Marketing Strategies For Holistic & Natural Therapists

Marketing is essential for holistic and natural therapists. You need to reach your potential clients and let them know the benefits you offer. You have to keep yourself fresh in the minds of existing clients. The past year has been difficult for almost all businesses. Holistic and natural therapists, like everyone, have had to make adjustments to their practices. In some cases, you may have had to pause live sessions due to lockdowns.

During such challenging times, your marketing strategy is more important than ever. In 2021 and beyond, it will be increasingly crucial to come up with effective and affordable ways to reach your audience. As we enter a new and challenging year, let's look at some effective marketing tactics that can help your practice grow.

Local SEO

As a therapist, you are a local business and want to attract the attention of people in your area. Local SEO is essential for growing your practice. Even if you've been compelled to scale back your offerings due to COVID restrictions, you still want to build leads and clients locally for when you do reopen your local practice.

• Optimise your Google listing. Your Google My Business listing is the foundation of your local SEO strategy. It tells people where you are, what you do, and how to get there (via Google Maps). It will also bring up reviews.
• Use local SEO terms in your blog and other content. Use names of places and landmarks that people are likely to search for. This includes neighbourhoods and popular attractions that are nearby. For example, "massage therapist in Melbourne" or "Newtown aromatherapy."
• Solicit reviews. Online reviews are a powerful part of local SEO as well as building your reputation. Reviews are one factor that Google considers when ranking sites. Remind clients to leave reviews. Place requests on your website, emails, social media, and in person.
  
  

Create Targeted Content

The content you publish serves several purposes. It helps with SEO, it establishes your expertise, and it informs potential clients on the ways you can help them. It's important to target your content to the needs of your audience.

Focus on Benefits

A fundamental principle of marketing is that you need to identify your customer's pain points and solve their problems. This certainly applies to anyone who offers massage, natural therapy, nutritional counselling, and other such holistic services. For all of your promoting efforts, keep the following in mind.

• Conditions and symptoms you treat. When creating content, think of keywords that people may look up when they have issues. For example, if you treat migraines, people may look up "Best migraine remedies." This helps you find titles for blog posts, videos, social media posts, and other content.
• Positive outcomes you can help bring about. In addition to solving problems, emphasise the positive benefits you can help your clients achieve such as more energy, reaching their ideal weight, emotional balance, etc. It's often helpful to restate the same goals in both negative and positive language, such as "heal insomnia" and "sleep more restfully."

Educate Your Audience

Keep in mind that people have different backgrounds and may not always be familiar with your methods. Not everyone is aware of Reiki, Ayurveda, biofeedback, and other modalities you may offer. Make sure you take the time to offer simple explanations of your techniques and what they can do for clients.

Create Content in Multiple Formats

There are many types of content that help you reach your audience. Consider the content format that best suits your business combined with what your audience is most likely to engage with. Content types can come in the form of:

• Blogging
• Video
• Podcasting 
• Social Media

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most valuable ways to build up your collection of leads. It also helps you stay in touch with previous clients. The advantage of an email list is that you can send messages anytime without your contacts needing to log onto your website or social media pages. Here are some email marketing tips for holistic practitioners.

• Create appealing lead magnets to get people to sign up for your list. This could be a problem-solving e-book or a coupon for a session.
• A newsletter format helps you add value to your email messages. In addition to self-promotion, provide useful health, fitness, and lifestyle tips that help your subscribers.
• Send your messages or newsletter on a regular schedule, so people will come to expect it.
• Remember to include links and calls-to-action with every email. You can balance providing immediate value and self-promotion by including helpful information with a link or CTA at the end. You can link to your website, videos, Facebook page, or anywhere you want.

Make the Most of Social Media

Social media provides a great opportunity to connect with potential and existing clients. Here are just a few ways to leverage social media sites to grow your practice.

• Facebook: Create a page and update it frequently. Stories are a good feature to help increase engagement. You might start or join Facebook groups related to holistic topics. With groups, focus on networking and sharing information and don't promote too aggressively. You might also try advertising locally on Facebook.
• Instagram: A good site to share images and short videos. Like Facebook, you can create Stories for engaging short-term content. Live video is another option.
• Twitter: On Twitter, you can connect with people with an interest in holistic topics. You're less likely to get local clients on this site, but it can be good for building your brand and sending traffic to your website.
• LinkedIn: A B2B-oriented site that's best for connecting with other practitioners in the holistic space as well as professional organisations.

Create Online Events and Presentations

In 2020, when so many live events had to be cancelled, many businesses and organisations discovered the advantages of virtual presentations. Sharing information online, of course, has many benefits even when live events are feasible. You can reach a wider audience as the location isn't a limitation. It's cheaper and simpler to organise an online event. They can also be great for educating your audience and finding potential new clients.

• Webinars: You can use webinars to talk about your services, interview experts, answer questions, and establish your authority. Be sure to include a call-to-action such as signing up for your email list.
• Live Streaming: Live streaming on Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram is a good way to talk to your social media followers in real-time.
• Virtual Conferences: A virtual conference is a larger, more ambitious event that may include other practitioners and experts. It's a chance to form partnerships with others in your field or adjoining fields. You can charge for tickets or make the event free, using it as a lead magnet to gain clients.

Be Creative With Your Marketing

The future is getting harder to predict all the time. Regardless of what the coming months and years bring, a strong marketing plan will help you grow your holistic therapy practice. Remember that regardless of what is going on in the world, people still need your skills and knowledge. It's up to you to communicate your value.

Once you have a well-planned marketing strategy in place select an insurance policy to protect your business. IICT is a professional industry body that provides membership, insurance, resources, and a global community for complementary therapists working in 1,100+ modalities.

We help you on your insurance and provide professional recognition and credibility for natural therapists who practise multiple modalities. Find out how to join IICT here or contact us on +61 2 5629 7777 Monday - Friday 10am - 4pm NSW, Australia to speak with one of our friendly and helpful Member Services team.