The 5 Keys to Creating a Successful Online Health & Wellness Business

Are you ready to break free from the limitations of traditional 1:1 sessions and revolutionize your health & wellness practice? 

Are you like many of the health and wellness practitioners, coaches, healers, or therapists we speak to every day, and you're craving more time freedom and looking to scale your business online? If so, this is the article for you!

With today's fast-paced digital world, it's never been easier to reach more clients and create your dream online business. And yet so many practitioners become overwhelmed and fall down rabbit holes of "which course platform should I use?" and "do I need a new logo?" or "is Stripe or Square a better rate?" This blog post shows you what you need to be crystal clear on when it comes to creating a successful online business.

As a Virtual Practitioner, the whole world is your oyster. You'll be able to scale your business and reach global clients from anywhere in the world and. You'll have more time to practice what you preach and look after your own health and wellbeing. Plus, you'll be able to create a more sustainable income with recurring revenue streams. Finally, you'll be able to use technology to automate mundane tasks, freeing up even more of your time.

Excited? Let's dive in... here's what is MOST important when it comes to taking your business online:

1. Identify Your Niche and their Big Problem

To create a successful online health and wellness business, it's crucial to carve out a niche so that you become known as the "go-to" practitioner or coach for that particular thing. A niche is the combination of your ideal client, the big problem that they have and your method of solving that problem.

For example, a niche might be "Women with PCOS who struggle with weight gain, acne and facial hair and you have a nutrition program that helps them with this". When you have a clear niche, everything in your business becomes easier - from decisions about what seminars to attend and what supplements to learn about to what sort of marketing content to create. You may have heard the saying, "if you market to everyone, you market to no one"... and this is why choosing a niche is key to online success. By focusing on a specific target audience and addressing their unique pain points, and creating content that speaks to those pain points, you become a magnet to your dream clients.

Begin by conducting market research and identifying the needs and desires of your ideal clients. What symptoms or conditions are they struggling with? What problems do they face daily, that they would pay to have someone help them solve? Once you have a clear understanding of your target market, you can start developing services and packages that offer them the transformation they desire (more on that in a moment!)

2. Build an Audience with Content Marketing

Audience building is something every online wellness entrepreneur needs to focus on - at all stages of business growth. If you don't yet have an email list or social media following full of your perfect fit program clients, audience building is super key before launching your program.
Content marketing is an effective way to build an audience and get potential clients' attention. It involves creating and sharing content that is relevant to your ideal client, so that you build an engaged audience that will be interested in what you have to offer.

Consider creating a variety of content, including long form, searchable content like blog posts, YouTube videos or podcasts to shorter, social media content on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest (or wherever your ideal client hangs out).

When creating content for these platforms, make sure you include content that shows you understand your ideal clients' problems. Don't only share "how to" content. Because when your ideal clients see that you understand their problem and how they are feeling better than they do, they automatically assume that you must have the also need to make sure that you include content that showcases your offers - so that it's clear how your audience can work with you (you're a business, remember.... not just a content creator!)

The idea is that your regular and targeted content creates a consistent presence and builds trust with potential clients. It will also give you the opportunity to show off your expertise. You will establish yourself as an authority in the area, and highlight your services' value.

3. Develop a Signature Program & Sign Your First Beta Clients

Once you've identified your niche and their big problem, it's time to develop a signature program that showcases your expertise and addresses the unique needs of your audience. A signature Program should be specifically designed to solve your target audience's most pressing problems.

To refine and perfect your offer, consider enrolling in a group of beta clients who can provide feedback and help you improve. By working with beta clients, you'll gain valuable insights into what works, what doesn't, and how to optimize your program for maximum impact. We advise our practitioner clients to hold off creating too many program materials until they have signed on their beta clients - that way you are being paid to create your program and you are getting live feedback as to what your program members want and when. Yes, this can seem like a scary idea - to sell something before you've created it. Trust us when we say that this is the smartest and safest way to do things. There are hundreds of people out there who would be willing to be your guinea pigs!

4. Create Lead Generation Systems

To attract a steady stream of new clients into your program, what works best online is what we call an "enrolment event". This is something, usually free, that people can attend to learn more about their problem and then you position your program as the solution.

Our favourite enrolment event is a webinar, which (when done properly) helps to shift beliefs about their problem and builds desire for your program. You run it live first and once you know it converts well, you can automate the whole thing with a recording (bringing you leads in your sleep - literally!)

To create a successful webinar funnel, you'll need to:

• Develop an engaging presentation that showcases your expertise and provides valuable information (we have a proven framework and template for this that we share with our clients)
• Create a landing page for registration (there's a real science to creating a landing page that converts highly!)
• Set up an email sequence to nurture leads and encourage attendance (again, we have templates to make this super easy)
• Host your webinar and deliver a compelling call-to-action to join your signature program

There are quite a lot of moving parts to this funnel. It is well worth creating because our clients' results tell us that webinars are still the most successful strategy to consistently sign people into their program.

5. Implement Systems and Automate Your Business

To achieve time freedom, it's essential to implement systems and automate your business processes. This is why we are such software junkies at The Virtual Practitioner - because these days it is so easy to find tools and technology that do so much work for you. By streamlining your operations, you'll free up time to focus on what you do best—helping your clients achieve optimal health and wellness.

Consider automating tasks such as:

• Scheduling appointments
• Invoicing and payments
• Email marketing and client communication
• Social media posting
• Delivery of your program materials

Investing in the right tools and software can help you automate these processes and improve efficiency, allowing you to focus on growing your business.

Conclusion

Scaling your health and wellness practice online is an exciting opportunity to create a more significant impact, achieve time freedom, and reach your financial goals. By identifying your niche and the big problem you can solve, building an audience through content marketing, developing a signature offer and signing your first beta clients, creating automated lead generation systems, and by implementing systems and automation in your business, you can transform your business and create the thriving online practice you've dreamed of. Yes, there is a LOT to learn... and we encourage you to embrace the journey because an online business is hands down the most lucrative and lifestyle-enriching model for health and wellness entrepreneurs today.

Want to dive even deeper into creating your own online health program? Register for our upcoming FREE live 3-part training event, The Virtual Practitioner REVOLUTION that kicks off 25th May. Learn more and register here:  https://thevirtualpractitioner.com/register