The Real Strategies That Built Our Profitable Nutrition Business

Building a profitable nutrition business doesn’t require flashy tools or endless ad spend.
Sometimes, it’s the simple, consistent actions — done week after week — that create unstoppable momentum.

In this episode of How to Build a Profitable Nutrition Business, I sat down with my wife, Stacey Hughes — the marketing brain behind our business — to unpack exactly what we actually did to grow our dietitian practice into a thriving, profitable enterprise.

If you’re a nutrition professional dreaming of growing your business, you’ll want to grab a pen — because what we’re about to share worked back then, and it still works today.

How We Grew Our Referral Base to Over 200 Doctors’ Practices

At the heart of our success was a relentless focus on building relationships with referrers.

"It was just meeting after meeting each week. I'd be out meeting with a new doctor's practice, just trying to network and build up that clientele," I shared on the podcast.

Some of our best-performing tactics included:

• Weekly visits to doctors’ practices — face-to-face networking was everything.

• Bringing sushi or Subway platters to meetings — food always opened doors (literally).

• Offering to present at doctors' professional development meetings — providing education on topics like cholesterol management.

• Demonstrating our services with portable metabolic testing equipment during visits.

• Sending regular research updates via video emails to nurses and doctors.

• Building relationships with chronic disease nurses — who were often the true gatekeepers of referrals.

• Sending Healthy Food Guide magazines to practices with branded stickers — a simple but effective brand awareness tactic.

• Providing printed information posters listing all the conditions we could assist with — kept on doctors' desks for easy reference.

• Supplying pre-appointment tear-off pads — making it super easy for practices to refer patients on the spot.

We didn’t just hope referrals would happen — we made it easy and top-of-mind for referrers to think of us.

"Keeping our information in front of them constantly was critical," Stacey explained. "Even little things like the posters on their desks sparked conversations that led to more referrals."

Marketing Directly to the Public: Organic Growth Without Gimmicks

While our referrer marketing was our main focus, we also made sure to build a public presence — carefully and consistently.

Here’s what actually worked:

• Building a WordPress website early on, optimized for SEO.

• Writing weekly blog posts (sometimes personally, sometimes hiring a dietitian to write them).

• Using Facebook and Instagram ads to promote our blogs and services.

• Sending reminder postcards to patients who hadn’t booked — with an offer to incentivize action.

• Growing a private Facebook group — creating a space for our audience to engage.

• Hosting live recipe cooking demonstrations — giving valuable, hands-on nutrition education.

• Speaking weekly on our local ABC Radio segment — building brand authority and reaching new clients.

• Attending health expos to create community presence, even when ROI was harder to track.

• Running 30-Day Health Challenges — which grew our social media following significantly and expanded our email list.

• Using SMS campaigns during slow months to re-engage past clients and fill appointment gaps.

"We didn't realize how much we were actually doing until we sat down and mapped it all out," I laughed during the episode.

None of these strategies required expensive tech or complicated funnels.
They worked because we focused on providing value, building trust, and staying visible.

Proof: How These Simple Strategies Paid Off

• 200+ doctors’ practices regularly referring clients to us

• Tripled social media following after implementing challenges

• $30 ROI for every dollar spent on reminder postcards

• Massive local brand recognition through radio and community engagement

Our growth wasn’t magic. It was methodical — built on small actions repeated consistently over time.

"It was a full-time job of marketing," Stacey admitted. "But it was what created a sustainable, profitable nutrition business."

The Takeaway: Focus on Relationships, Visibility, and Consistency

If you want to build a successful nutrition business, the formula we used is simple:

✅ Build genuine relationships with referrers.
✅ Create valuable, educational content for the public.
✅ Stay visible — through your website, blogs, social media, and local opportunities.
✅ Use small, thoughtful marketing touches (like postcards and reminder pads) to stay top-of-mind.
✅ Never stop showing up.

We didn’t have Canva. We didn’t have AI content writers. We didn’t have sophisticated automation tools.
But what we did have was persistence, creativity, and a commitment to serving people first.

And that’s what built a business that lasted.

P.S. Ready to grow your own profitable nutrition business?
Keep tuning into How to Build a Profitable Nutrition Business for real-world strategies that work — no gimmicks needed.