Scattering seeds to attract followers & clients
Here’s a puzzle for you:
How many times do you think I’ve had to help practitioners understand that learning a modality isn’t enough to generate a living as a practitioner?
The answer is: repeatedly. Your modality is what you offer, but you need to be discovered to be able to offer your good work!
Your modality, your good looks and charming personality are all fabulous, to be sure! But if no one knows who you are, what you do, your philosophy of practice and your thought leadership, your practice may languish rather than thrive.
Here’s two recent examples of things practitioners told me about their business goals and results:
My approach with my clients is very different than other practitioners who have the same credentials and training as me. There are 11 of us practicing in the same city, but I’m the only one who uses this streamlined, efficient approach to the work. My philosophy is on my website, but it doesn’t seem to bring people through the door. What am I doing wrong?
A website is an essential vehicle for generating traffic and client attraction. However, a website is nowhere near enough. If you’ve got something that you’ve taken the time to say on your website, that does not mean it’s been said! There’s more than one way to deliver a message and to attract potential clients to your practice. The key lies in effective, timely, consistent content generation.
My mailing list has very high open rates – 90% of my list opens my emails and 23% of them click through to the post. But my practice isn’t growing very fast. I’ve only welcomed two new clients into my practice in the last 3 months.
Open rates and click rates are excellent data to track. But they need to be contextualized. How many of the names on your mailing list are existing clients? How big is your list?
In this case, the client’s list was less than 100 names, and all but 5 or 6 of the names were friends, family or existing clients. Bottom line: his open and click rates lack relevancy. What’s critical is to expand the practitioner’s outreach so he can effectively, strategically grow his list.
I’m not saying any of this to discourage practitioners from the work. Rather, I’m saying this to invite practitioners to a deeper level of work – to flourishing in your practice through thought leadership and business development work.
Content Strategy
Do you publish content regularly on your website? And then repurpose the content to social media?
A regular publishing cadence does two things for you:
- It gives Google an indication that your website is active and that there is a new reason to crawl for search engine rankings. Early on in my EHI career, a consultant working with me told me that every morning, as soon as my feet hit the floor, I should be thinking about what I was going to do that day to ‘talk to Google’. I’ve never forgotten that lesson.
- Content is a primary way for people to learn about you, align with your philosophy and thought leadership, and ultimately, choose to collaborate with you on their healing and evolution.
If your list is very small, you’re a relatively new practitioner, publishing weekly to your list isn’t necessary. Perhaps every two to three weeks is a reasonable cadence. Publishing to your list won’t grow new readers, but repurposing the content to social media can help grow your list of followers, if the content is meaningful and well written.
Creating a Content Strategy
- Begin with brainstorming topics.
- Consider things that you talk about frequently with your clients.
- What do you notice people talking about, that you can take a position about, relative to your field or type of work?
- What’s your story? How did you arrive to this work?
- What can you share about the types of clients or types of issues that you effectively help resolve or clear?
- What are some hidden tips or suggested practices that will help unpack how your work supports evolution? (No need to give away your best stuff, but sharing simple tips or framing a thought process can help people see your value.)
- What about success stories? Client wins? Testimonials?
- What do you consider to be the most important thing for people considering trying this modality to know?
- Where does your philosophy differ from ‘mainstream’ practitioners in your modality?
For example, I have a series of content I’ve developed over time that demystifies and in some cases, debunks New Agey, woo-ish ideas about energy and how it works.
Those posts and videos get a lot of traction, and serve me in two ways: (1) they generate interactions and appeal to people who prefer a grounded, scientific approach to energy healing, and (2) they clarify my position on the work and help those who prefer a different type of approach to look elsewhere.
You want followers who resonate with your work! It’s not a hunt for names for a list. It’s an attraction strategy for people who like who you are, feel supported by what you think and believe, and are inspired by how you do what you do.
Publish and Repurpose – Leveraging your Content Strategy
Study how other practitioners publish content on their websites. Join the mailing list of 5 or 10 of them. Read their emails whenever they come. Follow them on social media. How do they take their posts and repackage them for social media?
- What are they doing that you like and feel attracted to? (Mimic their approach – not their content! Try some of their language, calls to action, invitations to engage.)
- Are they doing things that repel or turn you off? (Don’t do those things!)
Your Content Strategy establishes you as a thought leader and an expert in your field. It validates you and your work, and it brings people into your field that you might not meet or engage otherwise.
Create your beachhead and grow your practice! You deserve to thrive!
If you don’t have a Content Strategy, create one. Share it with me and I’ll give it a quick review and offer feedback.
