Let’s face it, practitioners in our field tend to be terrible at marketing. This is partly a personality thing; many of us are drawn into this field precisely because we are much better with people than we are with numbers and technology. Right-brained, creative and empathic, these traits seem to be the antithesis to sitting behind a computer right?
While the idea of marketing may sound scary, it is important, so you need to find a way to do it that works for you and allows you to be comfortable.
What everyone is talking about in the marketing world is ‘content marketing’, meaning that, rather than relying on the old traditional ways of getting your message out there (TV commercials, magazine ads, billboards, etc.), you advertise by giving people valuable information that they are looking for. Once they realize that you have the info they want, and are willing to give it to them for free, you have established a relationship. How do you do this? Again, play to your strengths. Are you a writer? Compose some articles about why muscle testing works, or your favourite supplements, or the best exercise program ever for buns of steel. Are you comfortable in the spotlight? Get a friend to turn the camera on you and set up your YouTube page vlog. Don’t be afraid to give this kind of information away. Once you have solved a problem for someone you inspire confidence in them that you could do it again. They will turn to you the next time they have a question that needs answering. Maybe they will never book an appointment with you themselves, but when they get into a conversation with someone about their health problems, or back pain or recent diagnosis, they will reme
mber that they learned a lot from you and will pass your name along.
This kind of marketing is going to work for you because it fits with your values.
1) It’s authentic, meaning that you are only going to provide information that you believe to be true, that you can get excited about, and that people are looking for.
2) It’s about them, not about you. For this to work, you are identifying a problem that your target group has (eg.Natural Health Practitioners tend to need help with marketing and establishing an online presence), and giving them some solutions to that problem. This is probably why you got into this field in the first place: to help people.
Do you have any challenges as a Health Practitioner that you would like to see addressed here? Any success stories that you would like to share? Let us know!
Be Amazing,
Alexis Costello
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