Content Marketing for Your Well-being Business: Five Types of Content to Create

If you’re in the well-being niche, content marketing may not be on your radar. In fact, marketing in general is probably not what you love most about your work. You want to be teaching yoga, helping clients improve their diets, or facilitating an awesome reiki healing.

Take heart. Marketing does not have to be something you dread, so don’t think of it in a negative way. Marketing is nothing more than getting the word out that you have something of value to share with the world. In fact, one effective way to market is in part a type of service itself. It’s called content marketing and it works.

I’m not just telling you this because content creation is one of the services I provide (though, of course, I won’t complain if you want to hire me). I’ve gotten more involved in content marketing because my clients want me to help them do it. They want to do it because it works. So I’m sharing this with you so you can do it too!

What is Content Marketing? 

Content marketing is a way to stay connected online with people who care about what you do. It’s not cold calling or spamming; it’s giving current and prospective students or clients information they need or want. That doesn’t simply mean giving away your services for free, though. Content marketing is about establishing relationships through writing.

And it’s awesome!

How Can Well-being Professionals Use Content Marketing?

It’s simple. Create content and share it online. Well, it’s not exactly simple, but it is fun. You get to create content that shares something of value that you are passionate about and then find ways to get it in front of people who want it and can benefit from it.

Getting your content out there is a subject for another post. For now, let’s look at the different types of content you can—and should—create and distribute.

5 Types of Content Marketing Pieces for Marketing Your Yoga or Well-being Service

1. A Blog

As I’ve taken more content marketing workshops and webinars and read more and more books and articles about it, one thing comes up over and over again. You must have a blog! Websites with blogs are much more likely to be noticed, visited, visited again and again, and trusted.

If you don’t have a blog, the first thing you need to do is create one! Then decide what kind of content you will post, who will write the content, and how you will get that content distributed to people who will eventually become your students and clients (hint: you can do this via social media).

The most important things to know about using your blog as a marketing tool are you must update it regularly and you must make your posts search engine friend; that is, you must understand how people search for content and how to write yours so it’s more likely to be found and appreciated.

Don’t know how to do that? Don’t worry. There are people who can help you.

2. A Newsletter

In a survey conducted in 2012, more than half of business owners said that their newsletter was the best content marketing tool they used. If you subscribe to newsletters, you’ve probably noticed many of them contain the same, or same type, of content as blogs. The difference is the content is delivered to your inbox rather than you having to go to the blog to read it.

Newsletters are best for practitioners and teachers who often have events to publicize or new classes or services to announce. They also work well for sharing larger industry trends. For example, if you are a nutritionist, you might distribute a newsletter to explain a health study that’s been all over the news recently, or if you are a yoga instructor, your newsletter might highlight the life of a guru whose birthday is happening this month. Newsletters are also great tools for sharing holiday recipes or tips for developing a home yoga practice.

3. Free Guides, Special Reports, or White Papers

​Sometimes known as hub pieces, guides, reports, and white papers are usually longer pieces that readers can turn to often as a resource. Offering a free guide or report to readers serves a few valuable purposes. First, it puts your content (and you) in readers’ hands for an extended period of time. Second, it positions you as an expert in your niche. Third, it’s a great tool you can build other campaigns around. You can write blogs and articles related to the content in your giveaway piece, or you can create a series of emails.

Which brings us to the fourth type of marketing content.

4. Emails

There are different ways to use email for content marketing. Industry experts say the most effective is a drip series. A drip series is a series of emails sent out over a certain period of time to share information related to a certain topic.

A yoga teacher might do a drip series on the chakras, for example, while a nutritionist could write a series of emails giving people tips for lowering blood sugar or understanding essential nutrients in more depth. A health coach might do a series on natural ways to manage stress.

​As I mentioned, a drip series is often tied to a longer guide or special report created as a giveaway for anyone interested in your work.

5. Social Media Updates

​Facebook shares, Tweets, Linked In updates and the like are also important parts of an overall content marketing strategy. Which platform or platforms you choose depends on the type of service you offer.

While social media content is usually easiest and quickest to create, it won’t do much good alone. The purpose of social media marketing is to develop and maintain relationships. You want to connect with people who visit your website, read your blog, or request your content. And the purpose of having people do all of those things is to nurture relationships that turn leads into clients or students.

Since the vast majority of people use some form of social media on a regular basis, you’ll have access to the largest pool of potential students or clients via social media platforms.

Other Types of Content Marketing to Consider

You don’t have to limit your marketing to content people read. Videos, podcasts, and infographics are also great tools, though they may be more difficult and costly to create.

Videos are especially good tools for yoga instructors. You can create a short piece to demonstrate a series of poses or to highlight your teaching style. If you are a health coach, you can create a podcast or infographic to explain a concept or give health tips.

Overwhelmed? Don’t Be

As you can see, there are lots of ways to use content marketing to stay connected with people who may be interested in taking your classes, hiring you as a consultant, or using your well-being service.

Do you need to use them all to be successful? No, you don’t. Pick one or two to start and focus your efforts there. Before you know it, your network of readers, followers, and colleagues will grow.
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You never know when one of these leads will become a paying student or client, but until then, enjoy the journey of sharing what you have to offer and getting the word out about how you can help others live a better life.
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Would you like more help with content marketing for your well-being business? Join my email list and receive access to my free guide that will help you start editing your own work today!