No matter what stage you’re at in your health coaching business, you have to build an email list. When you have an amazing new offer or want to promote a new freebie, the best way to get in front of your ideal client and get them to invest in their health is through their inbox.
In today’s episode, Michelle and I are giving a mini training on how to build your email list using a workshop or a freebie opt-in. We’re covering a lot of topics, including the different email platform options (and how to choose the right one for you), tips for personalizing your opt-in page, what to include on your thank you page, the difference between organic and paid promotion, and why nurturing your audience helps build that know, like, and trust factor. Plus, Michelle is giving her best advice on weaving your story into your freebie, workshop, or email sequence.
Connect with Michelle:
Michelle’s website: https://michelleellisco.showit.site/#/
Michelle’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theorganiccopywriter/
Rachel: Hey guys, it’s Rachel here. I asked my good friend, Michelle, to join me, because we want to talk about list building. If you are in any stage of your business, this is an important topic because you have to build that list. Why? Because you want to get your ideal client on your list. So when you do have a promotion or your offerings, your programs, you can be able to email them. In a world where list building, whether it’s organic or paid, we’re going to cover both. So stay tuned, because we are deep diving into how to build your list with a workshop or a free day. So Michelle, can you tell everyone a little about you?
Michelle: Yeah, so I started out as a health coach. I always say eight years, I think it’s closer to nine now. I started out as a health coach who morphed into virtual assistant work, realized I was doing a lot of copywriting and then ended up working as a copywriter. Fom there working with a lot of coaches, whether they were health or life or spiritual, all usually holistic based coming from that circle of life. That’s where I’m at today, just still doing the same thing.
What Copywriting Is
Rachel: Can you tell everyone actually, there may be some new coaches who don’t know what copywriting is. What is copywriting?
Michelle: Yeah, it’s funny, because I’ve had people write in to me before that think copywriting is when you open up a book, and there’s a copyright there with the year. But it’s not that.
Copywriting is really the sales writing and all the things that you see online. Let’s say if you go to opt into a list builder or a workshop, it’s the words that drive people to an action –usually opting in or buying something. So it’s your sales pages, it’s your emails, it’s ad copy. A lot of it is sales driven. Sometimes there are more storytelling, and nurturing things involved, but it’s all the writing and the words that you see online.
Rachel: So we’re lucky to have you here. Every coach is probably like, oh, wow, my about me story, my website, my opt-in freebie that has my little story in there. So let’s just dive into this little mini training today. For those of you who are brand new, this is going to be really helpful. For those of you who are already in your business, it’s always good to refresh your memory on how to list filled with a workshop or a freebie.
How To Start Building Your Email List
Michelle: So today we’re gonna cover personalizing freebies or workshops which are great to great list building tools, and then putting the list builder into motion. So what exactly do you need to take it to get it into the hands of the people that you want? The pages, the automation, all of that’s involved, and then how to promote it so that you get more people to sign up and build your list. Even if you don’t have a list. even if you’ve never done it before, these steps are super easy to implement. You can grow your list really fast if you just do the things that we suggest here.
So to start with personalizing your freebie or workshop. So this can go one of two ways. Either you have your own right, or maybe you’ve even have some done for you freebies or workshops for health coaches from Rachel. Or maybe you’re creating it yourself. So what you need to do is make sure that you are not spending a lot of time investing or wasting a lot of time in Canva creating covers for hours.
Rachel: It’s one of the reasons we have the done-for-you programs. When you buy a DFY program, rename it, even if you have your own content that you are writing, make sure your name is going to attract your ideal client. Add your logo brand add, add your story. I mean, can we talk a little about adding a story and a freebie or a workshop?
How To Weave Your Story Into A Freebie Or Workshop
Michell: So always taking it and really adding in and infusing more about you and how you became a health coach. Why it’s so important that you’re a health coach and what your mission is.
If you can put that in a nutshell inside of your freebie and your workshop and deliver it but also explain who you are, it really builds that trust factor. People can really relate to it and you become a trustworthy person. They feel like they know you. When we watched reality TV or a soap opera or whatever, we feel like we know the characters. You start weighing about their life, whether they’re real or not. It’s the same thing when it comes to telling your story online or in your marketing materials because that’s how people get to know you. So then they’ll start remembering you for certain things.
It’s also cool to add some fun facts so you’re not just talking about this bad thing that happened to you. Now I’m at this great place that’s good to have, but at the same time, add some quick, fun facts. What’s your favorite drink? Do you have a favorite smoothie? What’s that one healthy snack you can’t live without? What do you like to do in your free time? Allow someone to get to know your personality.
When you’re doing a workshop, think of having a slide in there that has bullet points on some key points about you. You can even introduce yourself when you’re doing a workshop where you stop at that one slide and then give this introduction for about a minute. You can also if you have live people on that workshop that you’re doing. You can always ask people where they’re coming from, ask people how they found you get some people to interact, and stay on that slide.
Some people like to have a few slides where they show their family, or they show a little of their behind-the-scenes so that person does get to know you. That’s the whole point about having your story there. That’s the best part. Because you want to really get to know somebody, and then they might even see some commonalities. Oh, I feel that way, or I believe that thing or I love that too. So it really makes you relatable.
Adding Key Pain Points & Key Phrases Into Your Workshop Or Freebie
Also add in some key pain points for your niche. For example, if you have a done for you freebie or workshop, and you go to rename it, think about your niche. If you’re into Hormonal Health, or you’re into weight loss you would want to add a little tagline. Let’s say you have a workshop on sleep and then you can add a tagline, the five steps to better sleep to improve your Hormonal Health. Just adding that little key phrase would really just help to pair it together well with your niche.
So always keep that in mind keeping that the pain that your ideal client is going through and how you can really relate that to them, so that they can feel like, okay, this person knows what they’re talking about, and they can really help me. I’m going to follow them.
Rachel: Think of it like this, our ideal client identifies with their pain. So when we put those pain points in there, or we’re talking about them in a workshop, or we’re adding them as a tagline, that’s going to pull her in and make her say, Wow, this is something I’m dealing with. All of a sudden, you have her attention.
Michelle: The attention is what you want. If you do these five things and don’t spend a ton of time on this because to Rachel’s point before with your website copy and your story, sometimes you already have what you need. Take it and repurpose it. If you have your about page up n, it’s a great point, put some of it into your freebie. You don’t have to recreate the whole entire wheel or rewrite a whole nother version of the same thing.
How To Set Up & Write Your Opt In Page
Rachel: Yeah, that’ll be super helpful to eliminate any time wasting or nonproductive activity. Then you’re gonna come up to this point where it’s like, okay, well, now I got it together. Now you need to have an opt in page, thank you page and follow up email series. And that’s where that copywriting comes in. And the follow up email series.
Michelle: Even on the opt in page, sometimes you might be using a platform that calls them landing pages. Depending on which platform that you’re actually using they call it different things. For example, if it’s a workshop, it’s a registration page, if it’s a free gift, they might call it something different. Either way, it’s an opt-in page they’re opting in. So it doesn’t really matter what verbiage they use. If you go to use a different platform, you may notice it might be called something different, it’s the same thing.
With that funnel, basically it’s an opt-in funnel. You have to have the thank you page. Some of them have automated thank you pages that populate right off the bat but you want to take that and personalize it a little bit and add what are their next steps.
Rachel: When you think of an opt in and you think of a funnel. It’s like dating a person. When they opt in for the first time well, the first time that they’re seeing you is probably social media. They’re going to that opt in page, then the thank you page is another time that you’re communicating with this person, leading them into this follow up series, which is going to talk about the freebie talk about your transformation that you offer, talk about your story, and really bring them into your world. So that they can not only get to know you, but they can go through the path of following up on that opt in freebie to that paid offer.
Michelle: Here’s an example of an opt-in page. So let’s say you want to offer 50 recipes or X amount of recipes. The headline right there, you want the hook to be very clear this is what they’re going to get. The cool thing about this is a really small one. So this is super easy copy for you. Even if you are not gifted with words or anything like that.
Different Ways To Word Your Opt-In Page
Rachel: Also, just to mention, if you do have any of the done for you freebies, they usually come with opt-in pages, so you wouldn’t have to create or recreate this. It says free healthy recipe ebook, then it’s got this fabulous little image where it says 50 delicious, healthy recipes everyone loves. Then under that says join over 150,000 readers and get my 50 healthy recipe collection with info below and get your copy right now. It’s very simple. You don’t have to put the number of people on your list. But you can say, Join my reading list and get 50 healthy recipe collection or enter your email below and get your copy now. Then it has first name and your email and it says Yes, send it.
Michelle: Let’s say you have a Facebook group, a lot of health coaches have a free Facebook group, and maybe you’re having them opt in, and then you’re still going to invite them to your Facebook group. So let’s say you don’t have a list yet, but maybe you’ve been building a Facebook group, you can even say, join. You don’t even have to put a number but join my community of like minded whatever your ideal client is –women lose weight or something like that. Just let them know that they’re going to be one of a community. A free group.
So that’s great to have. Then other times, if you ever see other opt-in pages that are a little bit more expanded than this, there’s usually the headline, there’s a picture on the left, let’s say, and then there’s a peak at the inside of this free healthy recipe cookbook. Then there’s three to five bullet points underneath there that you can also add to any opt-in page, it’s not necessary.
Why Highlighting Keywords & Benefits Is Useful On Your Opt-In Page
Sometimes shorter opt-in pages actually have better conversions. But if you want to just highlight what’s inside a little bit, you can add those bullet points in some in a case. Maybe you want to hit on time-saving recipes and mention 50 delicious recipes.
You might want to get more specific. How many smoothies are they getting? How many breakfast or lunch or dinner or something like that, just so they know what they’re getting. Maybe there’s even some quick tips to cook really fast and batch cook or something. Mauve you highlight gluten free options, highlight something that’s a keyword that everyone knows and a lot of people know going gluten free is beneficial for the gut. Going gluten free is beneficial for overall health and in decreasing inflammation. So you may want to highlight some keywords that the recipe has.
Speaking to those benefits like decreasing inflammation and always having that in there. For example, X amount of breakfast recipes to help you get enough energy to start your day without caffeine or always just having some type of benefit there for them.
So you’re featuring what they’re getting and then you’re also letting them know how that is going to benefit them. And that’s typically the guts honestly of an opt in page so they click it. You always want to make sure that you have a nice bright button for them to click. You can change that button copy so it doesn’t always have to just say sign up now, or register, or send it, or I want in, I want the ebook, help me cook better. Just make it a clear call to action. Because remember, our ideal client is so busy in life. We want to grab their attention right away and give them a call to action.
Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. And also, if you’re it’s not enough Sorry, but if you’re using any type of platform, you might want to also grab their phone numbers. So maybe it’s first name, their email and their phone number. So that’s an option too. Typically, it’s first name and email unless you have a texting type of service or add on which you might. So just make sure that you’re collecting that at the front end of the funnel and not trying to collect it later on, because you want to grab all the information at once in the beginning.
Rachel: And then you might be wondering where you can host your opt in page. So definitely a question we get constantly.
Which Email and Opt-In Platform Are Out There & How To Choose Yours
Michelle: What platform is the best? Before we even get into these platforms, because they’re really good ones, go with the one that makes the most sense for you. The platform has to work for you and you have to know how to work that platform. There are a lot of email providers that already have opt-in pages. So keep it simple, don’t make it fancy. If you’re looking for a more advanced platform, we’re going to cover them today. But we’re also going to cover the ones that are really simple to use.
Always consider two things: price is important. It’s always good to invest in your business, but you don’t want to collect a lot of overhead if you’re not making enough yet. If you’re just starting out, we’d never suggest paying $300 a month for a software. Gets clients first before you reinvest in your business because there are other options that you can have.
MailChimp for 10 bucks on average a month you’d be able to have the same features. So always look at the types of features that you want. There is no right or wrong. It really depends on the functions you choose. So what do you need, maybe you do need a membership platform. So you might be wanting to go with something like Kajabi, which is an all-in-one or Ontraport.
Or maybe you don’t have that yet or you don’t need that. You just need to send emails. So I’m gonna go with flodesk, and I want them to be really pretty. So that’s an option too. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just make sure that you’re getting what you need for your business, and that the functions are there and that the price is within your budget. Because there are always other expenses when you run your business. You want to make sure that you’re running within your budget.
Also, a lot of times too, you can save money if you sign up for the year. I always say test drive it first to make sure that you really want to keep it for a year. Sometimes they’ll give you two months free or something like that if you get the whole year.
But the more simple ones are MailChimp, Flodesk, and Active Campaign, which is actually really robust. So even though it’s one of the more affordable, user-friendly platforms, it’s very robust in its tracking and the link clicking capability and tagging and things like that. So it’s definitely something to look at. ConvertKit is really great, I still use that one.
Rachel: I think ConvertKit is pretty robust as well. It can grow and the nice thing is that you’re paying based on the amount of people you have in so if you’re starting out it’s a great one to look at. Another one I would add is MailerLite.
Michelle: There are a lot of different ones. Even with ConvertKit for example, they’re adding features like products they’ve added on that work with Stripe. So they’re always looking for ways to be innovative and to step up their own game with what’s out there.
There are a lot of different options so if it’s not mentioned today doesn’t mean that we don’t think that it’s a good one it just means that there are so many that we’re only covering the popular ones that we know of.
Platforms That Can Host Memberships Or Courses
Rachel: Click Funnels is where you get into the more expensive because they also have more features analytics and tracking.
Michelle: Also a lot of times these platforms might host your memberships or courses that you’re creating. Kajabi, Click Funnels, LeadPages has different versions so you can come in and you can just do lead pages, you can add the email service and then they have all these different types of upgrades. Entre pages is just the pages for the opt in page but there’s also Ontraport when you get all the full features. Insta pages is another one.
There are so many other ones out there that you just have to test them. A lot of them have free trials, don’t waste time testing them. Just pick what you find yourself to be easy to go in there. Put it up really quick, make some edits and just send out your weekly email or send out and set everything up. Don’t just go with something because everybody else is using it. If it’s gonna take you like 20 hours, don’t do it.
Rachel: You should be able to use that platform with ease. One of the biggest struggles I see with coaches is the tech part. So you really want to look at platforms that are going to be easy for you to use. A lot of times, we don’t estimate needing to hire a virtual assistant.
If you find that tech is a real deficiency for you think about hiring somebody. Think about adding that expense, because trust me, the six hours that it takes for you to figure out something, it might be better to hire somebody and have them teach you if possible.
What To Include On Your Thank You Page
Michelle: Yeah, definitely. Always make sure that you can go in there and do what you need to do. So now you have your opt in page the thank you page, and then what’s after that? It’s the follow up sequence. So they’ll go through the processes, they opt in, they go to a thank you page, which is where you deliver the gift, you might add your group link there for them and also maybe some of your social media platforms. We’re friends now follow me on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, whatever you use. If you have a Facebook group, have them join.
On the thank you page, it’s also really important to tell them to check their email, and to maybe even add your email to their contact list. So that’s been a safe list, your email address, and make sure that, that you’re not ending up in their junk or their spam.
You might want to mention that on the thank you page as well here are the next steps. Number one, check your email. Number two, follow me on social. You can list it out like that. Then you want to send them a confirmation, which is a delivery email where you deliver the gift. Even if it’s on the thank you page, you want to send it to their email, because a lot of times people who are opting in or on their phone so they don’t have the capability to download the PDF and save it on their phone. They want to access it on their computer. Make sure that you’re sending it to their email as well.
And then welcome them to your list. Welcome to my community, I’m so excited that you’ve opted in for whatever the free gift is. Here’s how I can help you. And here’s what I want you to do next. Make sure you join the Facebook group, I’m looking forward to getting to know you. Feel free to reply to this email, introduce yourself or click here to post it in a group or something like that.
How To Make Sure You Don’t End Up In Spam Folders
Rachell: Yeah, telling them again, what are the steps that they can take to join the group, add my email to your list. Ensure that they get your emails moving forward.
Michelle: Yeah, that’s a really big important one. Especially if you have a double opt in confirmation. So a lot of these forms, you can bypass that sometimes. But there are spam acts and things like that. They might even have to confirm via email before they even get that welcome confirmation. So that’s really just to avoid spam. A lot of email service providers do that.
Make sure that you’re telling them on that thank you page to check their email and confirm because that’s really important. Otherwise, it doesn’t complete the process of going to your being on your list. And you want to just don’t stop there.
Following Up With A Nurture Sequence
Have a nurture sequence, have some emails that flow out to them every two or three days, where you’re checking in with them on how it’s going. It can be automated depending on what your freebie is.
You might even want to add some videos in that nurture sequence. You can send them to some of your top blogs on your website. You can introduce yourself, you can share some clients success stories, you can share your own story. You just want to nurture them, give them some more tips and just keep nurturing them. It’s exactly what it is.
So think of it as you’re nurturing the relationship, it just doesn’t stop there. Like dating. Let’s say you exchanged numbers with somebody, and then never hear from them again. That wouldn’t be a good thing. When somebody is continually reaching out and they’re continually communicating with you, that’s when you build the relationship up. Then and then all of a sudden you might want to invite them in. P.S. Book a call for a discovery session or reply to the email if they’re really experiencing something.
How Many Emails To Include In Your Nurture Sequence
What problems are that you specialize in? So definitely continuing that in the nurture sequence. A lot of times health coaches will be like, Well, how many emails do I need? It also depends. I would say a minimum of three, and that’s on the bare minimum, side. Five is usually average for a nurture sequence. You can even go beyond that, depending on how long you want to nurture them, and also looking at your offers.
So for example, if you’re a health coach who has a six month coaching program and you don’t have anything smaller than that, you’d want to nurture them for a lot longer. Then it’s a higher ticket, higher touch, and they have to get to know you to actually buy from you.
If you have awesome programs, like detoxes or clean eating programs, or you’re running 30-day clean eating groups or anything like that, then your nurture could be shorter. You can start inviting them to your offer. So it also depends. But there’s no right or wrong.
I would say, the only wrong thing you could do is not nurture them. So as long as you have some emails there, that’s fine. As long as it’s at least three. You want to continually add them to your main list so that after they complete the nurture sequence, they start getting your emails all the time.
So you should be sending weekly newsletters out. I know it might be hard if you’re doing this on the side, and you’re building it, so maybe it’s every other week, or maybe you’re more consistent in that and you’re like twice a week. So that’s good. Whatever you can do, just make sure that you add them to your main list so that you can make it consistent.
Rachel: The biggest thing about list building is you might have a coach that’s really good at list building and can keep on a list, but they’re not consistent with our emails. And then they wonder why people don’t buy when they’re selling their programs and their offers. So really be consistent in that follow up, be consistent in the newsletters that go out. So that you can ensure that somebody actually knows what you do and knows the benefits are your programs.
The Difference Between A Nurture & Indoctrination Sequence
Michelle: For example, a nurture sequence and an indoctrination sequence, sometimes the difference between these two is indoctrination is like an evergreen sequence that you can pretty much attach to any one of your freebies or any of your list builders. It introduces who you are, it goes through your story, it shares clients’ success stories, it’s this whole in-depth process in a series of emails, that really just builds that relationship very quickly.
Whereas nurture sequences, they’re more giving content. A lot of times those nurture sequences are aligned with the freebie that they’ve signed up for. Whereas an indoctrination sequence is more evergreen. You would attach it to any single freebie that you have.
Rachel: So if somebody has multiple opt-in freebies, Michelle, they could, in essence, have all of those different opt-in freebies linked to this indoctrination series?
Michelle: Yeah, and this is where you always want to make sure you have a decent, robust platform, because what you want to make sure is that if somebody is signing up for more than one freebie that they don’t continually get that same series. Because at that point, they would already be indoctrinated, they would already be on your mailing list.
How To Set Up Your Sequences When You Have More Than One Freebie
So how you can set it up, if you have more than one freebie is you can add an automation where they’re signing up and they’re getting and freebie and you tag them and then they’re getting the indoctrination sequence. But you can add a filter, and on that filter, you can say, if they’ve completed this series, then they get excluded, add them. So and then they just go right over to the main list. Or they stay on the main list because chances are they’re on the main list.
So that’s an option. Either way they would get the confirmation email and maybe some other nurture emails that pertain to that specific freebie.
Rachel: I know one of the reasons we created the indoctrination series, I think we have like five different niches are, I always had nurture sequences, and it got to the point where it’s like I wanted an indoctrination series that really that would be evergreen, and that would allow somebody to go through an indoctrination series. It’s 10 emails, but to go through all of that content, extra tips, extra gifts, leading to blogs leading into my Facebook community. So that person really got to know what we do what we offer, who we serve, and how we can help them.
Why Automations Safe You Time & Energy
Michelle: That’s a really great relationship builder, for sure. Because if you think about it, you’re posting on social, you have probably a decent following. People are opting in all the time. You don’t want to be in that position –and nobody can really do that– where you’re constantly having these personal conversations of, hey, this is what I do. This is what I specialize in. Here’s where you can find more information on this. That would be really hard.
So it’s great to automate this process because you want to just be health coaching. You want the leads to come in, you want them to be naturally nurtured and automated. This way, you’re just getting Discovery sessions booked in, you’re assigning clients. That’s really the ideal way. Or you’re getting them into your group program. So you don’t want to have to be doing this repeatedly in different ways for people asking. So that’s the one thing to consider.
Promoting Your Opt In Through Grassroot and Organic Promotion
Rachel: Then you might be thinking, Well, how do I promote this? How do I get people to my opt-in freebie? You need to set up your opt-in freebie. How to personalize, how to set it up where the opt in pages thank you pages, your choice between nurture and indoctrination series.
Now we want to talk about grassroot and organic promotion. I know this is all I did in the beginning of coaching. I graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition back in 2010. I had no idea how to do automation and I didn’t have the money for paid ads. So all I did was grassroot and organic promotion.
Michelle: Honestly, I was very similar. I didn’t understand how Facebook ads actually worked at the beginning of putting out list builders and stuff. So it was not something I was keen to do. I was like, oh, yeah let me just try to promote it. I had people who were already liking the things that I was sharing, and they were commenting. So it was more about, okay, well, how can I change that? How can we can exchange information here? I can get them to opt into something.
So there are so many different ways where you can do this. So you can tap into other networks and other lists. That might mean doing a guest blog, doing a guest newsletter. Think about making a column, make a list, have a column of different people that you want to reach out to. All these places are looking for people to do newsletters to do guest blogs. Your call to action can be to sign up for this gift. So that’s a great way to tap into other networks.
You can also do a podcast pitch, and you can even have freebies specifically for each of your podcast talks. So when you’re pitching, say, I’m going to be able to give your audience this specific gift based on this talk.
Rachel: And that’s such a win win.
Michelle: Then there are summits and those are list shares. Let’s say you have 20 people in the summit. Part of the qualification to that is you each have to send out an email to your list. So that’s a really great way because now you’re just you’re plugged into 19 other lists. Here’s a gift and when somebody signs up for the list, you can actually give them a gift so that that gift shows up.
Rachel: What I want to say about summit and podcast, if you’re scared to do video, it’s really great. All of the summits that I got on people found me on YouTube. So people were like, I went to YouTube, I saw that you had videos, I would really love you to come and talk on detox or talk about family health. All the things that I was known for, food allergies. So think about those different places that you’re visible and make sure that you’re visible in places that have video.
Michelle: Yeah, definitely. You can host workshops for other audiences, whether it’s in person or whether it’s online. You can host a workshop in the local health food store or the local yoga place or maybe online like an online group or Eventbrite. You can also show the event as public so that would show up, especially if it’s local.
Promoting On Social Media
Also, if it’s online, Facebook events, inviting people using existing Facebook groups outside of your network. If your ideal clients are hanging out, let’s say they’re moms, and they’re in all these different mom groups, a lot of the times, you can just go in there and self promote. Always look at the rules. A lot of times they allow people to hare any free resources that they have on certain promotion or resource posts. Maybe it’s once a week, but it’s still an opportunity. So definitely look at those.
And then of course, what would be ideal is to create your social media posts. If you can create 30 days of social media, that gives you plenty of online posts to link your freebie to link your workshop.
You can also do a LinkedIn blog. Have a great headline and then say LinkedIn blog or freebie and blog and have something that goes to your blog. You can have something that promotes the freebie. You can do it behind the scenes of a freebie. The benefits of a freebie. You could do this on reels, you could do this on static social media images, so many different ways to promote on social media.
Rachel: There are LinkedIn articles, Pinterest pinning, YouTube videos, Tik Tok. Get familiar with Reels and Stories on Facebook and Instagram. Utilize your online social media channels. The more that people can see what you’re doing and what you have available to them, the more people will opt in. It might take some time, but keep doing it. The more consistent that you are, you’ll see your list grow, that’s most important.
What Different Paid Promotion Options Can Look Like
And of course, there’s always paid promotion. But the difference with paid promotion is obviously the money side of it. How much you’re willing to put in. It can be costly in the beginning, especially if you don’t have any clients yet, or you don’t have enough income yet to start reinvesting in your business. So you want to just do that carefully.
If you start out with an ad, on Instagram, a lot of times they’ll say, Hey, do you want to boost this right? You can budget $30 over 10 days, or however you set the period of time. It’s the same exact post that you created, but you’re boosting it. So there’s always a difference. With boosting, you can still target though when you boost.
And then of course, you go on you run specific ads. So it’s something to consider. And it’s not just on social. It’s not just Facebook, Instagram, Google YouTube. You can also do paid promotion inside of local newspapers, magazines, online and offline resources.
Even local magazines sometimes you can have a four by six where you’re offering a free consultation, almost like a doctor would. This is who you are, this is what you specialize in. Book your free consultation. I’ve seen that actually, especially even local here. So you can have photo ads, video ads, with just words. You just want to make sure that you’re focusing on the problems of your ideal client, and that you’re providing a solution and also share the difference in your solution. Holistic, natural, that’s what health coaches are all about. Definitely having that in any of your paid promotion. But overall, just be patient and stay the course because you will see results from promoting, it just might take some time.
Michelle: So think of it as organic is more of that long play. It’s free, and it’ll build up over time. If you want to get there faster, but it’s going to cost you, that’s where pay promotion comes in. So either one is fine. You can even do a combination.
Rachel: You should do a combination. Because organic is what you’re doing all the time in social media. When you do your paid offer, that’s when you’re paying to reach a different audience.
Michelle: Yeah, a combination is nice. It allows you to invest a little bit of time that you have to spare and also invest a little bit of money that you have, It’s always going to cost money to grow your business. So if you’re going to invest in anything, ads or pay promotions good, but definitely think about where would be best. Don’t just advertise on Facebook if everybody else is. Especially if your audience isn’t on Facebook, they’re on Instagram. So just make sure that you’re picking the platform where your ideal clients are.
Rachel: So to sum it up, we talked about personalizing your opt in freebie or workshop by speaking a story to your ideal client. You’re really educating them. You’re giving tips. You’re sharing your story so that person is wowed and they want to read more.
And then, whether you have a nurture sequence or an indoctrination series, you want to automate that. Trust me, in the beginning of Rachel’s Wellness, I didn’t automate it. I had no idea. Everything was on the thank you page. I did it the complete opposite ass backward, but it was something. But I was so consistent with doing it.
I made sure I had a lot of freebies because I tested with my freebies what my ideal client wanted. Too often, I find that coaches have one freebie, and they’re trying to promote that one freebie, and it’s not working and they don’t pivot. Sometimes you just have to pivot, you might think your ideal client is struggling with this one problem, but your freebie doesn’t solve that problem. Make sure you know what the problems are and that your freebies are problem solvers. Make sure that you promote it and make sure that you follow up so that that ideal client is led down the path to your paid offers in your programs. Michelle, do you have anything you want to say before we wrap this up?
Michelle: Yeah just stay consistent with it and keep going. It’s a process to build your list, but it’s so worth it. Once you have those people on your list, just continue to nurture them and build that relationship, and then it’ll happen.
Rachel: That is so true. So guys, make sure you analyze your opt in freebies and your workshops. Take a look at them and see if they are solving a problem. It’s really discouraging when you put all this effort into promoting something that is not working. So make sure that you write down your ideal client’s problems. Make sure that you look at your opt in freebie or the workshop is a solution. And then put all your effort into promoting whether it’s organic or paid.
Spend time in that follow up. I didn’t do that. But I will tell you since I did a follow-up, my sales have increased and my conversion has increased. So make sure that you look at how you’re following up with people and analyze that as well.
