What is your Marketing Focus for the Fall?
It’s fall once again… Well, I suppose, technically speaking fall doesn’t begin until Sept. 21, but I always think of it as starting Sept. 1st– or at least after Labour Day long weekend here in Canada which begins in a few days.
So what does fall have to do with marketing your practice?
Well, it’s a time of beginnings for many people. We are getting back to work or school and starting new activities. It’s a good time to revise and fresh your marketing strategies and plans. Or, a time to get started marketing your practice if you have been putting it off for a while.
While I already have my marketing plan in place for the next several months, in the last few days I have began to revise and refine it. I have been re-focusing and clarifying so that I know exactly what I will be doing from now until the end of December. This way I can really zero in on my priorities and decrease any incilination I might have to become distracted with one of the ideas that continuously pop into my head. Ultimately this will help me achieve the marketing goals I have set for myself.
So what about you?
Do you have your marketing focus for the fall? Do you know who you are targeting with your market and how you are going to reach them? If not, you might want to schedule some time to sit down and refresh (or perhaps start) your marketing plan.
If you feel like sharing your fall focus with me, I would love to hear about it.
Market Your Practice in the Core PassBook: Vancouver’s Healthy Living Guide
The Core Passport: Vancouver’s Healthy Living Guide acts as a directory of local (i.e.Greater Vancouver) studios and services that promote personal development.
Similar to the popular entertainment guides, The Core Passport allows you to list your business or service and offer a discount to consumers.
Core "is geared to anyone who embraces key issues such as personal health, community growth, and environmental preservation."
Clever idea and a great method to build into your marketing strategy for your private practice.
Deadline for 2006 applications is September 8, 2005.
For more information, visit the Core website.
Marketing That Works vs What You Think Works
I stumbled accross a great post by copywriter, Bob Bly, entitled, What Matters in Marketing is What Works – Not What You Think Works.
So often I hear helping and healing professionals put down or dismiss marketing methods because they tried them and didn’t get the results they expected. They assume the methods are flawed and don’t understand that often the reason they didn’t work was because they implemented them ineffectively.
I have heard professionals say, for example, that testimonials don’t work because they never believe testimonials that they read. The fact is that testimonials are key to the success of the copy used in your promotional materials whether you think they work or not.
To summarize in Bob’s words:
Condemning – or advocating – a marketing tactic because you personally don’t like it or like it is the most amateur mistake you can make.
What you think or don’t think works – or should work – is irrelevant; what actually works or doesn’t work is all that matters.
Conclusion: Do your research and learn how to implement marketing methods properly before you erroneously conclude that a certain method doesn’t work.
Promotional Opportunity: Waking up the West Coast: Healers and Visionaries
I received a call from Vancouver-based photograher, Jaime Kowal, last week. Jaime is in the midst of writing a book called: Waking Up The West Coast: Healers and Visionaries.
In her book, Jamie is profiling approximately 200 healers, business owners and non-profit organizations in BC who are focused on "enhancing the well-being of the world."
From Jaime’s website:
The book serves to promote the achievement and dedication of healers, leaders, visionaries, entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations based in British Columbia who are committed to enhancing the well-being of our world by providing services or products which are healing, therapeutic, socially responsible, sustainable, organic, or natural.
Waking Up the West Coast: Healers and Visionaries is also designed to act as a unique marketing vehicle to promote you as a progressive thinker, raise the awareness of your business activities, expose you to new clientele, and introduce you to a rich community of like-minded individuals at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising methods.
Jaime plans on devoting a page to each service provider, business or organization which will include and photograph and a story.
There is still room for more participants. The deadline to apply is September 30, 2005. A fee is involved. For more information go to Jaime’s website.
Still Thinking About Starting a Blog to Market Your Practice?
Andy Wibbels from Easy Bake Weblogs summarizes some recent research commissed by Six Apart and Gawker Media in his recent newsletter:
- 30% of all online users in the US visited blogs in the first quarter of 2005
- Political blogs remain the most popular, along with ‘hipster’ lifestyle blogs, gadget blogs and women-authored blogs
- Blog readers younger, more affluent than other online users (and more have high-speed connections)
- Blog readers visit twice as many web pages as other online users
- Blog traffic has increased by 45% since first quarter of 2004
- Blog*Spot now reaches more viewers than NYTimes.com, USAToday.com and WashingtonPost.com (granted Blog*Spot is not a coordinated media presence like those sites).
- Blog readers 11% more likely to have incomes greater than $75K and 11% more likely to be accessing the net with a broadband connection.
You can read more about the study here.
For those who are comtemplating starting a blog to market your practice, perhaps these stats will help entice you.
Blogging for Therapists and Psychologists: Interview with Andy Wibbels
Deborah Harper over at PsychJourney.com interviewed Andy Wibbels, business blogging guru, on the topic of Therapists, Psychologists and blogs. Andy discusses how therapists and other mental health professionals can use blogs for marketing, research and building their business. Check it out.
Free Teleconference: Marketing and Ethics: Separating Fears from Reality
Are you concerned about marketing yourself ethically?
While it’s crucial that you act with integrity and sincerity when marketing your practice, it’s also important that you are direct and effective in your marketing.
Join me on this free teleconference where we will discuss how to market your practice with intregrity and how to separate your fears from reality when it comes to marketing ethically.
Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2005.
Time: 5-6 pm Pacific (8-9pm Eastern)
To Register: Send an email to: coach@julietaustin.com
To read my recent article in my newsletter on Marketing and Ethics click here.
