Boost Your Hypnotherapy Marketing – Smell What Sells!

Hypnotherapy Marketing - Smell What Sells!Ever watched the TV program The Apprentice? The UK version has Alan Sugar at the helm and every year they run one particular task. The candidates are told that they will be working in a market stall, shop or pop up stall and they are given a range of goods which they can sell. They are allowed to pick only a certain number of items to put up for sale and the team which makes the most money wins the task. Alan Sugar always barks the same phrase at them “smell what sells”. In other words make sure you pick the products which you know people are going to buy. Great advice and one which you need to apply to your hypnotherapy marketing.

Every time when I run my marketing classes I can guarantee that one of the therapists in the class will come to me and tell me that they are not getting enough clients and they can’t understand why. They will explain to me how they run their hypnotherapy marketing and in most cases it is instantly obvious to me why nobody is knocking at their door. One person in particular springs to mind who illustrates this point perfectly.

A gentleman came to see me who worked in an affluent area of the country and explained how he wanted to specialise in working with people who cared for their elderly or sick relatives. He wanted to help support them and felt hypnosis was a great way of doing this. His website front page openly discussed this service and he advertised locally to bring people into his clinic the only problem was he wasn’t getting any calls for this or his other services and was scratching a living. Well of course he wasn’t.

1) He was trying to get business off people who have no money and no time. How many people who are not working and are only getting a care allowance can afford to see a hypnotherapist? Even if they did have the money they would not have the time to come and see him.

2) He was ignoring the fact that in the area where he lived there were hundreds of thousands of potential clients who would come to see him but for other services. His clinic location was in an area known for rich affluent women. People who probably would love to lose more weight or get help for anxiety or smoking. He was ignoring the people who were practically begging to come and see him.

Now I am not saying that he couldn’t still try and support the people he was interested in but if he wanted to earn money he needed to adjust his business model fast to prevent him ending up broke.

Who is your Hypnosis Marketing Targeted at?

When you are doing your hypnotherapy marketing you need to consider who is willing to spend money to come in through your doors. Picking people who have not got the cash is going to get you nowhere. But I have seen the error being made time and time again. You need to understand what the bestsellers are going to be in your area and market those services to the people who need them. Wasting time and money advertising to the 1% is not going to help your bank balance.

Consider how you market your hypnotherapy practice because there is nothing more off putting that an advert or website that actually repels clients. Yep I see plenty of these as well. For example a Counsellor who used her website home page to explain how she could help with pet bereavement. Yes of course many people will need help with this but putting it on your front page made no sense. All this did was put off potential clients who wanted help with their marriages or depression. Frankly it made her seem just that little bit flaky and her potential clients moved on elsewhere.

What about another therapist who called her website something that had nothing to do with hypnotherapy at all. When you arrived at the website you had no idea at all of what she was offering. It was incomprehensible to me and I knew what she did for a living so goodness knows what potential web searchers thought. Again she came to see me because she wasn’t getting any business. Not a great shock and one that was really easily rectified.

Oh and don’t get me started on the number of therapists who have god awful pictures of themselves on their websites or bad videos. Photoshop is there for a reason to make you look better. I have seen so many bad pictures of therapists who would frankly frighten a small child. People coming across your website will see your picture and think, no thanks, and head off elsewhere until they see something they like. If you don’t look photogenic then choose a different web design and leave the picture out. Be self aware and understand that looks sell and dreadful ones don’t. Harsh I know but a reality that you need to be aware of.

Remember Alan Sugar made his millions for a reason. He understood the products that people wanted to buy and manufactured them. We can do the same. Research what is likely to bring you in a good income and start advertising for clients who want that service. Smell what sells and you will find that your hypnotherapy marketing becomes significantly easier and you will be considerably wealthier.