Guest blogger Laura Lies from streamsgrace.com shares entrepreneurial tips for practicing spiritual direction.
Laura developed a deep interest in helping spiritual directors grow their businesses after writing an article for Spiritual Directors International in May 2020. In August 2022, she delivered an SDI webinar for the Making a Living Anthology, which inspired her to create an online course on the topic. She offers these tips on my blog as a testament to her experience. –Teresa Blythe
I continue to be challenged on my journey of growing my own spiritual direction business, and now in my eighth year of private practice, I have become more focused on helping other spiritual directors start and grow their own businesses.
Best practices to help potential customers find you
Digital marketing.
1. List your business on dedicated spiritual director search websites. Partner with online listings that already exist for this purpose, such as SDI Spiritual Companions. Purchase a premium listing that allows you to include more text about yourself and your work, photos, and videos.
2. Establish an online presence. Ideally, plan for a dedicated website with at least a home or landing page. In this increasingly digital world, having a web presence can help lend credibility to the services you offer. Find the best website recommendations
Provider in an ever-changing online world. Please link to this website at every opportunity.
3. Blog. Have a blog on your website and update it regularly to enhance your search engine optimization. Teresa Blythe’s blog “Spiritual Direction 101” (the blog you’re reading this article on!) was used to create her book “Spiritual Direction 101” by blogging section by section.
4. Social Media. Make “peace” with social media if you must and use it for “good”. The more social media sites you post to, the more opportunities people have to find you and your website. Start small and build from there.
Monthly users worldwide: Facebook Business, YouTube Business, Linked In Business, LinkedIn Spiritual Direction Group, Instagram for Business, Twitter, TikTok.
5. Video. According to HubSpot Academy, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world after Google, so a business-friendly YouTube channel can help you reach potential customers with simple videos.
6. Google. Google drives over 90% of online searches, so learn how to partner with them. According to HubSpot Academy, they often use blogs to rank #1 in Google searches. Blogs are their biggest source of traffic.
7. HubSpot Academy. Learn how to make your website accessible to searchers through great instruction from HubSpot Academy.
The all-important elevator pitch
As well as preparing how you will approach you, you should also prepare what you will approach them with. Consider a short “elevator pitch” that will grab their attention and show them how they can learn more.
1. What to include in your pitch? What do you love about spiritual direction? How do you practice spiritual direction (what does a “typical” session look like?)? Emphasize that you are accepting new clients at this time. You need to make this clear.
Otherwise, people seem to assume the opposite.
2. How do you share your pitch? Share your pitch both in writing and as a video. Share it on all your social media profiles, personal and business. Share it at least once a month to keep it fresh and in front of people. Again, email flyers are a great way to share your pitch.
Explosions are a good way to achieve this.
3. When should you schedule your launch? Plan your “launch” to reach out to your network when people are likely to be more open, such as early fall (September) or after the holidays (January). (Note: this timeline is most relevant in the US.
Tune in to the rhythm of your community.
You should now have some new ideas to attract more clients to your spiritual direction business. When you need encouragement on this journey, remember that the act of starting a spiritual direction business is a spiritual journey in itself. May these times inspire you to step out in faith, start something new, and be a blessing to a hopeless world. — Laura Ries
Seven years ago, Laura launched a new spiritual direction business. Today, she supports the full-time practice of over 30 clients, has published over 85 blog posts, and has welcomed nearly 50,000 unique visitors to her website, where she shares the steps and resources that have helped her most in building her personal practice. Laura is a popular instructor for Spiritual Directors International. For more information, visit https://eremos.site/course-growing-your-spiritual-direction-practice/.
Leave a Reply