How To Market A New Practitioner Business - You've Gotta Keep It Simple
With every wave of graduations, I see the same questions popping up. How do you market a new practitioner business? Do you have to spend thousands on Facebook ads to get clients? How do I reach my dream clients? Why is it all so damn complex??
Well I have good news for you. Marketing a new practitioner business does not have to be complex. In fact, the best thing you can do for your business and sanity?
Keep. It. Simple.
Why keeping it simple is key if you want to market a new practitioner business
As practitioners, we've been taught how massive and overwhelming the human body can be. You can't be the expert of every health condition and system in the world, so you're taught to focus on one that interests you.
The same goes for marketing. There are thousands of ways to market a practitioner business. Some are paid, some are free. Some are online, some are in person. But if you try to master them all at once, you're going to do nothing at all. This leaves you unmotivated, poor, and unfulfilled as a practitioner.
So what's the alternative?
Keep it simple.
Pick one way of marketing, and stick to it for a good period of time. It takes time to build trust up with your ideal clients, so give it at least a month or two. If you don't see results, you can pick another way.
Seem too simple? Let me show you what I mean.
Pick one target audience
You can't market a practitioner business without having a target audience in mind.
Ok, before you freak out on me, let me preface by saying:
A target audience or niche doesn't have to be forever - you can change it if it doesn't suit you
Having an ideal client in mind doesn't mean that you can't see someone who isn't that ideal client
Now that we have those out of the way, it's time to pick your ideal client/target audience/target market/call it what you want.
These are the people that you want to be working with. These are the people who you will be marketing for. And these are the people that you need to keep in mind before every share, every post, every comment and every blog post.
You want to think about things like:
What age range are they in?
Do they have a health concern or condition in common?
What is their lifestyle like? Do they work, do they have a family, how do they spend their spare time?
What do they THINK their problem is? Is it low energy levels, not enough time to prepare healthy food, or maybe no motivation?
If you could wave a magic wand, what would their perfect life and health look like? How can you help them achieve that goal?
Some people find it helpful to craft their ideal person into a character, including a name and background. This can be based on a previous ideal client, or inspired by someone you know.
Every time you want to share an offer or a tip, ask yourself: would *name* find this helpful or inspiring? Would this offer appeal to *name*?
Pick one offering
I bet you have a MILLION ideas of how you can help people. A recipe ebook. A cleanse. What about an online course, or program, or package deal, or... the list goes on.
But before you learn how to sell 50 different offers, you have to sell one. Unless you already have a loyal fanbase, your best option will be some kind of 1:1 work. As a new practitioner, there's a good chance that will be either a single session, or maybe a 2 or 3 pack of sessions.
This doesn't mean you can't expand into passive income sources later. But for now, you want one offering that you can show up with consistently.
Pick one form of social media
For the majority of practitioners, you'll want to use social media as your method of sharing. But where do you start? There are so many to choose from!
The answer is wherever your ideal clients are spending time and open to the help that you offer.
If you're working with corporate health, there's a pretty low chance that HR managers are scouring Instagram. They spend time on LinkedIn, so that's where you want to focus your energy.
On the other hand, most new mums won't be networking on LinkedIn. It's more likely that they're scrolling through Facebook during the midnight feeds.
Not sure which social media to go with? Facebook is a good option to start with, as it is the biggest and most widely used for business and services. But you could also ask someone who fits into your target market which platforms they spend the most time on.
Pull it all together
Once you've got your target audience, your offer and your way of sharing it, it's time to put it all together. The key with marketing is consistency - showing up regularly to share, educate and offer your services.
Make a little 4-week plan of how you're going to share your content and market your business.
You can have different themes of what you share each day. For example, Monday might be a question, Tuesday a tip, and Wednesday your offer day. Or you might just share different snippets of the same topic each day - for example, 5 different tips for boosting energy levels.
Once you've made that plan, stick to it. Put aside 15 minutes each morning to do your social media posts and respond to any comments. If you don't have 15 minutes every day, put aside 1 hour on the weekend to schedule them in advance.
If you want support with marketing your practitioner business, pick one that doesn't cost you thousands!
I know most new practitioners are tight on funds, because they've been living that part-time wage life. But if you have squirreled away some funds for your business, be smart about how you use them.
You will have people who will CONVINCE you that you can book out every client slot if you spent $100 on Facebook ads every week, or $700 per month on SEO optimisation.
While that MIGHT be true, it's never a guarantee.I always say that when it comes to marketing, you need either money or time. The more money you have, the less time it will take.
But as a new practitioner, you probably have much more time than money. So opt for support that will help you utilise that time in a way that is effective and achievable for you.
If you're still struggling to market your business, I'm here to help. Book in a 1:1 marketing support session here, and we'll workshop all of your marketing woes.