ConsciousOnlineMarketing ( fortheModernH ealer · ConsciousOnlineMarketing (fortheModernH ealer ((Best(Practice(Tips(for(Yoga(Teachers(and(Natural(Medicine(Practitioners(((AngelaHammond

Conscious Online Marketing for the Modern Healer

Best Practice Tips for Yoga Teachers and Natural Medicine Practitioners

Angela Hammond

DISCLAIMER

All material in this book is provided for your information only, and may not be construed as direct instruction. No action or inaction should be taken based solely on the contents of this information. Instead, readers should consult the appropriate professionals on

any matter relating to their marketing or business.

The information and opinions expressed here are believed to be accurate, based on the best judgment of the author, and readers who fail to consult with the appropriate professionals assume the

risk of any losses that are incurred. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions.

Copyright © 2014 Angela Hammond

Published by: Mind Heart Publishing Edited by: Gitana Proietti-‐Scifoni of whichword.com.au

All rights reserved.

PREFACE With years of client questions came the realisation that for a lot of people, online marketing can be too overwhelming and confusing. It takes over their business and leaves them feeling drained and with little time to focus on what they love doing. So I set out to demystify this art form and to correct any bad habits that may have formed over the years. Many of the marketing best practice tips contained in this book are achievable by anyone setting up their own business. All it takes is a little reading time, a few mindful moments to gain clarity, some experimentation and tapping into your wealth of passion. The tips contained in this book present a new perspective for you to consider. Some may work for you, others may not. This book doesn’t guarantee success, but it does promise to get you thinking about your approach to online marketing and its importance for your business. Shining a light on your online marketing in turn shines a light on your services. Your community will take notice that you’re presenting yourself in a new, confident way and new clients will be attracted to what you offer and will walk through the door. The modern healer is a much needed service in this age of chronic

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conditions, stress and depression. It’s so important that the modern healer gets their services out to the people who need them most. Online marketing done well helps to achieve this. More empowered, knowledgeable and skillful healers taking the world by storm, in a conscious and mindful way… that’s my dream. You, the modern healer, will feel empowered so that you can empower others. Welcome modern healer. We have a bit to get through on this online marketing journey, but know that you’re not alone and that you will find the clarity and inspiration you’re looking for. Angela Hammond

CONTENTS

Introduction 8

Marketing Essentials 14

Finding your Niche 16 Define your Business Avatar 19 Be Friends with Marketing 22

Website Elements 24

Domain Name 25 Website Hosting 26 Logo 27 Photos 29 Website Content 31 Website Platforms 34 Putting it all Together 44 Your Voice via Blogging 47 Multimedia 51 Passive Income Anyone? 53

Email Marketing 55

Newsletter Content 56 The Call to Action 57 Collecting Emails 58 Unsubscribes 61 Email Newsletter Providers 62

Social Media 64 Facebook 65 Instagram 70 Pinterest 75 Twitter 77 The Importance of Planning 79 How to use Social Media Effectively 82


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Search Engine Optisimation (SEO) 84

Fresh Content 85 Links to your Website 87 Identifying your Keywords 89 Keeping Track of your Progress 93

Conscious Online Marketing: Own It! 97

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book wouldn’t be a reality without my years of experience working with some of the most inspiring clients a woman can have. My passionate clients are the reason my business exists and the reason my business has shaped into what it is today. I feel so inspired and thankful that I’m able to bring my web design and online marketing skills together within the healing world, embodying yoga not just on the mat, but also in business… integrating my knowledge and experience. A thank you for the motivation, inspiration and gentle nudges in the right direction from Michael Hetherington, author, yogi and my partner in life. A thank you to Gitana Proietti-‐Scifoni of Which Word for taking the time to lovingly edit this book and for being a true friend and fellow entrepreneur.

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INTRODUCTION The conscious online marketer is educated in the workings of online marketing and engages with it without compromising integrity or passion. There are no hard sells. There are no aggressive, pushy tactics or desperation in the approach. There’s a wholesome drive to create an online community of like-‐minded people and to have your soulful messages reach across the globe. There’s a natural style and beauty in your online marketing and your passion will resonate throughout your offerings. That’s conscious online marketing. It’s letting go of the need and desperation for money; instead it’s about a real connection with

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your inner voice. Be a conscious online marketer and be open to the possibilities it will bring. Let go of limitations and embrace all of what’s possible. This book is my inner voice wanting to share best practice tips that will help you on your way. Regardless of what stage you’re on with your healing business, there’s always room for inner reflection and finding a deeper connection with your community. Tap into the passion that brought you to your business; that real drive to offer healing techniques to the modern world that’s full of disharmony and discontent, in whatever format it may be manifesting. This book will assist you in offering your services to more people, to increasing your client base in a good way, using tips that will give you energy, rather than depleting it. Let’s say that you have been in business for a while. You are good at what you do and there’s no limit to the passion you have. You love it when a new client walks in the door and they trust in your knowledge and experience (even if it’s limited). Like the feeling you get when a new yoga student is doing their first downward facing dog, that you’re the teacher they chose to show them this transformational yoga pose… it’s invigorating and feeds your passion to attract more new students. There’s no limit to your passion. You have the skills and the drive to follow your dream and you love what you do. This will attract a certain number of clients. Your passion is an attractor field and people will come. These people, if your yoga class or treatment blows them away, will tell their friends and then they will sign up with you. Word of mouth is such a valuable form of marketing and really needs to be at the forefront of your marketing strategy. The good thing with this type of marketing is that you just need to be consistently good at what you do and word of mouth will happen.


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There’s no need to be pushy or desperate for your clients to tell their friends. Just do what comes naturally to you and it will happen. Word of mouth and your passion will bring people to you. These forms of marketing will provide treatment bookings during the week, but there are still a lot of gaps in your schedule. You will have a few students attend your yoga classes, but your yoga studio space can fit in a lot more students who are eager to learn from you. Those gaps and empty spaces are the difference between paying your expenses for the month or having to cut expenses out of your lifestyle to make ends meet. Whatever stage of the journey you’re at, you will begin to realise that aside from your qualification and a bit of experience, your passion and word of mouth will only get you so far. You need other skills, skills that you have yet to master or skills that may be a bit rusty and no longer working for you. These skills will get you out there and in the minds of your target market. They will help you reach beyond just word of mouth and will attract a larger number of people needing your help with their health and wellbeing. These skills allow you to share your passion to these people. This book offers conscious best practice tips that will leave the spam-‐type tips at the door. The tips presented here are ways to make you feel more engaged and energised by the community you’ll be working to create. Some tips will be a light-‐bulb moment for you and you’ll wish you had known about it from the very beginning. Other tips may not suit you and that’s okay. This is all about finding your own path with online marketing. This book is an invitation to look deeper into what’s possible, to start implementing what serves you and to let go of what doesn’t.

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Online marketing is quite a broad term, but does well to encompass all facets of marketing on the internet. Online marketing includes having a website, using social media, sending professional email newsletters and engaging in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to help your rankings in Google. More than that though, it also includes publishing articles on industry-‐rich websites to reach your broader audience. That’s a big list of areas. It can feel overwhelming with the amount of activity that needs to go into these areas, but with some dedicated time each week and a good forward plan, it’ll start working for you. The more energy you put into your business, not just into your clients, the more energy you will get back. That’s the law of nature. Energy feeds energy. What about non-‐online marketing techniques? These too are important and should be invested in to produce professional marketing items to help showcase your business. Invest in professional signage for your clinic or yoga studio. Invest in a graphic designer to create your logo and professional and visually engaging print items such as a business card, flyers, postcards, etc. You may look into having an ad placed in an industry specific magazine or in a local newspaper… BUT weigh up the options. Investing in an ad in a hard-‐copy publication is costly and won’t necessarily bring you the return you deserve. That money could be better spent on someone putting together a social media campaign for you, or into promoting your services on Facebook. Popular advertising strategies of the past can still be worthwhile and you can certainly experiment with them. Always ask your new clients how they found out about you and your services so that you can collect valuable statistics on which marketing strategies are working for you. You may be surprised by the results.


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Searching on Google In this book, I’ll put forward some tips and strategies that you’ll want to research further. As this book isn’t a how to guide, I invite you to search on Google to find specific how to guides on implementing the tips. The trick with searching for things on Google is knowing which search terms to use. Often we search on Google and it’s still impossible to find the information we’re looking for. My tip here is to utilise the bolded headings throughout this book as part of the search terms you use in Google. For example, in the section about Google Analytics, you may need more information about how to actually go about linking Google Analytics to your website. Therefore, use adding Google Analytics to my website as your search term. You may want to be even more specific by narrowing down your search results and use adding Google Analytics to WordPress (if you are indeed using a WordPress website). There’s a world of free information out there and it all comes down to the right search terms to gain access to it. This book will make it easier for you to gain that access. Knowing When to Outsource Let’s face it, you’re a busy entrepreneur who is passionate about your healing modality and you may not have the time to invest in online marketing. If you do have the money to invest though, know that there are other skilled entrepreneurs out there who can help. You don’t have to carry the online marketing load yourself. You can save time and energy by getting a web designer to design, create and build your website for you. You can even employ them

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to update it for you. With the growing boom of social media, there are now many professionals in the industry to help you map out your social media plan. The same goes with your email newsletters. Weigh up how much time and energy you want to spend on online marketing against how much it costs to pay someone else to do it for you. Rather than providing you with price estimates in this book, I encourage you to contact a few skilled entrepreneurs and ask for a quote. You don’t need to follow through with it. It’s just good to know how much it costs if you’re ever feeling overwhelmed by creating your website or drafting your email newsletter. If you don’t know who to contact, ask your friends on social media if they have any recommendations. This book will focus on online marketing and all its components, giving you insights into why they are important and why they can work for you. There will be a number of options for each online marketing component so you can decide which will feel right for you. As with your skills, whether it be yoga teaching, massage or naturopathy, a holistic approach will get to the heart of someone’s imbalance and a deep level of healing can occur. So too with online marketing: a holistic approach suited to you and your business will bring about the best and lasting results.


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MARKETING ESSENTIALS When you first had the breakthrough thought of becoming a yoga teacher or natural medicine practitioner, you probably didn’t think that marketing would be such a big chunk of running your business. Chances are that even the word ‘marketing’ makes you shudder with dread and you’re tempted to walk away from this book because you can’t think of anything more boring to read about! When you first started the training in your field, I’m sure your teacher encouraged you to approach your field with a beginner’s mind, to leave aside all your past thoughts and opinions and to really approach it with an open mind. Here, I’m asking you to do

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the same. Approach online marketing with a beginner’s mind, be open to the possibility of knowing your ideal client with a deeper understanding. Be open to the possibility of narrowing in on what you are passionate about in your field, to find your niche so that you can stand out from the crowd. Be open to attracting your ideal client again and again. Delving into the world of your ideal client and your niche can be such a defining moment for your business. When we start out with our business, our passion is overflowing to the point where we want to share our skills with everyone. We are willing to lower our prices just to get people in the door. We are willing to go 30 minutes over the allotted time to share our wealth of information to anyone who will listen. This kind of energy is great and it really highlights our passion. In yoga, it is referred to as karma yoga, to give of ourselves to others without wanting anything in return. To be of selfless service to others. Karma yoga does have its place in your business, just as solicitors offer their services pro bono for clients who can’t afford to pay them. There is a difference though between setting aside a certain amount of time for pro bono work and with giving so much of yourself to everyone who works in the door. In the end, we as yoga teachers and natural medicine practitioners are in business to firstly offer our skills and knowledge to help others and to secondly make an income from the exchange of these skills. Before launching into online marketing for your business, there are some key marketing areas to look at first. It’s important to have a solid, clear idea of who you are marketing to so that you don’t have to backtrack later on. You may consider this to the boring bits of marketing, the who, what, when, where, why and


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how of your business. Trust me though, it’ll come in handy when you’re posting on your social media platforms and when you’re sending out your heartfelt email newsletters. It’ll help big time to know who you’re writing to. It’ll make the process so much easier, your energy will be spent efficiently and, in turn, you will be rewarded.

Finding your Niche Spend some time thinking about some well-‐known and successful yoga studios or natural medicine practitioners in your local area. Spend some time looking at their website or other marketing materials. Do this activity without judgment. Refrain from thinking that you would do things differently to them, nor have feeling of envy and jealousy. Have an open heart and an open mind and start to identify how they differentiate themselves from other businesses in your local area. In the yoga world, perhaps a business has chosen a particular style of yoga to focus on when offering yoga classes and designing their marketing tools. Rather than a particular yoga style, maybe they have chosen to focus on a particular attribute that yoga will offer clients who attend their classes. In my local area, there’s a fairly new yoga studio that, rather than following the trend of most new studios in the area and offering hot and power yoga, they have opted to focus their marketing on the fact that yoga can help quieten the mind and bring peace and calm into daily life. The studio still offers stronger vinyasa yoga classes, but also offers meditation classes and yin yoga. With that differentiating focus, the studio also attracts a different kind of clientele, mainly people who want to de-‐stress, slow down and recuperate any injuries that they may have. The owner of the yoga

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studio has been rewarded with a great number of yoga clients already and shows that you don’t have to follow the latest trends to succeed. The same can be true with natural medicine practitioners. Perhaps there’s a particular area of disharmony that a therapist chooses to work with and specialise in. For example, an acupuncturist might specialise in infertility. The acupuncturist will still treat clients with other disharmonies, but on their website and other marketing material, you will see a strong focus on the specialisation. So rather than trying to encompass everyone and every aspect of your industry, start thinking of your ideal client and what that ideal client represents. Maybe it’s a style of yoga that ignites your inner fire and you can’t wait to share it with others. Maybe it’s a particular feeling that your treatment or yoga class cultivates within your client that you want to bring to the forefront of your marketing. Maybe it’s working with a particular disharmony that draws you to specialise in this area, particularly if you have suffered from the disharmony yourself.


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// MINDFUL MOMENT //

With these thoughts in mind, take some time to contemplate on the following activities. It’s beneficial during this process to have a journal or somewhere other than loose pieces of paper to write down these ideas. Alternatively you can use the Notes pages at the back of this book.

• List three top services that you offer, the things that you really like doing.

• List some special qualities that clients have told you about how they felt during or after their treatment or class.

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Define your Business Avatar ‘Target market’ and ‘ideal clients’ are terms that can make us cringe, even me. Sure, they sum up so much about who we want to work with, but have been over-‐used and have lost their potency. So, let’s use ‘avatar’ as a synonym for marketing jargon. ‘Avatar’ will be used throughout this book to sum up the ideal client, the person who you would love to see more and more at your yoga studio or clinic space. You will also have your business avatar in mind when you’re engaging with online marketing. Having an avatar doesn’t mean that your client has to fit your avatar definition exactly or you won’t work with them. Rather, being able to define your avatar helps to give you direction and over time you will notice that your clients will naturally become closer and closer to being your avatar. You’ll still have clients who are outside of your vision and that’s okay. Who is your business avatar? Think about one of your current clients who you love working with, that person who brings a smile to your face when you see their name on your appointment list. That person who has the courage to face their current situation and say, ‘I want to heal and I want to be happy’. Sit with the image of your ideal business avatar. What is their age bracket, their gender, their financial situation? What is their style? This is where it starts to get juicy. What do they like to do on weekends? What do they value in life?


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// MINDFUL MOMENT // With all these questions in mind regarding your business avatar, it’s a perfect time to create a vision board and get it all down on paper. If you’re a word person, take the time now to draw a mind map, defining all aspects of your avatar. If you’re more of a visual person, start grabbing images (either on your computer or use magazines) to create your vision board. Have a go at creating yours first, then have a peak at mine on the next page.

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Here’s my vision board for my business avatar.


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My avatar is a female, who feels empowered with her vision and is clear on her direction. She enjoys being in nature, whether in the park, forest or beach. She loves the community that exists within her industry, whether it be yoga or natural therapies. Her heart is open. She is strong willed and flexible, with so much to offer the world. She spends time practicing yoga and being out in nature and doesn’t want to spend too much time on the computer. She’d rather focus on what she enjoys doing and knows that outsourcing some aspects of her business is a good practice and she’s in a financial position to do so. If your vision board is on paper, put it up on the wall in your office area or a place where you do a lot of your computer/marketing work. If your vision board was created on the computer, set it as your desktop wallpaper for a while to help inspire and attract more of your business avatar into your life. Being able to define your business avatar will help greatly throughout this book so that you can be more direct and clear in your online marketing. Always have your desired audience in mind.

Be Friends with Marketing Like it or not, marketing is always a work in progress for your business and the same is definitely true with online marketing. It’s never complete and never finished. When we come to terms with that, we’re more inclined to be friends with marketing. Shift your view of marketing from a ‘necessary evil’ to that of a good friend who you enjoy spending time with. When we shift the way we view marketing, it can be fun, engaging and highly rewarding. It can be ‘time well spent’ and it can be a

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powerful outlet for our creativity and insights. Share your passions and business-‐related thoughts via online marketing the way you do with your friends. Allow your friendship with marketing to change with time. Allow it to evolve and to be molded by your clients’ needs and by your passion. Nothing in life is static. Everything changes and the same should occur with your marketing. With these marketing essentials in mind, let us explore the best practice tips for your website, email newsletters and social media. Be open to the tips and remember, take note and implement the tips that sing to your heart and let go of the ones that don’t. Create your own version of conscious online marketing.


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WEBSITE ELEMENTS Your website is at the forefront of all your online marketing. Your email newsletters and social media all point to your website as the home of the bulk of your information and services. Therefore, your website needs to showcase all that you have to offer and in a way that instantly connects with your business avatar. A website is complex coming-‐together of many important elements and it’s important that you have an understanding of them. Whether you already have a website or are in the early stages of developing one, it’s valuable to know some of the

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terminology that gets used on the internet or by your website designer. Some of the elements discussed in this section are very necessary for your website to exist on the internet, such as your domain name and website hosting. Other elements are presented as options to help your website be more engaging and valuable to your audience.

Domain Name A domain name is your website URL, “www.businessname.com”, and it is such an important asset for your business. Take the time to choose your domain name wisely, as it’ll play an integral part in how your potential clients find you and remember you. Usually your domain name will be your business name… if it’s available. If someone already owns your desired URL, you’ll need to be creative. What’s the next best domain name for you, without being too abstract? Have a search of available domain names through a domain name provider website, such as www.godaddy.com. Because I’m located in Australia, it’s common for URLs to have a .com.au extension and these need to be registered with a company located in Australia, such as www.netregistry.com.au or www.webcity.com.au. This is the same if you want your URL to be applicable for the country you’re located in. The extension of your domain name is also up to you. Choosing .com or .com.au as your ending can influence the number of visitors to your website, with the .com extension having more global appeal. If your business is more of a local service, consider


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having .com.au as your extension so that people in Australia know that you’re local and a registered business. If you envisage your business to have a more global reach one day, consider going with .com or similar. Try to keep your domain name short and sweet. Your domain name will also be the basis of your professional email address. For example, a short email address is better when having to place it on your business card. An email address such as [email protected] takes up a lot of space on marketing material and is harder for your clients to remember.

Website Hosting Think of website hosting as your annual rental fee for having your website live on the internet. This rental fee includes a lot of services to have your website up and running and fully functional. Your domain name provides your online identity, but your website hosting makes it all come to life. Depending on which website platform you will be using, you may or may not need to purchase your own website hosting (see the Website Platforms section in this Chapter). Your website hosting allows you to:

• store your website files, photos and other images that are used to create your website;

• keep a database of your content if you are using a Client Management System (CMS), such as WordPress; and

• create and host your business email addresses.

Make sure you get the website hosting account that is suitable for

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the website you want. If you are wanting to use WordPress, make sure your web hosting allows for databases. If you envisage your website having lots of traffic, make sure you have the bandwidth to allow for this. If you want to have a lot of content filled with images and self-‐hosted videos, make sure your disk space allows for it, or you can always upgrade your hosting account down the track. Your web hosting account and domain name can be purchased from the same provider at the same time, which will mean that they will be automatically linked to each other. If you purchase these elements separately and from different providers, you’ll need to link them. This can be easily achieved by editing the nameservers on your domain name to be that of your web hosting account. Chances are that your web hosting company will provide you with a tutorial on how to do this. If it seems a bit daunting, ask a website designer or developer to do it for you.

Logo You may already have a logo designed and ready to go or you may be starting out from scratch in this department. As with everything, there’s quite a difference in price with getting a logo. You could opt for a graphic designer to create a logo that includes an icon to symbolise you and your business. Or your logo could simply be your business name (or indeed your own name) in a font that suits your style. Depending on your budget, there’s always a solution to suit you and you can always upgrade the design once you’re more established in your business. Keep in mind though that when your logo changes, so too should all of your marketing material to keep the consistency; this costs additional money. Ideally, with a firm


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business outlook in place and money to invest in your business, take the time when you’re first starting out to get your professional logo that so beautifully represents all that you have to offer. It will ignite a sense of pride in your business that you will want to share with others. This is the power of a logo, so much more than just an icon or a set of words. If you do decide to get a logo designed professionally, make sure that the graphic designer you use provides you with the following files:

• Full colour logo in an artwork file. The file name should be either .eps or .ai. Because you have paid the graphic designer, remember that you own this artwork, not your graphic designer.

• High resolution JPG and PNG versions of your logo. The JPG file is always handy as it is a ‘flat’ (meaning you can’t edit the logo elements) version of your logo on a solid background. The PNG file is also a ‘flat’ version, but with a transparent background.

Once you have your logo designed, obviously it will take pride and place at the top of your website design. As a web designer and speaking with a few colleagues in the field, there is a common request from clients to have their logo big on their website. The bigger the better. Except, bigger isn’t always better. Less can be so much more. Your logo is important, but it isn’t everything and the information contained in your website is often more important. An appropriately sized logo at the top left-‐hand corner of your website is enough for recognition from visitors to your website to

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know who you are. The logo doesn’t need to take up a lot of the screen space. Let your banner image or an intro statement about your business take up this space.

Photos As with your logo, there are many options for photos that you add to your website. If you have the money to invest in this, hire a professional photographer to take photos of your business. If you don’t have the money available, ask your friends on social media if anyone with photography skills is willing to trade their services for private yoga or natural therapy sessions. You’ll be surprised just how many of your friends will be willing to help out. If you would prefer to use stock photography to convey the feeling that someone will get from one of your treatments, spend some time on a stock photography website to choose the best ones for you. Stock photography can be more expensive than you might think. Sometimes it pays to join the mailing lists of some stock photography websites so that you know when they are having special deals or introductory offers. It may go without saying, but it may need to be said. Do not copy and paste photos from another website and use them as your own. Other businesses’ website photos and imagery are copyrighted and are not free to use anywhere, unless the website owner gives you permission. If you are borrowing an image for a blog post, be sure to credit the original source, with a link leading back to the original website.


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-‐-‐ Yoga Teacher Note -‐-‐ If you are a yoga teacher, your website photos could be of you in a variety of yoga poses in a park, on the beach or in a studio space. Make sure you mix up the variety of these yoga poses by having some showing the extent of your flexibility and strength and some that show a more gentler, beginners side to yoga. Have your target market and ideal client in mind when choosing the best photos to showcase on your website. Being a yoga teacher, you naturally want to attract new students to come along to classes. Have a beginner’s mind and think about what attracts a new student to yoga. Photos of advanced yoga poses could leave a potential new student feeling intimidated and fearful of being laughed at with their limited ability. Photos of gentle, beginner-‐friendly poses on the other hand, can invoke an inviting, friendly tone to a new student. Therefore, choose your photos wisely get a wide variety of photos taken so that you have database of quality photos to choose from. -‐-‐ Natural Medicine Practitioner Note -‐-‐ As a natural medicine practitioner, you may want to include photos of your clinic space. Another good idea is to select photos (either your own or stock photos) that invoke the feeling that your clients receive when they attend your treatments. Feelings such as relaxed, calm, peace, pain-‐free, transformed, and the like. Photos can represent your message and the quality of your services in an instant, so take the time to think about the photos you choose to showcase your business.

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Profile Photos I am a big believer of using profile photos to give website visitors a visual taste of the person they will be working with. A photo speaks a thousand words about a person’s energy and can create an instant connection. This is marketing at its best. Refrain from using photos of yourself (or of your colleagues) of advanced yoga photos for profile photos. With these types of photos, it is hard to make that important connection and it really can be a marketing opportunity gone amiss. A profile headshot may seem old fashioned or outdated, but it works. Having a photo that shows a clear unhidden view of a person’s face is exactly what’s needed to make that valuable connection. The energy of person can beam from their eyes and smile and makes you want to smile back at them. If you have teachers or therapists working at your business, ask them for a headshot photo to use on your website. If they don’t have one, next time you see them, take the time to get a good photo of them, which can be your smart phone in good lighting and a nice backdrop.

Website Content Often it can be hard to write about ourselves and our services. It can be hard to find the right language or tone to convey our passion and our style. Thankfully it’s our clients that can give us the best insight into what to write about and what information to provide on our websites. If you do need assistance, know that you can always engage the services of a professional website copywriter.


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Start with a basic menu for your website. You’ll be needing a homepage, an about page, a contact page and a services page. If you’re a yoga teacher, you’ll also want a timetable page and details about your class styles and prices. With this basic outline, you can start to make dot point notes about the content to expand upon.

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// MINDFUL MOMENT // Sit down with a pen and paper and start making notes about the following questions. Your services…

• List your three top services (that is, if you have more than one). What is it about your top services that make you stand out from your competitors?

• What benefits will your clients receive after a session with you? Your clients have probably told you numerous times the qualities that they like your in services or in you personally.

• What are the top five questions that you commonly get asked by your clients? Maybe you are able to write more than five… go ahead!

• Who is your business avatar? Rather than shying away from being honest about who you want to work with, be confident to define it in a couple of sentences.

About you …

• What inspires you to offer your services? What drives you to get up each day and look forward to meeting with your clients?

• What are three quirky things that you love about your life?

Contact …

• If you have a physical street location for your business, where can your clients park?


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• How would you prefer to be contacted? If you’d rather not be contacted by phone, choose not to include your phone number.

Once you take the time to firstly write dot points about the above questions and then start embellishing on them, you’ll notice that your website content just became juicy.

Website Platforms Once you have gathered your website elements, such as your content, logo and photos, it’s a good time to get started on building your website. You could be looking at producing your first ever website or planning on a web design revamp of your current one. Either way, know that there are options available to you to either launch into this area yourself, or to engage the services of a web designer. It all depends on your level of computer skills, your design sense and the time you have to learn a new system. With some of the options given to you in this section, know that you don’t need a university degree in computer programming. It always helps to feel comfortable and confident on a computer so that your learning curve isn’t an un-‐climbable mountain. There will be times of frustration (I can attest to that, even with years of experience behind me!). The options presented below do come with predesigned themes or templates so that you don’t necessarily need to be a graphic designer to have a visually-‐pleasing design. The theme or template you choose may not have the colors or visuals that represent your business style, so you’ll need to make modifications. This can be the time consuming part of building your website. Getting it to look and feel professional, engaging and embodying all that you

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have to offer can require a skilled web designer to tweak the design. There are literally so many options in the website world for how to develop your online presence. I want to present some good arguments for and against the main options available to you. In the end it will come down to your budget, your computer savviness and your required website functionality to determine which option will suit you best. It’s good to get a wider perspective with these things so that you can then make a more educated decision. Better that than deciding to change your website platform after a few months if you realise it wasn’t quite what you were wanting. So before we go any further, it’s good to get a grasp on the functionality you’re wanting in your website. You need to draw upon your current website needs and the vision you have for your business.


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// EXAMPLE //

Marissa of www.warriorandgoddess.com.au

When Marissa came to me with her business idea, I could tell she had a strong vision of her life calling. She knew what she needed to offer in terms of her service and knew that it would be of great value to others. And it was time to launch her healing business online. We chatted for a good while about her vision and what she required from her website. We discussed what she wanted on her website when it was launched, such as an online appointment-‐booking function, a blog and a video or two. We also discussed which technical elements she would love to implement in a year or two, such as a subscription area for members. Rather than suggesting a website option based on her initial requirements, I used the whole vision to form my recommendations. I made sure that the recommendation could incorporate the added functionalities later on, so that Marissa wouldn’t need to change her website platform in a year or two. And the Warrior&Goddess website was launched. I love that Marissa treats her website as forever a work-‐in-‐progress, that her website can evolve over time, that it accommodates for changes in her vision and leaps of faith.

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// MINDFUL MOMENT // Have a think about the vision you have for your business and the ease of operation you see. How does your website help you achieve this? Use the table below to help shape your website vision.

Website Functions Current need? In your vision?

Blog

Online Shop for Class Passes

Online Shop for digital products

Appointment system including payments

Subscription Area for streaming digital products

Responsive Layout Layout changes depending on what screen/device it is being viewed on. It is IMPORTANT that your website can do this.


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Now that you have a few key functionalities in mind for your website, it’s time to explore the options available to you with your website platform. The options given in this section all have a feature for you to be able to update your content yourself. So if you opt for a web designer to design and layout the initial stages of your website, you’ll then have the freedom to get in there yourself and evolve the website with time. You will be able to blog without having to pay a web designer to add your blog post for you. You may not have the capacity to change the design, but content, yes. With some of the options below, you’ll even be able to set up your website yourself. This largely depends on your level of computer savviness and being able to navigate around modern internet techniques. It will also depend on your eye-‐for-‐design skills and how professional you want your website to look and feel. All the platforms below come with predesigned templates to at least help you on your way. Once set up, any of these website platforms are accessible by the internet. This means that you are able to access, edit and publish your content from any internet-‐connected computer anywhere in the world. Let’s divide the main website development platforms into two groups: Self-‐hosted Platforms and Hosted Platforms. Hosted vs Self-‐hosted Platforms Think of hosted platforms as the franchise business model, such as Bikram yoga or your favourite health food chain. With the franchise business model, you gain a lot. All your marketing, systems and products are already thought out for you. All you

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have to do is put it all into motion. The downside of this though is that you have limited freedom to move outside of the franchise model. You have signed a contract that limits what you can do in terms of marketing, the products you sell and how you create these products. Like all business models, franchising has its positives and negatives and in the right circumstances, it can be the best model for you. Hosted platforms are similar to this. Examples of hosted platforms include Squarespace, wordpress.com (wordpress.org is different and will be discussed in the next section), Weebly and Shopify. These platforms provide you with a valuable service and can be just what you’re looking for, as long as you also understand their limitations. Hosted platforms provide you with a quick and easy way to develop your website, without needing your own hosting or the need to upload the platform’s backend coding. That’s all included with the service. The platform will come with a variety of website designs and layouts to choose from and you can add, edit and delete content and photos as you please. The platform will maintain the backend code for you and will regularly back up your files and database on your behalf. Included in your subscription fee (the price varies, depending on the platform you choose) is access to their support team, at no extra cost, as long as the problem or query is within the platform’s capabilities. A lot of the functionality that you’re looking for in a website will be on offer to you, such as a blog, an online shop capability, password-‐protected pages and email newsletter opt-‐in partnerships.


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As with franchises, hosted platforms do limit you with what you can do and can favour some partnerships over others. One such example is Squarespace partnering up with Stripe (an alternative to PayPal) to enable their online shopping functionality on your website. There is no other option, you can use Stripe (which has limited availability around the world) or program your online shop manually. It doesn’t allow for their beautiful shopping carts to connect with PayPal, Bitcoin or any other payment gateway. When it comes to adding complicated functionality, such as subscription-‐based online courses, advanced blogging functions and storage requirements, hosted platforms can be limiting. It’s recommended to have your bigger vision of your website in mind when choosing the right path to go down. One year into your business and you may find that your chosen platform won’t let you achieve the next step you require… it can also be difficult to migrate your website onto a different platform. If you are unsure whether your hosted platform in mind can handle the functionality you require, ask them. Their sales support team are more than happy to answer any number of questions you have about their product. Ask them anything without feeling that your question is silly or uneducated. That’s what they’re there for! Better that than investing in the platform and then realising it’s just not right for you. Hosted platforms host your website code files for you but some of them don’t provide you with a professional email address. If this is something that you’re wanting, to be professional (who doesn’t?), then you’ll need to invest in email hosting separately from your hosted website subscription. Email hosting is cheaper than website hosting and most website hosting companies provide this service as well.

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Hosted platforms will usually have a free trial period, so make good use of that and you can usually pull out of the subscription at any time, but with that action, your website will no longer exist. Make your decision wisely.


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// EXAMPLE //

Narelle of www.embodiedterrain.com

Narelle approached me towards the end of 2013 to help redesign her existing website. She had done some preliminary research herself and was really excited to have her website built using Squarespace. Based on her website requirements, I chose a suitable Squarespace theme to work with. The theme made it easy to have the desired layout Narelle was wanting and it gave me a solid foundation to begin the styling process. Narelle’s website is now a beautiful showcase of her embodied photography and it does well to marry up her services. Squarespace is evolving their platform all the time and adding improvements and functionalities. Even though there are a couple of limitations at the moment with her Squarespace website, Narelle is thrilled with her online presence and with the level of the support she receives. Self-‐hosted Platforms Hosted platforms can be metaphorically linked with franchises and self-‐hosted platforms are similar to that of running your very own business. You have the potential freedom to create a website of your choosing and you’re only really limited by your imagination. As with a business, you need professionals along the way to help you set things up, such as an accountant and a solicitor. So to with self-‐hosted platforms. These platforms can be quite complicated to setup and you’re more than likely to need the help of a website designer or developer. The self-‐hosted platform options include wordpress.org, Drupal and Joomla. As WordPress is the most well-‐known out of these, I’ll

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use this name throughout this next section, but it’s good to be aware that other alternatives exist. WordPress, and its alternatives, are free, open source platforms that require you to purchase your own website hosting (hence the term, ‘self-‐hosted’). Wikipedia cites ‘free and open source software’ as:

Free and open-‐source software (FOSS) is computer software that can be classified as both free software and open source software. That is, anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.

WordPress needs you to purchase a hosting account separately. Because of this, you (or rather your web designer), can have access to the full code behind WordPress. You may or may not want to use this access, but it can allow for making any changes within the WordPress framework to suit your needs. And perhaps the downside of having your own hosting account is that you’ll need to maintain (i.e., install new versions of) WordPress yourself or employ your website designer to do it for you. These days, all of the websites I create use WordPress as their foundation. There’s a number of reasons why I choose to work with WordPress, here’s some of them:

• My clients can update their content themselves, albeit with a bit of a learning curve.

• WordPress does blogging really well because that was originally what it was designed to do.


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• Any functionality that my client asks for can be achieved with the use of WordPress plugins (additional functions that you can add to the foundation).

• There’s a world full of templates (WordPress calls these themes) to choose from, BUT not all are created equally so it can take time to find the good ones.

Having a wordpress.org website usually requires a web designer or developer to upload your website’s code files onto your hosting account. If you are highly competent on computers you may be able to do this yourself. It’s important to back up your database regularly, which can be achieved by installing a plugin to do this on your behalf. Every so often it’s also important to update the WordPress files as the core foundation is regularly being improved and becoming more and more safe against being hacked. As with hosted platforms, there are positives and negatives of investing time and money in self-‐hosted platforms. One will suit you more than the other. With your desired website functionalities (both current needs and as part of your vision), you’ll be better equipped to make the best decision for your business.

Putting it all Together So you have chosen the best website platform for you. You have your content, photos and logo and it’s now time to put it all together. With your business avatar in mind, your website needs to flow in a logical and helpful way, without compromising your style, beauty and your passion.

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Call to Action The layout of your website needs to be planned so that there’s a logical sequence of events that your audience will go through to achieve your desired outcome. As with any marketing material, each and every page of your website needs a ‘Call to Action’ and be kind to your audience by making it clear what your Call to Action is. Your Call to Action could be simply a email newsletter opt-‐in box to collect email addresses. It could be a ‘Register Now’ button at the bottom of your event page. It could be a short list of related blog posts that your audience will enjoy reading. All of these Call to Actions are aimed at making your website engaging, logical and enjoyable to spend time browsing. The longer your business avatar spends on your website, the more likely they are to sign up for a yoga class, event or a treatment. The Layout You’ll notice that most websites follow a similar layout and you might want to use a similar layout for your website, or choose something completely different. Just be sure to make it logical and easy to flow from page to page.


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Here’s a usual layout that you’ll notice being used on so many websites:

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Menu Make your main menu easy to navigate. Name your menu items clearly and include all of the most sought-‐after information. Obvious and clear menu items include Contact, About, Services, Timetable, Events, etc. Your menu items aren’t limited to these and can include sub-‐menu items to give your audience even more navigation tools to find the information they’re looking for. Refrain from having too many menu items though as there are other ways to lead your audience to areas within your website. Sidebar and Footer Use a sidebar and/or your website’s footer section for quick links, such as your latest blog posts, your popular products (if you have an online shop) and upcoming events. Include links to your social media pages and your address as a quick reference if you have a physical shopfront.

Your Voice via Blogging I cannot stress enough how much of an asset a blog is to your website. A blog is your chance to keep your website content fresh and engaging and provides the perfect setting for your creativity, ideas and passion to shine. It is your chance to own your content and the engagement you receive from it. With social media, another company effectively owns your content that you post and you are at the whim of their ever-‐changing policies and visibility algorithms. In comparison, having your very own blog is yours. Everyone who visits your website has a chance to view your blog posts and to leave comments. Again, this is just another way of connecting with your community.


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Using Keywords Your blog is an opportunity to integrate your chosen keywords (see the Search Engine Optimisation section) into your website content. Making your keywords more present on your website helps the Google robots know what your website is about and in turn where it should be placed within relevant Google search results. Ideas for your Blog Content Much like most of your online marketing content, reflect on frequently asked questions that you get asked by your clients. The answers that you give can be embellished upon in your blog posts. You can blog about your favourite therapists who you refer your clients to. You can blog about your weekend activities to inspire your business avatar to get out and enjoy life. You can blog about tips for summer or winter or whichever season or weather you are experiencing. Write about real life and the real you. Feature blogs about the ‘behind-‐the-‐scenes’ of your day-‐to-‐day business life. Write about an inspiring client who perfectly sums up what your passion is all about. Your blog posts can be as creative as you like. As this is your own feed, there are no rules. Be the authentic you that your community loves to be around. Don’t be afraid to invite your peers to guest blog on your website too. They then will be inclined to offer the same invitation in return. Your desired community contains the people you admire as well as people who admire you, so get thinking about what you and your peers want to read about.

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So much potential exists in your blog. Be sure to feature your latest blog posts as quick links on your homepage. Make sure that your website audience can see that you have a blog and that you blog regularly so that they will be enticed to return to your website regularly. How often to Blog There are no rules with how often you should blog, but there are best practice tips, of course. One thing that I prepare my clients about when it comes to having a blog is that it comes with a responsibility. There’s nothing worse than coming across a website with a blog that hasn’t been updated in years. It makes you wonder if the business is still in operation. That’s when a blog can be a dis-‐service to your website. As stated at the start of this book, marketing is never finished and it’s so true when it comes to blogging. I strongly advise you to have a blog and I also strongly advise you to blog at least once a month. Actually once a month is perfect for those of you who don’t want to be writing blog posts all the time. Commit to blog once a month and you’ll begin to notice that blogging is such a valuable outlet for your thoughts and inspirations. I find that sitting down with my old-‐school pen and paper and a cup of tea is the perfect setting for blogging. I think about my most recent client questions and before I know it (usually), a blog post comes to fruition. Once inspired by the words on paper, I’ll transfer them onto my website where they take further shape.


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After you’ve Published your Blog Post Once your blog post is published, it doesn’t end there. You need to announce it to the world! Be proud of the time and energy you invested in your blog post and offer it to others to read. Use social media with an intriguing status update with a relevant photo. Feature it on your next email newsletter with the first couple of sentences and include a Read More link. You’ll notice that all these announcements are leading your audience to your website and that’s your desired Call to Action. Too pushy, you might be saying? Not at all. Always remember that your business avatar wants to hear from you. They want to read the deeper insights you have to offer. Sure, they can get bite-‐sized bits of insights from you via social media. A blog though is something extra special for people to read. So don’t be afraid to shout it out loud that you have published a new one. You can always check your website statistics to see just how many people were excited to read your blog post. Wait a few days before checking Google Analytics (see the Search Engine Optimisation section for more details). You’ll notice a jump in website views on the day of your blog post announcements. You’ll also notice that your audience didn’t just look at your blog post, they browsed through several pages and maybe they even purchased a product or service from you.

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Multimedia Make good use of technology to showcase your healing services. You’d be surprised how easy it actually is these days to record an audio meditation or video. In the right light and a quiet space, our smart phones can be a perfect tool to add content to our website in a fresh way. All it takes is a bit of patience and experimentation and you can use multimedia in a whole number of ways. If you’re serious about producing videos and/or audio tracks to share with your audience, set up accounts with the industry-‐standards for multimedia sharing. These accounts can include a link leading back to your website, which is a valuable commodity. Video Use Vimeo or YouTube to host and share your video content. Work with your business avatar and keywords in mind to produce videos that are engaging and insightful. These videos can either be viewed on the hosting platform or embedded easily into your website. Yoga teachers can create a series of mini yoga classes for treating an array of disharmonies, or each video can break down and analyse each foundational yoga pose. Natural medicine practitioners such as acupuncturists can create a series of videos themed around the seasons and give useful tips and practices to be used for each season. Think outside the box to let your creativity run wild. Often your clients are the very inspiration you need. Their common questions to you are what your videos can answer. Often as a yoga teacher,


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you’ll be asked by your students if you have a yoga DVD so that they can practice with you while they’re on holidays. These are your little clues to what your business avatar wants to receive from you. As video files are often quite large in size, you’re best off using a video platform, such as Vimeo or YouTube, rather than hosting it on your own website. Often your website hosting account won’t allow for such large disk space or bandwidth (traffic volume) so it’s best to use a third party. Again, you can always embed your videos on your website via these third party platforms without using your own website’s bandwidth. You can offer these videos for free and/or as a downloadable or streaming product. (See the next section on Passive Income for more information.) Audio Similar to the Video section, there are platforms available to make it easier for your audience to listen to your audio tracks and it’s another way to interact with your community. These days SoundCloud and Mixcloud are renowned platforms to use to host audio tracks. As audio tracks are much smaller in file size, there’s the option of hosting your tracks on your website. Alternatively, you can embed them on your website via the audio platform you choose to use. Audio tracks that you could create include guided meditations, yoga nidra and general relaxation techniques. The audio track that you will most likely produce will be something that you often speak to your clients.

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As with your videos, your audio tracks can either be offered for free or at a price. And now let’s enter the world of passive income.

Passive Income Anyone? I bet you have all dreamed of making passive income at some stage of your small business lifespan. That income where you put in the effort to create a product, release it into the market and then watch the money roll into your bank account for the unforeseeable future. Heavenly, wouldn't it be? All it takes is firstly having a shift in your way of thinking about money. Often as a healer, our income comes from an hourly rate. This is an acceptable way to receive income, but it can also be limiting to the amount of money we are able to make. As there is a finite amount of hours we can work, there will always be a limit. However, if we produce a product, especially one that is intangible, it opens up our income potential to be limitless. It doesn't have to seem so unattainable and it really is achievable. It all comes back to the motivation and energy required in making the product in the first place. I'm sure if you sat down and brainstormed on it, you can come up with a couple (or multiple) products that your market would be more than happy to spend money on. Whether your product is a book (e-‐book or hard copy), an audio track or a video, you have something to offer your audience. And once you get that light-‐bulb idea in you head, the ball starts rolling. Then it's time to get it out there into the market. You all have a selling machine in your hands... your website. All too often, websites can be a little under utilised and not functioning to their fullest potential. When you have created your


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dream product, use your website to sell it. Set up your PayPal account (or another online payment system of your choice), create your sales page on your website and start telling your community about it. Announce your product via your email newsletters and social media. Share your product mindfully though, without desperation or neediness. Just know that what you are offering will be of great benefit to your market. Your product solves a problem and they will love it. And then let go of all expectations in terms of sales and reviews. You may be surprised by the results. For me, this book, which is available as an e-‐book and as hard copy, is one of my creations for passive income. It took around six months of gradually chipping away at it to get it published. The greatest inspiration for this book was my clients and their questions over the years about online marketing. I wanted a place where all the questions could be answered as an offering to the global market and not just my clients. If you are a yoga teacher, your product may be a downloadable meditation audio track. You may choose to create some video yoga classes and create a subscription area within your website. There is so much to offer. Just listen to the hints that your clients give you. One question you may get continually asked is, 'Do you have a yoga DVD so that I can practice your classes at home or on holidays?'. That’s your hint… if you choose to listen. Putting together your product doesn't have to be such an unfathomable task either. With our unending access to technology that is getting easier to use, we have less and less excuses why we shouldn't be doing this. Your smart phone can be enough to put together your first audio meditation track. Video cameras are becoming affordable devices to record your next yoga class or workshop.

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EMAIL MARKETING I can’t emphasise enough the importance of email newsletters. These are such a crucial element of your online marketing strategy. It’s an important way to remind your clients and interested potential clients that you still exist, that you’re active in your business. It’s another way to stay connected with your audience and your community.


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Newsletter Content I often hear, ‘What would I even email these people about?’ or ‘I’ve got nothing to share with my followers’. These statements are truly so far from the truth. You have plenty to share with your community and your community wants to hear from you! Don’t let the fear of communicating stop you from engaging with the very people who want you to succeed, who want to hear your voice, your ideas and your passions. If you’re stuck for ideas for your email newsletter’s content, you can have a play around with the following ideas:

• list a couple of your recent blog posts;

• feature some upcoming events;

• mention important changes to your timetable or appointment times;

• offer special offers or discounts to your community; and

• share information about events in your community that you will be attending.

So there are some ideas you can start with. Mix it up and keep your content fresh and engaging, just like on your blog.

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The Call to Action As with every marketing tool, you should be clear on what your Call to Action is for each and every newsletter you send. What do you want people to do after they have opened your newsletter and read your content? Their action shouldn’t end there. The most important Call to Action for email newsletters is to direct your readers to your website because that’s where all the juicy bits are. Treat your newsletters as giving little bits of enticement so that your readers can’t resist clicking on those all-‐important ‘Read more’ or ‘Buy now’ links. Again, this isn’t being pushy with your marketing. This is making it as easy as possible for your audience to know what they should do next if they’re interested. The easier and clearer you make your Call to Actions, the more people will appreciate what you’re offering and the more they will follow through with your desired results. So, rather than writing an essay-‐length newsletter, write your essay as a blog post on your website, then feature the first paragraph in your newsletter. And remember to place the ‘Read more’ link to the full blog post. Similarly with your events, give very brief, but enticing details about each event… enough details so that your reader can’t wait to read more about it on your website and will want to sign up on your website registration form. Pave the way for these easy transactions to take place. Other vital elements to include in each of your email newsletters:

• social media buttons that easily allow readers to follow you on Facebook, Instagram, etc.;

• social sharing buttons so that readers can share the newsletter on their social media feed for others to see;


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• a ‘forward to a friend’ link so that readers can email the newsletter to their friends who might be interested;

• your contact details;

• your address (if you have a physical shop, studio or clinic);

• a clear ‘unsubscribe’ link (your email newsletter provider will include this automatically); and

• a reminder of how your reader came to be included in your email list.

Collecting Emails I can’t express enough how important this is. Your valued clients come to you for a reason. They are genuinely interested in the services you have to offer. Collecting their email addresses when you can is not being pushy or overdoing your marketing. Your clients want to hear from you and what you will be offering in the future. They want to be reminded of your services from time to time. They want to hear about all the good things you’re doing, or will be doing. A sure way to increase your email list is to start (or continue) collecting email addresses from anyone who expresses interest in your classes or treatments. When you put on a workshop or retreat, make sure you have a way of writing down participants’ emails. You can do this by handing out a sign up form at your event or even giving out individual participant forms to fill in that includes a field for email addresses. These email addresses can easily be added manually into your email newsletter program. Other emails can be collected via your website and this is a good way of receiving emails from people that you haven’t yet met and are interested or intrigued by your

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website and services. These are your potential clients. They may not instantly sign up for a yoga class or treatment but they’re thinking about it. It may even be a year from when they sign up to when they’ll actually engage with your services. Because you’re able to keep in touch with them via email, they are being regularly reminded of their intention to follow this up. The Opt-‐in Box To make it easy for visitors to your website to stay in touch with you and your services, including an opt-‐in box is such a valuable way to achieve this. Have this box on each and every page of your website. Maybe it’ll sit at the top of your sidebar or it could feature in the footer area or could even appear as a pop-‐up box. The pop-‐up box can be assigned to appear on a certain page (such as your homepage) and can be set to appear after a certain number of seconds. It will also be disabled for a user once they cancel out of the box, so it won’t show up for them every single time they visit your website. Even though it might seem like an annoying feature, it does work in collecting email addresses. This is how it works: imagine a visitor comes to your homepage and they start reading your content, scrolling through the list of your services and then your pop-‐up box comes up. Because this visitor is engaged with your conscious content and imagery, they’ll be enticed to enter in their email address. After that visitor leaves your website, know that you haven’t lost them for good. They are not lost forever without a way of bringing them back to your website. You have their email address and that is a valuable thing. Just another person you can stay in touch with in the future…. another interested person who could well be a client or class participant in the future.


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An Exchange Visitors to a website may not be completely sold when it comes to giving you their email address. There are definitely times when further enticement is needed and appreciated. And that’s when an exchange is useful. Offering your website visitor an offering in exchange for their email address can work wonders in securing a way to communicate with this person in the future. To offer an exchange of something of value is demonstrating to your website visitors that they are valued, respected and that you are generous. And giving will always be met with receiving, so open up and give. It also helps to show your visitor that their email address means a lot to you and it deserves something in return. Some ideas for your offering are:

• a short and sweet e-‐book (e.g., sharing some of your lifestyle advice, recipes or a photography look-‐book);

• an audio track (e.g., a guided meditation or yoga nidra); and

• a video (e.g., your favourite yoga sequence).

And the beauty here is that the subscriber isn’t bound to this exchange forever. They can unsubscribe from your list whenever they wish.

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Unsubscribes It’s easy to feel so uplifted when someone subscribes to your email list. It can equally leave you feeling deflated when someone unsubscribes. However, I like to think of it in a similar way to teaching yoga and giving treatments… you form strong connections with some clients whereas other clients will visit you once and never return. It’s impossible to please everyone and that really shouldn’t be our intention. Offering our services from the heart and knowing that they are the best of what we have to give is the most we can do. That isn’t to say that it doesn’t hurt our ego a little when someone doesn’t return or when someone unsubscribes. It’s so easy to take it personally. However there are literally so many reasons why people will unsubscribe from your newsletters. It could be that a particular reader is also connecting with your business through social media and this is their preferred form of communication. It could be that they have moved to another suburb, city or country and your services are no longer relevant to them. It could also be because your services worked for them for a time and now they are working with a new therapy or healer. Everything changes and evolves, as with our intuitive connection to healing. Our way of reacting to unsubscribes comes down to that all-‐important action of letting go. This can be hard for us to come to terms with, but in the end, a mindset of unattachment will help to reduce the wild fluctuations of the mind. Let it go and know that you’re doing your very best and that’s perfect.


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Email Newsletter Providers As with your website, it’s a good practice to send out professional, well-‐designed newsletters that will engage with your audience. There are plenty of email newsletter providers on the world wide web that can help you achieve this without necessarily needing a designer to help you. It all depends on your level of computer expertise and watching helpful video tutorials to guide you through the process. These providers make it easy to manage your email list and will automatically add email addresses that are gained via your website. Likewise, it will automatically remove email addresses when someone chooses to unsubscribe. These providers also present some pre-‐designed templates for your newsletters and you can add your own logo, photos and content easily. If you’re wanting your newsletter to be consistent with your website design, you may need some extra help from a designer to achieve this. Some of the better known email newsletter providers are MailChimp, Constant Contact, Aweber, iContact and Mad Mimi. Each has their own price tag and each will differ slightly with the functions they provide and their ease of use. I personally use MailChimp as it’s free for accounts with fewer than 2,000 emails and I find it easy to use. If you’re confused about which one to implement, ask your peers about the service they use, why and what they like/dislike about it. Start collecting emails and send out newsletters regularly. Once a month or fortnight might be a good consistency for you. Remember that your community wants to hear from you, that’s why they have subscribed. Also you don’t want to seem pushy or

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desperate for business, so refrain from sending your newsletters too often. Remember to keep your newsletters simple and to the point and lead your readers to your website to gain more information. Opt for simplicity and minimalism.


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SOCIAL MEDIA Social media has surely become an integral part of our lives and so to with our businesses. It’s sometimes easy to view social media and all its platforms as a nuisance, as time wasters and to wonder if they are necessary for our business. That’s when there needs to be a paradigm shift in thinking. Rather than viewing social media with dread, see it as a way to build your community. It’s a way of communicating with people who want to hear from you, who want to be inspired by you. And when it’s done with grace and style, it becomes one of the most powerful tools you can invest your time in.

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It isn’t necessary to be active on all social media platforms. Rather, choose two or three platforms that suit you and your business avatar best. Put your time and energy into engaging on a few platforms and do them well. Chances are that most of your desired community will be participating in at least one of your chosen platforms, therefore you’ll reach most of your audience. Social media can give you a helping hand to increase your client base and become yet another avenue of marketing your classes, treatments, workshops and events. Still, marketing your services is just a small percentage of the wide range of posts available to you. Find balance in your posts. Some can be featuring what you’re wanting to sell but think broader than that. What does your business avatar want to hear about? Which photos would they love to see from you? Which insights and inspirations can you offer your community? That’s when social media can be beautiful, inspiring, a shine of light on people’s social media feeds. That’s when magic can happen. So, let’s explore the best practices for each of the main social media platforms.

Facebook Ah… Facebook. You were so good back in the day when all business posts were seen by all of your ‘likers’. Nowadays though, it takes a bit more effort (and money if you choose) to make this platform worthwhile for businesses. First though, why do we want people to like our Facebook business page? When someone likes our page, it has a ripple effect


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across Facebook, for example, their friends can see that. This might entice these friends to like your page as well, leading to their friends also seeing this action. This in turn increases the amount of exposure that your page and posts can have. The potential for increasing your community and your number of clients is infinite. With it getting more difficult for our desired audience to see our posts, we need to be skilled in the art of Facebook and know what works and what doesn’t. The key is to make your business Facebook posts engaging, consistent and varied enough so that your likers will interact with them. Interaction can come in the form of a like, a comment or a share of your posts. The more of these interactions, the more your posts are viewed favourably by Facebook’s algorithms; this will then result in your posts being shown to more people. That’s the trick with Facebook. If people aren’t engaged with your posts, then Facebook limits how many people will actually see your posts. We can also pay a self-‐set amount of money to increase the exposure of our posts. A limit of US$5 can increase the number of people viewing a particular post and can result in a few more likes of your business page itself. You don’t need to do this for every post either, it’s completely up to you which post you “boost”, how much money to want to set on the boost and you can select who will see it. This is what’s handy about paying to boost your posts. If you are clear on your business avatar, you can use these parameters to show your post to people who will be more likely to be interested and might even give you that all-‐important interaction.

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The parameters you can set include:

• gender,

• age group,

• interests (this is where you can set parameters such as yoga, massage, natural health, etc.),

• location (if your business is localised, set this to the city you live and operate in), and

• maximum budget (the drop-‐down box will give you the opinion to choose your own amount).

Based on these parameters, Facebook will give you an estimated number of people your boost will reach. Here it’s important not to focus on ‘more is better’. With targeted marketing, less can be more effective because you are marketing to people who will be more likely to be engaged with your post. Once you’re happy with your boost settings, Facebook will then take a bit of time to review your post before authorising it. Depending on the amount of money you have set as your maximum spend, the advertising is likely to last a couple of days or a month. Facebook Page Insights When you create a Facebook business page, you immediately get access to your page’s statistics and this is valuable information. Spend some time reviewing your page’s Insights. These can be found when you log into Facebook and head to your business page.


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Here you can view some key statistics relating to your posts:

• what days your fans (likers) are online,

• the times of day when your fans are active, and

• trends with the type of posts that receive more engagement (post types are status text, photo, video and link).

Use these statistics to better know when to post, thereby taking the guess work out of the equation. Use the scheduling feature to plan some of your posts in advance and schedule them to be released when there’s a greater amount of your followers usually online. Statistics are valuable (and collected for you!) so take the time to study them and use them to your advantage. You can also view statistics relating to the people who like your page, such as gender, age bracket and where they live. These statistics will give you some confirmation about your business avatar and it should match up with your vision board. What and How Often to Post With your Facebook business page, it’s good to post a few times a week at the least. With regular posting, you will stay more present in your fans’ feeds and are more likely to receive interaction with your posts. When posting, try to get creative. When you’re creative, your community will be more engaged. I know it’s true in myself. If a business is always posting up the same kind of information, I find it boring and I’m likely to hide the business from my feed.

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If you’re a yoga teacher or running a yoga studio, refrain from always listing the classes that are on for that day. I see this a lot. When your business avatar is interested in your classes, they can easily check your website for that information, especially when you have your website link in your Facebook profile. Occasionally mention your classes, but also start thinking outside the square. With your business avatar in mind, what does your community want to hear about and be inspired by? Mix up your posts with inspiring quote images, a callout of a local business who you admire, a lesson of yours that you’d like to share, the list goes on. Remember that the goal is to engage with your community, so make it about them. Ask your community questions and encourage engagement. As a yoga studio, feature posts about your yoga teachers with a photo of them. Announce changes to your timetable. Discuss your favourite yoga asana and why and ask your community about theirs. And that’s just for starters. Find your creativity with it. As a natural medicine practitioner, announce changes to your availability times. If you’re passionate about healthy eating, share your favourite recipes with hard-‐to-‐resist photos. Share news within your industry. Mention the therapists that you like to work with. And always share your latest blog post with a link to your website inviting your community to read more. Follow your passion when engaging with social media and Facebook will become less of a hassle and more fun and interactive.


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Instagram And then there’s Instagram… and I’m in love. Ok, so if you didn’t guess it, this is my social media platform of choice. Instagram is a photo-‐sharing medium; it’s purely photos and videos with captions, all presented in a one-‐column, easy-‐to-‐scroll-‐through screen. It’s designed more for smaller devices, such as tablets or smart phones, but it is becoming user friendly on bigger screens too. I love it because it can be such a creative platform to share your ideas, inspirations and your photos of choice. And then there’s the beauty of being social with it, that you receive all these things back to you from your followed community. When setting up a business Instagram account, use a profile photo that visitors will recognise as your business, be it your logo or your professional headshot. Keep your profile information short and sweet, whilst being clear on what your business offers and why. If you’re a locally-‐based business, be sure to include the city that you operate in, giving people all the basic information to make it easier for them to want to follow you. And of course, include your website URL. Double-‐check that you have entered it in correctly as it will become another one of your valuable links. Be a good social media citizen. When you come across another business’ website that isn’t correct, inform them of this. Photos and Videos Remember that this your business account, so refrain from posting too many selfies or personal photos of your children or pets. Find a happy medium for this, but also try to be thoughtful

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and creative about the photos you take and share, as you’re wanting to engage with your audience, many of whom are your target market. Be professional, but real with your photos. Show a glimpse of the ‘behind the scenes’ reality of your business. It may seem like everyday processes to you, but it provides inspiration, insight and wonderment to others. Mix up your photos. Make some your ‘behind the scenes’ photos, some inspiring weekend photos, some yoga asana photos, some inspiration quotes that you have added to your photos. There are many easy-‐to-‐use smart phone apps available that give you the tools to be a budding graphic designer. I personally use “Letter Glow” on my iPhone to add stylised text to photos. Have your business avatar in mind and create a style for your Instagram photos. For me, I like to have a mixture of nature photos (whether it be from the park, close ups of flowers, or the beach), yoga asana, inspirational quotes and then allow for random photos to be added. You may wish to be more specific with your styling and only post yoga asana photos and be creative and insightful with your caption. Using your smart phone can do well to capture good quality photos but often it can be frustrating getting the ‘right light’. Experiment with using your professional camera and you might find it easier. Obviously there are more steps involved with getting your photo from your camera onto your smart phone so that it can be posted on Instagram. This is why I like to use both tools depending on my time constraints and the quality of my smart phone photos. Use the Instagram filters and settings to make your photos more professional. Good quality photos can do wonders to increase the


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amount of interaction you receive, so spend a little time editing your photos. You may also like to use VSCOcam, a professional photo editing app that can help take your photos to the next level. Experiment with your posts to gauge what your audience responds well to. There’s really no right or wrong and best of all, and you will be rewarded for being yourself. Hashtags I know some might cringe at the thought of using hashtags, the # symbol on your phone keypad that never really got used is now frequently in the limelight, if not on overkill. Hashtags are used as search terms relating to a particular topic that’s either relevant to your photo or your caption. They are helpful in finding other Instagrammers who you would like to follow. For example, if I want to connect with other yoga teachers, either in my city (Brisbane) or from around the world, I would search for #brisbaneyoga or #yogateacher. Similarly, if I use these hashtags when posting my yoga photo, other yoga teachers or those interested in yoga would be able to find me and follow me, if they choose. So you can see, hashtags are extremely useful in growing your Instagram community and therefore can be greatly misused. As with all conscious marketing, there are best practices for these symbols.

• Limit your hashtags to five per photo or video.

Using more than five hashtags on a single post can be off-‐putting to your followers, especially if they have to scroll through a whole paragraph of them. It can feel desperate

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and that you’re wanting to milk the photo for all its worth, thereby diminishing its beauty.

• Use your keywords when they are appropriate.

When I post up a business-‐related photo I often use the hashtags #webdesign #webdesignbrisbane or #webdesigner. It would be excessive to use these on every photo I post but they work well on photos that are relevant to these keywords.

• Use industry-‐specific hashtags to reach out to your desired community. Each industry has its own hashtags and yoga and natural health are no different. Some popular yoga hashtags include #yogaeverydamnday #stopdropandyoga #instayoga #inspiredyogis and #practicedaily. These hashtags will evolve over time, with new hashtags being coined so take note of the hashtags that your peers use in order to increase your audience reach. For natural medicine practitioners, popular industry-‐specific hashtags include #naturalmedicine #naturalhealth #healthy[insert many different words such as foods, meal, drink, etc.] #acupuncture #chakras #reiki #energywork #naturopath #naturalfood… and depending on the type of natural medicine you specialise in, the list will go on.

• Using highly popular hashtags will limit your exposure.

You can imagine how many photos with the hashtag #love or #friend are posted up every minute of the day. Because there are so many, when people search these hashtags, in an instant your photo is lost among all the rest. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using these popular hashtags, just refrain from relying on them to increase your exposure to your target market. Rather, mix them up with


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other hashtags that are still used, but more specifically used by your industry.

• Create your own hashtag campaign.

Introduce your own hashtag to generate more interest and followers to your account. The hashtag could be related to a new product or service that you’re launching, or could be relevant to all your services. Start using it in your photo captions and also add it to your Instagram account description.

Frequency I like to use the ‘one photo a day’ strategy. That way there is consistency with your photos and you stay in the minds of your followers. With the help of hashtags, likes and comments, you will see a gradual increase in followers and the number of clients. Apps to Complement Instagram You’ll quickly notice that the Instagram app itself is fairly limited with what you can do within it. There are a number of apps that can complement your Instagram experience and get the most out of your business account. Some of these complementary apps or websites include:

• VSCOcam App for professional photo editing,

• Iconosquare Website for your Instagram statistics,

• LetterGlow & Other Apps for adding text and shapes to your photos, and

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• Regram Apps for sharing inspiring photos that your community has posted (always credit the Instagram account in your image caption):

o Photo Repost, o Repost for Instagram, o Iconosquare (website), and o Websta.

Pinterest Pinterest operates as an inspirational platform for collecting and sharing images from around the web. These images act as bookmarks, letting you know where to find that particular recipe, product or quote at a later date. Users (aka ‘pinners’) create ‘boards within their Pinterest account to categorise their ‘pins’ (that’s Pinterest-‐speak for bookmarks). As a pinner, you can either pin an image that you find on any website to one of your boards, or you can ‘repin’ an image that has already been shared within Pinterest. When setting up your Pinterest account, take the time to write your profile description that clearly and quickly conveys who you are as a business. Your profile photo should be an image or photo that your follow can easily recognise you by, such as your logo or headshot. Add your website address in your profile as it is yet another valuable link to you. As with all links to your website, double check that you have typed it correctly. The next step is to set up some boards so that you can start pinning to them. Rather than use general board names, such as ‘Recipes’, ‘My Work’ or ‘Yoga’, have both your keywords and your


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ideal clients in mind to create names that will be enticing for viewers to click on. Be specific about what your board contains. When you are pinning or repining, take the extra time to rewrite the pin’s description, again with your keywords and ideal clients in mind. If Pinterest is your social media of choice, take a few extra steps to make it easy for pinners to pin your images to their boards. Some of these are:

• Add a ‘Pin it’ button to your website images Regardless of your website platform, you are able to add a ‘Pin it’ button to your images, which will be visible when your audience hovers over each image.

• Make your blog post images Pinterest-‐friendly

Adding your blog post title to your blog feature image in big, clear text can make your image stand out when it’s shared on Pinterest. Add the text so that your image is still visible and appealing. On the example on the right, I’ve added the text box and text via Photo-‐shop, but you can always use a handy app on your phone such as Letter Glow. You may have noticed on Pinterest a trend of pinning images that are long in height. This practice does help in getting your pin to be ‘repinned’ more often.

• Create a community board for others to pin to

Social media is all about creating a community within your industry and shared values, so create a community board and invite others to pin to it.

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How Often to Pin As with any social media platform, there are best practices on how to consciously use Pinterest without going overboard. With Pinterest there’s one strategy to pin or repin every day and multiple times a day. This way you stay present in your followers’ feeds. Another strategy is to pin like crazy during a period and then leaving it be and only pin when you feel inspired. One thing I love about Pinterest is that it isn’t so time-‐based as with other social media platforms. When someone views your Pinterest boards, it’s difficult to see how regularly-‐active you have been. With other platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, it’s easy to see if you’re no longer active based on the prominent dates that are seen with each post. Refrain from posting everything and anything. Stick with your style and that of your target market. When you look inside one of your boards, you should be able to see a style pattern that has formed and that style is you. That’s more important than how many pins you have within your board. Stay true to you. For more best practice tips, Pinterest are giving a helping hand to business Pinterest accounts via https://business.pinterest.com

Twitter I must admit that I don’t use Twitter. It’s just not my thing. My chosen social media platforms are currently Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. As mentioned earlier, engage with the platforms that you are drawn to, rather than forcing yourself to participate on them all. I’ve never felt drawn to Twitter so I’ve listened to my


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intuition over the years and to this day I don’t regret not tweeting. For you, Twitter may be your thing and that’s awesome. Just like any other social media platform, it can do wonders for your business and the community you create. So maybe it’s strange for me to be discussing it here when it can seem that I don’t have much experience or knowledge about it. And that’s true to an extent. I’ve done my research though and you may also be noticing that there are common themes within each of the social media platforms that I am showcasing here. These themes revolve around consistency, being true to you, finding your style or ‘voice’ and creating a community that you’re proud of and that people want to engage with. So, with these themes in mind, and with my research on hand, here are some tips to help you navigate through all the tweets, follows, hashtags and tags of Twitter. Twitter, as per Wikipedia, “…enables users to send and read short 140-‐character messages called "tweets". Registered users can read and post tweets, but unregistered users can only read them.” Just like in all social media platforms, your Twitter homepage is a feed of all tweets from the people or businesses you are following. You may feel inclined to follow EVERYONE you come across, with the hope that they will follow you back. But then your Twitter feed would be pretty uninspiring, with tweets from all kinds of people, with their differing opinions and spam-‐like consistency of posts. Rather than following everyone, look for the key inspiring people within your industry; the ones that ‘do’ Twitter really well. Follow them without hesitation. They may or may not follow you back but will you benefit from reading their daily tweets, both from a inspirational viewpoint and from giving you a valuable insight into

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how you could be shaping your tweets. Take note of their strategies that you admire. Let go of the other strategies that you are less impressed by. What to Tweet? Keep in mind that we’re trying to build our business community. Some of your tweets can be about you, but also engage in conversations as well by tagging people to start the process. Include in your Twitter feed tweets that are of interest to others. As with all social media, mix it up. Some tweets can be about your day, some can be tips relevant to your industry and others can be inspiring quotes. For more best practice tips relating to Twitter, check out the Twitter Business website: https://business.twitter.com

The Importance of Planning As discussed above, there’s a need within the social media world to be present, to be visible so that your audience knows that you still exist and that you have something to offer. That kind of presence requires consistency and regularity of posting. And that can be daunting. Social media gets a bad rap for being a time-‐sucker, and who hasn’t spent an hour on Facebook without even realising?! I bet you’re nodding your head in agreement. Do you find that you’re spending a lot of your precious time on each of your social media pages, to the detriment of your ‘real’ work?


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Just like any repetitive activity in business, there’s ways to manage the time you spend on social media so that you can be more productive in the long run. Planning and scheduling your posts can be just the thing for you. Once you feel that you have a positive and engaging style with your social media pages, you can plan ahead of time what you’re wanting to post and when you want to release it to your audience. Social media planning is especially important for when you’re away on holidays or if you have a big project coming up with little time to spend making tweets or Instagram photos… but it goes further than that. Imagine spending a couple of hours each week or month and having your posts all mapped out, scheduled and ready to go. It starts to sound a little more achievable to be able to post often AND to have more of your valuable time to do the other activities you love. Planning can feel a bit ‘un-‐organic’ and that’s true. Find what feels good for you in terms of planning. Perhaps you plan for just a couple of posts each week for each social media platform and still leave time during the week to let a couple of posts come to you organically. Experiment with this and find your way with planning. Scheduling your posts is pretty amazing. Most social media platforms give you the tools to be able to set your desired day and time of a post, and you can do it for multiple posts, all lined up, ready to go. Make sure that each of your social media platforms know your location so that your watches can be synchronised. Planning and scheduling are made easy when you can visually see your social media plan on paper or on your computer screen. Use Microsoft Excel or Word to create a table for each social media and have your week (or month) mapped out. Take the time on a certain day each week (or month) to write down the variety of

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your posts, remembering to take note of public holidays. If there’s a public holiday coming up, you can pre-‐design your Facebook posts around that time to announce your holiday yoga schedule. Be active with taking photos so that you can start having a catalog of images to use on Facebook and/or Instagram. This catalog of images will help you on your planning days to design your posts. Add quotes to the images or keep them as they are and make the caption inspiring. Use your statistics within each social media page to know when the best times are to post, based on when your audience is more likely to be online and ready to engage. Scheduling your posts around this is magical and no longer requires you to look at the clock, waiting for that perfect time frame to happen. Each social media platform has their way of allowing you to schedule your posts:

• Facebook: on your status update field, there’s an option to schedule it;

• Instagram: use the ‘Latergram’ app to schedule your posts;

• Twitter: schedule your tweet within Twitter itself… you can also use TweetDeck; and

• Pinterest: use viralwoot.com for scheduling your pins.

With scheduling, you have a peace of mind that some content will always be ready to go and the time that you usually spend umm-‐ing and ahh-‐ing about what to post on a certain day is removed. The posts take care of themselves, but there’s still the interactivity that requires your attention. Your audience will be writing comments on your posts and your comments in reply cannot be scheduled. Each day, schedule just a little of your time to engage


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with your community, answer their questions and like what they have to say. This doesn’t mean that you are required to be online ALL the time, just in case you receive a comment. Again, have power over social media and allot a certain time(s) each day where you give yourself permission to ‘get a little lost’ in social media. Before you jump onto Facebook or Twitter, have an idea of how much time you want to spend on it and try to keep to that time frame. These days it’s our smart phones that try their hardest to get us to engage in social media. Be smart about your notifications though and again, find your power with this. I have turned off notifications for all of my social media pages and I only receive notifications when I open the specific app. Some may think that this isn’t good marketing, but for me, if my phone was beeping at me all the time with notifications, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on my work. I know some people who have even gone to the extent of removing their social media apps from their phones so that the even thought of checking Facebook when they’re out and about is removed, giving them more time to be present in the moment. Find what works for you in getting power over your social media pages.

How to use Social Media Effectively As you can see there are a lot of common tips between the social media platforms, even though they each have their individual guidelines to follow. Being active on social media does involve time and energy so it’s important to feel that you’re doing the ‘right things’ for your business to benefit from this form of online marketing. And by the ‘right things’, you know that I mean there’s

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no real rules. It’s all about you feeling comfortable, confident and empowered when you’re engaging with the world. Here are common tips to help you get the most of your social media pages:

• be yourself,

• have your target market in mind,

• think of it as if you’re creating a community,

• be engaging and thought-‐provoking,

• be regular with your posts,

• mix up your content,

• find your style of engaging with people through writing, photos and videos,

• post on each social media platform separately and uniquely,

• try not to be repetitive across your social media platforms, and lastly,

• have fun!


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SEARCH ENGINE OPTISIMATION (SEO)

“How do I get more people to find my website?” This is definitely the most asked question I hear from clients. Getting onto the first page of Google seems to be what most small businesses desire. Sure, it’s an awesome goal to have and if you have an unlimited budget, it can be guaranteed. Remember that Google is just one method of people finding you. Your social media pages and building your online community can often be enough to drive traffic to your website and to see an abundance of clients.

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If your industry is highly competitive, it can be difficult to reach the first page of Google. That’s the reality for me and my website. You can just imagine how many web design businesses are competing to get high Google rankings. So, for me, I choose not to let this fact get me down or to spend too much money or time worrying about it. Rather I choose to follow some key best-‐practices in getting Google to at least take notice of my website, even if it doesn’t make it to that sought-‐after first page. This following section will outline these best practices that can be affordable and involve some time and energy on your part to help your cause.

Fresh Content Google loves fresh content on your website, just as much as our audience. Fresh content symbolises that your website is still current and up-‐to-‐date. Gone are the days when a website is developed and that’s it. Done, with nothing more to be added or changed in the foreseeable future. Think of your website as a constant work in progress. Forever evolving. Always fresh and engaging. So how to achieve this ‘freshness’? Rather than changing your main content every so often, start blogging. Having a blog as part of your website with a blog feed on your homepage is gold and ensures that your website content is always fresh, engaging and evolving. Five stars to you: ««««« ! Incorporating a blog into your website means that you now have a responsibility though. You need to be posting on a regular basis, whether it be weekly or monthly. Set aside time that you can


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dedicate to composing and publishing your blog posts. And blog posts don’t always have to be 100% text. You can mix them up with some text-‐based, some being for the most part a photo stream, or posting a video. Similar to your social media posts, be creative with your blog posts. Think of them as another way to give advice to your audience, to reveal some behind-‐the scenes photos of your processes, to share the latest trends, research and movements within your industry. The possibilities with this are unlimited, or limited to your imagination, so start thinking outside the circle. Have a look at blogs of people who inspire you and notice how they engage with their audience. I find that writing blog posts provide me with valuable time to reflect on my business, on what I’ve been working on recently and what has been inspiring me. I also like to write down questions that my clients have been asking recently. These questions provide valuable insights into what your audience wants to be informed about and chances are that many other people will be interested in this information too. There are clues and inspirations everywhere for your blog posts so take the time to reflect, to sit with a cup of tea on the couch, to relax and let the words flow. Before long you will come to enjoy this time, rather than viewing blog writing as a chore or as another marketing activity that you dread. Once your blog post has been published, don’t be afraid of telling the world about it. Invite people to read your blog post via your social media platforms and in your email newsletters. This is how traffic to your website grows. And the Google robots will take notice of this increase in traffic. They will notice your fresh content but also that’s engaging because of the increase in visitors to your website.

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Links to your Website Google also takes note of links to direct people to your website. Easy and free links to set up include:

• social media pages: make sure that all of your social media profiles include your website address;

• Google maps: this is applicable if your business has a physical location which can be frequented by the general public; and

• association websites: these aren’t free listings but you probably already have paid for your association membership and most of these memberships include a member profile area, with a chance to add your website address.

Other link ideas that come with a price tag:

• yoga and natural therapy directory websites;

• guest blogging: request to be a guest blogger on a popular yoga or natural therapy blog or online journal. And return the favour if it’s possible and invite people to be a guest blogger on your blog too; and

• locality guides for your city: probably every city in the world has at least one website that provides information about the best cafes, best restaurants, best yoga studios and best natural therapy centres that you can find in a city. Contact the website that offers this service in your city and ask about advertising prices.


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//MY STORY //

During a travelling stint in Asia, and following up on a suggestion from my partner, I wrote a blog post on 7 Ways to Boost Yoga Website Traffic, primarily with the idea of sending it to Elephant Journal to be published on their online journal. I followed their requirements listed on their website and patiently waited for their response. A week later they emailed me with the news that my article had been approved and would be published in the next few days. Then, the day had arrived and there, on the ever popular Elephant Journal was my article. Me, an Australian web designer who at the time was living in Cambodia, had an article published on this big US website. And the beauty about guest blogging is the author biography that gets included at the bottom of your article. A brief, but powerful mention about me, what I do, what I offer and best of all, a link to my website. It was an exciting moment and I had to share it. I posted it all over social media and especially made the effort to share it on the Brisbane Yoga Teachers Facebook group, my link to my home. Soon I had many ‘likes’ on these social media posts and after a few days I had a number of emails from yoga teachers interested in my services. One year on from that, I still get the occasional mention of it and how it helped my clients (who were previously my potential clients) get an insight into the dos and don’ts of a website. With any links that are directing people to your website, double check that the links work as they should. If your website link isn’t working, contact the relevant website to get this rectified. Make sure there is unhindered ease in leading people to your website.

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Identifying your Keywords Once you have worked out your niche within your industry, it’s good to have your target keywords mapped out and implemented throughout your online marketing platforms. Your keywords are phrases that your target market are most likely to use when searching for your services, whether they are searching on Google or within social media via hashtags. Knowing your keywords gives you power when writing your content, whatever the platform. You might be thinking, “Surely I know what keywords my industry uses as I’m one of the experts in the field”. Well, that might well be the case. However, the way you describe your services may be different from how the general public goes about searching for you. As you are an expert, you have come to professionally define yourself based on your knowledge and experience, so you must remember that the general public may not be so well-‐educated.


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// EXAMPLE //

Narelle of www.embodiedterrain.com Narelle specialises in yoga for helping people with scoliosis, a condition whereby a person’s spine is asymmetrical, causing discomfort and pain. Narelle, being an expert in the field concluded that the keyword phrase most people would use to find her services would be ‘yoga for scoliosis’. Upon researching, we found that many sufferers of scoliosis are likely to use the phrase ‘scoliosis exercises’, as they are, at the time of searching, unaware that yoga can be of great relief for their condition. Now Narelle uses both terms within her website and uses her online marketing as an educational platform to explain the benefits of practicing yoga for scoliosis.

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Knowing your Keywords There are several ways to go about selecting your keywords. You could pay an SEO expert to research the phrases for you. However if you’d like to know how to do this yourself, Google provides a free Keyword Planner that’s connected with its Adwords division. There’s no requirement to use Adwords but you do need a Google account, which is also free to set up. Once signed into Google Keyword Planner, enter a phrase that you use to describe one of your services or products. In example above, it would be ‘yoga for scoliosis’. You are also able to localise your search, either by country, state or city. Narrow down the search as much as is applicable to you and your business. The results that Google provides will be shown under the ‘Keyword Ideas’ tab and at the top of the search will be the results for the exact keyword phrase you chose. Below this will be other relevant and related keyword phrases that people use to search within Google. Average Monthly Searches vs Competition Next to each keyword idea will be an average number of monthly searches using that phrase and its level of competition. Looking at both of these columns is useful in selecting which keywords are relevant. Common sense says to go with the keyword idea with the highest number of monthly searches. However, if the competition is high for that particular keyword idea, you will be competing with so many other businesses within your industry and businesses that are potentially spending a lot of money with Adwords to consistently get to the top of Google. A better strategy is to pick the keyword ideas that have a medium or low competition label (you can filter these in your search if you


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wish). You also what these keyword ideas to have at least 50 searches a month on average. Of course you can still use the high competition keywords, but it’s also good practice to use these other keywords to help increase your chance of being visible on Google. Choose between five to ten keyword phrases that define your business and your niche. Now, where to put these phrases? What to do with your Keywords Your chosen keywords are the backbone for all your online marketing and it’s good to have them appear in certain “Google-‐friendly” places so that your chances of being seen are greater. Refrain from going overboard in their use, as Google will penalise you and your website for this practice. Being a conscious online marketer though, you will do just fine if you follow the suggestions below. Website Keyword Placement Page and blog post titles: write a blog post specifically about one of your main keyword phrases. Headings within your content: when you write your content, either for pages or your blog posts, be sure to have headings to break up your content, making it easier to read. Use your headings as a way to get your keywords shown, making sure that they are relevant to the content you are presenting. Image alternatives: when adding an image or photo to your website, it is a best practice to give it an ‘image alternative’. The text you select for this will be shown on your webpage in the

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(hopefully unnecessary) circumstance of your photo not being located by a person’s internet browser. Most likely the image alternative won’t be seen on your website, but it is visible to Google in the webpage’s backend code. Your website will have a field available to you (most of the time referred to as ‘img alt’ or ‘Alt Text’) when uploading your photo to add text to this area… perfect for one of your keyword phrases, especially if the phrase is relevant to the actual image. Meta tags: meta data is defined within the code of each of your website pages or posts and is not visible on your website itself. Rather, the data provides information about your page or post to search engines, among other uses. The main meta tags to use are:

• Meta title: this is usually the title of your page, but you are able to add more information to it. It is important to keep your titles to a limit of 60 characters, otherwise search engines such as Google will penalise your website.

• Meta description: your description can be longer, usually a

short paragraph that describes what your page is about. When you define this meta tag, Google will display the short paragraph in the search results when someone searches for your business or if you decide to run a Google ad.

Keeping Track of your Progress

All of your hard work that you’ve put into online marketing doesn’t go unnoticed. For starters, you’ll notice more activity on your social media pages. You’ll notice more sign-‐ups to your email newsletters. And all of that will lead to an increase in your clients.


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It’s important to also keep track of visitors to your website because it really is the main event; it’s the powerhouse that all other online marketing platforms link to and it’s where you can make valuable sales. With website statistics, you’re given the power to keep track of which strategies are working for you and which are not. You’ll be able to see the types of blog posts which get the highest amount of traffic and the same with your social media posts. You’ll learn valuable insights into your keyword usage and where your website visitors found out about you. Google Analytics Signing up to Google Analytics helps you to visually see your progress, giving you loads of information to shape your online marketing strategies. Using Google Analytics is free with a Google account and it is linked to your website (search in Google for instructions on how to do this with the type of website platform you have). Once this statistics tool has been set up, allow a few weeks or a month to pass to allow it to gather your data. Here are some key areas to look at within Google Analytics.

Audience overview: here you can get solid statistics about the number of new website visitors you get versus returning visitors. You can see which country and city they are based in. You also have access to information relating to which device they viewed your website on, whether it be a desktop computer, tablet or smart phone.

Users flow: this is another cool (okay, it’s only cool if you geek out on numbers and data) and interesting area to look at. This will show you the sequence of pages that your audience went through when they visited your website. Remember we talked about your

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Call to Action that every page should have? Well, this is where you can actually see if people generally followed through with this action.

Acquisition: this section within Google Analytics is extremely helpful in showing you how your audience came to find your website. Maybe it was through searching on Google. Maybe one of your Facebook posts intrigued them enough to visit. Maybe it was one of your “Read more…” links in your email newsletter. This is where you can see what strategies are working for you and your avatar, particularly when you marry up occurrences such as a blog post announcement with the data for that particular day. If you are paying a third party website for a valuable link, such as a yoga class directory website or a natural medicine practitioner listing, you’ll be able to see how effective this paid link has been. This is especially useful when it comes time to renew your subscription for the service and you can make a more educated decision on whether to continue with it or not.

Also in this section is your keyword analysis. You can see just how successful your chosen keywords have been (or not). You may also notice other keyword phrases that your audience have used to find you, which you may or may not wish to add to your regular list of keywords. It’s important to note that currently it’s difficult to see your website traffic that comes from smart phones apps such as Instagram as it will often be lumped together with your ‘direct’ traffic. There are many other ‘cool’ features within Google Analytics, such as creating campaigns to further analyse the success of your Call to Actions and delve deeper into your business avatar through


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your audience statistics. Use the Google Analytics help pages to find out more. Use your statistics to continually shape how you engage with online marketing. Use the information to evolve your approach. Again, online marketing is forever a work in progress, so be open to experimenting and make changes to your approach based on your statistics.

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CONSCIOUS ONLINE MARKETING: OWN IT!

Online marketing is such an integral part of your business and if it isn’t yet, make it! You know from your own habits that checking out a business’ website before engaging with that business is what people do, most often than not. Have a professional website that speaks loudly and proudly of what you have to offer. Include all the content that people usually ask you about and make it easy for your business avatar to say yes to you. Create a community because people love your energy and want to hear from you. Send out email newsletters to remind them of your special events coming up. Share your stories with them via your blog posts. Engage with them on social media.


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And do it all by being true to yourself. Never compromise on this. When you’re feeling pushy and spam-‐like, change your approach so that you feel good about your offerings. Believe in what you are offering. Refrain from always comparing it to other yoga studios or natural therapy clinics. Offer your style of yoga because it speaks from your heart. Radiate that style through your online marketing. Take the tips held within this book and implement the ones that ring true for you. Let go of the ones that don’t quite feel ‘you’. Having taken the time to read this book and devoting some of your energy to thinking about your business are already setting the wheels in motion for greater success. Use this momentum to help create your version of the conscious online marketer.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Angela Hammond runs her own small business as a web designer and online marketing consultant. She creates down-‐to-‐earth designs that resonate and hold beauty. She chooses to leave the usual jargon behind and concentrate on the things that matter. Angela moonlights as a yoga teacher, specialising in gentle hatha flows. Back when she worked full-‐time for others, she held positions in marketing and office administration, both for larger corporations and small not-‐for-‐profit organisations. She graduated university with a Bachelor in International Business and furthered her studies in Communication Design. At the time of writing this book, Angela is based in Brisbane, Australia. You can find out more information about Angela and her services via her website www.resonantimagery.com.au. This is her first book of many planned for the future.


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// NOTES //

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ConsciousOnlineMarketing ( fortheModernH ealer · ConsciousOnlineMarketing (fortheModernH ealer ((Best(Practice(Tips(for(Yoga(Teachers(and(Natural(Medicine(Practitioners(((AngelaHammond