Understanding marketing for health coaches is vital for building a thriving business. Attracting more health coaching clients will boost awareness of your services, word of mouth referrals, and income too. But marketing doesn’t come naturally for everyone and some coaches can really struggle with it, so where should you start?

In this article – we share a complete guide to marketing for health coaches including 7 essential strategies proven to get clients and drive the best business results.

We’re a specialist wellness marketing agency with 15+ years of industry experience, so we know first-hand what works (and what doesn’t!). We’ve helped health coaches, fitness trainers, and wellness studios to successfully promote their businesses, so our marketing strategies are tried and tested.

If you’re looking for ways to boost your health coaching income, then great marketing is a must. It’ll help you attract more enquiries, leads, and client sign-ups.

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Here are seven proven health coaching marketing strategies to promote your business and sell more packages…

  1. Define your target audience for coaching
  2. Build your health coaching website
  3. Use digital advertising
  4. Collect reviews and testimonials
  5. Promote health coaching on social media
  6. Partner with related wellness businesses
  7. Refine and improve your marketing strategy

Let’s discuss each of these marketing ideas in more detail…

Guide To Marketing For Health Coaches

Define your target audience for coaching

The first step in marketing for health coaches (or any wellness business) is to define your ideal client. Who do you want to work with? Who will benefit most from your coaching?

We find it helpful to consider three aspects – demographics, headspace, and hangouts…

  • Demographics – age, gender, location, job, family situation, etc.
  • Headspace – what are their interests, health concerns, pain points, and fitness level?
  • Hangouts – where do they hang out e.g. which other accounts are they likely to follow or websites do they frequently visit?

Whether you’re targeting older adults, stressed out corporate employees, or people with a specific health issues with your coaching offering, researching their demographics, headspace, and hangouts is key. 

Identifying a clear audience for your health coaching enables you to target them precisely with your marketing efforts. You’ll know who they are, where they spend time, what their health goals and challenges are. This means you can tailor your marketing activities to really appeal to them.

Learn more… How to identify your target market for health and fitness coaching.

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Build a health coaching website

For most would-be coaching clients, Google is the first stop when researching coaches. They’ll look up which health coaches are located near their home or work, then explore their services and pricing. But if you don’t have a coaching website, then they’re not going to be able to find you online.

Having an online presence is crucial for health coaches and an essential marketing channel…

  • It can ensure you’re the first health coach that people find when searching on online.
  • It can generate high-quality leads for your coaching business and even process online package sign-ups.
  • And it can even boost loyalty and retention so that clients stay with you for longer.

An effective health coaching website is part brochure and part lead generation tool. So create web pages that outline your services, their benefits, and pricing. Then include calls to action throughout that encourage people to contact you or buy online. This way your website will be a marketing machine that generates a steady stream of clients for your coaching business.

Marketing Ideas For Health Coaches

Use digital advertising

For wellness businesses on a shoe-string budget, digital ads offer a great return on investment. Using Google, Facebook, or Instagram ads as part of your health coach advertising strategy is very cost-effective. This is because you’re only charged when people click on the advert which typically makes it cheaper than print advertising.

Online ads also produce results much faster than other health coach marketing methods. They often drive leads quickly which makes it a great option for when you need new clients fast. Once your ad campaign is set up, you ads will start being shown immediately, which gets your business in front of potential clients and generating sales straight away. 

The key to making digital ads work for health coaching is setting up a sales funnel to maximise conversions. That way you’ll have a process for turning visitors into coaching clients, and ensuring people who don’t buy immediately at least sign up to your email list.

Learn more… With our simple guide to Google Ads for fitness coaches.

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Collect reviews and testimonials

Reviews, testimonials, and word of mouth can accelerate the success of your health coaching business (or hold it back from reaching its full potential). People are relying on reviews more than ever before so it’s vital to drive positive ratings for your business.

You can generate coaching testimonials proactively by offering an incentive, reward, or simply asking nicely! Ask your existing clients for feedback and follow a defined structure (see the example below) to ensure you hit all the key points. Then share these testimonials and reviews everywhere you can including your website, social media platforms, and Google Business Profile!

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Our Marketing Roadmap includes a health testimonial template to guide you through the process.

Promote health coaching on social media

Social media marketing for health coaches is another effective promo strategy. It helps you reach a wider audience of potential clients and keep existing ones loyal. But it’s vital to approach social media strategically in order to generate meaningful business results.

Start by creating a social media marketing plan that outlines your goals and content strategy. This will help you align what you post with your coaching business objectives (like lead generation or brand awareness).

Here are three of the content pillars we recommend for health coaches…

  • Educate – followers about the benefits of health coaching and the specific services you offer.
  • Inspire – people to take action and take practical steps towards their health goals.
  • Promote – the coaching products and services your business offers so you generate sales.

Posting a combination of health and wellness content will help you build an engaged social following and generate client leads too.

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Partner with related wellness businesses

Partnering with businesses that are related to health coaching is a fantastic way to build your network and get in front of potential clients. Identify 5-10 companies that serve a similar audience to you and have aligned values. Then approach them about partnering on a marketing initiative that benefits both of you.

Engaging with your local community is an essential part of marketing for health coaches and partnerships are a great way to do it. You can collaborate on events and workshops, agree to share referrals, test social media account takeovers, or simply leave leaflets at their till. Getting in front of your target client by tapping into other people’s audiences is a tried and tested way of growing a coaching business.

You might also like… 150+ Health & Wellness Coaching Logo Ideas.

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Your step-by-step guide to getting fitness clients quickly.

Refine your health coach marketing strategy

Keeping refining and improving your health coach marketing strategy as you go. Are your promotional activities generating the results you’d hoped for? What’s working well and where can you do better?

It can be helpful to write a marketing plan that you can refer back to. Start by identifying your key marketing objectives and then listing the promo activities that will support them.

A health coach marketing plan helps you align your actions with outcomes and keeps you focused on what really drives results. It doesn’t have to be complicated – you can use a spreadsheet, post-it notes, or one of our downloadable templates.

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Fitness Marketing & Lead Generation Roadmap

Your All-in-One Toolkit to Attract, Engage & Convert More Clients

Get The Fitness Marketing Roadmap

Your All-in-One Toolkit to Attract, Engage, and Convert More Clients – Tailored Specifically for Fitness Businesses Like Yours!

The Fitness Marketing & Lead Generation Roadmap is a comprehensive resource designed for gyms, personal trainers, and online fitness businesses. It’s packed with video workshops, marketing templates, step-by-step guides, cheat sheets, and more. We cover:

  • Fitness Marketing Strategy: Build a solid foundation and plan for success.
  • Lead Generation: Attract more clients with effective tactics.
  • Social Media: Boost your online presence and engagement.
  • Email Marketing: Nurture leads and convert them into loyal customers.
  • Advertising & Promotion: Get your message out there efficiently.
  • Content Marketing: Create compelling content that resonates with your audience.
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Caroline @ Wellness Creative Co

Qualified personal trainer (BSc Sports Science) & nutritionist (MSc Human Nutrition) with 15+ years of fitness & wellness marketing experience working with global brands.