6 minute read
Ways to lose clients before you have
into the trap of ‘vanity metrics’. These are measurements that look good on the surface, but when you delve deeper, they’re doing little to impact your business’s bottom line.
The truth is anyone can post static images to their page to gain a few likes. However, when only 3% of your organic following actually sees your posts, it’s vital you upload content your audience wants to consume.
Whether you’re a brand-new business that employees a small team of therapists or are flying solo, your social media strategy can help you grow your client base. The good news is, you don’t have to spend hours each week posting on social, or bursting your budget, if you want to generate a return on investment from your social media page and keep an audience engaged. Here’s where to start…
HOW TO LOSE CLIENTS BEFORE YOU EVEN HAVE THEM: SOCIAL MEDIA
James Urquhart of Let’s Run Social says you need to understand your client base and spark their interest or your social media posts could be putting potential clients off…
Rule 1: Begin with a clear objective
Ask yourself, ‘why am I posting this image and what will the audience get from it?’
Use this as an opportunity to drill down into the types of clients you specialise in. Using massage therapy as an example, you’ll most likely have four different personas in your client base, such as:
1. Over-50s: With ailments in-line with aging, such as a bad back or troublesome knees, and who need a bit of help from a once-a-week massage.
2. Full-time professionals: Who may have a desk job and want to step away from the laptop and get back into shape because they’ve got a young family, or protect their worklife balance. They might’ve picked up an injury from light training and require assistance for a particularly persistent issue.
WHY are you as a holistic therapist using social media in the first place? It could be because you’ve set up your own business and you feel it’s vital that your friends and family know exactly how you’re doing. Or you’re using it as a tool to create revenue and educate your audience.
Whichever camp you sit in, these are two very different objectives. It’s important to stress that if you’re solely basing your success on the amount of likes and followers on your social media page, you’ll likely have fallen 3. Regular gym goers: Someone who may have slightly overdone it and are struggling with a niggle or something more troublesome.
Therefore, they require regular treatment.
4. Elite athletes: Used to physiotherapy, sports massages and who sees it as part of progressing their sporting career, so have regular sessions.
While the above is a loose example of a typical client base, it’s important to note that every single persona is different – therefore you need to personalise your content.
Rule 2: Avoid generic social media posts
From an organic perspective, it’s not always bad to put out a message that’s niche to a specific target group because social media platforms – such as Facebook and Instagram –will know who you’re trying to target.
As an example, if you post about how to get up in the morning without your knees hurting – specific to your over 50s group –social media platforms will know who to serve that content up to.
However, if you put up a generic post about some products you sell – such as a gel or type of protein shake – it won’t be specific enough and the majority of your audience simply won’t care.
They want to know what problem you can solve. In this case, how your advice can help alleviate a certain type of muscle pain or help them manage a persistent problem such as a back issue. Always come back to why your audience engaged with you in the first place.
Rule 3: Show you’re a trusted therapist with valuable social media content
Case studies and testimonials are extremely powerful for holistic therapists. This type of content is educative and when you ‘give it away’, you’re more likely to build up an engaged following that sees you as an expert in your field.
If you don’t offer up content for free, business opportunities will be few and far between because nobody will really know what makes you stand out. Offer relevant content that adds value to a customer’s experience. ‘Before and after’ imagery is also strong in this industry, but it’s worth noting that you can only upload these organically.
Facebook and Instagram want to see you engaging your audience and. In return, these social platforms will give you a cheaper cost when you pay to promote your social post. Plus, they can ensure that more people – in the right demographic – see your adverts.
How to set up a paid-for social media campaign
When you want to create leads and convert them into revenue, the first thing you must do is set your budget – how much do you want to spend?
1. Ask yourself, ‘how much can I afford to spend on a lead?’
If your conversion rate is around 10% for example, simply put, you need 10 leads to convert 1 person.
2. Present value with a ‘hook’
Could you offer a free 15-minute massage or 30-minute consultation?
From that session, you can build a rapport, offer further advice, and see if they want to rebook.
3. Target specific groups
Serve up relevant social media ad content – for example if they’re over-50s, look at providing content on stretching in the morning, and techniques to use. Then, from these interactions, drill down into who is really interested and offer them a freebie.
4. All is not lost if you don’t convert from your first ad
Follow up with testimonials as well as your freebie offer – that way, while your advert might not have cut through, you’re complementing it with additional content.
5. Use language your audience understands
Whichever persona you’re targeting, create paid content that reflects the terminology they understand. What works for an elite athlete isn’t going to have the same effect on someone who attends the gym once-a-week for a 20-minute run on the treadmill. Overall, however you act online, make sure it’s representative of how you are offline too. There’s nothing worse than seeing an ad for a business and when you engage with it, you receive a poor customer experience that doesn’t match what you’ve interacted with on social.
A few quick tips to end…
n Use a simple form for people to fill in as part of your paid ad, especially if you’re a local firm wanting to attract local clients. There’s an in-app form on Facebook that’s allows you to respond directly to someone. You can also use this platform to connect and ask them to follow your page.
n Always be responsive – within 24 hours is ideal, but if you can get back to them within the hour, even better.
The longer you leave it, the more your conversion rate will decrease.
n Push out content on the platforms where your clients are. Instagram and Facebook are great for holistic therapists. TikTok is also fantastic for engagement, but it doesn’t provide the same level of data as the other platforms mentioned.
iJAMES URQUHART is the managing director and co-founder of social media marketing brand Lets Run Social. An experienced digital marketer who fuses social and data together seamlessly, he has one
mission – to create as much revenue
for clients as possible. Get in touch at
james@letsrunsocial.com or visit
