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.
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.
Managing Overwhelm When Building Your Private Practice
I just listened to a 5 minute podcast by Micheal Port over on Bizslap on managing overwhelm. He makes some good points about how all entrepreneurs get stuck in overwhelm at some point and discusses how to shift out of it when you do.
Micheal states that people are more likely to become overwhelmed when they are getting up to "big stuff." He points out that overwhelm happens for a number of reasons including:
- not knowing what to do
- thinking that what you are doing is too hard
- not sure about your choice of direction
- having too much to do
- not having enough time
- struggling to balance your business/private practice and personal life
Michael further states that when you are feeling overwhelmed it is helpful to be around others who are also into "big stuff" so that they can support you, but also challenge you to hang in there when necessary.
Good advice for building your private practice. I have been in overwhelm numerous times since I began my business, and I can’t think of a client I’ve had who was dedicated to building their private practice who also hasn’t experienced overwhelm.
I think Michael’s point about finding people to help you who are also working at being successful is essential if you want success because most people won’t know how to support or challenge you when you need it most.
“The Middle Way”: A Buddhist Approach To Marketing Your Practice
I keep being reminded, almost on a daily basis, just how difficult it can be for helping and healing professionals to market their practices. Even though I just wrote a post on this a few days ago, it seems appropriate that I share some recent thoughts I had on this topic.
I was at an event held by the Integrated Medical Association here in Vancouver on the weekend. I was having a conversation with some healing professionals about marketing and how healing professionals in general have difficulty promoting themselves.
We identified some of the obstacles to marketing that coaches, therapists and healing professionals face (many of these were mentioned in my post a few days ago, "Are You Dismissing Marketing Ideas?"). Here are some of them again:
- concerns about marketing being ethical
- concerns about self-promotion
- lack of knowledge about marketing
- erroneously believing they can market effectively without any specific knowledge or training in this area
- not wanting to engage in (or be associated with) manipulative and misleading marketing techniques
I mentioned that one of the most important things that I do with my clients is to help them find the “middle way” –the path between not marketing at all because of their resistances to it, and finding a way to market that is informed, authentic, ethical and that has passion.
"The middle way" is a term that the Buddha used to describe the path to enlightenment. In Buddhism this concept refers to the balance between not engaging in extreme forms of self-indulgence while at the same time not practicing in extreme forms of asceticism.
So if we apply the concept of the ‘middle way” to marketing your private practice we might say that it is unproductive to avoid marketing– and taken to it’s extreme, it can even be hurtful if you can’t pay your bills because you don’t have enough clients.
On the other hand, in order to succeed you must market your practice—but you must do it in a manner that is sincere, respectful, has integrity, and, ultimately, in a manner that brings in more clients.
To read a related article that I wrote on marketing a private practice from a Buddhist perspective go to: 7 Principles of Enlightened Marketing.
Are you Dismissing Marketing Ideas?
How often do you hear or see an idea for marketing your practice and you immediately dismiss it as a viable option?
Or perhaps have tried a specific marketing strategy and because you didn’t get the results you wanted you dismissed it without examining what went wrong and how you could improve upon it?
I have noticed that many coaches as well as helping and healing professionals often dismiss aspects of marketing because:
- They don’t like marketing and are resistant to doing it.
- They erroneously believe they should intuitively know how to market their practice effectively without any training or knowledge in marketing.
- They believe that marketing is inherently unethical or inappropriate.
- They do not understand the principles of marketing and how they can embrace them to market authentically.
- They don’t want to spend the time marketing their practice on a regular basis.
Joe Vitalie, one of the better-known marketing consultants, talks about how we limit ourselves when we dismiss ideas in his new book, "The Attraction Factor:"
Rather than dismissing what is possible so that you can be right, what can you accept so that you can grow? Dismissing is often a way to deflect the messages. It’s a self-defense mechanism. If you dismiss the book, idea, or method offered to you, you get to be right–and stay right where you are.
What aspects of marketing are you dismissing and how is this limiting the success of your private practice?
