Marketing for spiritual businesses: where to start immediately

Marketing for spiritual businesses can seem a bit chaotic at first when you don’t know much about marketing. The good news is though: you’re within the spiritual industry and your key focus has to be on staying authentic. Even within your marketing & business activities.

I’ve brought you a very exciting and useful topic, to show you which mistakes to avoid when you are marketing your spiritual business. I break this into 3 parts to cover the essential foundations for understanding your marketing efforts. I recommend to go through these guides in this order to get a cohesive picture of how to get started with your marketing as a spiritual entrepreneur.

Part 1: who are you targeting

Part 2: Your mission & your why

Part 3: Emotional triggers

Let’s dig into these basics so that you can start making a bigger impact within the conscious community.

Part 1: find your audience

Not understanding who you are targeting

Do you know what it is that you’re trying to achieve with your impact-driven business? If you don’t understand your target audience (the beautiful souls that NEED your service), it will be difficult for you to figure out how to reach them.

For example, let’s say you would like to do some spiritual coaching or you want to become someone to guide others on how to manage their purposeful business. Or maybe you want to heal people emotionally, energetically or physically. You know the main activity, great. But how do you figure out who you prefer to be working with and what sort of community you want to be serving? How do you know what it is that you are really passionate about within that main activity? These are the big questions that you should be asking yourself. With this in mind, your answers will create the core foundations of the overall marketing for your impact-driven business. In addition to these core basics, I’ve also created a quick guide for 3 things to do before you start a spiritual business.

Marketing exercise for spiritual businesses

This exercise will take you 10 minutes a day. Visualize the process and be brave to let your imagination run as far as possible because that’s how you will find the true and preferred client type for you. When you are building your purposeful business successfully, the key will be this: that you truly enjoy getting involved with your activities. Above all, you need to work together with the kind of people that you are genuinely passionate about helping.

Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what business you have, the main objective is to serve something. Serving a community, serving a purpose, serving others. Obviously as an impact-driven entrepreneur, you are going to give your customers a solution to their problems. Furthermore try to switch your mindset from building a business to serving a purpose, serving a community and solving a problem.

I’m sure you can find 5-10 minutes a day to spend on yourself. I would recommend to set aside 10 minutes and if you can allocate more, that’s even better. Repeat this exercise if needed, maybe for a few days in the row or when you feel that you are in the flow and have that creative mindset.

So get a pen and paper or open your laptop, whatever works for you ( I personally love using a voice recorder). Ask yourself these questions to really narrow down your target audience:

• What is the common trait within my potential customers? (e.g. self-aware, curious, anxious etc)
• How old are they? (age brackets)
• What is their main interest in life? Their main hobbies or passions?
• Where do they go when they are not working?
• How does their lifestyle look like?
• How can they relate to you on a personal level?
• What kind of value can you add to their lives?
• Why do they need your service or product? (What problem are you solving?)

Seeing that I’ve had many people reaching out to me asking in recent months, telling me that they feel stuck and they don’t understand their own audience. They don’t know how to refine their niche and find the people that they would love to be working with. And this is the key here. You need to be selective and find the kind of people or companies that you would actually enjoy working with. So don’t just take on any business and don’t just take on any clients if you don’t click with them. If you are working within the holistic, esoteric and spiritual industries, you know very well why it is important that you resonate with the people around you. Remember, vibes don’t lie. Marketing for spiritual businesses can be a lot of fun because you get to be the real you!

So have a clear understanding and use these 10 minutes a day to allow yourself to visualize a scenario when you are doing your service, you are selling your product. When you’re done then go a bit deeper with your questions:

• How does this customer look like?
• How does the whole process look like? From the first point of contact when they reach out to you.
• What is the tone of voice of the conversation that you’re having with your customer? Is it laid-back? Is it honest? Is it vulnerable, maybe? Is it structured? Is it serious?
• Who is this kind of customer? Is it someone similar to you and your profile? Is it someone maybe very different and someone that you would love to learn more about?

This exercise can help you if you want to work as a healer or you want to work with energy or if you are just about to start your a spiritual coaching practice. Since these core foundations apply to every industry, you can use the same principle to figure out your marketing basics for your spiritual business.

It’s ok to be selective with your marketing

Before I figured out who I honestly wanted to work with, I was creating strategies within many different industries as a Director and CEO. If you’re curious about my professional background, here it is. Eventually I switched my mindset and became very selective. Now I’m not working with just any client anymore. There have been numerous times when I walked away from an opportunity because it was not in line with my values. Now I know, that I am serving the right community. Impact-driven entrepreneurs, purposeful businesses and characters who are aligned with my own belief systems and vibrational level.

In conclusion, figure out the ideal client type first when you are marketing your spiritual business. Also remember to understand exactly what issue you are actually solving. Know the impact you’re making with your work.

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Part 2: your mission & why

The core of your spiritual business marketing must-haves

The second part of your marketing essentials is all about YOU. This is the vital part of any branding concept, yet many impact-driven entrepreneurs forget to communicate it. If you don’t skip this part, it will help you figure out your main branding angle, which is going to be super exciting. But not having the right (and relevant!) branding in place, will kind of feel like if you were trying to sell shoes in a shop that caters to people with amputated legs. Harsh example, I know. However, it might help you see the real importance of marketing your spiritual business in an efficient way.

Within this section, you will also do another brainstorming exercise to understand why branding is important for you when you are building something for the conscious community. And I want to make sure that you build a successful business. And by successful, I want to clarify, I don’t mean to just make a lot of money. That’s part of it, yes (think of it as a nice side effect).

What I truly mean by being successful is that you are completely aligned with your inner purpose and your spiritual calling.

You are enjoying your work, your professional work, which is basically going to be based on what you are genuinely passionate about. You are reaching the right people that you feel aligned with and you’re having a meaningful career.

Authentic branding

First of all, what is branding? This is something that you’ve probably heard quite a few times and you likely have a bit of an understanding of it already. But when it comes to starting your own spiritual business, what does branding even mean for you? Especially when you think about marketing within the spiritual, holistic and esoteric industries. I will cover the branding essentials for you, keeping these industries in mind.

One thing that you need to be focusing on when building your brand: you are going to be serving a community that is not going to be interested in sales techniques, simple promotions and just offers. Because the people that you are targeting within the spiritual industry are looking for the truth. They are looking for the real and raw human being that’s behind that surface. Instead of creating just a surface as your brand, you need to make sure that whatever you are communicating is the truth. That it is going to come across in a genuine, authentic way. This is the biggest “secret ingredient” for marketing your spiritual business. For this reason, make sure that you have authentic branding and you’re communicating truthfully.

That’s something I always stressed for my clients & teams I managed even when I worked within more traditional industries. As an impact-entrepreneur, you need to make sure that your brand is true to you. If you are launching your own esoteric business, or you are a healer, a life coach, a spiritual business mentor on an astrologer, you fit into the spirituality industry. Or perhaps you are selling products that help other spiritual entrepreneurs or the community to evolve. Either way, you are on the path to making a positive impact through your work.

You need to make sure that your personality shines through your branding because this is a very specific niche. This is the kind of industry where people are looking for answers.

They have been doing some self reflection already and they are much further along their development journey than an average customer.

Spiritual Marketing Exercise #2

To create your authentic branding, first of all you need to understand why you are doing what you are doing. What is it that made you take that leap forward to pursue this so passionately? Grab your notebook, voice recorder or laptop and start figuring out the core foundations of your authentic branding. This exercise will take about 20-30 minutes, however, if it feels good to keep writing for longer then just do that!

Your why:

• When did you start feeling passionate about your idea/service/product?
• Has something happened in your life that drastically change the course of events?
• What feelings do you associate to this idea? What other memories does this feeling bring up? Do you see a pattern?
• What’s that internal motivator that is propelling you forward and wanting you to do this professionally as well?
• What’s that inner drive? How do you want to feel by dedicating your time to this activity?

Make sure that you clearly understand what is making you do this. Articulating this why, will be the base of your marketing communication and will also give you better clarity on your ideal customers.

Your mission:

• What kind of impact do you want to make?
• How are you going to make a difference with your activity / service / product?
• What changes did you go through personally to become who you are today?
• How can you help others by sharing your experiences?
• Who else could relate to what drives you internally?
• What happens if you don’t step into this new adventure? How will you feel?

If you can’t exactly answer these questions, then take some time to connect to your higher-self. I’m not teaching you anything new here, I’m just giving you the tools to help you remember better. Are you on a mission to help people evolve? Are you on a mission to ease their physical or emotional pain? Or is your mission to get the truth across and build communities?

Even though you know all of this already, you just need to form those feelings & thoughts into cohesive sentences and action points. You got this!

I’m going to leave Plutchik’s wheel of emotions for you right here to help you understand your feelings better. It will also come in handy at the next part of this marketing guide.

When you have your answers then determine how how your audience can resonate with your own mission, who else could benefit and really understand your internal drive. This will take you a lot closer to figuring out your overall branding. And remember to be genuine, be authentic, and be extremely clear and vulnerable. Understandably, it takes courage to be vulnerable when you are creating your brand, but you will see that people prefer to do business with real people. Especially within the spiritual industry. They need to understand who you are on a deeper, soul level. So feel free to be as vulnerable as you can, and just show them the raw and real you: what’s driving you and who you really are.

Part 3: emotional triggers

Emotions when marketing a business

Before we dig into this part let’s recap quickly what you learnt already. Now you know why it’s important to understand who your real audience is. The one that will resonate with you. In addition to this, you are now also aware of the basic branding questions that you should be asking yourself before you start thinking about marketing your spiritual business.

Next, in this section, I will show you how to add emotions to your branding and marketing activities. The reason why I decided to write this complete guide for you is to show you that marketing within the spiritual, holistic and esoteric industry is very specific. Having an authentic brand is going to be the key for you to be successful. Let me again emphasise that by being successful in your business, I don’t just mean for you to have a healthy amount of income. But also to make sure that you feel happy and genuinely fulfilled with your professional work because you are following your spiritual calling.

Ok, let’s go a bit deeper and dig a bit further down to get you closer to marketing your spiritual business in an efficient way.

First, what you need to understand is what kind of feelings your brand will generate. What’s that initial emotional reaction when someone comes across your services or products? You know the drill now, it’s time to start answering a set of questions. Ready?

Spiritual Marketing Exercise #3

Ask yourself these questions:

• How do I help my clients? What is that feeling that they will walk away with after they have purchased your service or your product?
• What is it that you’re helping them with?
• How are you changing their emotional states? (e.g. from nervous to calm, from bored to fired-up, from suffering to enjoyment etc)
• How is your customer going to feel differently? (from the moment they first reached out to you to the moment they used your service or product)
• Is your customer going to walk away with better clarity? Feeling happier? With a better understanding of themselves?
• Are your customers going to feel relieved from emotional or physical pain?
• Are you going to trigger instant calmness or peak their curiosity?
• Do you want to make them feel more confident, loved, energised?

Be as specific as you can. These are the major questions you need to cover first of all, to know what emotional reactions you will create for your audience. Moreover this needs to be executed visually as well for your brand. That will involve your visual presence, how does your brand look like? Does this emotion get across to your audience through your brand colours, your logos, the font types etc? That’s a whole other topic though that I will not cover today. If you’re curious about it, here’s a great resource for you about visual branding in general.

Back to the emotions for a second. When you’re putting together the marketing for your spiritual business, don’t forget to ask yourself this as well: how does the whole business make YOU feel? You’re within the spirituality industry, so make sure you bring your own spirituality into your business.

Find your voice

Now you know what you want to communicate to the conscious community and why. What’s your overall tone of voice? Don’t overlook this aspect if you are determined to stay true to yourself. Don’t try to mimic the latest marketing hypes and trends if they feel alien to you.

Choose a communication style for your spiritual brand that feels genuine to you. Is it going to be more mysterious? Is it going to be very straightforward? Is it going to be direct or nurturing? Is it going to be educational? Figure this out before you go much further in creating your brand. You have 3 major pillars now to work with to successfully create your marketing for your spiritual business.

In case you are stuck on coming up with your brand name for your business, you can check out this guide I created (it’s much shorter, I promise!) to help you get started:

How to create a powerful brand name for your spiritual business?

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a little reminder.

Authenticity is going to be the key for you when you are starting and marketing your spiritual business. You know on a deeper level why you’ve come here and you have a purpose to fulfil. If you allow yourself to stay true to that and let that come to the surface, you will realise that there are very minimal techniques that you will need to learn. You need to set the foundations right, understand the right audience and your clear mission first before you get technical. Once you have these figured out then you can start creating fun & authentic campaigns to reach your audience better.

If you get stuck just do some more research and look for similar businesses to yours. Reach out to them and start building a professional network. Start a conversation and see if you could collaborate. Collaboration is a great way to increase your client base in addition to serving the community better. Especially within the spiritual sector, as we have very similar mindsets & interests. We believe in similar bigger truths. We are following a similar higher calling consciously. When you are professionally reaching out to others, you will realize that your competitors could actually be turned into collaborations. Feel free to connect with me as well on LinkedIn if you want to start expanding your conscious network.

I created Connect One Marketing in January 2020 to help people turn their spiritual calling into their careers. With a background of C-suite & director level roles I wanted to focus on disrupting the traditional business world.

Now I mentor:

• changemakers
• impact-driven souls
• purposeful businesses

to make a bigger impact in the world. Through business. Could you also use a spiritual business mentor? I’m fully transparent about my mentoring solutions on this page but if anything is unclear, you can always reach out to me directly.