Tighten up That Target Market
John Jantsch on his popular, "Duct Tape Marketing Blog" has a great post called, How Many Prospects Do you Really Need? which essentially addresses the issue of having a specific, narrowly defined target market and how this makes it easier to attract clients.
I spend a lot of time with many of my new clients addressing this issue educating them on why you will actually get more, as opposed to less, clients if you have a clearly defined target market or niche. Sometimes it takes a while, as most counsellors and healing professionals want to include everyone in their target market largely because they fear they will exclude potential clients if they don’t.
John suggests that you figure out how many customers/clients you need a month and then calculate the number of qualified prospects you would need to get your message in front of to acquire the customers/clients you need. His point being that you may not need that many prospects in order to get the required number of customers/clients.
Once you have determined who your qualified prospects are (those that fit your defined target market) you can then focus your attention only on them, sending them information/newsletters and following up with them via phone on a regular basis. John states:
My experience is that when you can get your arms around this very qualified suspect list they become more real, more manageable. When you can start to put names and addresses to your potential clients you can actually begin to see them as clients. You can identify others who could refer you to members of this list. You can afford to start building marketing profiles on each to better personalize your marketing efforts.
If you are still afraid to target your market, by narrowing in a specific population, I suggest you re-think your stance.
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.
Free Report: 67 Surefire Ways to Attract Clients
I released my new, 22 page FREE report, "67 Surefire Ways to Attract Clients" a few days ago and I have been getting some great feedback on it.
If you are wondering about how you can market your practice you will find a lot of ideas in this report–67 of them to be exact!
You can get the free report by signing up to my newsletter, Enlightened Marketing. All you have to do is fill in your name and email in the box on the top left corner of this page.
I would appreciate any feedback you have, so please feel feel to write and tell me your thoughts.
Hope you enjoy it!
Wondering Why Advertisting Your Practice is Not Attracting Clients?
I have had many helping and healing professionals tell me they have used advertising without success. Their lack of success is frequently due to having unrealistic expectations. They don’t understand how often a person must see an ad before they are likely to take any action on it. If you want your investment in advertising to pay off you have to make the commitment to run it over time (at least 6 months -1 year+) if you don’t want to waste your hard earned cash.
The Diva Marketing Blog has a humurous post on the need for repetition when advertisting. She refers to a piece that was written in 1885 by Thomas Smith:
1. The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
2. The second time, he does not notice it.
3. The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
4. The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
5. The fifth time, he reads it.
6. The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
7. The seventh time, he reads it through and says, "Oh brother!"
8. The eighth time, he says, "Here’s that confounded thing again!"
9. The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
10. The tenth time, he asks his neighbor if he has tried it.
11. The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
12. The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
13. The thirteenth time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.
14. The fourteenth time, he remembers wanting such a thing a long time.
15. The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
16. The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it some day.
17. The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.
18. The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
19. The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
20. The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys what it is offering.
The Diva notes that she heard this from Eric Hope of Language Services Assoc.
Read: To Advertise or Not To Advertise: How Do You Decide? if your unsure about whether you should use advertisting to market your private practice.
