8 ways to market your plant-based health coaching business in 2026.
If you’re anything like me, you might have been surprised about how much work goes into digital marketing and starting an online health coaching business.
I’d imagine it took so much work to get your website launched only to realize……. there’s so much more to it!
I’ve been there!! I was one of those people who thought if you had a website then that’s all you needed to start an online business!
It took some time for me to figure out it’s basically just the first step!
It seems like everyone wants to encourage people to start an online business, but no one really wants to talk about the process...more like mountains, you have to climb to get there!
Read more to discover ways to market your health coaching business!
1.) Do market research.
Market research... AKA understanding your ideal clients/customers' pain points, problems, challenges, etc.
Get a spreadsheet ready or a piece of paper and go find where your ideal clients hang out and ask them questions. This could be in real life or in Facebook groups. Facebook groups are a really easy way to talk to your people to find out what they're struggling with.
The most ideal way is to get on the phone with them or do a zoom video call. Be sure to ask questions and dig deep into their situation and what they need help with.
If you can't get on the phone with your audience, there are some websites where you can find out questions people are asking.
Once you have interviewed a handful of people and gathered some info, it's time to start using it in your online messaging. You can offer a gift card in return for their time, or some other offer to give them the incentive to talk to you!
2.) Pick a marketing strategy.
I’ve been blogging for my business and using organic SEO best practices as opposed to pay-per-click ads or promoting on social media.
The reason I choose to go the organic route instead of paid ads is that I’d rather put in the work so clients come to me instead of paying for traffic every month and searching all over the place for leads.
I’m not saying paid ads don’t have their place, but there should be a balance. If all you use is paid ads for your marketing strategy then once you stop paying for the ads the traffic stops.
The reason I don’t use social media for marketing is that to be quite frank, it’s so much effort with very little in return. I’m quite shy too, so the amount of effort it takes for me to put together content, I feel could be better used doing evergreen marketing like writing blog posts.
Another benefit to blogging is that you own your website, and your email list, so if you’re blogging it’s a great way to grow your email list….whereas with social media, you have no control over the platform, so if the algorithm changes or they decide to change their business model you could lose your audience.
When I first started out I didn’t know the“whys” and “hows” of digitally marketing a business, I was going through the blogging motions so to speak because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do.
I’m an analytical person and like to know the reasons behind why I’m doing things, otherwise, it’s difficult for me to get behind or have any motivation to do it, so to understand the “what” “whys” and the “hows” are game-changers for me!
I ultimately believe all marketing is meant to form meaningful connections with your audience, to help them solve their problems.
I feel if you approach marketing in that way, with a service mindset then you'll do well in your business!
Selling doesn't have to be awkward or uncomfortable; it becomes much easier when you know your audience and what problems they’re trying to solve.
There's a famous saying that goes around in the marketing world that says " the riches are in the niches." This means to niche down if you want to be successful (I don’t like that saying because it sounds sleazy, but you get the point I’m trying to make!)
It’s true! If you're marketing to everyone, then it’s going to be super challenging to understand the specific problems your clients struggle with because they’ll be all over the place.
Marketing is all about presenting the problems and then giving a solution. If you don't know what the problems are, it's going to be super tough to provide solutions/make sales.
3.) Write copy strategically.
Messaging is a huge part of any marketing strategy. The copy on your website, blog posts, social media, and youtube should be written in a way to help solve a problem that ties into your business, so having a strategic messaging strategy is going to lay the foundation of your health coaching business.
Be sure to use all the market research information you gathered from your ideal clients and include it in your copy.
When the copy on your website is geared towards explaining how your clients will benefit from your service, then they’ll be more likely to engage with your brand because they’ll want to know more about what you can offer them!
On the other hand, if the copy on your website isn’t thought out very well, it’s going to be tough to get online inquiries because people won’t be resonating with your offerings!
There are plenty of copywriting courses to take if you want to go the DIY route, and heaps of free information out there, but it’s really important for the success of website conversions, so be sure to put some thought into it.
4.) Do keyword research.
I’ve learned that it’s helpful to do keyword research before I write a blog post, so I can come up with content that people are interested in, I also carefully consider the topics to make sure it ties into my business strategy as well.
There’s a balance between finding topics that are too competitive and ones that have a chance of ranking well.
If your ideal audience is searching for “how to hire a health coach” and you write a blog article on “how to hire a health coach”, then your post has an opportunity to show up, and if the person felt your post was helpful to them, they might just book a call or sign up for your email list.
If you’re just starting out, search for topics that have a high search volume, and low difficulty, If the topics and keyword phrases are too competitive then the post will get drowned out in the internet sea!
It’s best to focus on long-tail keywords or phrases that aren’t too competitive, so you have the potential to rank!
Think about what your clients might be searching for to find you. If you did a bit of keyword research, you'll see some questions that your ideal clients are asking on google like.... "can a health coach give me nutrition advice".
That exact question can be used as a blog post title or social media post title because it’s a more precise topic, so the post might have the potential to be on the first page of google.
5.) Build online authority
People like to hire people they trust, so if you’re putting yourself out there and offering helpful information to an audience, it builds the know, like, and trust factor.
This basically means that it takes time to establish a relationship with your audience, and once they get to know you, they’ll engage with your brand.
It’s the same in real life, you’re always closer to the people that you feel comfortable around because you’ve gotten to know them!!
I think people forget when engaging online that it’s real people you’re interacting with, so the same social norms apply so to speak to the online world.
It would be weird if you went up to someone and said “Hey I’m a health coach, book an appointment with me, and I’ll help you.
If you wanted to talk to someone about your business, you would likely start a conversation with them first and lead up to what you do, so it’s helpful to think about those things when you’re creating online content or when you’re in Facebook groups.
6.) Optimize your site for google.
Whichever platform you choose to design your website on, there are best practices to follow to make sure the google gods are pleased, so your site has a chance of ranking.
1.) Site speed- Be sure to compress your photos to under 500kb, so your website loads fast. Slow load time causes a high bounce rate which affects SEO, so compress those babies!
2.) If your designing on Squarespace be sure to fill out the SEO page descriptions.
3.) Page structure- Be sure to include keywords on your website pages.
4.) Blog and page URLs- Be sure to use keywords in your URLs, headings, and throughout your copy.
5.) Write for humans and not just bots! There’s a fine line between optimizing your site, and at the same time being relatable!!
6.) Set up Google search console and Google analytics and submit a site map, by doing this you’ll be letting Google know your website exists so it will crawl the content.
7.) Do word-of-mouth marketing.
It’s all about your network, If you’ve helped people in the past with health coaching, and you put a good amount of thought into making it a great experience for your client, then you’ll get referrals from them.
Referrals are golden and if you create a top-notch client experience then that will help your business tremendously.
In my business, I’ve put a good amount of work into creating a nice experience for my clients, by setting up systems to make the process flow.
I document all my steps in Basecamp, so I don’t forget anything and I also use Acuity scheduling to book discovery calls and use HoneyBook for automating emails and sending contracts.
I think having all your ducks in a row before you work with clients, is such an important part of any service-based business and often gets overlooked. But start off slow, there are so many tools out there, you may not need them all in the beginning, and the cost adds up quickly.
Facebook groups are also great ways of helping people and offering advice. Be sure to join groups with your business profile, so that when people see you commenting, they can look you up and they might book a discovery call with you.
8.) Work your butt off.
Just wanted to mention that this is a broad overview, to help wrap your head around how to approach marketing for your health coaching business, so you have an idea of how to approach it.
Marketing practices take time and work (a lot of work) and patience to see results. If you know what to expect then you can better prepare yourself for the race.
It’s a marathon and not a sprint, so my words of wisdom would be to tackle it in steps, keep showing up, and take breaks when you need to, but be sure to come back. The people who are successful with online businesses are the ones who didn’t give up when it got tough!!
Key takeaways:
Know who your ideal clients are and the problems they are struggling with and be sure to include the solutions throughout the copy on your website.
Optimize your web pages for SEO….which includes doing keyword research and finding out what your audience is searching for, so your content will come up in search engine results. Blogging will help tremendously in this department.
Make sure the blog post topic ties into your business goals. For example, how can you tie it back to your services?
Include call-to-action buttons at the bottom of your pages and blog posts to help with conversions.
Do word-of-mouth marketing
Don’t give up! ☺️
If you need some 1:1 help with a website design for your health coaching business, please check out my services.
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