Tag: content marketing

Create your Marketing Avatar

Alexis Leave a comment

What is an Avatar? Basically, what you are doing here is helping yourself define very clearly the ideal client – the person that you want to reach out to and work with. Spending a little time on this allows you to be precise in the way that you are marketing and invest your time and money in the best way possible. Does this feel silly for some people? Maybe a little. After all, in some ways this is basically the adult equivalent of creating an imaginary friend. A couple things that it might be helpful to remember:
1) There are no wrong answers. This is about who you want to work with, so don’t worry if it sounds a little odd when you write it all out. We’re not trying to please everyone – maybe the oddballs are your ideal clients and that is totally ok. In fact, when putting this together you may want to actually focus on some of the ways that your avatar is different from the people around them. Knowing how they are quirky and what sets them apart from the crowd is what allows you to connect with them on a deeper level.
2) This can be fluid and can change. You are not stuck with this indefinitely. You can add things, and take them away as you grow. You can add more avatars in the future to represent the various aspects of your business. You my friend, have options, so don’t be afraid to jump in and have fun with this.

Download the free PDF and begin!  GEMS avatar creation WS

KinesioGeek Merch – for People Like You

Alexis Leave a comment

Smart SWAG for people like you.

This is something I have been working on for awhile and I’m ready to share with you now. I have designed and purchased Kinesiology-celebrating gear for myself in the past and people at conferences always ask me where I manage to find it. I began to think it would be great to have a few items that people could order: shirts that start conversations about who we are and what we do, or that actually help to balance you as you wear them. Colours that support elemental flow within the body and cuts that are flattering (read: not huge boxy white shirts with a logo in the center that you would never consider wearing out in public).

NeuroLymphatic Shirt

This is a preliminary catalog with a few items included in order to see whether or not this is in the best interests of my tribe. In the future, this is going to have it’s own website so that it is easy to select the items you can’t live without, pay for them securely and have them delivered. Consider this a trial run as I determine interest! And if you live in the Okanagan or are attending the Touch for Health Kinesiology Association (TFHKA) conference in Malibu in July, I’ll deliver your stuff personally with a hug.

So let me know what you think. What you like, what you don’t and what you wish was included. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

KinesioGeek catalog

We’re all in this together,

Alexis

Announcing our Specialized Kinesiology Magazine!

Alexis

I’m so excited about my new project! I am publishing a new journal called Specialized Kinesiology Magazine (not the most inspired title, but highly searchable!) online. This international journal is designed for specialized/applied/energetic kinesiology practitioners and students from around the world. It’s a place to share ideas, new techniques and products, upcoming events, courses, videos, etc.

This magazine is free to national associations of specialized kinesiology to distribute to their members, either through on-demand printing, or by sharing the link so that everyone can read it online. This gives Associations a product they can share with members (increasing their value in Member’s eyes) and provides a beautiful medium to get valuable information out to SK practitioners around the world. Our funding comes from advertising.

Each issue will contain a Classified Ad section with free basic listings for classes (a link to the Association’s class listing page) and conferences. Please check the attached Media Kit for more information about these free listings and also how to purchase ad space in order to promote your conference, products, events, etc. to a large and targeted market.

By mid-October you will be receiving your link to the first issue, which we are calling ‘The Happy Issue’ since it’s pretty exciting to get a project like this off the ground!

Every issue will feature certain columns, offering interviews with the movers and shakers of the SK world, ways of growing your holistic business, upcoming conferences and highlights of past ones, new nutritional information, a deeper understanding of various modalities and much more!

 

Here are a few things you can look forward to in The Happy Issue:

–       An in depth interview with Sylvia Marina (Australia) describing her work in transforming DNA memories

–       A closer look at Agape Quest with Denise Cambiotti (Canada)

–       How to create a steady client base and keep your clients happy

–       A deep exploration of 5-element relationships with Sandy Gannon (UK)

–       History of medicine – an Anthropological look at medicinal herbs, with Kathleen Green (Ireland)

–       Listings of upcoming classes and conferences around the world, all in one place!

 

If you have ideas for articles, questions for writers, upcoming classes or conferences, or would like to advertise, please email happy@alexiscostello.com

Deadline for The Happy Issue is October 5th, 2016

 Click here for the Media Kit!sk-magazine-media-kit

Navigating Social Media for your Natural Health Business

Alexis

 

Social media and business guru Nikki Csek of Csek Creative and Kelowna Now spoke to Kelowna Women in Business in April to help us all become better communicators in the crazy world of social networking sites. I may be one of the world’s worst note-takers, so this is nowhere near everything that she talked about, but I have recorded a few gems for you here that might help you as you decide where to put your time and energy online.

According to Nikki, these are your ‘Must Haves’:

1)   The ability to access your website and make changes to it

2)   You must have identified and set up the social channels you wish to use properly

3)   You must make it easy to share – content is 7x more likely to be shared if it’s simple for your user

4)   Google Analytics

 

You’ve heard me discuss Content Marketing before, right? Unless you have a content strategy, nothing works. Her suggestion is to sit with a piece of paper and write ten article titles for your perfect customers. Once these are in place you know what you need to write and can schedule it for publishing.

Now that you know what you’re going to publish, let’s talk about how to get it ‘out there’ to your target market. Nikki had some analytics for the major social media sites that can help you decide where your potential clients are and meet them on their home turf.

 

1)   Facebook: 71% of Internet users are on FB and most of these are between 24-50 years old with equal gender representation. If you are posting regularly to FB and people are not engaging with you (i.e ‘liking’ and sharing your posts) you may need to reconsider what you are posting.

Find me by searching Happily Holistic – Be Your Best

2)   Twitter: 23% of Internet users are on Twitter, demographics between 18-29 years old and skewed slightly female. Over 30% of users check multiple times daily, so you can post more often without bugging people. (Nikki taught me that etiquette says you follow people back, so I’m working on that since manners are important.)

Follow me @healthylexi – I’ll follow you too!

3)   Instagram: 26% of Internet users are on Instagram and it is growing quickly. Demographics are between 18-29 and again skewed slightly female. I’m not on this one yet, so can’t add much to this!

 

In each of these you need to decide how you wish to be perceived, both by existing and perspective clients. You can search for and look at your competitors; see what they are doing well and identify opportunities. Take a look at how people are using technology and what channels they are using. For instance, are your perspective clients looking you up on their iphone? You had better be sure your website is formatted properly for that or they will get frustrated and wander off.

Of course, there is a lot more to all of this, but hopefully this will get you started.

Are you comfortable in the world of social media for your business, or do you find it difficult? Do you have specific questions we can help you with?

We’re all in this together!

Alexis

Marketing for Health

Alexis

marketingquoteLet’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 rememarketingbabymber 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