Here’s why this is important: Love it or hate it social media gives us access to a huge free audience, but is this the only way to get in front of your ideal client?
Read on to find out how social media can support your business, but also ways to build a successful business without it.
One of the most frequent things I see people get stuck with is social media when it comes to starting a wellness business.
In a world where we spend a lot of time on social media ourselves, often watching our peers and the business owners we aspire to using it successfully to build a client base, it can feel like using social media is the only way to build a business in the 2020s.
The trouble is, many of us have a love/hate relationship with socials. It can make us feel angry, depressed, insecure or worse.
If you’re feeling like a social media hater I hear you.
Here’s the thing though: as much as we moan about it, social media can be an incredibly powerful tool. It’s potentially opening up our content and offerings to millions if not billions of people for free.
That sort of access is really hard to achieve any other way.
But the thing is, you don’t have to use it. There are other effective ways to market your business that may feel more aligned and sustainable to you.
If you’re looking for a short answer to the question “Do you need to be on social media to have a successful wellness business?” then it’s: NO.
There are plenty of outstanding business owners running great, fulfilling, booked-out practices that don’t use social media at all.
I know. Hard to believe, right?
But it’s true.
However. Before I dive into all the ways you can market your wellness business without social media, I do just want to check in with you that you’re being really honest with yourself about why you don’t enjoy using it right now.
Often I find when I say to people “you don’t have to use social media, there are lots of other ways to grow your biz!” and start to reel them off, they backtrack pretty fast.
“Well I don’t hate it that much….”
“I suppose I could try a bit harder….”
“I guess I haven’t given it a real go yet…”
The real reasons you say you hate social media and don’t want to use it are usually:
- You’re scared of being visible: it feels vulnerable and scary to say what you think and put yourself out there in the world. Avoiding social media won’t change that I’m afraid. Because to market yourself you will have to be visible in some other form, even if it’s not on little social media squares. That’s a mindset block you need to tackle.
- You hate how depressed it makes you: some home truths here; the depression you feel when you log on to your top social media app is entirely borne out of the fact you are using it really poorly right now. If your feed is full of people that make you compare yourself in a negative way you are following the wrong people.
It is a discipline, but if you create more than you consume and curate a space that only shows you supportive, encouraging content from people who have your back and make you feel good, social media will suddenly make you feel totally different. Constantly choosing to focus on the positive and keep those blinkers on as you do your own thing is tough. But it’s a mindset you need to tackle.
- You claim you’re a technophobe: News flash! No-one is good at social media when they first join. We’re all tapping buttons and posting content just to figure things out when we start. Everyone is self-taught and everyone has had to put out rubbish content before they get good.
This is something you’re going to encounter in every area of your business. Avoiding this experimenting and being pants phase by avoiding social media won’t make being a beginner and being rubbish at things go away. That’s a mindset block you need to tackle.
If these are your real reasons for avoiding social media, it’s time to sort that mindset out.
DON’T USE SOCIAL MEDIA IF YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS DON’T USE IT
The only totally legitimate reason to not use social media to market your wellness business is because your ideal customers aren’t on it.
This might sound obvious but it’s often something people overlook. Because we’re all so trained right now to assume we have to be on social media, we forget to stop and question if that’s actually where our ideal clients are hanging out and consuming information.
If it’s not, then being on social media could be a total waste of your time.
READY TO MAKE THE FINAL DECISION FOR YOU?
If you can honestly say:
- None of the problems I’ve mentioned are ones that you have and/or
- Your ideal customers aren’t on social media and/or
- Your honest and true decision to walk away from the possibilities social media opens up is based on your values and aligning to what feels good for you and your business
Then all power to you. Let’s do this. There is another way.
If you’re absolutely sure that social media is not the route you want to go down in order to grow your business, here’s what can you be doing instead to market yourself:
Do your own PR
If you’re not going to be on social media then you need to find other ways to get in front of your ideal clients and customers. If it’s not social media that they’re tuning their eyes and ears into, what is it?
Have a think, or better still survey and ask some ideal customers these questions:
- What magazines do they read?
- What newspapers do they buy?
- What online publications do they follow?
- What TV programmes do they watch?
- What radio station do they tune into?
These are all great places to start pitching yourself to in order to get featured.
Want to know more? Read my blog post on how to do your own PR
Work on your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
The most common way people are searching for solutions on the internet? It’s not social media, it’s Google.
With a bit of time and effort (think channelling all those ‘wasted’ hours on social media scrolling and comparing) you can get your website up onto the first page of Google for the criteria your ideal customers are typing into that search bar.
If you have a lovely consistent flow of ideal customers finding your website every week, who needs social media?
Grow your mailing list
This is such a vital one whether you’re on social media or not. Having your own database of people who love what you do and want to hear from you is worth its weight in digital gold. Especially considering social media is no guarantee at all that we’re actually being seen by the people who like us and might buy from us.
You can totally bypass any need for social media by having a really strong freebie to encourage people to sign up to your mailing list. This works perfectly in tandem with focusing on your SEO (see tip above).
Get in front of other people’s audiences
If you don’t want to grow your own audience then there are plenty of people out there that have their own that would love your expertise. Getting invited on (or let’s be real, pitching to appear on) other people’s Facebook Lives, blogs, events and podcasts is a brilliant way to tap into someone who’s already got those know/like/trust factors with their audience.
Again, think about your ideal customer and who they might be following already – particularly complementary practitioners where your skills and knowledge could really enhance their current offer and where you’d be seen by a virtual (or physical) audience of ideal customers.
I’m not a fan of totally cold pitching when it comes to getting in front of other people’s audiences. I’d highly recommend if you want to go down this route and have a good success rate with “yes please I’d love to have you on!” replies that you build a relationship with the person first. Following their work, attending their events, signing up to their mailing list, having conversations and sharing what they do is essential in my mind before diving in to pitch yourself for a collaboration.
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