Hit Publish! 10 Ways to Create a Profitable Wellness Website
You’ve got the perfect business name. The designer did a great job on your logo. And even though your wellness website isn’t perfect, everything works, and you love the colors and fonts.
So why aren’t more people booking appointments?
Or buying your course?
Or even contacting you to ask a question?
Keep reading to learn the top 10 ways to create a robust, active, and profitable wellness website (without driving yourself totally bonkers).
Wellness Website Tip #1: Pick. Your. Niche.
I KNOOOOOW you’re tired of hearing this. You’ve heard it from every business coach, YouTube tutorial, or marketing meet-up you’ve forced yourself to attend.
It’s the same freaking thing every time: “Pick your niche!“, “Marketing to everyone is like marketing to no one.“
But what does that even mean, anyway?! Let’s break it down.
The very first step of great marketing, especially wellness marketing, is forming a relationship. Trust. A bond.
Picking your niche is choosing your professional other half…the clients you’re forming a relationship with.
To create a marketing message that builds a strong connection, you have to know who these potential clients are, aka, you have to pick your niche.
If your wellness website is vaguely speaking to many groups of people, then no one feels moved by your message. No trust is built. And, understandably, potential clients look for connection somewhere else.
Perhaps most importantly, picking your niche improves your SEO or search engine optimization. Publishing lots of content created for one specific group of people (exercises for golfers) or about one specific subject (IBS-focused nutrition) establishes you as an expert, something Google loves.
Wellness Website Tip #2: Speak to your niche.
Let’s check out an example of speaking to a niche versus “marketing to no one.”
Say you want to buy a sturdy, comfortable massage table for your physical therapy clinic. Are you more likely to buy from a website with this headline:
“We offer well-made, attractive, and affordable massage tables that will last for years.”
Or this headline:
“Your physical therapy patients will love the feel (and look!) of our top-end massage tables.”
Remember, your wellness website should establish a relationship with your potential clients. To do this, you have to speak directly and succinctly to them and talk about what they care about.
Every word on your wellness website is for your customers. The sample above targets physical therapists and their top priority: their patients.
If writing for your customers feels totally foreign, sign up for a free 7-day trial of the Market Your Wellness Biz Monthly Membership and get targeted, 1-to-1 support.
A helpful activity is to review what you’ve written on your website and ask yourself if it’s written for you or the people you want to reach.
Wellness Website Tip #3: Publish blogs. Lots and lots of blogs.
Blogs are the unsung heroes of the marketing world. They provide a massive amount of value to your potential clients, they share your story and build the beginnings of a clinician/client relationship, and they work wonders to increase your organic search hits.
What do I mean by organic search hits?
Just a few days ago, Google released updates on the best way to get found online.
This is super essential info if you’re someone with a digital or even semi-digital business who wants to gain customers from the internet.
The number one recommendation Google lists for getting your website more organic search hits, aka more people finding and clicking on your website from queries they enter into a search engine?
Create helpful, reliable, people-first content for your wellness website.
Blogs are the best way to present this content. And they absolutely increase the amount of traffic you get from the internet (potential customers!).
Most practitioners blog about subjects they’re interested in, with a heavy focus on science-y lingo and education.
But if you want clients to actually read your blog and then schedule one of your services, you should:
- focus on solutions, not education
- use language your potential clients use and understand
- share some of your story
- make it interesting…people are tired of boring blogs
Wellness Website Tip #4: Show up.
Remember, establishing trust is the first step of great marketing.
There’s no better way to do that than by showing up on your wellness website homepage with a true-to-you personality-forward photo.
What does that mean?
It means letting potential clients see your face and your heart.
When our agency surveys contact lists to figure out why they haven’t made a purchase or an appointment, one trend is crystal clear: no one trusts stock photo-style images that are perfect…and lifeless.
So wear your favorite t-shirt (like, really, YOUR favorite t-shirt).
Let your hair be messy if it’s always messy.
Love red lipstick? Go for it.
This holds true for the copy side, too. The words on your wellness website are for your clients, yes, but the voice is all you. Showing up in an authentic way creates trust. And trust leads to bookings.
Wellness Website Tip #5: Give visitors a valuable action to take. (And make it easy for them to do it.)
Now that a visitor has arrived, what are they supposed to do?
You want to gently but firmly guide potential clients to take action. This usually takes the form of a “call to action” or CTA.
How many times have you seen a wellness website homepage designed like this:
or this:
or this:
Did you notice the commonalities?
They all speak to a niche, feature a lovely, authentic photo, and have a specific call to action:
“Contact Me”
“Book Your Discovery Call!”
“Work With Me”
This isn’t a coincidence. These practitioners have designed their wellness websites to establish trust and give potential clients a (valuable) action to take.
Also, note that:
- These homepages aren’t busy or cluttered.
- The calls to action are direct and friendly. “Work With Me” is a lot different from “Click here if you’re ready to start working with me!” See the difference? Be direct.
- The CTA provides something that site visitors really want.
- I’m going to emphasize that one again because it’s so crucial: make sure your CTA is a no-brainer for people who visit your site. Of COURSE they’re going to click on that button…they’ve been looking for a resource just like this, and you’ve finally provided it.
In exchange for the valuable-to-them action step, you get their name and email address.
Why?
So you can stay in touch with them about all the other valuable-to-them stuff you’ve got going on.
Wellness Website Tip #6: Don’t give visitors too much to do.
The number one mistake we see on websites is that they’re full to the brim with buttons, links, choices, calls-to-action, offerings, toolbars, and mini-bars (not the fun kind).
Click here!
Learn more over here!
Contact me!
Heeeeey! Follow this link!
The number one way to get potential clients off your site and working with another clinician is to overwhelm them with choices.
So…simplify.
The more you hone in on your niche and exactly what they need to solve their problems, the easier it will be for you to simplify your website.
READ THAT AGAIN.
People don’t need 20 different choices. They need 3 perfect-for-them choices, max.
Paring down your site copy and design gets easier once you know your potential client’s problems and the solutions they need to solve them.
Wellness Website Tip #7: Create client-centered content.
I know there’s so much you want to talk about on your website. You want to write about all the fantastic knowledge you’ve acquired and how you can help your clients. You want to share your story and let visitors know you’re an expert.
But don’t lose track of one critical component: your website isn’t for you.
It’s for your clients.
So are you going to write about what you’re interested in and what you think?
Or are you going to write about what your potential clients are interested in and what will help them the most?
I think you know the answer to that.
More than likely, your audience doesn’t want to learn about the pathophysiology of their diagnosis or the underlying mechanisms of herb/drug interactions.
They just want to feel better and get their life back.
So make sure your content is valuable for your clients…not for you or other clinicians.
Wellness Website Tip #8: Share your story.
Now that I’ve over-emphasized the importance of creating a wellness website for your potential clients, let’s zoom out and remember that you’re still part of this equation.
And you’re a really important part of it.
Establishing trust, safety, and connection is a big deal in marketing. But it’s an especially big deal in wellness marketing.
Site visitors begin considering whether or not to trust you with their health the second they get to your site. So how do you make that decision easier for them?
You share your story.
Did you also have rosacea so bad your face peeled off every winter? Let them know.
Did you also experience Hashi flares so intense your hair fell out in clumps? Talk about that.
Did an inappropriate nutritional strategy make you shit your pants at your first triatholon? As embarrassing as it may be, write it down.
Are you still suffering from terrible eczema and haven’t totally figured it out yet? YES, share this, too.
Of course, there are some caveats. Never share more than feels safe to you. We’re not out to make ourselves feel terrible just to connect with potential clients.
And don’t lose sight of the purpose of sharing your story: your wellness website isn’t a diary. It’s a tool to make money with your online business. So relate your experiences back to your niche. You’ve been there…you’ve studied and figured some things out….now you can help them, too.
Wellness Website Tip #9: Speak up & stand out.
Generic doesn’t sell.
But your unique voice does.
So infuse a little bit of you into your website.
The best copy out there, copy that keeps visitors on your site, keeps them engaged, and eventually leads them to become customers, is:
- authentic
- relatable
- funny
- caring
- irreplicable
Your site visitors will likely have looked at a lot of websites before they get to yours. So what makes you stand out?
You make you stand out. Your story. Your spin. Your experiences.
So stop being afraid of your powerful differentiators. Speak up.
Wellness Website Tip #10: Give it time.
Even with a perfect wellness website, it’s going to take time.
A successful wellness business doesn’t happen overnight. EVEN for biz owners who happen to go viral, have a huge list of contacts, or seem to be everywhere you look…it takes time to foster the type of solid, foundational practice that reaches your ideal client avatar and brings in a sustainable income.
And most of that time will be you showing up without accolades. Writing blogs on Saturday mornings. Posting to social when you wonder if anyone is going to see it. Suffering through some SEO techniques that seem totally out of reach.
But bit by bit, those efforts pay off. And guess what? Your potential clients notice.
Need help with your wellness website?
Sign up for a free 7-day trial of the Market Your Wellness Biz Monthly Membership to experience a loving, professional community of other wellness pros, digital co-working, and over 250 unique marketing resources.
I’ll see you at our next meetup!
