The Funnel Approach to Marketing
Andy Wibbels over at Global Impact has written a brilliant post called, Scientology’s Marketing Lessons. Andy first explains the well known funnel technique of marketing, and he does a great job I might add.
In a nutshell, the funnel technique of marketing refers to the process whereby you begin by getting your clients to enter your sales system (the funnel) by giving them something of value –ideally for free or at least at low cost. This is where trust begins to develop. You then have a number of other services or products that your clients can purchase that increase in price as clients move down the funnel.
Andy’s uses the funnel analogy to compare the Church of Scientology and The Catholic Church pointing out that the former has a very effective funnel system and the latter does not.
Marketing can be applied to many aspects of life once you understand the fundamental concepts. Andy’s analogy is just one great example.
You can read Andy’s post here and I highly recommend that you do.
Update: After reading this post, a subscriber to my newsletter wrote to ask me if I was a member of Scientology. I am not involved in Scientology in any way. I made referrence to Andy Wibbels’ post simply because I thought it was a fascinating example of how marketing works.
5 Classic Marketing Mistakes–New Ezine Article
I just published my November issue of newsletter, Enlightened Marketing. This month’s article is called, 5 Classic Marteting Mistakes Made by Helping and Healing Professionals.
The 5 mistakes mentioned in the article are:
1. Not Addressing Your Biases, Misconceptions and Hang-ups About Marketing
2. Assuming That Because you are Good at What You Do, Clients Will Come Banging at Your Door
4. Trying to Be All Things To All People
5. Having Marketing Materials That Simply Don’t Work
You can read the entire article at my website on marketing a practice.
Living in a World of Possibility: Event in Vancouver, BC
Healers in Business is offering the following event In Vancouver, BC for healers wanting to improve their business skills.
Living in a World of Possibility: For Healers Bringing Their Business To The Mainstream Market
Date & Time: Saturday, 26th November 2005
10.00am to 2.00pm
Venue
Sponsor: Espiritu Healing Arts Centre
#202 - 106W - 1st Street North Vancouver,
BC Canada
Your Guest Speaker: Manny Kursan, from Kursan Sales Strategies
Cost: Members: $45.00 $55.00 (Non-Members)
For more information, or to register go to the Healers in Business website.
Writing and Speaking for Shy Self Promoters
Nick Osborne writes about how challenging it is for professionals to promote themselves. One solution he suggests is article writing. SInce I am a big fan of writing as a means to market your private practice, I definitely agree with him.
However, I also think public speaking is a key way to market your private practice successfully. Both writing articles and speaking are the methods I have used most successfully to attract clients quickly.
Both put you in front of a lot of people at one time and both set you up as an expert in your field. They can be time consuming, but very rewarding methods of marketing your practice.
Both require a strategy if you want them to attract clients successfully though. So if you use either of these methods, make sure you know how to implement them effectively as a marketing tool and that you have a plan of action.
Nick provides some useful tips on writing articles. You might want to check it out. You can also read about article writing by clicking on the following links:
The Rewards of Writing a Newsletter When Marketing your Private Practice
Marketing your Private Practice Through Thought Leadership
Writing Articles to Market your Private Practice on the Internet
The Zen Presentation
Public speaking is one of the best and fastest ways to market a private practice. It was almost the sole method I used to market my practice when I first started. In order to attract clients due to public speaking you need to have strong presentation/speaking skills and a strong presentation. Seth Godin, points to a great blog post by Garr Reynolds comparing a presentation given by Bill Gates of Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple using the aesthetic concepts of Zen. From Garr’s post:
A key tenet of the Zen aesthetic is kanso or simplicity. In the kanso
concept beauty, grace, and visual elegance are achieved by elimination
and omission. Says artist, designer and architect, Dr. Koichi Kawana,
"Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum
means." When you examine your visuals, then, can you say that you are
getting the maximum impact with a minimum of graphic elements, for
example?
Definitely a worth while read if you are wanting to improve your presentation skills. While at Garr’s blog, take a look at some of his other posts on delivering presentations. You won’t be disappointed.
The Benefits of Competition When Marketing Your Private Practice
The topic of competition when marketing your private practice has come up again a few times lately with clients and at a presentation I was giving so I thought it was about time to say a few words on the subject.
When you are struggling to get clients it is easy to get caught up in a scarcity mentality where you fear that if you tell someone what you are doing they are going to do the same thing. Although understandable, this kind of thinking can actually cause you to struggle even more and even cause you to end up failing miserably. Why? Because it takes a great deal of energy and positive thinking to succeed. If you are walking around fearing other practioners are taking your clients you won’t have the time or energy to focus on what you have to do to succeed.
Now I am not saying you have to devulge all your ideas to everyone all the time, or that at times, you might not lose business to "competitors." However, I am also not suggesting that you ignore your competition. We are talking about balance here. You do need to know what your competition is doing so that you know how to position yourself in the market. However, you will actually be more successful if you can think from the perspective of how you can benefit from your competition.
Benefits of competition? Yes, there are many. In fact, I believe in the new style of marketing where we see our competition as allies instead of enemies that can do us harm. If you are good at what you do, have a clear and unique target market, have services that are in demand and know how to market your private practice effectively, there is no reason why you should fear your peers who are also in private practice.
Be confident in your marketing, know what you are doing and why and find a way to partner with your "competitors" as much as possible and think of them as allies. All will benefit in the long run.
