If you want to be successful in growing your business as a holistic practitioner, you will need to know how to market yourself effectively. In today’s competitive marketplace, word of mouth and personal recommendations aren’t enough to keep a practice afloat, and you can reach so many more people with an effective marketing strategy.
Social media has, in effect, become the new word of mouth marketing. Today, there are few easier and more efficient ways to reach your target audience than on social media. Facebook in particular offers endless opportunities to connect with people in desperate need of your services; you just need to know how to harness this powerful platform correctly.
Why Use Facebook?
For sheer numbers and audience reach alone, no platform is as large as Facebook. Facebook alone has 2.9 billion active users. No matter where you’re practicing, Facebook users are looking for answers and solutions that you can provide.
Facebook also is very data-driven with an algorithm that collects user interests and tries to create a targeted, tailored experience to connect them with relevant services, groups, and people. There are already many chronic pain information and support groups on Facebook, plus holistic health groups, natural medicine groups, and other alternative wellness groups. The audience is there, and they are actively seeking out new information about holistic wellness and holistic practitioners.
Facebook is also free to join and can improve your business’s reach and audience organically just by signing up and engaging with the platform. Paid advertising is also very easy to set up on Facebook, with reasonable costs for targeted ads. No matter what your strategy is, Facebook is a useful platform with lots of options.
Organic Marketing Techniques
Organic marketing means that you aren’t paying for your marketing opportunities and instead are building your audience through building relationships and a community. This means that you’ll need to create a business page and that you’ll need to join and create groups.
The most important element of organic marketing is staying engaged with your followers. There are lots of ways to do this. Being active and regularly posting content is vital to this strategy, but just posting content isn’t enough these days!
Sharing Diverse Content
If you want to improve your organic marketing, you must keep your post types varied. You can post images, links, and videos, but Facebook is rolling out new post options all the time. It seems like the Facebook algorithm does reward these new post types, so if you take advantage of new post types like Stories (short videos that disappear over time and have a limited viewing window) or 360 Video, you may see an increase in your content’s reach.
Video, especially live video, is also rewarded by the algorithm. Going on Facebook Live may be intimidating, but it’s a great way for your patients to connect with you and meet new clients. You can get questions and answer them in real-time, which can help potential clients feel seen and heard– especially if they’ve had a hard time with mainstream physicians and medical practices taking them seriously. This also gives people who are curious a place to meet you and hear about what you have to offer.
Interacting with Facebook Groups
Facebook groups are another important tool for organic marketing. These groups can connect your potential patients to you and each other and provide a safe space to talk about their concerns and potential solutions. You can work out your marketing message in these groups with less risk than in your ads because you know you’ve got a receptive audience within the group. Facebook groups have a file upload function that will allow you to upload long-form information, datasheets, and other important information that can easily be accessed and shared.
The most challenging aspect of organic Facebook marketing is getting your content seen. You’ll need to experiment with different post types and establish a workable post tempo. You don’t have to post a million times a day, but you should play around with posting at different times and in different amounts to see what gets the most viewer engagement.
And don’t just “post and ghost” – people will comment and ask questions, and if you respond to them, it tells the algorithm that this is a post people are interested in. Posts that generate discussion are more likely to show up earlier in your followers’ feeds, so don’t be afraid to respond and answer those questions.
Paid Marketing Techniques
Paid marketing on Facebook is highly targeted. With organic marketing, you can’t always know who will see your material, but paid advertising lets you specify to who the algorithm serves your content. You can choose by location, age, sex, or other demographic data. You can also serve content based on specific interests and career fields, which lets you target even more specifically than just the demographic data. This means that your ads won’t be wasted on an unreceptive audience or outside of your scope.
Facebook ads are also very reasonably priced compared to other internet advertising options. The average cost is $0.97 per click and $7.19 per 1000 impressions, but you are completely in charge of your budget. With a compelling message you may do much better.
The Alternative Pain Treatment Directory is currently getting clicks for as little as $.07. Some people spend as little as $2 per day and get results! Facebook’s ad manager will never go over your budget, so you will always be in total control over how much money you’re spending on ads.
Facebook Do’s and Don’ts
Something crucial to remember for Facebook marketing is that Facebook has rules about what you can and can’t say regarding health and healthcare. Here are a few tips and tricks to ensure that your presence on Facebook helps you reach patients and grow your business.
Attribution
On Facebook, you are not allowed to imply that anybody has a specific condition or lead them to think that they may have a condition. This means that you aren’t allowed to directly say “Do you have chronic pain?” or any other sort of leading question. What you can do instead is talk about what you’ve seen in pain patients. Start your sentences by describing what pain patients might experience. “Pain patients do…” or “Pain patients feel…” are two ways to talk about the symptoms and struggles of chronic pain without directly implying that your audience has a certain condition.
Substance Promotion
Facebook has very strong rules about what kinds of pharmaceuticals cannot be promoted on their platform. If you promote prescription drugs, kratom, or cannabis, you can be banned from Facebook. You are also not allowed to promote the sale or use of certain supplements, which include (but are not limited to) “anabolic steroids, chitosan, comfrey, dehydroepiandrosterone, ephedra, and human growth hormones.” Your ads and marketing must not contain false or misleading claims about product attributes, quality, or functionality. Facebook is especially strong about claims of cure or prevention of COVID-19.
Supplement Sales
Additionally, if you sell supplements as part of your business, you cannot do so on Facebook. You can advertise them, but you have to link to your own site; selling supplements directly through Facebook via Facebook Marketplace is expressly prohibited.
The Bottom Line
If you follow the rules, your Facebook content can serve as valuable advertising that brings in new clients and helps your current patients stay connected. Marketing will let you gain more clients and bring you in contact with other practitioners who can help you grow your practice. By adopting a good digital marketing strategy, you can grow your holistic practice and help more patients.
At the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory, we do some of your marketing for you for a very reasonable cost. In the last 28 days, our Facebook posts have reached over 115,000 people and over 16,000 have actively engaged with our posts. Learn about the benefits of joining the Alternative Pain Treatment Directory HERE.
Sonja Henrikssen is a content writer who specializes in culture, cannabis, plant medicines, wellness and marketing. She is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago and continues to reside in the Chicago area.
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