Worth Your Salt

Hiring a marketing agency can save you money, time, and lead to success by giving you access to professionals who know the industry inside and out. Rather than having to hire an in-house team of marketers with different skills, an agency can provide all of these services as part of their package. On top of that, agencies have experience with multiple clients and industries so they are more likely to come up with innovative solutions that could give your business an edge over the competition. So today on Worth Your Salt, we’re talking about the do’s and don’t of hiring a marketing agency.

You'll learn about:

What should you look for

How to make sure your budget is well-spent

Why communication is key when it comes to success

Which outsourced work will pay dividends long after the agency is gone

Finding The Right Marketing Agency

Hiring a professional marketer can be overwhelming and costly. But there are ways to make sure you select the right team for your business, like,  taking the time to research and vet potential agencies in order to get the most bang for your buck. So Jake, what kind of things should people be looking for in their research in order to make sure there’s no money wasted?

First, ask yourself what problems you need solved and what goals you want to accomplish with your marketing strategy. Once you have this list of objectives, you can start looking for an agency that specializes in those areas. You'll also want to take the time to look at their past work and client reviews—this will help give you a better idea of what to expect from them. 

Knowing the problems you want to solve and the goals you’d like to achieve will help ensure that an agency is a good fit for your business. It's important to be clear about what you need so that they can offer solutions tailored to your specific situation, rather than just trying to apply a one-size-fits-all approach - which can easily lead to money going down the drain. 

Additionally, having a list of objectives will also give the agency an idea of how much time and resources it will take to achieve those goals, which can be used in developing their pricing structure. It's important to remember that any marketing strategy should be tailored to your specific business needs so that you get the best possible results from your investment.

Know Your Marketing Agency Options

Another common challenge with hiring a marketing agency is that there are many different options available, from large full-service agencies to individual contractors with specific skillsets. It can be difficult to determine who has the best combination of experience, know-how, and cost for your needs. Additionally, some agencies may use tactics that look good on paper but don’t actually give results in practice, leaving you with empty promises and wasted money. 

The key to successful marketing is paying attention to the details. It’s important to research and understand what different agencies are offering, as well as which areas of expertise each agency specializes in. This helps you ensure that you’re selecting an agency with the right skillset for your business and investing in the right services. Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask questions about a potential agency's track record or other implementation details so you can make a more informed decision. Taking the time to do your due diligence can save you money and headaches in the long run.

It's important to find an agency that will make good on their promises, as it can be expensive and time-consuming to switch providers if you find out too late that your current provider isn't meeting your needs. Having a reliable partner is especially important for small businesses, which often have limited resources and need to maximize the impact of their investments. 

Make sure the agency is willing and able to provide regular progress updates throughout your partnership. Consistent communication is key for keeping projects on track and ensuring everyone remains on the same page.

Today, we’re talking about how you can get started with a content strategy for your business. We’ll talk about what a content strategy is - and what it isn’t - and why you need one, no matter how frequent or in-depth your content may be! We’re also going to jump into a few actionable steps to make your content strategy the engine behind your authority in the marketplace. You’re going to walk away with a ton of new ideas to scale your business!

You'll learn:

Three rules for great content development

Why knowing your target market is crucial for a good content strategy

How to choose the right format for your content

What your content strategy should include

What the Big Five is and what it can do for your Content Strategy

Content Strategy That Builds Authority

Let’s begin with a foundation - what a content strategy is. We look at it as a comprehensive approach to communicating every element of a company’s Brandscript. In the health & wellness space, its a roadmap to create that authority that’s essential to building trust. 

A great content strategy outlines how the content will be created, published, and managed in order to achieve specific goals for the business. It’s really important to determine what the goals of the content are. In health & wellness, content is all about building trust and authority, so the first element of that is establishing a consistent brand voice that customers and prospects know they can trust.

And that’s really the next element of what a content strategy is - targeting the right audience. And I know we’re going to get into how to develop content for where our clients are in their buying journey in a bit, but at that eagle-eye view, we want to be sure we identify who our audience is, what their needs, preferences, and pain points are in a general sense. When we fully and deeply understand those things, it actually makes it easier to create content that resonates with them - which of course, builds trust, and authority, and attracts more potential clients!

When we create a content strategy that consistently provides valuable and helpful information, we begin to establish a reputation as an authority, which gives us a loyal audience who not only engages with the information we provide but also shares it with other like-minded individuals!Listen here to get the full episode:

Today we're talking about a challenge we hear often from health and wellness practitioners, and that's that DIY isn't helping you grow. It's a very common complaint in this industry, because we get into it to help people, and think if we just share our passion, people will naturally gravitate towards us. But that's not always the case, so we've come up with five secrets to growth, specifically in the health and wellness industry that can get you out of that rut!So buckle up because we're covering a lot and we're super excited to dive in.

Is it Time To Hire A Professional Marketer?

Very often, the first thing we hear from a new client is the complaint that their marketing efforts are just eating up too much of their time. So I would say that's the first question you need to ask yourself. Really a gut check. If you feel like marketing your business is taking it too much time probably is. 

I would say a gut check is a good way to describe that. You know, are your marketing efforts taking away from the things in your business, the things that really only you can do to grow? Then that's definitely a problem for me. It goes back to the E-myth, if you've ever read that book? Are you spending too much time working IN the business and not enough time working ON the business?So the next question I would ask is, are your marketing efforts turning into results? Are you growing at the rate if you want to, because if not, it leads us to another question, which is: are you really fired up about marketing your business?

That is, do you have a solid understanding of various marketing channels and the strategies that work in each? And are you keeping up with the developments in marketing? By that, I don't mean, are you copying the latest TikTok trend? I mean, are you aware of the recent changes to Google Analytics that can affect your visibility?

In health and wellness, I think that most people aren't focused on these things, right? You're focusing on delivering great solutions for your clients. And most practitioners aren't working on building a marketing skillset that helps them execute on a variety of marketing campaigns. It's honestly just not a good use of their time. And of course, what we see a lot of is people in this space who are looking for new clients, want to grow their practice, but end up just throwing money at the marketing problem instead of just really solving it. And that's, that's why I hear most of the time that marketing doesn't work. If, you know, if you haven't got a solid strategy behind the dollars you're spending, you're gonna end up with an r o ROI that looks like you've just made donations to Google and Facebook or your local paper to get those leads.

Right? And, and another question you can ask yourself to see if it's time to hire a professional marketer is if you've reached a point where you don't know where to spend to get results - are you able to objectively analyze your marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions about your strategy? 

Are you setting goals for the number of new prospects you're talking to each month? Or the number of new clients you're bringing in and you're struggling to get to those goals, those numbers independently, then scaling your business might require a more comprehensive marketing strategy. In today's episode, we're going to get into some of the ways professional marketing efforts can really pay off.

Today we’re talking about what  - for some in the health and wellness industry - is a sore subject - paid advertising! So many practitioners just start shelling out cash because paid sounds like a silver bullet and then become quickly frustrated because those instant results don’t come. There's a time and a place to turn to paid, but we’re going to save you what may be thousands of dollars by talking about what you need to know about Pay Per Click advertising. Let’s dive into the ROI on organic and paid and get your business growing! You'll learn about:The role SEO plays in both paid and organic searchWhy trust and authority are more important than dollars spentWhat a qualified visitor is and how to get more of themHow to leverage your Brand Story to save on advertisingWhy keyword research is crucial Why Your PPC Strategy Isn't Working - And What To Do NextLet’s start out understanding what paid advertising is and isn’t online. When we talk about Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing, we are talking about building authority in your space that brings organic traffic to your door because you are providing VALUE, not because you are throwing money at Google, Facebook or even banner ads in your local online paper.We believe strongly in maxing out our organic opportunities before we give a dime to any agency or platform to increase our visibility.  Let’s talk a little bit about what that means, and what health and wellness providers should actually be doing.Paid ads are meant for immediate, quick visibility - and if you don't have adequate demand for your brand already in place then you're paying for clicks from unqualified visitors.An unqualified visitor is someone who visits your website and shows no interest in engaging with what you have to offer. This could be because they are unaware of the services or products you provide, don't trust your brand, or simply found their way on the page by accident. Investing into paid ads for these unqualified visitors can result in wasted resources; since it attracts people that may never convert and reduces the chances of getting highly qualified leads that are more likely to engage with your brand.The approach we recommend health and wellness providers take is based on building trust and authority in the marketplace - not only with search engines but also with your audience, the people that need your services. And really addressing the questions they have about what you do. And while we could literally have an entire episode just on that topic- how to produce content that your audience finds helpful - it’s important we understand what “organic search” means and what it can do for you.When we talk about working to build authority with “organic search,” we’re referring to when your content, your answers to the questions your customers need answered, come up when they are searching for information. That’s what organic search does - it helps you to show up in the “unpaid” searches or results. So it is really a win/win - you aren’t paying for ads and you are building your authority and brand. Get the entire episode here:

Hey Shakers, and welcome to Worth Your Salt, the podcast that shakes up your marketing game in the health and wellness industry. Join us as we dive into the trends, tools, and resources for not only fitness and nutrition companies, but also for organizations that focus on overall physical and mental health and appearance.So today we're talking about a challenge we hear often from health and wellness practitioners, and that's the complaint that we're doing, everything we can think of, and we are still not growing. It's a very common complaint. So we've come up with five secrets to growth, specifically in the health and wellness industry that can get you outta that rut, basically. And it's gonna be a great episode.So buckle up because we're covering a lot and we're super excited to dive in.

Five Growth Secrets In Health & Wellness

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking, "We've got to literally throw money at Google or Facebook to reach our ideal clients." It can feel like every competitor is doing it, so it must be the way to growth. But there are other, often overlooked, but more effective ways to connect with those wellness seekers out there. ​

And that leads us to our first growth secret, which is inbound marketing. Inbound is the process of attracting customers to your business through the creation of valuable content and experiences. So it's all about providing value and building relationships rather than just trying to sell something. So our second growth secret I wanna talk about is how we bring our ideal target market to that content.It's certainly not a build it and they will come kind of situation. No, No, not at all. There's a lot of strategy that goes into inbound marketing, and our second secret is optimizing that content, which means knowing your target market and what they are looking for. Yeah. And I know a lot of people who aren't necessarily in marketing, they, they fear search engine optimization, s e o, it seems like so much alchemy and magic, but really there's a science behind it. And by relying on the data, you can really ensure that you're getting great content that brings the exact person you're looking for, right? That's the whole point.

So in the SEO space, I most often hear people say, I did the keyword research and I infuse all those keywords into my content, and I have no idea what else to do. It's just outta my hands at this point. Meaning that's they're waiting for the magic at that point. And a huge piece of SEO that a lot of people are missing is that data collection, the analysis, and then readjusting based on the data. So we'll get into this in a little bit more detail, but it is imperative to your SEO strategy that you become a data nerd. If you don't have spreadsheets and trackers and reports running all the time, then you're just gonna get left behind and you won't be able to compete with the big dogs.Which I think is what probably scares most people off. But understanding that I think is something we're gonna get to today. So the third secret that we want to talk about centers around communication, specifically email and social media communication. So if there's one element of your communication with your target market that is key to growth, we're gonna talk about that and how you can get to It.And fourth, we're gonna talk about how really, how you can really leverage referrals. Often in the health and wellness industry, we think, and we hope that if we do a great job, the referrals are just gonna come flowing in. But the reality is that hope is not a sound strategy, unfortunately. And so we're going to talk about how you can be strategic about referrals, not just from clients, but from other people in your industry as well. ​

And the fifth and final secret to growth is conducting regular audits of your marketing strategy. So by reviewing your marketing efforts on a regular basis, you can easily identify areas for improvement and uncover hidden opportunities that you didn't know were there. Let's dig into how we can take advantage of all five of these tools to supercharge our growth!

Listen In to learn three marketing mistakes health and wellness practitioners make that can be easily fixed for great results.

What is up Shakers? Welcome to Worth Your Salt, the podcast that helps you shake up your marketing game in the health and wellness industry. So pull up a chair and let's dive in. We are super excited, and today we're gonna be talking all about demand generation.So how do we define demand generation and why should we concern ourselves with this shift? But more importantly, especially here on Worth Your Salt, where we talk about ROI, how do we measure success? In today's episode, we're  talking about why your organization might want to pivot from lead generation to demand generation and the bumps along the way that you're likely to encounter.Why Your Marketing Strategy Should Shift to Demand GenerationSo why should we take this plunge? Whether we're talking about B2B or B2C, they're educating themselves. They've asked questions in communities, they've tapped into their network, they already know what your competitors offer and what you offer. So when someone raises their hand, they're not necessarily ready to buy. In the old lead gen way of thinking, we ask sales to call on someone who might be nowhere near in market yet, which causes frustration for both marketing and sales. But today's buyer doesn't want to be pushed to have a conversation. So by shifting our thinking and giving our target market this space to educate themselves, we as marketers can actually allow the prospect to just move themselves along in market.  So how do we demonstrate the value of our marketing when we aren't gathering those leads? When we aren't counting people that are coming in and following up with them. But today it's about a lot more than just gathering an email address so you can endlessly follow up. I remember we would go back and forth about this idea of tracking leads. We don't want to just give all of our best ideas away for free, all that versus something that we already knew to be true in the SEO world, which is that all that really matters is that people know that we know our staff. So we started slowly ungating things. So let's dig into this idea of a shift from a scenario where we basically pounce on our prospects to one where we're leaning into the ways in which today's consumers are making buying decisions, particularly around health and wellness. So how can we bring people to us in a more organic way?That's the question. And organic traffic is music to my ears, right? So one of, if not the easiest ways to tap into your target market is with keyword research and then subsequent on-page optimization with that keyword research. So by using keywords to find out what people need, you're basically meeting them where they're at in their own buying journey instead of forcing them to act before they're ready.So we're giving people that space to educate themselves before they commit to anything. And what we mean by "committing" is anything that has to do with putting in your email, making some sort of down payment, signing a contract, anything like that. Putting in a credit card, that's always scary.  It's interesting because I noticed that a lot of folks in this industry are starting to sit up and take notice of what goes on in that dark funnel.So putting energy into the conversations that are happening about and around us that we can't necessarily control or measure. So what comes into play there is clear storytelling and making sure the narrative around your organization is consistent and gets out there into the world. So that gets you into a situation where we can focus on direct demand and declared intent. So rather than chasing our prospects, they're reaching out to us.