Building Your Therapy or Healing Practice Quickly
Everyone wants to build their therapy or healing practice as fast as possible. While some therapists and healers build their practices a lot more quickly than others, most take a few years to do it successfully.
Below are the top 10 factors (in no particular order) that determine how quickly you might be able to build your practice:
1. The demand for and competition in your target market.
2. How much time you spend marketing.
3. How effective you implement strategies.
4. How much marketing knowledge and training you have.
5. How realistic you are about what it takes to succeed.
6. Your attitude. If you stay positive when things don’t work out like you expected you will do much better.
7. How persistent and patient you are towards your success.
8. How much support you have –people and resources to help you.
9. How much drive you have to succeed.
10: How much time is taken up by making mistakes due to lack of knowledge and support.
If you really want me to tell you how long it takes I will: 1-5 years. Most people who are serious about being success can build a full practice in 1-3 years.
Do You Have a Compelling Marketing Message on Your Alternative Health or Therapy Website?
Does the marketing message on your alternatie health or therapy website stop potential clients in their tracks within the first few moments of landing at your site and make them say, "Wow, this site is for me!"?
If your site is anything like many counsellors and others in the healing arts, it likely doesn’t…
The vast majority of professionals have never learned how to write an enticing marketing message that is focused on the client–their needs and problems and the solutions they are looking for.
Too many websites focus far too much on the therapist or alternative health practitioner-and not nearly enough on the client.
And what is wrong with this, you might ask?
The problem with this is it doesn’t show your clients that you understood them and provide hope that you might be able to help them. It doesn’t compel them to pick up the phone and call you.
And if you don’t have a clear, focused and attention-grabbing message, any marketing steps you take are virtually wasted.
Why?
Because research shows you only have a few seconds to get the attention of your prospective clients onc they land at your page. And if you don’t get it within the first few seconds? That is right, there are plenty of websites only a click away..
So if your website is mostly about you and not enough about your potentials clients and their problems, pain and challenges, take a look how you can change it so that it speaks to them.
Learn how to write a message that will draw potential clients in, make them feel comfortable and show them that you can help solve their problems.
Developing a Compelling Marketing Message is the topic of the next Marketing Dialogue to be held in Vancouver this Thursday, February 15, 2007 from 7-9:30pm
In this dialogue, you will learn what it takes to create a compelling marketing message that will
help you attract more of the exact type of clients you want to work with who will pay you what you deserve to be paid.
If you live in Vancouver and want to register, click here.
Market Your Therapy or Holistic Practice So That You Stand Out From The Crowd
Standing out from the crowd with your therapy or holistic practice is essential in an increasingly crowded market where people are becoming more and more particular about what they want.
Potential clients of therapy and healing services want to feel like they are coming to see an expert, someone who has a great deal of knowledge and experience in helping others solve problems like theirs.
I am increasingly being contacted by practitioners who have been in practice for years and have never had to market their practice but are finding that they are having an increasingly difficult time getting clients. Some have even given up trying.
1. They are likely going to have to start marketing on a regular basis with a strategic ongoing plan.
2. They will do better if they focus their marketing on a narrow target market as this will help them stand out from the crowd and get better known for the services.
If you are someone who still resists narrowing in on a target market, you might want
read this article: Marketing a Niche Market for Your Therapy or Holistic Practice
On Developing a Targeted Niche
Yesterday I did a question and answer teleconference on "Developing a Niche Market." There were several themes that stood out for me that I hear over and over again in my work with Counselors and other healing professionals.
Below are some thoughts that stood out for me after hearing everyone’s questions on the call:
1. Too often healers try to make a modality or method of treatment their niche. With a few exceptions, people don’t generally care that much about the method you use, their primary concern is their pain or problem and they want a solution for it. This is where you must target your marketing.
2. There will always be a lot more people who will never buy your services or products than those that will even when you have a clear marketing message focused to a specific niche market. You need to concentrate on those who do want your services, figure out what they need and want and articulate this in your message.
3. Marketing is a lot easier if you have a clear niche market and a focused, compelling marketing message, but even under these circumstances it takes time, hard work and patience. Marketing is a not a one shot deal. Many healers give up too soon on their strategies. You have to have an effective strategy and commit to it for the long haul.
3. The more marketing knowledge you have the easier it will be for you and the faster you will attract clients. The learning curve is immense and never ending.
To learn more on developing a niche, read my article "Developing a Niche" which you can get at my website.
Is Your Marketing Message Weird?
When starting work with a new client, I often begin by helping them to establish a clear, specific target market. Almost everyone is hesitant or resistant to do this –unless they have some marketing experience or knowledge.
It takes some time, but almost always I am able to convince them that having a specific population to market to makes marketing a lot easier and actually increases success rather than decreasing it. Part of the process involves helping them to see what is unique about them and what they are offering. Many counselors and healers really don’t know what is special about them and need some help in unearthing this.
I read a post today at Duct Tape Marketing that talks about making your marketing message weird–weird in the sense of being different so that it stands out from from what everyone else is doing. If your practice isn’t bringing you the clients that you want it to, perhaps it’s time to make sure your marketing message is weird. 
A Short Marketing Plan
A lot of counsellors and healing professionals don’t like the idea of developing a marketing plan and feel very intimidated by the thought of putting one together.
I find that counsellors and healing professionals don’t need a complicated plan, they need something that they can understand and that they will use. And if you are one of those professionals who thinks you don’t need a plan or that having one isn’t important, do think again. Every professional service business needs a plan if they serious about being successful.
I have a marketing plan template that I developed for my clients that is simple and easy to use.
I just discovered another interesting marketing plan template while reading Guy Kawasaki refers to that you might want to check out. It’s called the World’s Shortest Marketing Plan and was created by Kelly Odel. Guy revised it and you can download a copy here.
You can also get an article I wrote on developing a marketing plan on this page if you are interested in reading a little more on the topic.
6 Principles of Influence
Guy Kawasaki, over at Bona tempora volantur, interviews Robert Cialdini the author of Influence–Science and Practice. Discussed in the interview are Cialdini’s 6 princples of influence:
- Reciprocation. People give back to you the kind of treatment that they have received from you.
- Scarcity. People will try to seize the opportunities that you offer them, that are rare or dwindling in availability.
- Authority. People will be most persuaded by you when they see you as having knowledge and credibility on the topic.
- Commitment. People will feel a need to comply with
your request if it is consistent with what they have publicly committed
themselves to in your presence. - Liking. People prefer to say yes to your request to the degree that they know and like you. No surprise there.
- Consensus. People will be likely to say yes to
your request if you give them evidence that people just like them have
been saying yes to it.
Some examples on how you can apply these to marketing your counselling or healing practice:
Reciprocation: Treat people with respect and offer to give things to them at no cost (e.g.newsletter, free report) and do things for them that will help them whenever you can. Too many professionals think of marketing as "getting" something from people. Focus on the giving and see how it pays off.
Scarcity: Be different and interesting in what you offer. Don’t offer the same as everyone else.
Authority: Write books, articles, columns, speak at organizations and give workshops.
Commitment: Be clear and direct in what you ask for and get people to commit to you. Don’t leave requests or agreements vague with anyone including potential clients, referral sources, etc.
Liking: Stay in front of your prospective clients and referral sources, follow through on your promises, build relationships of trust, find ways to keep in touch with your target market. etc.
Consensus: Use testiomials and case studies in your marketing.
I plan on reading Cialdini’s book. How about you?
Brag About Yourself!
I was on a coaching call with a new client a while back, an amazingly talented therapist, who has achieved great professional success and has a national reputation in the US for her work. We were in the middle of crafting her marketing message and were discussing how she and her work were unique. She was able to articulate to me what was special about her work, but when I suggested she write this into her website copy she replied, “But, then it would sound like I was bragging about myself.”
A few days later, I was speaking to another successful healer who wanted me to re-write her website copy. She too, was very reluctant to allow me to write about all the ways her work stood out from others. Her words, “I want to be very humble. I don’t want other healers to think that I am saying I am better than them.”
These experiences are not new to me. Many helping and healing professionals are very resistant to say what is special about themselves and their services for fear of offending someone or believing that they are not supposed to compete with others. However, by not telling it like it is, they end up working against themselves.
Furthermore, if you truly believe in what you have to offer, that it is a valuable service that can help people, then you are doing potential clients a disservice by not telling them about how you are unique and special.
Why should someone spend their money on your services if you don’t convince them upfront that you are worth it? Clients deserve to know what they are getting and need this information in order to make the best choice for themselves.
How are you and what you have to offer, different or special? What is it that you have to offer that others don’t? Why should someone hire you? If you can’t address these questions in your marketing message and be clear and confident about doing it, it will be reflected in the results you get.
Word of Mouth Marketing Takes Off
There is a lot of buzz on the Internet these days about word of mouth marketing. Of course we all know what this means as we all have experienced it. Clients benefit from the service we provide and tell others about us. We know that most of us prefer to hire professionals who were recommended to us by those we know and trust.
However, the "new" word of mouth marketing focuses on developing a strategy to encourage and make it easy for people to spread the word about your services.
Ron McDaniel has a a Word of Mouth Checklist over at his Buzzoodle Squidoo lens. I think there is a lot here that can be used as a marketing strategy for counselors and healing professionals.
Here’s the checklist:
- Help other people be successful
- Superior Customer Service
- Superior Product with unexpected benefits
- Do the unexpected and make someones day
- Publicly recognize other people
- Make connections. Introduce people that you know to each other
- Be open, honest and human
- Ask people what it would take to have them recommend you or introduce you to their friends
- Constantly perfect your networking and communication efforts
