Holistic health coach needs publicity, marketing tips
Nancy L. Jerominski of SeaTac, Wash. writes:
“I’m a holistic lifestyle coach who has pitched a variety of story ideas, including ‘maddening menopausal symptoms stopped without meds’ and ‘stop doing crunches for flatter abs.’
“I actually HAVE pitched Oprah several times with no results. There are lots of miserable menopausal women, and I can help every one of them, just by tweaking what they eat.
“I write a regular wellness column for the local neighborhood papers and have traded my services for ad space, but have yet to enjoy any kind of real influx of new blood into my client base. I’m on Facebook and am trying to figure out Twitter.
“After a fair amount of media exposure, I seem stuck. Suggestions from your Hounds?”
Posted In: Business Promotion, Facebook, Newspaper Publicity, Twitter
posted On: 6/2/2009: 2:02 pm: By Joan
Comments: 12 Comments
“Hand-syndicate” your column by sending it to the the non-competing local papers nationally – ie, the wellness paper in Miami doesn’t compete with the wellness paper in DC.
I’ve noticed there is a lot lacking in menopause information.
Mostly, because the old thinking still prevails, that women have to sit back quietly, reflect and grow old gracefully.
I suggest you make your strategy address “The New Menopause” or Not your Mother’s Menopause.” Our generation does not want to settle for kicking back. We were brought up to kick butt and get rid of old myths about menopause.
Another suggestion, what about Menopause Mythbusting?
Another hook would be an expose on the WHI HRT study that misled women.
Good luck!
Are there Health Food stores in your area? Do any of them have evening lectures? Here in hamden there is a small natural foods market that holds weekly Thursday evening lectures. It’s free and they hand out little 20% off supplements coupons. Chairs are set up in the supplements aisle, people come and listen and participate and learn a lot! There’ve been Naturopaths, lifestyle coaches, special topic nurses, a representative from NOFA, and so on. It’s good for them because not only do they share their expertise, but introduce the public to their speciality and to themselves. It’s great for establishing a good reputation too.
And, if you’re good and establish a good report with whoever is running the lecture series, you get to come back!
Good luck.
Perhaps you can work out a speaker type relationship with a local gym. We have 10 locations of LA Fitness where I live. The gym is full of menopausal women mid day and in the early morning hours.
Nancy:
It seems that Y-O-U are doing a lot of marketing. However, you might find some success with the clients you currently have doing some of that marketing for you, instead.
If there are actually a significant number of suffers, and you are helping some of them, then T-H-E-Y reaching out to folks, espousing how you helped them, might gather more press.
Not exactly affiliate marketing, since they are not receiving compensation, but a different slant on it.
Best of luck,
Mike
Nancy – start by pitching local television news shows. Morning show and weekend producers love these kinds of topics especially if you can tie it into something timely – how to get flatter abs this summer without doing crunches. Once you get a few under your belt, incorporate your exposure into your bio (e.g. Nancy has shared her expertise on XYZ). You can also use the TV coverage in your pitch to national TV shows to show them what a great guest you are!
Hi Nancy,
We have a number of resources available at PitchRate.com that might be of use. There’s a Wasabi Club call in which Michelle Tennant of Wasabi Publicity, Inc. coaches Dr. Jim Bierman on how to use publicity to build his practice. Here’s the link to listen to it: http://www.pitchrate.com/Archived_Recordings
There’s also a PR Happy Hour scheduled for tomorrow (June 4th) at 4:00 pm EST. Melanie Jordan is a marketing expert that talks about how to turn your PR and marketing efforts into product sales. There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions during the call. Here’s info about the upcoming call: http://www.pitchrate.com/Whats_Up
And we’re often looking for small business owners who are willing to accept coaching on these calls (like Dr. Bierman). If you’d like to be on one of our calls, just pitch us from the contact form on the What’s Up page at PitchRate.com.
I agree you’re in a crowded market, but certainly, there’s a niche (small is good) for your advice. You’re already online, which is great. Now, you have to ‘fish where the fish are at’!
Like you, my market is baby boomers. I suggest a couple of actions. Do a technorati search for menopause and baby boomers then find 10 bloggers to befriend by reading/commenting on their blogs. You might even ask to share your knowledge via a guest post or two.
Also, join community/membership sites geared towards our market. Sites like BoomerAuthority.com,TBD.com, Eons.com VibrantNation.com and WomenBloom.com are excellent places to get to know your market, help others and sell your product in a low-key way. We’re a friendly bunch and we like to help. I’m planning a series on menopause this year so feel free to contact me.
Good luck! Dina
I suggest you role reverse with the menopausal women that you want to attract and contact. I imagine where “you” would live, what “you” would read, what “you” do to spend “your” time.
You will likely find this group of women at:
Community meetings of educated groups such as the American Association of University Women, etc.
Attending theatre productions and reading the theatre programs
Business women’s networking groups
In schools, teaching and administrating
On Facebook or Twitter, consider sharing:
Menopausal tip of the day or week
YouTube videos that align with your work — ones you find or make yourself
Make sure that you are “friending” and reaching out to middle-aged women themselves too.
Onward in the adventure!
I suggest you role reverse with the menopausal women that you want to attract and contact. I imagine where “you” would live, what “you” would read, what “you” do to spend “your” time.
You will likely find this group of women at:
Community meetings of educated groups such as the American Association of University Women, etc.
Attending theatre productions and reading the theatre programs
Business women’s networking groups
In schools, teaching and administrating
On Facebook and Twitter, consider sharing a “tip of the day” or “tip of the week” so there are reasons to read your posts. Consider also finding YouTube videos that relate to your work or make your own to share and post.
1) Get involved in your local toastmasters club. It helps in public speaking and writing, and gives you a safe place to practice. Great for networking – it has gotten me to the next level. http://www.toastmasters.org
2) Put together a small business meeting for networking with others. I like twitter, but local, face-to-face is often more valuable in building trust with potential clients.
3) Consider marketing yourself as simply a “health coach”. Keep it simple, instead of alienating people who may not understand it all.
4) Consider doing some small workshops on the weekends at a local commuity college.
5) You mention facebook, and twitter, but what about your own blog? Get your articles on there, and eventually generate revenue with adsense ads (or similiar).
Hi Joan,
Sounds like you’re doing a good thing. I stumbled upon your post unexpectedly while I was doing research. I am just starting out doing online marketing for local holistic health businesses. I attended this seminar back in June and it was amazing. It’s called Experts Academy. Maybe you will be interested. This is not an affiliate link and I don’t get anything for this. When I find good things I like to share them.
http://www.brendonburchard.com/
Good luck.
Joe