In this episode of the Simple Marketing Solutions podcast, your host Ameeta, a seasoned marketer, dives into the benefits of transitioning from one-on-one patient care to creating online courses and group programs. With a touch of humor and a funny pun in the title, Ameeta explores how health professionals in the natural healthcare industry can thrive by embracing the power of group programs.
She discusses the scalability and time efficiency that come with reaching a larger audience through online courses and group programs, allowing health professionals to serve multiple clients simultaneously and maximise their impact. Ameeta also highlights the increased revenue potential, personal well-being, and leveraging of expertise that this shift can bring.
Throughout the episode, Ameeta provides valuable insights on where health professionals should start when implementing this model into their private practice. She emphasises the importance of identifying the target audience, conducting market research, defining a compelling value proposition, creating engaging content, and making strategic decisions regarding pricing and packaging.
Transcript:
Ameeta Gangaram
Hello and welcome to the Simple Marketing Solutions podcast, where we help health professionals and coaches to transform their digital presence with confidence and ease. For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Ameeta.
Ameeta Gangaram
I’m a seasoned marketer and naturopath and also a best-selling author. I’m passionate about guiding individuals in the healthcare industry who feel overwhelmed with everything digital while they try to grow online. I offer private coaching, an online group coaching program called She Succeeds and also Done For You marketing services, which include web design, email marketing, and online course creation.
Ameeta Gangaram
Today, we’re going to dive into understanding the benefits of transitioning from a one-to-one patient care model to creating online courses and group programs. We’ll explore the benefits of how this new model can not only enhance your personal well-being but also fuel your business’s success.
Ameeta Gangaram
I’ll outline the key steps that you have not thought of, so listen in for that because you’ll hear this, of achieving this transformation. There are steps that everybody forgets. These are the most vital if you want this to work for your business.
Ameeta Gangaram
So let’s get straight into it. Benefits. Who doesn’t love hearing about benefits, right? With this topic, it’s no different and there are seven key benefits that I want to talk about today when it comes to making this transition and choosing this as an option for your business model.
Ameeta Gangaram
The first one is scalability. Think of this. There’s one of you, and if you’re just seeing clients one-on-one, then that means that your time is limited. There’s only so many people that you can see in a one-on-one situation per day.
Ameeta Gangaram
It also means that you’re limiting your ability to help more people that really need what you offer. So when you leverage the technology that we have today is right at our fingertips of creating online courses, creating group programs.
Ameeta Gangaram
Everything is there, you know, 10, 15 years ago. The technology was a lot harder, let me tell you, when I was practicing as an atropath and launched my first courses online, it was a bit of a tough thing to get your website to do all of that, you know, and it took me a lot longer to be able to build those programs out.
Ameeta Gangaram
Now, with the technology and the programs, you can have your online program done and up and running within a week, yeah, in a week. So scalability is definitely important to consider. Time efficiency is number two.
Ameeta Gangaram
Again, when you’re doing one-on-one sessions, your energy and the time is really limited to the number of people you can fit into your schedule per day. But when you shift to an online or program, it means that you can see multiple clients at once if you have direct involvement in the program, or if the program is an evergreen program where people can sign up and do it in their own time, then that frees up all your time to focus on your bigger packages, signature program, which has a higher value and therefore means you can really give those clients the attention that they deserve.
Ameeta Gangaram
Number three is revenue potential, and who doesn’t love this? Now, I know that we’re not focusing on being money crazy or anything like that, but we are in business and therefore we do need to be making a profit.
Ameeta Gangaram
And as a result of that, we need to be looking at how we can grow our business without exhausting ourselves because it really is a real thing these days of pushing ourselves so hard to the point of exhaustion where we’re trying to help everybody, but in the end we’re doing ourselves a disservice.
Ameeta Gangaram
So remember that, that you have with an online course, the price may be lower than if you were a client one-on-one, but you have the ability to sell hundreds of thousands of those courses to people.
Ameeta Gangaram
You have the ability to generate much higher income without you investing more time. And this point, number four, to me, I think that this is the biggest factor to consider when you are considering putting together an online course or program, and that is your own personal well-being.
Ameeta Gangaram
We in the health industry are so determined to help others that we do forget to put ourselves first, our own health, our own well-being first. Now, when you shift to group programs or creating an online evergreen program, of course, sorry, it means that you have a much more balanced workload.
Ameeta Gangaram
You’re able to reduce that strain. You’re able to find more time to pursue your other passions, to spend time with your family, to take that well-deserved holiday that you haven’t taken in years, to be able to have the headspace, to look at your business more creatively, and look at other opportunities, you know, collaboration, speaking events, etc.
Ameeta Gangaram
There’s so much more potential when you have the time and the energy. And next is leveraging your expertise. When you start focusing on an online course or an online program, you will become known for that expertise that you have, that knowledge that you’re sharing, those skills that you’ve developed in your profession.
Ameeta Gangaram
You’re putting it all together, you’re patching all of this into a structured format of modules and course material. Therefore, it’s comprehensive. People are going to get the results. That’s going to be word of mouth right there for you.
Ameeta Gangaram
You will become known as the expert in this, and it will really help to open up the doors for future collaborations, book writing opportunities, speaking gigs, etc. For me, for example, I became known as the energy expert when I had my practice.
Ameeta Gangaram
And I started presenting nationally on this topic. It also gave me the opportunity to contribute to an international number one bestselling book called Elevate Your Health. So remember, it not only allows you to help more people, but it also positions you as an authority in your field.
Ameeta Gangaram
And this is to set you apart from your competitors because nobody else will put their programs together the way that you do. Nobody else has the knowledge that you have to package that product and service as an online program or group program.
Ameeta Gangaram
The other thing is the community and support. So when you’ve got a group program, for example, you’re building a community of like-minded individuals that are in a similar situation. And it’s not just reliant on you supporting them.
Ameeta Gangaram
They become the community supporting each other, cheering each other on. And their health journey and their recovery is actually faster because they feel more motivated and they know that they’re not doing it alone.
Ameeta Gangaram
So there’s real value in being able to provide that as a service in your clinic. And lastly is the flexibility and freedom. I left this last, but I think it’s again, probably the number two on my list.
Ameeta Gangaram
And when I talk to my clients, this is the thing that drives them to want to implement an online course or to start doing and offering group programs. It gives you the flexibility in terms of scheduling and location.
Ameeta Gangaram
You could work from anywhere if your course is all online. And if your group programs are an online program, it allows you to do prerecorded content, giving your clients access to that when they need it on their terms.
Ameeta Gangaram
It also means that makes it convenient for them. So therefore, they’re again, motivated to want to do it and get better results when they’re doing it in their time. They feel tortured or forced or like it’s a chore.
Ameeta Gangaram
The other thing when it comes to flexibility and freedom is that I wanted to drill into your audience. This is so important. So when I was putting together my programs for clients that were dealing with adrenal fatigue and thyroid issues, they were exhausted.
Ameeta Gangaram
So it meant that I couldn’t just put in one hour of video together for them and get them to work. They would not last. So I made sure that my content was short, two to three minute videos.
Ameeta Gangaram
And I made sure that all my resources were very infographic style, lots of imagery, rather than heavy text. Because I understood what my clients felt like that sitting on to their computer and opening up a module and just seeing all this text or a long video wouldn’t cut it.
Ameeta Gangaram
And they wouldn’t get the results and I wouldn’t get the right feedback. And therefore that wouldn’t help either of us. So make sure you understand your audience when you’re putting this together.
Ameeta Gangaram
And now when it comes to looking at implementing your course, there are definitely some key factors that you need to ensure are in place for a smooth and successful transition into this new business model.
Ameeta Gangaram
Now a few of those we have been talking about over our podcast episodes. So I’m not going to go into a heap of detail, but I will let you know which podcast episode you can go to and listen to get even more depth and detail from.
Ameeta Gangaram
So the first one is identify your target audience. Like I was saying before, if you don’t know who your audience is and what works for them, then your online course could fall flat.
Ameeta Gangaram
So it’s really important to identify exactly who they are, what they need, what their emotions are, and what they really desire right now before you put your course together. If you want more detail about the questions that you need to start asking and how to go about this, then head to episode 34 of the podcast.
Ameeta Gangaram
I’ll pop the link in the show notes. Number two is command research. Again, in episode 35, we talked about this in depth. And I know that this is often overlooked. When I ask my clients in our first meeting, doing a marketing strategy, I’ll say, you know, who are your competitors?
Ameeta Gangaram
And they’ll be like, I don’t know, I don’t really have any competitors or everybody’s a competitor. And that’s, you know, it’s not a good enough answer. You’re in your, you do need to know who your competitors are, because you don’t want to be coming across the same, everybody else.
Ameeta Gangaram
And by you putting together an online program, then that already is a point of difference. But it’s important to understand who they are. When, you know, if you look at big companies like your fast food outlets, you know, you will see that they are always innovating.
Ameeta Gangaram
They are looking at what competitors are doing. McDonald’s will change their menus out. KFC will adapt something similar to what McDonald’s does, et cetera, vice versa. Know your competition, stay ahead of the game, and make sure that you’re learning and adapting all the time.
Ameeta Gangaram
Number three is defining your value propositions. This is where you’re putting your grammar, you’re putting that core structure together, and you’re bringing in your expertise, your flavor, that is going to differentiate you from all the corners out there.
Ameeta Gangaram
But how you position that when it comes to marketing, that’s the important thing. And in episode 37, I go into all the details of how to package this and what you need to start thinking about.
Ameeta Gangaram
So have a list to it. Again, I’ll pop the link in the show notes. And number four is in compelling content. Now, when I was saying earlier, when I had my programs for people that were dealing with adrenal fatigue, burnout, and thyroid issues, I had to make sure that the content was engaging, that they were coming back each week to listen and do the next steps in the next module and getting the results that they needed.
Ameeta Gangaram
Because they were paying me money in exchange, I needed to make sure I was giving them the results that they needed. So that’s really, really important to find that balance as well.
Ameeta Gangaram
Then number five is pricing and packaging. So with this, when you’re putting your program together, it’s important to not undervalue yourself. So putting together the resources, the videos, take all of that into context when you’re priced on your programs.
Ameeta Gangaram
Remember that it’s really important to understand your expertise you’ve studied, you’ve been in, you’ve experienced as a practitioner, make sure that you’re getting the value you deserve as a practitioner in exchange for the value that your clients are going to get from the program.
Ameeta Gangaram
When you market things as too cheap, it can leave people thinking, ah, she obviously doesn’t know what she’s talking about because this is way too cheap or there can’t be much content here that’s going to be of value to me and getting me back on track with my health.
Ameeta Gangaram
So make sure that you do your research around that and that will come back to understanding your audience. So again, listen to that episode 34 where I talk about all of that for you.
Ameeta Gangaram
And we are going into number six, which is technology and platform solution. Now this I know is the tech geek part, but it’s really important. You want something that’s easy for you to upload your content and create those modules for course.
Ameeta Gangaram
It also really needs to be easy for the end user for your client that makes that purchase. You want them to be able to access it really easily, really efficiently without drama because that means they’re going to do it.
Ameeta Gangaram
They’re going to be motivated. They’re going to get the results that you’re promising in your programs. So there’s several platforms out there. There’s heaps, actually, not even just several. There are a lot of programs and platforms that you can put your courses on these days.
Ameeta Gangaram
I love a couple of them that I’ve been working with with my clients and putting together when we do their course creation and the technical aspect of launching that on their website, etc.
Ameeta Gangaram
So if you want more help or you’ve got a few questions around, book a free strategy session with me and we can discuss that in more depth. I’ll put the link to booking that call with me in the show notes.
Ameeta Gangaram
And last, not least, is marketing and promotion. So you know that I’m into marketing. That’s what this podcast is about. It’s really important that you’ve done the hard work. You’ve put the course together.
Ameeta Gangaram
You’ve got that content creation there. Now it’s about raising the awareness and getting people to buy it, right? So remember that. In episode 39, we talked about content creation and how you can put together your content plan for your social media strategy.
Ameeta Gangaram
Remember that it is a continuous evolution of telling people, reminding them of what you have available, putting it in one post and expecting people to remember that. It ain’t going to cut it.
Ameeta Gangaram
I’m sorry to say. The likelihood of your audience seeing that one post is so small. So you need to go with the algorithm. You need to go with how social media works.
Ameeta Gangaram
And that is engaging on a regular basis and building up that story and telling people about what you offer on a regular basis, not just one off and in different ways. So whether that be video, static posts, live video, talking about it in groups that you belong to, it’s really important that you have a clear idea of how you’re going to market that to your audience.
Ameeta Gangaram
So now that we’ve covered all of that, remember that implementing an online or group program into your private practice requires careful planning, marketing and effective communication. So if you follow the steps that I talked about today, you definitely will be well positioned, create and launch a successful program that serves your target audience and helps you to grow your business without feeling overworld, without investing more time, and is going to give you the balance and freedom that you’ve been looking for. Until next week, my friends, happy marketing!
