Do you struggle with the question of how you can promote yourself and your services in an authentic way, without feeling salesy or weird or icky? 

Let me tell you: you’re not alone.

As wellness professionals, we want to make our services as accessible as possible to the people that could benefit from them. After all, we are here to help people, to make a positive impact in this world. 

Yet, from my 1-to-1 client work with pilates and yoga teachers, I know that for many mind & body practitioners it can feel inauthentic to apply common marketing and advertising strategies to the wellness world. 

So let’s switch our focus away from marketing towards visibility. Why? Well, there is SO much noise out there in the online world, and in order to reach the people we’d love to connect with, we simply have to become visible. 

Increasing your visibility online is one of the best ways to attract more clients and to share your message of wellbeing in an authentic and honest way. I know it can feel scary to step up your visibility game and get out there, so let’s ease into the topic with 5 handy tips that can help you to stand out and be more visible online.

1. Create high-quality content

To connect with your ideal audience, you have to create high-quality content, such as website content, blog posts, articles or social media posts. Both your imagery and your copy needs to ‘speak’ to your audience and reflect who you are as a wellness practitioner and business.

The tone of your copy should capture what it is about your business that makes it the right one for your community to engage with. Always consider how you want your ideal clients to feel when they engage with you and your business and try to provide real value for them. Speak to them in an easy, conversational tone and encourage participation where appropriate.

Quick tip: Make sure to include a blog on your website. It’s not just great for your website or business, but it can also be an enriching personal experience. A blog can help to establish yourself as an expert in the space. It’s also a great way of providing value for your audience without asking for anything in return.

2. Build a strong and consistent brand identity

Your brand identity says so much about you, your values and the service that you are offering to clients, so make sure to be intentional about it. Your brand identity goes far beyond your logo, your colour palette or your key brand message. It’s literally shaped by any content you put out into the world and how you show up as a business owner.

So even if you have never really thought about it and you think you have no real brand identity, chances are you do, but you are simply unintentional about it or unaware of how your business might be perceived. It can be linked to simple things, like the tone of voice you have on social media (informal, formal, fun, serious etc.).     

Spend time considering how your brand identity features in your online content and ask yourself: am I consistent? Am I relying on one or two colours too much? Is my face visible? (I know this can be a tough one but statistics show that people are more likely to connect with a brand if they know who is behind it.) Try your best to be unique and true to yourself; shy away from imitating others and stick to what feels right for you.

3. Understand the SEO basics

SEO (search engine optimisation) is all about increasing traffic to your website through organic search engine results. In other terms: the higher up you rank on search engines like Google for relevant search inquiries, the more traffic you will get to your website. 

Imagine you’re a yoga teacher based in Hackney. Each time a potential client uses Google to search for “private yoga teacher Hackney” or “yoga classes Hackney”, you want to show up in the first few search results, which can help you massively with being more visible and standing out online. 

In the past years, the ways of SEO have changed drastically. Back in the days it was all about keywords. Nowadays the big search engines are all about pushing high quality websites and content up the rank.

Make sure to educate yourself about SEO to optimise your content accordingly. For example, making sure that your meta tags and descriptions are up to date on your webpages, and that your website visitors have a great user experience, which enables them to easily use your website and find the information they were looking for. 

Quick tip: If you are using Squarespace for your website, you can be sure that your website is equipped with all the elements needed for a strong SEO strategy. Site descriptions, page titles, custom URLs, search-friendly formatting, and other key elements are all easily managed. If you’re building your website with Wordpress, make sure to get the Yoast SEO plugin. It's very easy to use and super helpful.

4. Get started with email marketing

Email marketing is such a fantastic way to keep in touch with your community and clients. It’s a personal way to share insights into your business, tips, offers and to let them know about upcoming events. When somebody signs up for your email newsletter they are obviously interested in your services and message and should be nurtured – make them feel special and deliver your best content to them. Encourage your subscribers to reply and get to know them and their content preferences well.

Quick tip: Setting up an automated welcome email with your email marketing provider is super easy. This way your new subscribers will always feel welcome and immediately get some more information about you and your business.  

5. No matter what you do, be consistent

Consistency is key when it comes to being visible online. Do not try and spread yourself too thinly by showing up sporadically in different places; it’s much more beneficial for your business to be consistent and considerate of where you are visible. Use a content calendar to help you stay on top of your plans and then track response rates.

From my own experience I know that consistency is one of the most difficult aspects about becoming more visible online. My tip: start with realistic goals that are easy to achieve, like one blog post a month instead of one every week. 

Any questions, ideas or feedback? Let me know in the comments below or let’s chat on Instagram - I’d love to hear from you.