Market Your Coaching and Healing Practice Without Social Media
Marketing without social media is possible
It’s true: social proof is essential for large, small, and micro businesses.
But social media isn’t the only kind of social proof. Press, Interviews, Guest Lectures, Course Development, Testimonials, Referrals, High ratings, Raving Reviews, and Client Success Stories are all ways to build your social proof in business.
Plus, relying on social media for client acquisition isn’t ideal for all businesses —especially transformational service providers like Coaches, Healers, Helpers, or Consultants.
Social media companies earn income based on client attention —and on guiding that attention to the content they want to show. That content is monetized and optimized. The higher your social buzz, audience size, and advertising budget, the higher you rank. That doesn’t bode well for independent, small or micro-businesses—like most Coaches, Healers, Helpers and Consultants.
Social media presence and social media advertising are different.
If your business is looking for new leads, paid social media ads are one way to acquire clients who are searching for the solution you’re selling. Paid social ads don’t require a huge following, but they do require investing in an expert (or spending a good chunk of time and resources to DIY it) plus the actual fees for advertising.
With a large enough following, your consistent and relevant social media presence may be enough to bring potential clients to your digital (or actual) doors…
…but you’ll need to spend resources (your own time, a strategic hire’s time, or advertising dollars) to gain that following.
If you don’t have a large social media presence yet, strategic social media advertising can help you reach more of your ideal clients. Targeted ads that drive those interested clients to your valuable, relevant free (or paid) products or services are the aim —and those ads are often effective but require time, testing, and resources.
What if you don’t have a large social media following, a big advertising budget, or a desire to engage on the socials at all?
While you’re growing your following or building your advertising budget, go back to basics! Build or scale your business the time-tested way: and remember that vanity metrics like social media followers are rarely indicative of actual income.
Here are 25 creative ways to build, grow, or scale your business without social media (plus a few that DO require social, but take a stress-less approach).
I used these exact strategies to build my unknown yoga therapy and wellness coaching studio in a small town back in 2008 when social media was a thing… but not a huge thing for business. Those same strategies allowed me to pivot into location-independent training after I closed my studio to spend more time with my little one. And I used these strategies again when I deleted all my social media back in 2019 (I’m back now, but…you get the picture!). Get the full list here.
Plus, here are 20 more ways to grow your business without relying on the algorithms (or paid social media advertisements):
Offer memberships or discounted rates to local firefighters, police officers, or other first responders to show appreciation for their service.
Partner with a local sports team, special interest group or league to offer training, massage therapy, mindset coaching, or photography sessions to their members. Think: Yoga for Knitters, Mindfulness Training for Golfers, Tai Chi for Bowlers.
Host a "Lunch and Learn" events for community organizations, local businesses, or trade organizations. Network before and afterwards with business cards, brochures, or the perfect elevator pitch.
Offer mobile services or corporate packages to busy professionals who can't make it to your studio or local business.
Attend local trade shows, conferences, or expos related to your niche and network with attendees and other vendors.
Host a live webinar, workshop or talk to showcase your expertise and offer a special promotion for attendees. You don’t need fancy equipment and can stream Live on YouTube with nothing more than your smartphone.
Offer specialized training, series courses, packages, or classes for specific populations in your niche that deliver a specific, singular solution. Examples: Prenatal Cooking Classes, Meditation for Legal Professionals, Wellness Coaching for WFH Parents.
Partner with local non-profit organizations to donate a portion of your profits to their cause. Usually, they’ll offer to feature your business or promote you in their outreach materials.
Offer a trial period for new clients to try out your services at a discounted rate, and follow up with them to encourage them to continue working with you once the trial period ends with a special package only available at that time (Pro tip: add value, rather than reduce cost).
Create a customer loyalty program that rewards clients for repeat business or for referring new clients. People like to refer people they know and are more eager to do so if you have a system in place.
Host a free seminar or workshop on a topic related to your niche and invite your local community to attend. Bonus: invite “sister service providers” and turn it into a Panel where you all build interest and promote one another’s transformational services. More clients book with you, more clients book with them, and everyone benefits. Win-Win-Win.
Develop a Talk Show, Podcast or Video Blog, featuring your work and services. Regularly provide valuable content and promote your services at the end of each show or in the show notes. Discuss topics that your ideal clients are interested in, problems they’re already asking about, and showcase how your services or products provide a solution to those problems.
Develop a customized corporate package and pitch your local businesses with more than 50 employees. Use this as a way to build your referral network or create a collective to provide services on-location.
Create an online course or e-book and offer it for sale on your website or at trade shows and events.
Collaborate with thought leaders in your niche to promote your business with an event, challenge, or contest.
Develop a Continuing Education or professional development training for a trade organization in your industry to share your expertise and build your corporate consulting opportunities.
Use search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to improve your website's ranking on search engines and attract more traffic. Develop lead magnets for your best SEO ranked content and grow your email list at the same time.
Host a contest or giveaway to engage with potential clients and build your brand.
Develop a mobile app to make it easy for clients to book appointments and stay connected with your business. Or use one of the integrated apps that comes with course creation membership sites like Passion.io, Thinkific, and AttractWell.
Start a Membership site using software (like this or this or this) to grow your community and monetize your creative content at the same time. Substack or Patreon offer email marketing and social sharing options that allow you to market your business and earn income at the same time.
I’d love to know—what are your tried-and-true client attraction strategies that don’t rely on social media?
~Kellie Adkins, MS, C-IAYT
Business Coach + Yoga Therapist
Founder | Wisdom Method Institute
P.S. Want to Map our your non-social media marketing strategy together? Be my VIP.
25 Creative Ways to Build Your Coaching and Healing Practice Without Relying on Social Media
Every business needs a way to reach potential customers.
Your marketing strategy needs to get your Coaching, Healing or Service-based Business in front of the people who want what you have—and who want it now.
Nowadays, most people think of social media as a viable way to market and grow their coaching, healing, or transformational service-based business.
But the truth is that relying on social media for clients isn’t tenable for most businesses because social media trends come and go.
Do you remember MySpace? Tumblr? Periscope? Google+? Yeah, me, too. But no one is using them now.
Social media platforms make their money by keeping people on the platform NOT by sending their users elsewhere (like your website services page).
There are creative and effective ways to market your coaching or healing practice that don’t require much social media.
While the market has shifted considerably in the direction of social proof for businesses, maintaining a strategy that works for you is key….but that doesn’t mean you have to jump on every trend bandwagon or go viral to get clients (and remember, there are other forms of social proof for your business. You’re getting testimonials, right?).
Your marketing strategy needs to get your business in front of the people who want what you have: and who want it now.
That doesn’t require a million followers on social media (or even 1,000). It does require some higher-order thinking, market research, and creativity. In other words: YOU GOT THIS, brilliant one!
When I first started a business in 2007, having a website was a novelty, and a social media presence wasn’t required.
But a business card? Absolutely.
Local networking events? You betcha.
Print advertising and PR: even better.
Back then I didn’t have the budget for glossy paid ads in the local style magazine.
I had to get creative!
Below are 25 things I did to market my Yoga Studio and Coaching Practice, that are as relevant now as they were back then. In fact, when I quit social media for a few years, I relied on these exact strategies to fill my calendar with long-term consulting gigs.
25 ways to attract clients without using social media:
Print business cards and give some to friends, family members, and colleagues. Ask them to keep a small stack in their car or purse and hand them out to people that might be a good fit for your services.
Host pop-up demonstrations or mini-classes in local parks, botanical gardens, downtown areas, or during large events (ask permission).
Collaborate with local partners, such as dance teachers or salons, to create joint events or performances.
Develop a signature workshop, training or course and deliver a free mini-course to local businesses or offices during lunch breaks.
Print glossy postcards or business-card size passes with your class schedule, website, and discount codes, and distribute them at local gyms, fitness centers, and coffee shops.
Offer referral fees or commissions to local health professionals or complementary service providers for sending clients your way.
Pitch your training, course, or programs to local colleges, vocational centers, or educational institutions to secure contract gigs.
Send personalized emails to people in your network and ask for referrals or introductions to potential clients.
Host seasonal special events and open houses or sample classes at your studio and offer exclusive membership packages.
Add your Training, Workshops, Courses or classes to Google and share them on local networking and events websites or print publications.
Advertise at local farmers' markets, craft fairs, or events that attract your ideal clients.
Join your local Chamber of Commerce, municipal business association, or business networking groups and share your elevator pitch during their monthly events.
Offer complimentary mini-sessions or exclusive discounts to local service providers that also serve your ideal clients (stylists, estheticians, etc.) in exchange for referrals.
Collaborate and co-promote with other practitioners or businesses in your niche or local area for special events.
Send thank-you postcards or free class cards to clients, friends, and colleagues to express appreciation and encourage repeat business.
Print mini-cards or flyers with your business information and a QR code to a complimentary download (valuable content) and distribute them locally.
Organize a charitable fundraising event or sponsor a charitable event in your community.
Order custom promotional items, such as water bottles, yoga mats, tote bags, or T-shirts, with your business name and website. Give them to friends and clients. Use them as raffle items or gifts during events. Sell them on your website.
Offer special packages and customized classes to members of local churches, community organizations, or neighborhood associations.
Teach a series class, signature workshop, or specialized training at a local church or community center and offer their members a special rate for private sessions.
Print neon flyers or posters with your business information and distribute them strategically in town and at events (ask permission).
Wear branded T-shirts or ask family and friends to do the same to raise awareness about your business.
Keep business cards handy for networking events or other opportunities to share your contact information or get one of these nifty cards.
Book a booth at local health, wellness, or education events in the area to showcase your business.
Order or make special swag that showcases your brand and advertises your business. Then hand out around town or at events. Examples: custom herbal tea sachets with handstamped tags, Wildflower seed paper business cards, Hand-stamped leather cards (upcycled leather, of course).
Ok, and because I can’t stop myself, here are 4 more ideas that do require social media, yet allow you to be more strategic in your use since content on these platforms performs well in driving traffic to your website and has a longer shelf life than Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.
*Want even more? Here are 20 more marketing ideas to grow your coaching, healing or helping practice that don’t rely on social media.
For a “stress less” approach to social media marketing:
Start a YouTube channel and create content optimized for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to drive traffic to your website.
Start a Substack, Vimeo, or Patreon account to monetize your content, then share bits of paid content to your social media channels to increase your subscriber base (pre-schedule the posts for even less stress).
Write and publish a book, e-book, audio book or podcast, sell it on Amazon, Etsy or your website. Promote it everywhere you go.
Craft a public talk or presentation. Contact local organizations to invite you to speak at their events. Promote your book and / or services when you do!
I’d love to know—what are some non-social media ways you attract clients?
If you liked this post and you want to learn more about scaling your business for more influence and ease, join me every week for LIVE workshops to make growing your business more fun (and less stressful).
With gratitude,
~Kellie Adkins
Business Alignment Coach + Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT)
Founder | Wisdom Method School of Yoga
P.S. If you missed KULA CONVERSATIONS today, join the Kula and catch the replay right here! I share my simple 3-step process for creating irresistible courses your clients want NOW, not later.
P.P.S. Want to Map our your non-social media marketing strategy together? Start here.
Grow your Healing or Coaching Business Beyond one-to-one Sessions
An Epistle on Expansion
Or, making the case for growth even if you’re not maxed out on 1x1 services (yet)
Dear Reader:
As a fellow 1x1 service provider for most of my career (Yoga Therapist, Wellness Coach, and Business Coach), I humbly offer the following case for expanding your work beyond the bounds of 1-to-1 or premium services as early in your career as possible.
Indeed, this applies whether you’re building your private client practice or currently maxed out with private clients.
As you read this letter, consider the wonder of these words reaching through the ether to greet your eyes on the magical fantastical creation you now hold.
Through this device and its connection to the internet, you have access to millions of teachings that provide insight into better health, greater well-being, and more purposeful living.
Before the digital age, this type of learning was layered beneath circles of privilege and kept behind ivory towers.
It is a wonder to have access to this once-cloistered information—and all at your fingertips.
Digital courses democratize access (to an extent).
In time, it is my hope, that more healing, helping, and self-development teachings will be shared even more widely for more meaning, engagement, and well-being outside the circles of privilege of higher education, whiteness, able-bodiedness, and neurotypicality.
In my view, sharing the skillset you’ve carefully curated over the duration of your career is an act of social justice: widening and improving access to powerful healing and helping tools the world needs.
All humans need these tools, not only those who can afford to pay a premium rate for your one-to-one services. Even more so if you serve an underserved community that is hard to reach.
I know you don’t do the Work for fame, money, or bragging rights.
You do it for the mission
You do it because it changed your life
You share this Work for a healthier, happier, and kinder world
There are more people who need what you are sharing—and the world needs your insight.
This letter is an invitation, yes, and it’s also a rallying cry.
If you’re a healer, helper, or change-maker and you AREN’T on fire about lighting up (more of) the world with your gifts…maybe there’s a good reason.
But if that reason is that you don’t know where to begin…
Let’s start together, right now.
In your 1-to-1 services, you provide a safe container for clients to facilitate their own transformation. Your clients come to you with frustrations, pain, suffering, and problems…and your valuable work provides a solution.
There are so many “problems” your work solves.
Think of a few right now. Then:
Pick one and dig deep, and..
Think of the people who need that problem solved …right now.
What do they need to get that problem solved?
How can you provide a solution in the most effective, time-sensitive way—that isn’t 1-to-1?
People have pain that you know how to reduce, symptoms your support helps them in resolving or mental barriers your techniques breakthrough.
You can only reach so many as a 1x1 service provider because your time and energy are finite.
What if…
You create a resource, a guidebook, a mini-class, a workshop, an on-demand training they can access focused on that specific issue?
You don’t have to deliver a massive group course, create a clunky membership site, or become internet-famous to expand your work in a mindful way.
What if…
You deliver a single, targeted solution in a way that feels aligned with your goals and your values: that specific people will benefit from again and again.
a mini-book
an on-demand guide
a curated course
a private podcast
a signature talk
a protocol
a series class
a Retreatshop
Expanding a small portion of your work to a wider audience allows more people to benefit from your gifts while allowing you to honor your commitment to equity, inclusion, and access.
What, then?
Need more ideas? Join us in the Kula for my full idea brain dump today plus a special invitation to a new way to work with me (hint: DIY is soooo last year. DIT is where it’s at!).
Kula Conversations // WHY IT'S TIME TO CREATE YOUR COURSE ALREADY! The ins and outs of course creation, Kula Conversation-style, today at 1 pm Eastern (10 am Pacific).
You'll learn ...
Where to begin (it isn't where you'd expect)
How to structure for maximum results (and client rave reviews)
Why you want to do it now (and your first action to take!)
See y’all there!
xo,
Kellie Adkins, MS, C-IAYT
Business Alignment Coach + Yoga Therapist
Founder | the Wisdom Method
Offer Real Solutions for More Clients in your Coaching, Healing, or Helping Practice
Offer Real solutions for more clients in your coaching, healing, or helping practice
For more clients in your coaching, healing or helping practice, speak directly to the problems your services solve.
Framing your offers, packages, programs, and services, as solutions to specific problems your ideal clients have allows them to identify your offers as the right fit (or not) for them.
Ethical client attraction strategies such as these allow you as the transformational service provider to remain in your strengths zone—and most importantly, to avoid marketing tactics that make you feel sleazy.
Are you clear on the solutions your valuable coaching ,healing or helping services provide your ideal client?
This clarity starts with understanding the precise solutions each of your offers provide—and the particular problems they address.
Who has these problems?
How do you solve them differently, better than, faster than, or more uniquely than your competitors?
When you know who you’d like to work with, and you know how your services (or products) stand out in the marketplace, you’re ready to develop your solution-based marketing messaging.
How do you frame your services as an ideal solution?
Start by asking how do your skills, services, and products naturally address those needs and wants? How does what you do and how you do it become a solution to a problem that your Ideal Client already has?
Provide a transformation experience
Know where your ideal clients are before they work with you…and where they will be after your work together. Then frame your services in terms of that transformation.
Tell them the story of how your offerings fill an important and specific need in their lives.
Show them who they’ll be after they’ve worked with you.
Then the act of “selling” simply becomes connecting the dots between what your ideal clients need and what you offer: in an ethical way.
When you focus on value, address a key problem, and demonstrate that you are the person to provide that solution, then it’s merely a matter of figuring out details.
Know What It Takes
Be wary of making unsupported claims or offering specific outcomes when a range of results is possible. Doing so will help you remain in integrity, AND avoid disappointing your customers.
Compose client invitation letters and sales letters ensure you are clear and concise about expected results should they choose to work with you.
A huge part of avoiding the over-promise/under-deliver trap? Understanding what goes into creating a certain outcome.
Don’t create or offer a service that will drain, tax, or overwhelm you … even if you know it’s exactly what certain clients need. Different clients will have other problems that you can solve more easily and elegantly.
Say you’re a yoga instructor who wants to busy professionals who can’t make time for open classes. Offering in-home or in-office one-on-one yoga is one solution BUT be creating that service will mean more intensive scheduling, more commute time, and more intense focus on one client at a time instead of a room full of paying students. If that isn’t your strenght, it isn’t worth it.
Stay in your strengths zone
There are loads of ways to solve your ideal client’s problem.
What’s the best way? The way you do it best!
If you don’t LOVE group coaching / e-courses / live trainings [ insert any “normal” way to provide your transformative work ] then don’t do it.
Break out of the box and provide a solution that suits your strengths.
If group programs drain you, skip it and offer on-demand training instead.
Being an innovator is a strength! Lean in.
If everyone in your industry is offering Retreats but the thought of leading one gives you hives….forget it!
Find a way to do business your way.
That’s the only way it’ll be sustainable long term.
When you find that sweet spot where your gifts and your clients’ unsolved problems overlap, you’ll be amazed by how synchronous your business life will become.
Business as Problem-Solving
How Do You Serve Your Clients?
Have you exchanged your hard-earned cash for services or products within the past week? I’m guessing you have. Consuming is a near-daily activity for many of us, and we consume everything from yoga classes to smoothies and Uber rides to school supplies. Much of the spending we do is moderately mindless, but if we force ourselves to stop and think a moment we can typically divide our purchases into “needs” and “wants”: I need to buy composition books and number two pencils or my kid will start the new school year empty-handed. I want a smoothie because it’s 487 degrees outside and I think my brain is slowly liquefying.
But as an entrepreneur, focusing on needs and wants won’t get you nearly as far with potential customers as focusing on problem-solving.
Every successful business solves a problem for a specific type of person, and consumers are drawn to services they believe will make their lives easier or better. And when you conceptualize business as problem-solving it allows you re-frame the idea of selling your services. If you solve problems for people, telling them about your problem-solving prowess is a service. You’re not selling, you’re helping!
But before you can help, you need to identify the problem YOU solve as a service provider.
What’s YOUR Problem?
Naturally, you don’t want to lean on the idea of your customer or client as a hot mess of problems that need immediate service-based triage. But you do need to determine:
Who your Ideal Client IS
Which problems they most long to solve
And how you can solve them in unique, efficient, or innovative ways
Need help finding your dream customer? Start right here. Not sure how to connect with them?I’ve got loads of tips for you! (no opt in required).
Wondering about those key problems that need solving? Let’s dig into that together. Ask yourself:
What do your Ideal Clients need and want? All humans want to be happier, healthier, wealthier, and wiser. But what else does your perfect-fit client want? Think of core desired feelings, wishes, and dreams. Muse on lifestyle choices, career goals, and favorite hang-outs. What are they searching on TikTok? Asking Google (or WebMD) about?
What general problems plague them? (Examples: Fatigue, joint pain, lack of focus.) What specific problems plague them? (Examples: Too tired to socialize, too sore to play with their grandchildren, too distracted during important meetings.) Sussing out the general problems will get you close but don’t stop there! What’s behind the surface problem? What do you know about that problem that they don’t (yet) know?
What problems are your clients facing that they’re motivated to solve?
That last one’s a doozy, but key. Because there’s a HUGE rift between problems people are willing to ignore and problems so important/far-reaching/onerous that they merit the investment of resources.
Problems Worth Solving
What’s that you say? Won’t your uber-enlightened, extra-savvy Ideal Clients be keen to solve ALL of their problems… especially if you find creative ways to point them out? Heck no.
Let’s rank ‘em:
Problems your Ideal Client doesn’t see: We’ve all got a few of these, and I’m not just talking about tartar on your teeth. (Totally invisible, yet takes FOREVER for the hygenist to scrape off. Ick!) Your Ideal Clients may be aware of a surface problem but fail to see the underlying issue. Alternatively, they may not see any problems at all. Nudging customers to solve these problems can backfire.
Here’s an example: Dove came out with a women’s deodorant a few years back that was meant to combat “unsightly underarms.” Most women, myself included, had never given a thought to how repellent our underarms were. This product purported to solve a problem I didn’t know I had. Did I buy it? Nope. Just kinda hated Dove for making me self-conscious about my pits.
Problems the customer is aware of, but ignoring: In these cases you’ll be battling an Ideal Client’s tendency toward inertia or inaction. This type of problem is often one that feels too large or risky to attempt resolving. People feel frozen and unable to change or address the situation so they stick their heads in the sand, avoid taking action, or launch into non-strategic action without intention.
An issue that a customer is actively ignoring is not one that you can help solve.
Problems the customer is aware of and is attempting to manage: Keyword: “Attempting.” In these cases, customers think they can take the same action over and over, but achieve different results. They’re unwilling to admit that the way they’ve been doing it isn’t working. Think physical therapy that fails to keep pain at bay. Or turning up the car radio to drown out a busted muffler.
In these cases, too, the customer needs to choose change.
Problems the customer is aware of and is actively seeking to solve: THESE are the issues you want to understand and solve on behalf of your clients. This type of problem has the customer motivated to invest resources (time, energy, money) into lasting solutions. And if you can be part of that solution, it can result in massive traction for your business.
Identifying these higher-order problems for the specific clients you serve, and solving them with excellent service and quality products will help you carve out a powerful niche for yourself.
Create the BEST value package - follow these simple steps!
Regardless of how long you’ve worked in the healing and helping arts, at some point, you will hit a wall.
The kind of wall that slams you in the face when you realize you’ve got yourself in a bit of a pickle and can’t earn any more money as you are fully booked doing one-on-one sessions. You have maxed out your work hours and against your better judgment have started booking clients into family time. No more time to trade for dollars!
If this is you then – congratulations!
Why you may ask? Well for one thing it shows me that you are in hot demand because your magic is being recognized by your tribe AND you are absolutely ready to start offering you’re A Grade clients an upgrade.
A chance for these particular clients to have an even better and more valuable experience with you —in a premium, package offering.
It is absolutely EXCITING to create a package that is filled to the brim with value for this perfect-fit client AND that allows you to leverage your time, energy and experience in new ways.
So why wait until you’re choking on the energy of your client’s needs?
Why not begin now by structuring your business to include a natural next step for the client ready to for more growth, healing and transformation?
When you consider the value you are able to deliver to a particular client —one who is ready for big change, big goals, or deep healing — crafting a sure-to-amaze package they can easily say yes to becomes a joy. Because exchanging their investment for a set of values and results (rather than the time you spend with them) is a win-win for both of you.
To begin, ask: what can I bring into my client’s world that will help them on their journey (that doesn’t necessarily equate to hand-holding, time-for-dollars energy exchange)?
From eCourses, Books, Podcasts, Community Access, digital programs, and collaborative offers from sister businesses and more – there are many ways you can build value into your package (and with each additional feature increases their investment) that doesn’t take you any more time or energy to deliver. In fact, more often than not it actually forces you to create a better product that defines you in the market, sets you apart from similar service providers and supports your clients who like to learn in different ways.
What if we take it up a notch?
Think about the actual time you spend with each client one on one that take up a package – it might only be an hour a week, BUT what if you could leverage that time and support 4 clients during the hour in a focused group experience? You could spend that time answering common questions, offering group guidance and delivering valuable wisdom to benefit the group.
The beauty of an offer like this is that it only takes one hour of your own personal time to support 4 (or more) amazing clients. It’s also a smart way of boosting your income and your impact while still staying true to your own values of transforming your client’s lives.
Now before I lose you completely, let me assure you that one-to-one support is always a great idea! In fact, it’s one of the most effective ways to expand your influence and your income when you’re first starting out or when you are in the growth phase —especially if you focus on results-oriented individual packages that provide a high level of support. You and I both know that most people get the most results and traction when they have you guiding them personally. However, that premium one-to-one offer should be your most valuable product with a corresponding investment. It takes the most energy from you so should have the biggest monetary energy exchange.
Regardless of where you are in your journey, are you ready to give more, earn more, working less hours so you can concentrate on creating more magic?
xx
Kellie