How To Make Money As A Nutritionist

Learning how to make money as a nutritionist can be a challenging process, but it’s an essential skill you’ll need to develop if you want to sustain a career within the industry. 

With this in mind, this article will look at several different ways you can increase income as a nutritionist, through 3 key topics:

• Use These 5 Marketing Techniques To Make Money As A Nutritionist 
• 3 Ways You Can Make Money As A Nutritionist By Expanding Your Services
• Implement These 3 Sales Techniques to Earn Money As A Nutritionist 

One way to make money as a nutritionist is to offer additional services alongside your regular guidance. For example, you could earn a Personal Training diploma and begin to physically train clients on a one-to-one basis.

Download OriGym’s FREE course prospectus to learn more today!

Use These 5 Marketing Techniques To Make Money As A Nutritionist

If you’re looking to make money as a nutritionist a strong marketing strategy is absolutely essential, regardless of whether you’re just setting up your business or are a seasoned professional. 

This section will discuss how to make more money through the implementation of marketing strategies for a nutrition business. 

#1 - Make Money As A Nutritionist Using A Client Referral Scheme 

In simple terms, a referral scheme is when a nutritionist will ask their existing clients to recommend their services to a family member or friend.

When discussing the best ways to make money as a nutritionist, this is a highly effective strategy, as if every client made just one referral, you could essentially double your monthly profits.

These schemes will typically be most effective when marketed towards your most loyal or long-standing clients. This is due to the fact that these individuals are most likely to have positive experiences with you, such as achieving their initial goals.

These clients will therefore be more likely to recommend your services to others, as they’ll associate your nutritional guidance with the positive emotions of hitting their goals.

However, it’s always a good idea to offer some form of incentive scheme. This not only motivates your current clients to make that recommendation, it’ll also ensure you’re rewarding them fairly for doing so.

You’ll undoubtedly have come across one form of customer reward scheme in the past, where a company offers something of value in exchange for a referral. These incentives don’t even need to be expensive, and could be something simple, like:

• A free weekly meal plan
• Merchandise or brand affiliated products 
• Money or gift cards

An example of these incentives can be seen in the following example from Youth Sports Nutrition, who offer both a discount for the new client signing up, as well as a £20 reward for the individual who makes the referral.

Customer referral schemes are one of the most efficient ways to make money as a nutritionist, as you will only have to pay out once a successful referral has been made.

For example, Youth Sports Nutrition will only have to pay customers £20 for the successful referral once their friend has already spent a minimum of £40! 

Let’s say that one referred client spends a total of £100 across the site’s various products. Youth Sports Nutrition will then pay out £20 to the client who made the recommendation, and still reap an £80 profit.

When it comes to marketing tactics, clients are more likely to trust the recommendations of their family and friends above any other form of advertisement they see online. 

This should highlight just how important word of mouth is when you’re looking to make more money as a nutritionist. Through this action you can get new nutrition clients who would have otherwise never interacted with your business.

#2 - Learn How To Make Money As A Nutritionist Through Facebook & Instagram Ads

You can also make money as a nutritionist through social media advertising, especially ads on Facebook and Instagram.

This method of marketing will allow nutritionists to capture the attention of potential clients who are not already following your pages, generating leads and an increased income as a result.

Despite both being owned by Meta, Facebook and Instagram ads don’t operate in the same way, so we’ll break them down individually.

How To Make More Money As A Nutritionist Through Facebook Ads 

Over the years, Facebook has collected more data on its users than any other website in existence, meaning that the algorithm knows:

• What content users like
• How users interact with posts
• What users like to purchase
• Where users live

Creating Facebook Ads is one of the best ways to make money as a nutritionist, as you can use this unique algorithm to target the clients you want to work with. 

However, because these advertisements are inorganic (i.e. not content that’s normally on a user’s newsfeed), you will have to pay a set fee for Facebook to display them.

To do this, you’ll use Facebook’s Ad Manager. Here, you can input the relevant information to influence who sees your business’ advertisement. This includes:

• Your Desired Clientele - e.g. People looking to lose weight
• The Location You Wish to Target
• The Age and Gender of Your Chosen Demographic

The process of inputting this information will look something like this:

In order to make more money as a nutritionist, you should include a call to action (CTA) within these Facebook Ads. This is a prompt that will take users aways from Facebook, and towards a page that encourages them to invest in your business.

Take a look at this example we found below from Sports Nutritionist Anna Chabura, who encourages Facebook users to ‘Learn More’ about her smart weight loss methods:

Once Facebook users click on this section of the advert, they will be redirected to one of Anna’s website pages, which will encourage the user to invest in her meal plans and online fitness coaching. 

But just how effective is this strategy? Well, according to research conducted by Sprout Social, Facebook Ad revenue saw a staggering 56% increase during the year 2021, proving it’s still an effective form of advertisement for business owners. 

In fact, it’s something we use to excellent effect at OriGym. Through one of our own ad campaigns, we were able to reach 352,090 people and generate 92 results. 

If you want to see how your ads are performing, you should pay attention to the site’s tracking centre. 

This will display information such as how many customers are interacting with your ad and being redirected to your chosen landing page. With this information you will be able to see what aspects of your ads are performing well and what areas need improvement:

When monitoring this page you will be able to note what ads increase your income as a nutritionist and replicate similar examples for later campaigns. 

One Of The Best Ways To Make Money As A Nutritionist Is With Instagram Ads

Like Facebook, Instagram is also owned by Meta, meaning that ads displayed on the platform are highly effective in reaching their desired target audience. Before launching these campaigns, you must complete the following steps:

• Set up a professional Instagram profile for your nutritionist business
• Choose specific photos or videos that you wish to use on your Ad
• Decide on your target demographic
• Determine the budget of your marketing campaign 

Once you have organised all of this information you will need to decide what kind of ad you wish to run, from the various Instagram options available:

We’d recommend using Instagram story ads when you’re looking to target your chosen demographic. 

These campaigns will appear as pop-ups to potential clients who have interacted with similar content while they’re watching Stories, making them feel more natural and “organic”.

For reference, Instagram story ads will look like this:

This kind of campaign can help you to make more money as a nutritionist, as ads that appear more natural are more likely to generate leads. 

For example, imagine potential clients are swiping through other stories showing healthy meal plans, and then see your advertisement.

The content will blend well with what they’re already interested in, and offers a softer, more organic approach to showing what you can offer them.

At OriGym, we can vouch for the effectiveness of Instagram story ads, as one of our recent campaigns reached almost 300,000 people:

This highlights how valuable Instagram Story Ads can be - imagine the amount of potential clients you could reach by investing in this campaign! 

Much like the example used within the Facebook ad section, you should include a CTA in order to increase the chances of a client interacting with this post. 

For example, we used the ‘Swipe Up’ feature to encourage students to ‘Get Offer’, which redirected them to a sales page:

Whilst we have specifically decided to focus on Instagram Stories Ads, a full breakdown of the different kinds of advertisements can be found on Meta’s website.

#3 - Using Google Ads Is One Of The Best Ways To Make Money As A Nutritionist

In today’s competitive market, Google Ads help to increase the visibility of your business. This is achieved by pushing your website or landing page to the top 3 results on the search engine’s first page. 

Research conducted by Search Engine Land highlighted that businesses that fall on the first page generate 80% of enquiries for that specific term. 

If you’re one of the first results clients see when searching a term, the chances of them becoming a lead and investing money into your business increases. 

For example, take a look at what ads appear when searching the term ‘Sports Nutritionist Birmingham’  

For those who have never used Google Ads before, here is a basic rundown of how you can use the tool:

• You pay Google to rank on their first page for a specific search term. This will be on a cost per click basis, meaning everytime someone clicks your link you pay Google.
• Google only allows for a limited number of ads per search term (4 at the top of the page and 3 on the bottom), and the amount you bid will influence where your ad appears.
• For example, check out these stats from Google Ads which shows the search term ‘Sports Nutritionists Near Me’. Here you can see how the lowest bid is £0.33 per click, whilst the highest is £1.20.

This means that if you wished to rank above the current first placed ad for that specific term, you would need to offer a higher bid (in this case, over £1.20). 

From the example provided above, using Google Ads may seem like a pricey investment, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. 

Local search terms will typically be cheaper for you to bid on, as you won’t have to compete against other business owners on a global level. For reference, ‘local searches’ refers to a search term followed by a specific location, such as:

• Sports Nutritionist Manchester 
• Manchester Sports Nutritionist 
• Sports Nutrition Manchester 

In fact, there are currently no ads ranking for the local search term ‘Sports Nutritionist Manchester’, proving that you can take advantage of lack of competition within your local area to advertise to potential clients.

This increased traffic your site receives from these ads will be regarded as “targeted” or “high intent”, as the customers using the search terms will already have an idea of what service they wish to invest in.

If you therefore link your sales page to your Google Ad, you can increase the likelihood of a client making a purchase and generating income for your business. 

To understand this, take a look at Concepto Diagnostics, who currently rank second for the high intent term ‘Sports Nutritionist London’. 

Once potential customers click on their Google Ad, they are immediately redirected to their primary sales page that details the packages they offer:

If you’re looking to learn how to make more money as a nutritionist, you can take Concepto as a prime example of a business that’s capitalised on its targeted traffic.

For an in-depth explanation for how to use this platform check out OriGym’s Guide on How to Use Google Ads. Whilst this information is aimed at personal trainers, you’ll use the same process for your nutritionist business. 

#4 - Get Setup On GoogleMyBusiness To Earn Money As A Nutritionist

Learning how to make money as a nutritionist through Google isn’t limited to the creation of Ads, as you will also need to set up a GoogleMyBusiness account too! 

This is one of the most important marketing strategies for a nutritionist to implement, as it provides a wide range of features in a single convenient spot for your clients, as well as ranking you highly in Google’s search results.

The process of creating a GoogleMyBusiness account is straightforward. Simply make a profile and fill out the relevant information as it pertains to your business. This will include:

• Your business name
• The location of your business - e.g what city are you primarily located in
• Your business hours 
• Whether you provide deliveries or home visits

Following this, you will officially register with Google My Business, and your services will begin to appear in local searches within the area. Examples of this include ‘Sports Nutritionist in Liverpool’ or ‘Liverpool Sports Nutritionist’.

An example of what your profile may look like can be seen below, where you can see how Fit-Pharm Sports Nutrition lists their business’ relevant information:

Essentially, you’re providing the customer with every bit of relevant information they need in order to make an informed purchase. 

You can then link your website to your account, which will further encourage a customer to make a purchase. For example, a client may be looking for a nutritionist that they can have in-person consultations with once a week. 

If your Google My Business profile states that you have an office within their local area, the client will know you’re what they’re looking for and make an informed purchase.

When creating a Google My Business account you should strive to ensure that your business ranks within ‘the local 3 pack’ - a term which refers to the top 3 results on any given search term. 

This will appear as so on the search engine’s results page.

Landing in one of these coveted spots will help you to make more money as a nutritionist, as potential clients are more likely to interact with these pages and generate a lead. 

This is supported by research conducted by Uberall, who state that businesses that rank within Google My Business’ local top 3 see an average increase of:

• 404% in total views 
• 113% in clicks or interactions 

Essentially, much like Google Ads, by ranking favourably for targeted terms with GoogleMyBusiness, you can increase the chances of clients investing in your business. 

If you’d like further insight on how to optimise your own profile, check out OriGym’s breakdown of how to use Google My Business in the health and fitness industry.

#5 - Prioritise Client Retention Rates To Boost Your Income As A Nutritionist

While gaining new clients does play a large role in generating an increased income, you should always prioritise tactics that retain your existing customers.

Not only is retaining customers cheaper than attracting new ones, it also provides you with a financial safety net of dependable income that you can rely on. 

For this reason, you should always be looking to build rapport with your existing customers. This will increase their loyalty to your business and ensure that they remain paying for your services. 

Rapport can be built through the simplest of actions, such as acknowledging and validating a client’s hard work. 

For example, take a look at this progress photo shared across Create My Weight’s social media pages. Here you can see how this nutritionist builds rapport with her clients through acknowledging their success and dedication:

The existing client in the post will feel validated from this acknowledgement and wish to remain within your service, plus it gives potential new clients a reason to sign up, in that they can achieve those results too.

But this isn’t the only way in which you can make more money as a nutritionist with client retention schemes, as you could also implement a loyalty programme too.

An example of this can be seen below from the nutrition-based company Fit and Tasty, who provide a range of pre-made meal plans to their customers. 

Here you can see how the company’s loyalty programme operates on a points based system, with customers accumulating more points as they spend.

The screenshot above clearly shows that clients will receive a discount should they continue to purchase from the same business. This will act as an incentive for them to remain loyal to the brand, as they won’t get these rates elsewhere. 

If you implement a loyalty scheme as part of your nutritionist business plan, you’ll notice that clients will continue using your service in the hopes of accumulating more points, meaning a more stable source of income for your business.

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If you’re researching the topic of how to make money as a nutritionist, the following articles may also be of interest:

• How To Become A Sports Nutritionist 
• How to Get Clients as a Nutritionist: 11 Top Tips
• OriGym Guide: Writing a Nutritionist Business Plan

3 Ways You Can Make Money As A Nutritionist By Expanding Your Services

Expanding the services you offer can help you to increase your income as a nutritionist, and open your business up to a wider audience. 

By diversifying what you offer, you can essentially cast a wide net and attract a larger number of clients, each of whom will be attracted to a different aspect of your business. 

With this in mind, this section will provide 3 examples of different services you can offer to make more money as a nutritionist.

#1 - How To Make Money As A Nutritionist By Earning A Personal Training Qualification

If you’re looking to incorporate additional services into your business, one way to go about this is to earn additional qualifications that certify you as a personal trainer.

For example, by gaining a personal training diploma, you will be able to train clients on a one-to-one basis, creating bespoke workout programmes that work alongside your nutritional guidance.

The Level 3 PT diploma covers specialist knowledge that will help to support you throughout your expanded role. 

You’ll develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between food and exercise, and how a client’s diet can be planned in accordance with fitness goals, and vice versa. 

This can help you to earn more money as you’re essentially increasing the value of your services, offering additional features that can further benefit the client.

Those questioning ‘how much can a nutrition coach make with personal training’ should compare these two prices. First, take a look at Whole Health, who offers 4 weeks of bespoke sports nutrition guidance for £125.

Now compare this to Ben Malton, who charges £180 per month for bespoke meal plans that are paired with personal training programmes.

The examples used above should highlight how financially valuable including additional services can be for your business. But it’s not just the price that increases, as through offering personal training you can also attract a new demographic of clients too.

If you’re curious how many clients the average personal trainer has, OriGym’s independent research found that PTs typically have anywhere between 15-25 clients at any given time.

Hypothetically speaking, let’s say you follow a similar business model as Ben Malton, and offer your clients bespoke training programmes alongside their meal plans.

If you had an average of 20 clients and charged £180 every month, you could generate an impressive monthly salary of £3,600.

Whilst the scenario depicted above is purely hypothetical, it helps to highlight just how valuable adding additional services can be for your business. 

#2 - How Offering Online Cooking Tutorials Can Increase Your Income As A Nutritionist 

When discussing the best ways to make money as a nutritionist, the importance of expanding your services to gain a larger audience has already been touched upon. 

One way you could do this is creating online cooking tutorials, and post them on platforms like YouTube. This can help you reach a wider audience of clients who may otherwise not purchase nutritional advice outright.

The YouTube channel ‘Green Healthy Cooking’ is an excellent example of how this process can help you to make more money as a nutritionist. 

Using this platform to her advantage, qualified nutritionist Lorena creates healthy recipe videos for her dedicated audience. 

But throughout the video, and in the video’s description, Lorena mentions that these recipes are available in 6-week clean eating programme:

Once users interact with the link in the video description, they will be redirected to a sales page that provides a full description of this service, and essentially sells the programme to them:

If Lorena simply created and sold these meal programmes, then she might not be as successful as she is today. It’s through her YouTube channel that she is able to capture the attention of a newer audience.

Essentially, you should view these YouTube videos as free advertisements for your services. Lorena always makes sure to film recipes that are included in her paid programmes, as this will entice viewers to make an investment in her business.

If you’re looking to incorporate this service into your business, you need to ensure that you’re posting on a regular basis. This will give your subscribers a sense of dependability and structure, as they’ll know when you’re likely to release new content.

For more information on how you optimise this feature to gain increase your income as a nutritionist, check out OriGym’s definitive guide to health and fitness video marketing.

#3 - How Much Can A Nutrition Coach Make When Working for a Sports Team?

You can also put your Level 4 Advanced Sports Nutrition qualification to good use and work alongside a sports team. In this role, you’ll provide nutritional advice and guidance to professional and amateur athletes.

Becoming a nutritionist for a sports team is a highly beneficial service to offer, and will see you complete roles and responsibilities such as:

• Providing holistic nutrition advice to athletes 
• Providing sports-specific nutrition advice - e.g. what food groups should be consumed before and after training
• Creating detailed meal plans
• Testing metabolic rate, weight, and body fat percentage

Most of these responsibilities can be seen in the following advertisement for a position working as a sports nutritionist with a cricket club:

If you’re wondering how much a nutrition coach makes in these positions’, check out the following salary depicted below for clearer insight:

Taking these statistics into consideration, you’ll be able to see just how financially beneficial it can be to offer your services to a sports team. 

Through applying for these roles you will be able to generate a lucrative salary for yourself, be it through part or full time positions. 

Implement These 3 Sales Techniques To Earn Money As A Nutritionist

If you’re looking to learn how to make money as a nutritionist, you will need to perfect your sales techniques. 

The importance of developing these skills cannot be understated, as they have the potential to affect every aspect of your business.

With the right sales techniques in place, you can begin to make more money as a nutritionist than ever before. 

#1 - Offer Recurring Packages To Increase Your Income As A Nutritionist 

If you want to make more money as a nutritionist you need to take a look at your pricing structure. Typically, nutritionists will adhere to one of the following models:

• Monthly Subscription Packages
• One-off Payments
• Block Payments

Whilst each of these pricing structures may be popular in their own right, it doesn’t mean that they’re equally as beneficial. 

Overall, we’d argue that monthly subscription packages are the superior method of payment. Let’s look at why.

Why Monthly Subscription Packages Are The Best Ways to Make Money as a Nutritionist

When signing up to this pricing structure, clients are essentially buying into a subscription-based scheme, where they’ll pay recurring fees in exchange for your services. 

These are typically done through direct debits, with clients paying on a monthly basis. An example of how this is done can be seen below from PH Nutrition, whose clients pay a total of £175 per month in exchange for bespoke programmes: 

Subscription based payments are regarded as the superior mode of pricing your services, as clients are less likely to cancel direct debits. 

This means that they will continue to pay you on a recurring basis, allowing you to build a more consistent income.

Other benefits of using recurring subscription services include: 

• It allows you to forecast monthly finances: Having a dependable source of income allows you to forecast your monthly finances - e.g. you will be able to create a budget for your personal and professional life.
• Packages make clients feel at ease: There is no end date with these recurring fees, meaning that clients will feel they have unlimited time to complete their goals. This can create a sense of ease, ridding the client of any apprehensions they may have about signing up for nutrition advice.
• Packages create a sense of consistency: Clients will view these payments as a regular payment akin to the likes of their phone bill. This means they are more likely to budget for the expense, ensuring they can pay it every month. 

Now that you know why this is the ideal method of payment, let’s take a look at the downside of using other payment structures. 

Block Payments Are Not An Effective Way Of Making Money As A Nutritionist

Block payments are incredibly popular in every sector of the health and fitness industry, but you shouldn’t mistake popularity for effectiveness. 

One of the biggest drawbacks of using this pricing structure is that they come with a predetermined end date. This can be seen in the following screenshot from SB Fitness, whose packages last for 12 Weeks:

Block payments immediately set a timer off in the clients heads. Once signed up, these clients are aware that they have 12 weeks to achieve their goals, a fact which could cause nerves and insecurity. 

Following this time period, you’ll then have to resell the package to the client, who may not be willing to sign up straight away. 

For this reason, if you’re looking to learn how to make money as a nutritionist, we’d advise avoiding this pricing structure.

When Looking For Ways To Make Money As A Nutritionist, Avoid One-Off Payments

When creating a pricing structure, many online nutritionists choose to offer their clients consultations in exchange for one off payments. 

An example of this can be found below from Lee Paines, who charges one off fees of £30-60 in exchange for nutrition consultations:

Due to the limited time frame associated with these payments clients will likely only view them as one time purchase, rather than a service that they have to commit to. 

As a result, you won’t be able to depend on this as a reliable source of income, and may fall into financial instability due to a lack of consistently paying clients.

#2 - Perform Market Research To See If You Can Make More Money As A Nutritionist

When looking for ways to increase income as a nutritionist, it’s easy to solely focus on your own business. 

But in order to ensure that your prices are competitive, you must conduct market research into what other nutritionists are charging.

Through this research, you’ll be able to determine whether it’s possible to raise the prices of your nutrition packages, or if you should keep them as they are. 

You may be able to justify these increased prices in the following instances:

• Local competitors are charging significantly more than you
• You offer more additional services that local competitors - e.g. personal training packages to accompany nutritional advice 
• You have more qualifications than other local nutritionist - e.g. you have both a Level 4 Advanced Sports Nutrition qualification and a personal training diploma

For example, if you ran a sports nutrition business in Manchester, one of your biggest competitors would be ‘The Sports Nutrition Coach’ who charges £460 for 6 months worth of guidance and support:

If you regarded your business to be just as popular as The Sports Nutrition Coach, you could charge a similar price of £420 for 6 months. This will allow you to earn a similar profit as the competitor, whilst still presenting yourself as the cheaper alternative. 

Alternatively, if you believe that your business offers more additional services (such as providing personal training sessions), you could justify a higher price. 

Market research is all about comparing your business model to others, in order to inform your own pricing structure. 

One important thing to remember however is to always compare yourself to businesses of similar size. This means that if you’re a new start-up, you should not try to match the prices of industry established professionals who have years worth of experience to draw from.

#3 - Get Better at Converting Leads into Clients to Make More Money as a Nutritionist

The overarching topic of learning how to make money as a nutritionist can boil down to converting enquiries into actual sales.

Remember, you will generate these enquiries through the marketing tactics that your business employs. 

Following this, the easiest way to convert these interested parties into paying customers is to communicate directly with them through face to face meetings, or phone calls. 

This section will offer an example of how you can convert a lead into a sale:

Summarise The Benefits of Your Nutrition Business

When an initial lead has been generated, it’s highly likely that the customer in question only has surface-level knowledge about your business.

A phone call or in-person conversation will allow you to delve deeper into the benefits of your business in order to lock down the sale. For example, you could discuss:

• The various services you offer
• Previous clients success stories
• What kind of qualifications you have
• A discount for new clients

You should strive to be as detailed as possible during this conversation, as this knowledge will increase the likelihood of a client investing in your business. 

Use Closing Techniques To Lock Down the Sale

Mastering a closing technique is a vital part of learning how to make more money as a nutritionist. Once you know how to do this successfully, you can use it on any potential lead to convert them to a paying client.

When directly communicating with a potential client, the assumptive closing technique would be the ideal method to use. This refers to the process in which you act as if the lead has already decided to buy into your service.

Here’s an example of how you can use this tactic:

Nutritionist: So we have 2 subscription packages on offer. The first will see you pay £30 a month through Direct Debit, in return for weekly meal plans and consultations to support your final weight loss goal. The other comes in at £65 a month, and will provide you everything I’ve just mentioned, as well as a weekly personal training session that can help you reach your goals.

Which option is best for you?

Through asking this final question, you are assuming the lead has already decided to invest in your business, removing any choice they may have. This is because there is no direct ‘yes or no’ answer that can be provided, making the client more inclined to choose from one of two options.

Once the assumptive closing technique has been used, you will then move on to the silent assassin technique. To do this you simply remain silent, until the potential client answers your question.

The final part of the closing process may look something like this:

Client: Well, I have always wanted a personal trainer - I’ll take the second option please.

Nutritionist: Great, now we set your direct debit payments up. Once the first instalment has been made I’ll send you a welcome email. Following this, we can get started on creating your bespoke meal plans and workout programmes. 

Don’t be deterred if your sales pitch doesn’t go exactly as the example displayed above. Every client is different, meaning that you will likely have to take several different approaches in order to close a sale.

Before You Go! 

You will now have a clear understanding of how to make money as a nutritionist, but be aware that every business is different, meaning you have to find the methods that work for you.

This will require you to try a variety of the examples we presented above, in order to find money making methods that increase your income as a nutritionist. 

Remember, earning a Personal Training diploma is a great way of earning additional income as a nutritionist. Through the completion of this course you will be able to offer your clients bespoke workout programmes that work in correlation with their nutritional goals.

Alternatively, check out our FREE course prospectus to learn more about every OriGym certification.