issues on mobile are having columns not being translated properly or margins that are too big or too small.

Your programs

Your clients may want to access program content on a phone or tablet. So you’ll want to make sure that the platform you host you’re programs on is mobile friendly. And better yet, that it has an app. 

I‘ve discussed places to host programs previously. Let’s look at it in terms of mobile usability.

Many of the popular course platforms have mobile apps. Unfortunately some only support phones and don’t work well on tablets, so you might want to consider user experience when deciding on the course platform.

While apps are useful, make sure the mobile version doesn’t force users to an app that is less than full featured. Make sure that the mobile version or app allows users to watch videos, download content and anything else in you program.

Coaching platforms

Most coaching platforms like Practice Better include mobile apps making client access easy. But you’ll want to check to make sure that clients can access everything they need on the app, if that’s the way you want it set up.

Fitness apps

If your business is more fitness oriented i highly recommend using a fitness app like Trainerize, PT Distinction or Kahunas. (I’ll provide a breakdown of these apps in an upcoming blog post). Fitness apps allow for on the go access to workouts and other aspects of your coaching program which is important if clients want to train at a gym or be able to enter home workouts easily. 

Client communications

Client communications is another area where mobile access is important. You’ll want your clients to easily provide updates and ask questions without having to send you an email. This doesn’t mean you have to available all the time, just that you make it easy for clients.

Some options for mobile friendly client communications include What’s App, Facebook messenger, SMS text messaging, or in app messaging in any of the apps mentioned above. Or use a FB group or in app communities or group messaging for group communications.

Making it easy for you

If you like to be able to work on the go, then having mobile friendly business platforms is a must. This means that the tools you use should have a mobile website that works well. Again, this doesn’t mean you need to be always available. It just means that you can be away from your desk when you are available. You might want to be able to schedule social media, answer client questions, or check your calendar while waiting for your kids to finish soccer practice. 

Summary

Google is taking a mobile first approach. Many of your clients are on mobile first. So why are you still not paying attention to mobile users. Your mobile strategy for your business should cover marketing, sales, delivery and support. And if it also includes the operating side of your business, even better.