The Tech Tools I Use To Grow My Business (& What It Costs)
Wondering how successful health coaches stay on top of it all? Check out my comprehensive list of tech tools for health coaches that I personally use to grow my business.
The Best Tech Tools For Health Coaches
The Best Website Builder For Health Coaches
Websites, by far, are one of the most powerful tech tools for health coaches. In fact, your website is your 24/7 saleswoman for your health coaching business, so you better make sure she looks good! It’s 2020, and people expect beautiful, easy to navigate websites. If you have an old clunker of a website, people will click the x before they have a chance to know what you do.
The quickest, most efficient, most affordable, and most design-award-worthy way to create a website? Use this website builder (enter code PARTNER10 for 10% off). In fact, it’s what I built this website on. This entire site took me just 4 hours to create!
(Of course, all my copy and photos were ready to go, something I teach in my Health Coach Business Bootcamp).
You know what that means? I can hit publish ASAP and start earning money, attracting clients, and growing my list. No more procrastination or perfection paralysis. You can easily update it or change it at anytime, yourself, without having to spend an extra penny.
Cost: Use Coupon Code PARTNER10 for 10% off
Monthly plan: $26/month | $312/year
Annual Plan: $18/month | $216/year (paid in full, save 30%)
What about Wordpress?
I do love Wordpress, but boy is it a money pit. When I started my health coaching business in 2012/13, I initially built my website on a now defunct website builder. To put it gently, it was fugly, yet it still managed to attract clients and customers!
However, I knew I needed something a little more aesthetically pleasing. At the time website builders were in their infancy, and didn’t have the gorgeous templates and designs we have today. So I hired a developer and built my first website - it cost about $2,000 at the time.
I’ve updated my website several times since them, sometimes minor changes, sometimes more drastic ones, and every time it costs me at least a few hundred, if not a few thousand dollars. Between 2013-2019 I spent about $10K on my website. (You can see the many iterations of my website from ugly duckling to swan in this webinar).
When I decided to do a major rebrand and overhaul in the end of 2019 for launch in 2020, I spent a good $20K on design and development…and it’s not even perfect. So, save your money and put it into better use by using a website builder.
The Best Appointment Scheduler For Health Coaches
Nothing is more annoying than having to go back and forth via email a million times to find an appointment time - for you as a health coach and the client! Use an appointment scheduler, which you can easily embed in your website.
I’ve tried a ton of them over the years, some free, some paid, and this is by far is one of the best appointment scheduler tech tools for health coaches - and it’s FREE. It also allows you to set it up so that the client has to pay for the appointment at the time of booking - which is a must, especially if you do virtual health coaching sessions.
What’s even better, is that their credit card fee is less than Paypal and Stripe.
All credit card processors charge a fee - it’s generally 2.9% + 0.30 cents per transaction.
But, with this Appointment Scheduler, it’s only 2.6% of the transaction + $0.30. So you get to keep more money in your pocket.
Plus, with either of those links, you get your first $1,000 of transactions fee-free. SCORE.
Cost:
FREE + CC processing transaction fee
First $1,000 in transactions free through that link
Then, 2.6% + $0.30 per transaction
The Best Email Marketing Platform (CRM) For Health Coaches
Your email list is one of your most valuable assets as a health coach business owner. Unlike social media, in which you are the mercy of an algorithm, your email list is your direct line to your ideal customer.
In my Health Coach Business Bootcamp, I teach my students how to use social media strategically to ultimately direct people to your email list. Email list subscribers are more likely to become a customer.
One of the email marketing tech tools for health coaches, that I recommend, when you’re just starting out, is Mailchimp, as it’s FREE up until 2,000 subscribers. In fact, that’s what I used. But, as you get larger, I feel its capability is limited, and after trying out so many different email platforms, the one I use and like the best in terms of capability, ease of use, automations, campaigns, and pricing is this one.
Email Marketing Platform
Cost:
Mailchimp: FREE up to 2,000 subscribers
Active: Depends on subscribers
The Best Online Learning Management System/Course Platform For Health Coaches
In order to scale your health coach business, it’s a smart idea to think about online offerings, such as digital courses, memberships, webinars, and PDFs.
In my Health Coach Business Bootcamp, I guide you through strategically thinking about and creating information products like these, but when it’s time to sell them, you’re going to need an online learning management system or online course platform.
I’ve had online courses for a few years, and have tested out various platforms. This is the online course platform I like best and currently use for all of my online courses.
It’s simple, easy to use, and extremely well-priced (just $39/month) compared to other online course platforms on the market. Plus, it has more capabilities - such as membership sites, affiliates, webinars, and PDF only delivery - compared to other similarly priced platforms.
Sometimes students ask me about Kajabi, which is a very robust and very expensive ($150/month) online course and email marketing platform. I tried it and found it very cumbersome, personally, and I don’t think this is the best use of investment/budget this early on.
Online Learning Management System
Cost:
starts at $39/month
The Best PDF Delivery Platform For Health Coaches
If you’re not ready to launch your digital course yet, I recommend saving your money on a robust online course platform, and instead using this efficient and inexpensive PDF delivery system. It’s only $10 bucks a month!
A big problem with digital information products is illegal sharing. This PDF delivery system prevents this in a few ways, such as automatically stamping a customer identifier on each PDF and disabling the download link after a certain period of time, to ensure peace of mind.
You can easily hook it up as a cart on your website, so customers can seamlessly buy your PDF products. This is the tech tool I use on my main health coaching website to sell my PDF meal plans.
Cost:
$10/month
The Best Social Media Scheduler For Health Coaches
If you don't want social media to stress you out, schedule your posts in advance using a social media scheduling platform. These tech tools are typically about $10/month and well worth it. As I teach in my Health Coach Business Bootcamp, it makes sense to spend a weekend shooting and scheduling content out for a few weeks or a month, instead of solely shooting and posting as you go.
I used Planoly for the longest time, and while it’s good and I like the company, I felt it was lacking certain capabilities.
I now use Tailwind, which allows me to search hashtags, and more easily schedule my posts based on the timings I like to post. It also gives you the Smart.bio link in profile, which allows IG users to click on any post and be taken to the specific link you set for it. There are still some shortcomings, but it is more robust than Planoly.
Honestly, both are solid social media tech tools for health coaches!
Social Media Scheduling
Planoly: FREE to start, then you $7/month billed annually, or $9/month billed monthly
Tailwind App: $9.99/month billed annually of $14.99 billed monthly
