By Healthinomics • July 2, 2018 Trust is non-negotiable.
Think about this, clients don’t deal with health and wellness businesses, they deal with someone they trust.
Hence, in anything we do, trust is not just a cornerstone for success, it’s a currency.
But how do we define trust in the context of our health and wellness business?
According to Naphtali Hoff, president of Impactful Coaching and Consulting, trust is a feeling of security that you have, based on the belief that someone or something is knowledgeable, reliable, good, honest, and effective.
As the survey says, 83% of people will recommend a trusted service to others. With established trust, a solid 82% will also remain loyal to a brand and continue to rely on their services or products.
So think about the tremendous upside to building trust: you can command a higher price for your skills and increase the lifetime value of every loyal client.
We’re here to help you make “trust-building” part of your primary goals. These 3 strategies are guaranteed to help you overcome the barriers to building trust online.
So let’s get started.
1. Be Visible and Get yourself out there
If you’ve chosen a health and wellness niche where you’re more accomplished than 90% of your direct competitors, congratulations to you. It’s a big step towards crafting your unique identity.
But there’s still tons and tons of noise out there and it’s getting harder and harder to market our personal brand these days and for customers to know which business is the right one for them.
So the first place to start is by getting your name out there.
Take it from the branding basics of Krista Goncalves, CHN, Brand Strategist and Copywriter for Health & Wellness Entrepreneurs.
“If there’s ONE thing I’ve learned in building my own business(es), it’s that unless you’re actually out there interacting, engaging and socializing with your people (= your target audience and hence, your ideal clients), then they simply won’t be open and receptive to getting to know you, and won’t readily trust you.”
Please understand though that filling up your schedule with appointments or becoming the go-to, recognized expert in your niche isn’t an overnight success story, it does take a little time.
But once you do put in the hard work and patience, the return on investment gets higher and higher over time.
As such, in order to earn your clients’ trust online, use the right channels to be visible:
- Be a guest on blogs for local news outlets
- Welcome interviews on podcasts or join live videos
- Optimize your website
- Have an active social media presence
- Build your email list (put a big emphasis on this)
- Have a regular blog, vlog or whatever it is you can do to show your expertise and give value to your audience
- Consider partnerships with other health and wellness authorities online or bricks and mortar stores where your target market will be found
2. Stay Consistent
The first step towards establishing your personal consistency is to know who you are and what you stand for.
You can’t be a rock star massage therapist on Facebook and be a religious guru on Instagram. People will be confused about who you really are. Don’t send mixed signals in your communication strategy online and you’ll get a competitive advantage.
As authors Bo Bothe, Will Cunningham, Elizabeth Tindall and Leslie Rainwater write in their BrandExtract post:
“As you develop a consistent brand, you begin to take ownership of your own niche in the market. When you choose a position and then consistently reinforce your position, it becomes more difficult for competitors to come in and take that advantage away.”
Any client’s capacity to trust you depends on the consistency of your behavior both online and offline.
But on the web these are the building blocks of a consistent personal health and wellness brand:
- Consistent tone in your message. Whether you want to come off as knowledgeable, inspirational and compassionate, make sure the message you choose to share or spread is in line with your identity/personality and purpose.
- Consistent look and feel in your design. Starbucks is green. Facebook is blue. We can tell our favorite brands by design. Consider using the same logos, names, colors and all other design elements to establish recall and earn the trust of clients online.
- Consistent delivery. It’s not just the channels you choose to communicate with your clients, it’s how often you communicate too.
Maintaining consistency in the what, when, where of your accessibility gives your clients an assurance on your presence and what to expect.
For example, you can plan a social media regimen or blog consistently to gain more readers. Anna Hoffman recommends blogging 1-3 times (quality) per week to generate indexed pages. A study from Hubspot found that businesses with blogs generate an average of 67% more leads than companies without. That’s HUGE!!
I know this can take up some of your precious time, but if you dedicated a weekend or two to writing and creating blogs that you could have ready to publish weekly then your business will be better for it in the long run and you’ll see in your google analytics that people with find you through a post post and from that turn into a customer.
If you need help with being consistent online start using SocialOmm to automate your social media messaging and be assured that you’ll always have consistent delivery of your message.
3. Be vulnerable and reveal your human side
Try putting yourself in the shoes of your clients, their friends, families and loved ones.
What do you think are their needs?
What worries them about their health and wellness journey?
Remember, all of our clients are going to have different reasons for seeking your services with some battling complex emotions like stress, fear, tension.
So be the person who doesn’t just give answers but comfort, reassurance and hope.
Do so by sharing parts of your story or journey, countless tries, failures and triumphs. This will help humanize you and become more relatable with your clients.
4. Show Soundproof
What’s the attention span of first-time website visitors these days?
It’s actually less than 8 seconds. That’s 1 second less than a goldfish. Ouch!
If you want your prospects and clients to feel confident and comfortable in your expertise right when they visit your site, show them your best proof.
On your website or blog, add social proof such as; testimonials, client reviews, logos and affiliations above-the-fold to get noticed right off the bat.
Whenever you post a fact or breakthrough on social media, show good research behind it so people will trust and share what you share.
This is true for any health and wellness business from nutrition, massage, aromatherapy or even in yoga or any mind-body program.
People are always excited to learn something new and if they find real value in what you share, they’ll translate that knowledge into competency and authority.
5. Be transparent
People respond to transparency. In fact, one study shows that 94% of respondents will stay loyal to a transparent brand.
Over a third of respondents said they would switch to a more transparent brand while 81% said they would try everything a company has to offer if it offers more transparency.
Clearly, there’s a big marketing and sales advantage when we are transparent.
How do you know that what you’re getting is what you need?
How does a client know that even if that health and wellness professional is really great at one thing, how do you know that they’re going to be great at what they (the client) needs?
It all comes down to being transparent.
In a podcast with Justin Recla, Ari Gronich, CEO of Achieve Health USA and the founder of Performance Therapy Academy said transparency is key to delivering high-end results.
“So in transparency (clients) don’t want to just know that you have a degree, they want to know that you have a background in what people need.”
As Neil Patel puts it, “the more detail you share, the more transparent you are,” and “if you’re hiding crucial details, you’re not being transparent.”
While experts may define transparency differently, it all boils down to our motives. Our messages and actions should prove we have no hidden agendas.
So be upfront to everyone in the first place and don’t involve yourself in bad practices.
How can you guarantee the safety and efficacy of your program/products/services?
You don’t have to share everything with your clients, like what you eat for breakfast (unless it’s for your food blog) but choose the right time to be transparent. Decide for yourself the depth of details you’re comfortable to reveal considering if such information will be useful to your audience.
Conclusion
Many people are skeptical towards marketers online, and rightfully so.
Many businesses will do and claim anything with the sole motive of making sales. Hence, the spread of fake news especially in the health and wellness industry.
Earning a client’s trust is never easy but it goes a long way. If you have an honest and valuable health and wellness business, building trust online can only be good for you—mind, body, soul and your overall success too.
Stay apart of the social media conversation and join our Marketing for Health & Wellness Professionals Facebook group 🙂
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