How To Market A Healing Business Without Feeling Icky
Working as a practitioner or healer? Not a big fan of selling your services? Let's face it - it can feel tricky to market a healing business without feeling like a used-car salesman.
Recently, as part of the Heart-Centred Business Summit, I ran a free training on how to market a healing business without feeling icky. You can watch it below if you prefer video, but I thought I'd share some of the top takeaways right here on the blog.
How To Market A Healing Business Without Feeling Icky
Why does it feel icky to market a healing business in the first place?
There are a few main reasons I come across when I work with practitioners. They include:
Previous experience with a ‘used car salesman’ type of marketing - the pushy must-buy salesperson who manipulates you into buying something you're not even sure you want
The ‘broke healer’ money mindset - many of us picked this up from our teachers and lecturers
Underestimating your impact and value as a practitioner - thinking of what you can see, rather than what the client receives
Fear of being visible and vulnerable - especially with how natural health is portrayed in the media
Natural introversion
Perfectionism
It's interesting to note that most of these come down to some form of fear. It really does show that marketing a healing business is all about your mindset, not the facts.
How to market in a way that feels good for you
So now you can start to understand why marketing hasn't felt good for you. How can you turn that around? Here are my main tips.
Get clear on your deeper ‘why’
If you don't understand why you do what you do, marketing yourself will never make sense. So it's time to ask yourself some questions:
Why do you want to be a healer and serve others? Is it because of your own journey, or because of someone you love? Have you always wanted to work in a caring role?
Why do you want your business to be a success? If you're not seeing clients and earning money, you've got a hobby - NOT a business. So why do you want to have a successful business? Is it so that you can work around your kids, or take care of your own health better?
Why do you want to earn money? Is it to contribute to the household, or save up for something important? Do you want the freedom to travel, or free up the time to volunteer?
Most importantly - are all of these whys more important than your excuses about marketing?
Get clear on your client
If you market to everyone, you’ll reach no one.This will just sabotage your confidence and put you off marketing forever! So you have to be really clear about who your ideal client is - and who isn't your ideal client.
Think about:
What do your ideal clients have in common? Is it their stage of life, a particular symptom or health concern, or their goals?
Where are these people hanging out? Is it on specific social media platforms? Are they spending time at events? Where do they go when they're not working?
What would your support mean to these people? If they did work with you, what would the outcome be, and how much would they value it?
Meet your clients where they are at
You might know the root cause of a potential client's health concerns just by looking at them. But guess what - they usually don’t!
Most people have no real idea about what is going on underneath. All they know is the symptoms that are showing up the most for them and how those symptoms affect their quality of life.
So start asking people within your audience what they struggle with the most. The most common issues you're likely to come across include:
Low or inconsistent energy
Exhaustion or fatigue
Mood swings
Low mood or anxious feelings
Poor sleep
Chronic stress
PMS symptoms
Pain
If you start the conversation with those struggles, clients are more likely to follow you through to understanding that there is a root cause to address.
Find what form of marketing lights you up
Not everyone loves all types of marketing - you'll always have some you feel more or less comfortable with. So if you hate Facebook lives with a passion, please don’t make it the cornerstone of your marketing!
Each of the two main forms of marketing - online and in-person - have multiple avenues that suit introverts and extroverts alike:
Online options – video, audio, images or written content across social media platforms and your website
In-person options – running free talks at a local community centre, networking with other practitioners and businesses, talking about what you do!
By the way - paid ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google and the like are not where you should start. They are really only worthwhile once you truly understand your ideal client and how to bring them in using unpaid marketing.
Share from a place of feeling good
If you’re posting and offering when you’re not feeling yourself, that will come across – even if it’s online! So whenever you have an amazing day, go and pre-write or schedule 3-5 posts to make the most of your good vibes.
But even if you're not in the best place and you need to do some marketing, there are ways to boost the feel-good vibes. Some of my favourites include:
Client love folder - keep a folder of positive feedback and praise from your clients to remind you of how awesome you are!
Sing your favourite song
Have a dance party
Meditation
Move your body
Cuddle your loved ones
Whatever it is that lights you up from the inside – do that thing on the regular!
Once you’ve figured out all of the above, get consistent
It's awesome to market from a place of feeling good. But if you're only showing up occasionally, you won't reap the full benefits. That's why consistency is always key when it comes to marketing.
Consistency doesn't mean you have to post 3 times a day every day on social media or write 2 blog posts a week. It's about what you can realistically achieve with the time you have.
To ensure your marketing is consistency, start by:
Creating a schedule, and making sure you can actually stick to it
Making it easy for you to sit down and create content and marketing materials - this includes having pre-planned content ideas or having templates for your social media posts
Batching whatever you can, especially if you’re feeling good - blogs, videos, social media, whatever your preferred forms of marketing are
Reshare and repurpose anything that really resonated with your audience – posts, videos, even live workshops and talks!
Are you ready to make it easier on yourself to market your business? I'm here to help. Book a 1:1 marketing support session here, and we can work on your mindset and strategies for marketing your biz.