8 Ways To Get Clients As a Nutritionist
One of the biggest areas of overwhelm and frustration I see almost all nutritionists go through is how they are going to sign their first (or next!) nutrition client.
You went to school to learn about nutrition and you assumed that when you graduated, clients would be knocking down YOUR door because they needed your help!
So if you’ve been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the clients to show up at your door, I’d love to fast-track your progress and give you a few tangible tips and strategies for how to put yourself out there and find nutrition clients…now!
There are thousands of people out there that need your help right now. They just need to know who you are and how you can help them.
This means that it’s up to you to put yourself out there and start finding those clients, and stop waiting for them to come to you.
If you’re stuck on the type of nutrition business you’d like to start, check out my blog post 24 nutrition business ideas for 2024 now!
Let’s talk about 8 key marketing strategies to help you get clients as a nutritionist.
Offer a Free Nutrition Workshop
One of my go-to recommendations for getting new nutrition clients is by running a free or paid workshop!
Workshops are a great way for you to connect with your community, speak on a topic you are passionate about, share your expertise, and talk about next steps for working with you.
The best thing about workshops is that you can run them for your community (if you have one!) or leverage someone else's community.
There are a number of different places you can run your workshop:
Online through Zoom
Instagram or Facebook live
In a health food store
In a boardroom (corporate wellness session)
At a community centre
At your local grocery store
A friend or family member’s house
The sky is really the limit!
If you are wanting to run a workshop in a public space like a health food store or community centre, simply reach out to those establishments, let them know what you do, and ask them if there’d be an opportunity to run a workshop in their space. When it comes to reaching out, all you can do is ask!
The next thing you’ll want to do is pick a workshop topic that is specific to your nutrition niche or what you know best.
Some workshop topic ideas are:
Hormone Balancing 101
5 Steps to Better Digestion
Pre and Post-Workout Snack Ideas
Meal Prepping for Families
Beat the Bloat Workshop Series
Create your workshop outline and aim for a workshop length of 30 minutes to 1 hour.
At the end of your workshop, make sure to tell your audience about your nutrition programs or services, and the next steps they can take to work with you. This part is crucial for turning your workshop attendees into paying clients!
Bonus idea: Offer a discount for your program or service to those that attend for a limited time or for a limited number of people, so that they have some incentive to work with you now!
2. Run a Nutrition Challenge
A great way to engage your audience and help them to get a quick win is to run a nutrition challenge.
My recommendation would be to create a short 3-5 day challenge (any longer than this tends to lose people’s attention!) focusing on a specific topic.
You can use any of the above workshop ideas and turn them into a challenge, or find a challenge topic that you know would resonate with your audience!
What you will do is break down your topic into daily lessons, with an action step for your participants to take each day. You can run your challenge through a Facebook Group or even inside the client management platform, Practice Better!
Want to learn the step-by-step process of running a nutrition challenge inside of Practice Better? Listen to this podcast episode.
An example of your challenge could look like:
Beat the Bloat - 3 Day Nutrition Challenge
Day 1: Explain basics of digestion and give action step for your participants to drink some lemon water in the morning and post a picture in the group
Day 2: Explain why bloating happens and give action step for your participants to practice mindful eating during dinner
Day 3: Explain the basics of fiber and give action step for your participants to include one fiber-filled food in their day and let the group know which food they chose
At the end of the challenge, congratulate your audience for committing to the challenge, celebrate their small wins, and remind them that this is just the first step in their journey.
Let them know how you can help them continue to feel better, and introduce your program or service.
Bonus idea: Offer a discount for your program or service to those that participated in your challenge for a limited time or for a limited number of people, so that they have some incentive to work with you now!
3. Run a Nutrition Giveaway
Another idea to get clients as a nutritionist is to run a giveaway. Now this one might sound out of the box, but hear me out!
Running a giveaway will help to put you in front of a new audience, get more eyes on your business, and create a bit of buzz.
Here are a few ideas of what you could give away:
A free health product - a supplement you love, your favourite protein powder, a case of kombucha, etc.
A free nutrition consultation - offer 30-60 minutes of your time to support someone with their nutrition questions
A free spot inside of your nutrition program - if you have a signature program, this is a great way to promote your program and gauge interest in it
If you go with the idea of giving away a free health product, try reaching out to your favourite brands first to see if they would contribute an item for free and collaborate with you on your giveaway!
If they decide not to contribute, you can purchase the product on your own if you know that the return-on-invest (ROI) will be worth it.
Set up your giveaway so in order for people to enter, they have to like the post and follow you, which will help you to grow your reach and invite new leads in.
After running your giveaway and choosing your winner, you can follow up with everyone who entered and offer them a discount to work with you!
Here’s a sample script of what you can say when following up:
“Hey X, thank you so much for entering my giveaway! Although you didn’t win this time around, I wanted to extend a little gift to everyone who entered. If you need any support with your X right now, I’d love to gift you $X or X% off my program X. Here’s a link to learn more if you’re interested!”
4. Get Consistent on Social Media
It’s a bit of a hard truth, but if you’re not putting yourself out there, getting visible, and sharing about your program…no one is going to know about you!
The key to staying top of mind with your audience and turn them into paying clients is to be consistent with showing up online, creating content, and sharing about your program.
One step you can take is to commit to a content creation schedule.
This could look like posting on social media 3x per week, going on Instagram stories daily or writing 1x blog post per week.
Whatever social media schedule you choose to follow, make sure that it works for you! Burnout on social media is no joke, so find a rhythm that feels good to you and honors your energy and commitment levels.
5. Share About Your Nutrition Programs or Services Consistently
One of my favourite ways to share on social media about your nutrition program or service is to create a set of graphics for your program!
You can do this by going to Canva, choosing a social media template that fits your branding, and then adding important information about your program.
Create nutrition program graphics that include:
The name and length of your program
Who the program is for
What’s included in the program
A call to action for them to learn more about the program or book in a discovery call
Make a plan to share your program graphics at least once a week, so that your program stays on top of mind for your audience, and when they’re ready to work with someone, they think of you!
6. Reach Out To Your Network (Friends, Family, Past Clients)
Reaching out to your friends, family and past clients often gets forgotten when trying to think of ways to grow your business and sign your first (or next!) nutrition clients.
In most cases, your friends, family and past clients are your raving fans!
They’re usually the ones telling others that their best friend is a nutritionist, or that their sister just graduated nutrition school, or that they were able to reach their health goals when working with you. So don’t be shy in asking them for help - they want to see you succeed!
You can connect with your community by writing an email:
“Hey X, I'm not sure if you've heard that I've launched a new nutrition program and I’m currently taking on new clients! My program is called X and helps with X. Here are some details for the program, and I’d be so grateful if you can pass this information on to someone who might benefit!”
Or alternatively, “Hey X, I'm not sure if you've heard that I just graduated from nutrition school and I’m currently taking on my first clients! Here are some details for the program, and I’d be so grateful if you can pass this information on to someone who might benefit!”
To thank your friends, family and past clients for sharing about your program or services, you can offer them a referral incentive like a $25 gift card for anyone they send your way who signs up or even a simple “thank you!” card showing them your appreciation.
If you don’t feel comfortable writing a personal email to your network, you could even write a social media post asking everyone to share the post or tag someone that the program might be a fit for!
This is a great way to get your name out there and leverage the network you have already built.
7. Connect with Other Practitioners for Referrals
Another great way to sign new clients is to partner up with another practitioner for referrals.
This means that you’ll find a practitioner who is currently serving the clients you want to be helping, but in a different capacity - so think Medical Doctors, Naturopaths, Chiropractors, Massage Therapists, Yoga Therapists, etc.
You can create this relationship by reaching out on email, letting them know how you can bring value to them and their clients, and asking if you can connect further to speak about a referral opportunity.
The key here is to lead with how you can help them, and remember to share the benefits that you can bring to their life and practice!
It’s good to remember that referral partnerships might take time and patience to develop, but they’re worth it in the long run!
Learn how to build a referral network for your nutrition business in this blog post.
8. Run a Limited Number of Free Sessions
One way to get experience in working with nutrition clients, especially if you’ve just started your nutrition business, is by offering a limited number of free consultations.
This is not usually my first recommendation when it comes to strategies for signing new nutrition clients, but this is an option if you’ve tried everything else and still seem to be having no luck!
What you would do is offer a number of limited nutrition consultations for a limited time frame -
Example: “I‘m offering 3 free 60 minute nutrition consultations in January”
At the end of your free consultation, you can discuss next steps with your client and see if there is an opportunity to work further with them in your paid program or service.
And if they’re not interested in working with you any further, that’s ok!
You will still gain some invaluable experience by offering these sessions and you can even ask them to pass your information on to a friend or family member that might be interested.
And don’t forget to ask them for a testimonial!
You can use this on your website or social media, so it’s definitely a win-win if you can get them to provide some written feedback on your time working together.
So there you have it. Those are my tried and true strategies for getting your first (or next!) nutrition client and I would love for you to try some of these strategies out!
The best advice I can leave you with is something that one of my past clients and friend Alex from Nutrition Moderation always says - “there’s no comfort in your growth zone and no growth in your comfort zone”.
So put yourself out there, try something new, and you might be happily surprised with the results!
Looking for some support with signing your first (or next!) nutrition clients?
Click below to learn more about my online course Launch Your Nutrition Biz!
