Marketing - How to Get More Clients and Market Complementary Therapies
How to market therapy for complementary therapists
For a complementary therapist, whether reflexologist, hypnotherapist, massage therapist, acupuncturist or other, to succeed in private practice requires a good helping of marketing skills. It is no good being the most effective nutritionist or Bowen technique practitioner in the world if you dont tell the world that you exist.
Your business, and you should view your therapy practice as a business, will succeed or fail depending on your therapy skills and ability to market yourself. For financial reasons many therapists have to rely on their own judgements with regards to what they need to do to attract clients.
Many new therapists fall into the trap of attempting to buy their clients: in effect throwing away their hard earned funds (usually saved from their previous career) at advertising in newspapers, magazines, numerous editions of yellow pages, journals, local directories, doctors surgeries, appointment cards, radio and TV. Advertising should be researched and approached in the meticulous manner that you would use with your therapy clients.
It is essential to always keep records of how your clients heard about you. It is the only way to know whether an advertisement or marketing strategy has worked. Look at what the other massage therapists, counsellors, psychotherapists, iridologists and other therapists in your area are doing. If they place a regular advert in a particular place then there is a good chance that it is working for them and could work for you. Whatever you do, dont just use a carbon copy of their format. Try to be original. Think of what extra value you could offer to prospective clients that would knock the competition into a poor second place.
In order to keep a steady stream of enquires coming in you should market your practice every week. That means every week. If you stop marketing when you are experiencing a feast of clients then you will soon experience a famine. Some marketing methods require a longer lead-time to get a response, may be weeks or months. Others can be very rewarding very quickly and literally within hours. If you continue to market your practice every week you give yourself what every therapist craves: a steady stream of new clients week after week.
Decide how much of your therapy fees you are going to spend on marketing and stick to it. That is your budget and you need to get the most from it.
When paying for an advertisement anywhere, do remember to haggle over the cost. You should never accept the first price you are given. Newspapers do find it difficult at times to fill the space they have. Ask your newspaper or magazine to inform you when they have late space. This is advertising space that they have not been able to fill and where they are grateful to sell it at all. They will normally offer a large discount to anyone who can provide advertising copy quickly, so have yours ready.
Then again why not get even better coverage and for free. Always read your local newspaper for any stories that could allow you to incorporate a therapy slant. From Local Hypnotherapist Calms Scholars Exam Nerves to Body worker Helps Fire Brigade Chill Out Between 999s. Try to ensure that any article includes details of target groups that you can help, such as people with phobias, muscle strains and injuries, low confidence, weight problems, stress etc and of course details of how you can be contacted.
To Conclude: -
(i) Maintain records of how your clients found you.
(ii) Continue those marketing methods that are effective.
(iii) Stop or amend marketing that doesnt work in a reasonable period of time.
(iv) Haggle over price: tell them you have a limited budget and you want their best deal
(v) Look out for local news that you can add a therapy twist to.
(vi) Market your practice every week.
Follow the above and you will soon hone your marketing to successful strategies that produce paying clients.
About the Author
Steven Harold Author of Marketing for Complementary Therapists Marketing Therapy
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