How to Use the ‘New Year, New You’ Trend to Get More Health Coach Clients

This is the time of year when we start thinking about our New Year’s resolutions – about how we can become a ‘new and improved’ version of ourselves.

Now, more than ever before, the ‘New Year, New You’ trend offers opportunities to sign up new health coach clients to help them finally achieve their goals, whilst they’re motivated.?

Here’s how you can make the most of it for your business:?

How to take advantage of the ‘New Year, New You’ to get more health coach clients

Following these seven steps will allow you to ride the wave of the new year, but it’s important to start now in December to prep for it! That way you’ll have plenty of time to actually get it up and running and have the maximum impact to get more health coach clients.??

#1 Content

Quality?content is more than just letting people know what you do. It builds credibility and establishes trust. By making useful information freely available, potential clients understand you to be knowledgeable. And they will also perceive you as caring about them.

Content that taps into specific issues that people are experiencing right now in the moment will engage them, so think topical – digital overload, lockdown weight gain, New Year trends etc. But keep in mind that this is a time for inspiration and belief in change – success stories, life-changing routines, and customer testimonials are going to be powerful.

But remember, quality alone doesn’t help people find your content. To take advantage of the ‘New Year, New You’ trend, use keywords that piggy-back off it and it can put you at the top of search engines or social media searches. Get help from a keyword generator like?Keyword Tool?if you’re stuck.?

Top Tip:?Create content in different formats across your platforms and schedule them on the days you know you’re busy, that way your brand is still working to bring in new health coach clients without you having to give up your holiday plans!

#2 Community Challenges

If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s the importance of communities and how to maintain them digitally. Social media was literally a lifesaver for some people (and many businesses.)

Build a community of digital clients and potential clients by running a health challenge on Facebook or Instagram. In designing your challenge, keep in mind that successful challenges:

• Show tangible results
• Are attainable by the majority of people interested in trying them
• Don’t go on forever (5 to 10 days usually is about right e.g. a countdown to the ‘New Year, New You’)?
• Allow for creativity on the part of participants (you want those ‘Instagrammable moments’)

Try challenges that help form new habits or teach a new skill – a week of plant-based foods or five days of meditation, for example, or something that specifically ties in with a service you provide.

Top Tip:?Give step-by-step guidance and personalised assistance leading up to, during, and after the challenge.?

#3 Converge Branding and Direct Response

Building a brand is one thing; actively closing sales is another. Being the best content writer and challenge creator isn’t going to pay the bills.

Potential clients visiting your channels should be retargeted with?relevant?advertising drawing them to a landing page on your website that is dedicated to sales. Facebook, Google, and Twitter advertising does this for you automatically using a pixel and by maintaining a subtle presence online you keep your services top of mind (when people will be actively searching for them) without being irritating.

Top Tip:?Include a call-to-action in all of the content you put out over December and January. Let your readers know that becoming a paying client is their first step to a healthier 2024.

#4 Find or Narrow Down Your Niche

As counter-intuitive as it may sound, the more you restrict your potential client base, the more clients you will get.?

When it comes to New Year Resolutions, we tend to be quite specific. It might be that we want to give up smoking or drinking (the wine doesn’t taste quite right after New Year’s drinking!) or establish better sleep patterns. Whatever our vice, we’re going to connect with a health coach who sounds like they’ll understand us.

A niche makes use of your speciality to solve a particular problem for a particular group of people. It distinguishes you from all the ‘run of the mill’ coaches and will attract specific health coach clients who need the services you offer. And by turning yourself into a specialist, you can also charge premium rates.

A further bonus of using the niche approach is that it makes producing content much easier – you’ve got far fewer topics to cover and keywords will be easier.

Top Tip:?In deciding on your niche, choose not only what you’re good at but also what you love doing. And if that doesn’t bring you clients who can pay you or create a sustainable business – drop it and rebrand!?Be real; this is your livelihood we’re talking about.?

#5 Develop Reciprocal Referrals

Another advantage to the niche approach is that it makes it easy for other people to talk about what you do. And they will – because it’s completely non-threatening when it’s not what they do.

A reciprocal referral is when businesses providing different services to the same customer base refer clients to each other. An example would be an estate agent who refers clients to the same removal company, who in turn passes on the agent’s details to any of his clients who may be looking to buy or rent property.

Introduce yourself to fellow professionals doing related work in your field. And don’t forget suppliers and retailers. They will be interacting with people needing your services and will be happy to refer you if you establish a connection. And then?reciprocate?by referring your clients to them – better yet, be the first one to refer and show your value.?

But always remember these rules for referrals:

• Only refer desirable clients?– don’t refer clients who don’t pay or who are otherwise unpleasant to deal with.
• Make sure there’s a fit?– take time to understand your referral partner’s ideal client too, and make sure they understand exactly what you offer.
• Pre-sell your referral partner?– convince your client upfront why they will want to do business with your referral partner, otherwise, you’re not doing much more than passing on a cold lead.?

Top Tip:?Referrals are a great way to earn a supplementary income with very little work, particularly if you work with great partners! Usually you would earn a one-time or ongoing commission for the referral or even a specific affiliate code for products you recommend. Just remember you’re attaching your brand to these products or services so make sure you back them 100%.?

#6 Productise Your Services

It’s been a bummer of a year, and people are looking for something easy. Not everyone’s up for a personalised program at an unspecified price – especially if it involves a shame-inducing confession about how they got to their current state.?

Think of all the different services you offer. Then create ‘products’ of them by bundling them under empowering names and attractive pricing. For this New Year, keep products?simple, specific, and inspiring. (And in line with your niche.)?

A discounted three month’s subscription may be simple, but the outcomes aren’t specific, and it’s hardly inspiring. “Six Weeks to More Energy with a Vegan Diet” is likely to generate more interest. (And “Six Weeks to a Flat Tummy with Chocolate and No Exercise” might get even more!)

#7 Productise Your Knowledge

Lastly, it’s true that as long as you’re selling your time by the hour, your income is limited by the hours in a day. So this is?your?resolution for 2024 – work on productising your knowledge!

Packaging your knowledge so that you can sell yourself to more people at a time or, better yet, without actually doing anything at all, is the holy grail of coaching.?

The easiest way to start is to do what you do, but for more people. By this, we traditionally meant group classes and workshops. But if there’s a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that it has thrust us into a new era of technology that has opened the world for us.?

How are you going to take advantage of this? Are you still thinking of potential coaching clients as people within a thirty-mile radius? You’ll be surprised at who your Facebook Challenges attract. Please make sure you convert your followers to paying clients no matter where they are located.?

And isn’t it about time you wrote that book, made that video, recorded that podcast? The internet puts all of these things within our reach. But don’t underestimate the distraction they can be and the time they can consume.?

Structure your time over the coming year to include the development of a single ‘knowledge product.’ It will be a steep learning curve, and you can’t afford to let your normal revenue slide. But the investment will be well worth it.?

Now you have some tips to ensure the ‘New Year’s New You’ trend will help you get a lot more health coach clients if you need help with branding or your website to get you there before the new year, drop me a message!