Marketing Your Hypnotherapy Practice by Louise Watts
We all know that without clients, we have no business. As much as we love what we do, unless we can generate paying clients, we have no business. In this article, I will touch upon the basics of marketing your hypnotherapy practice.
In the beginning, building your practice will rely heavily on the amount of marketing and advertising you undertake, until you have a good base of clients from which you can obtain referrals.
One of the most important things to remember before you embark on any kind of marketing campaign is Return on Investment. Putting it simply, you need to ensure that you will get the maximum results from the smallest investment. Spending £5K on an ad in the national press might seem like a good idea, but not if you only get £4K worth of business from it.
Who Are Your Clients?
Many people make the mistake that if they offer a huge number of products or services, they will get more business. When you first start out, it is especially tempting to tell a client you can help them with xyz, even if it's an area you're either not very skilled at or not particularly interested in.
However, without specialising, you'll end up lost in the crowd. Think about it. If you need to get a wall plastered and turn to the Yellow Pages, you're more likely to contact someone who does only plastering, than a company that offers everything from tiling to roofing to bricklaying! This is due to the client's perception that “you can't be an expert at everything”, which of course is completely true.
It's true that when you initially start your practice, you won't know what to specialise in, as this will only come from realising that you are good at and enjoy your chosen specialist area, whether it be chronic illness, weight control or hypnosis for children.
If you concentrate your efforts in a particular area, clients will see you as an expert and will, therefore, seek you out.
The first thing is to look at your target market. Build a client profile and include the age, location, disposable income, gender, interests and profession. Now research the sorts of publications or websites this type of client is most likely to read. For example, if you're based in Surrey and a specialist in hypnobirthing, you could contact some local pregnancy classes, speak to local hospitals and take out an advert in a regional newspaper.
Maximising Your Image
How long does it take to make up your mind about someone when you first meet them? 30 seconds? A minute? Whatever your business, image is imperative and when I say that, I am not necessarily talking about how you look, although that can play a fundamental role. Rather, I am talking about the image you project through your marketing materials, which also includes your website. Whilst this may seem obvious, it's amazing how many newcomers to the field do not give this area enough attention.
Selecting a hypnotherapist from a client's perspective can be a hugely daunting task. Whilst the quality of someone's business cards, flyers and website do not necessarily indicate how skilled they are in their chosen profession, often this is the first thing a client has to initially go on, perhaps together with the letters after a practitioner's name.
Think about the sort of image you want to portray and the type of clients you would like to work with. Do you want to be seen as clinical and formal, or a bit more relaxed and friendly? Do you want to appeal more to men than women, or perhaps children are your target market? Research your competitors marketing materials – what do you like and what don't you like?
When choosing an image for your marketing materials, always show your draft ideas to a selection of your friends/family first, as they are likely to be brutally honest. Ask them what kind of message your materials convey? Are they clear and easy to understand? What could you do to your business card/flyer/website to make people remember you?
Public Speaking Giving talks and presentations is one of the best and cheapest ways to get publicity for your practice, and also helps to promote hypnotherapy as a profession.
Advertising
There are four golden rules to follow before you do any kind of advertising and these can be summed up in the acronym AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). Unless your advert follows these basic principles, do not spend money on it!
A is for Attention
Consider the following two headlines: “HOW TO CONTROL YOUR WEIGHT EASILY AND EFFORTLESSLY WITH NO DRUGS OR CHEMICALS!” and “HYPNOSIS FOR WEIGHT CONTROL”. Which one would you be more likely to read? The headline for your advertisement is the most important aspect and many copywriters will spend 80% of their time working out the headline alone.
I is for Interest
The next part of the advertisement needs to be informative and provide the reader with what you're actually offering – this might include areas that you specialise in.
D is for Desire
This is where you sell the benefits of your service, and not the features. How will your clients benefit from what you have to offer? Always remember the saying “What's in it for me?” Can you offer a particular incentive for them to choose you? Perhaps a discount or free gift?
A is for Action
I have seen so many printed advertisements where it's not clear on what the reader should do next. Tell the reader what you want them to do, whether it be to phone, write or email and ensure you clearly include the contact details.
Again, with all of your marketing material, you should “pull it apart” and keep changing it until you're happy.
There are literally hundreds of ways you can choose to advertise your service – from online directories, the Yellow Pages to local newspapers, magazines and radio. Firstly, look at what your competitors are doing. You should make sure you advertise in the same places that your competitors do, but you must also advertise where they do not!
If you choose a printed advertisement in your local newspaper for example, ensure that you run it at least three times – this helps the reader remember you and also builds credibility, as readers will recognise the same advert and realise that you're not some cowboy that's going to disappear overnight.
Ensure that you ask all clients where they heard about your services, as this will help you determine which methods work for you, and which methods don't. By keeping track of your marketing efforts, you can save yourself a small fortune in the long term by avoiding costly mistakes.
Recommendations/Referrals
Once you have a small but steady stream of clients, you are now in an excellent position to begin asking for referrals. Many hypnotherapists feel uncomfortable with this proposition but if you don't ask, you don't get!
Ideally, after finishing a course of therapy with a client, you should ask if they know of anyone else who might be interested in your services. Whilst some hypnotherapists will take the details of the potential client and call them, I firmly believe it should be your client who requests they phone you. Therapy is likely to only be successful if the person in question actually wants your help – if you “cold call” clients, you may get their business, but your reputation and success rate won't necessarily improve.
You can help this process by perhaps offering your existing client some kind of reward, such as a discount off a future session or free hypnosis CD. If your client doesn't know of anyone who might benefit from your services, ask them for testimonial which you could use on your marketing literature.
GP referrals can also be a valuable source of income. If you successfully treat a client for smoking cessation or pain control (having previously sought the approval of the GP), for example, ask your client for their permission to write to their GP to show how you have helped their patient. Whilst this method won't always pay off, it's cheap, easy to do and helps build the credibility of hypnotherapy within the medical profession as a valuable method.
If you're a complementary practitioner interested in learning some great marketing tactics for your practice, come along to the Smart Marketing One Day Workshop on 26th January in Chelmsford , Essex and learn ways to build your practice. Email hypnosis@louiseatts.co.uk for details.
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