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Who is The Target Market For Your Therapy Business?

Posted on by Martina McKeough

Therapy MarketingHave you ever stopped and taken the time to consider your therapy marketing and who exactly it is supposed to be targeting? My guess it that the majority of therapists have never given it a second thought. Why? Because they construct a generic website that is all things to all people but don’t take the time to really focus in on what their customers really need and want. Here’s a typical example:

Sharon has just completed her therapy training and decides she wants to set up a practice in Townsville. She works with a local web designer and tells them that she would like a website similar to the ones that she has seen her competitors use. She tells that designer that she is looking to get business in Townsville and asks them to construct website pages detailing all the different forms of therapy she does. Sharon knows that she loves working with people suffering from pet bereavement so makes that a feature on her front page. The rest of the website pages have a brief overview of her services and there is a contact page for potential customers to send her an email. Sharon gets the website placed live online and waits for the phone to ring.

Sound familiar? I would say the vast majority of therapists do something very similar to Sharon and never really think about who their customers are and what they want. Instead they construct a website that they have seen a thousand times before or alternatively they choose to focus on a treatment  that really interests them without ever giving a thought to whether their customers actually want or need it. To really target your therapy marketing it is necessary to put in much more thought into who your customer really is.

Defining your Therapy Business Market

1) Location – One of the biggest mistakes I see therapists making is defining a market location that is too small. In Sharon’s case her marketing revolved around Townsville but that really does not make much sense especially if that area does not have a significant population. The reality is that you need to be targeting the towns and villages around your home location as well. This could also mean the county or the region where you are based. I regularly get clients coming to see me from many miles away so it does not make sense to focus on a small area.

2) Age – How old are the clients who are coming to see you? Are your treatments aimed at children, young professionals,the middle aged or even the elderly? Try and work out who is coming to see you and then create a website and marketing plan that appeals to that niche.

3) Gender – Can you define your market even further and differentiate by gender? If you specialise in fertility therapy or Hypnobirthing then creating a website that also appeals to men is slightly pointless as it is the women who are making the buying decisions in these cases.

4) Income – There is no point in offering £200 per hour treatments or an expensive package of treatments if you know that your local area is filled with low income earners. That said if you are in the middle of Central London or New York then yes you can sell top dollar all singing all dancing therapies at premium prices.

5) Interests – You may have a huge interest in pet bereavement therapy like Sharon but is it the most suitable therapy to highlight on your website front page? This issue by the way is not made up. I worked with a Counsellor who was getting hardly any clients and was scratching a living. She had put this treatment as the highlight on her website. It was obvious that not only did nobody care about this treatment but that it was probably putting them off contacting her for other issues. Think about the real problems that people really want to see you about such as couples counselling or anxiety reduction and concentrate on those. If you do offer other treatments that are more “out” there stick them on your inside pages.

6) Best Sellers – I have mentioned before that in order to be a great therapy marketer you need to “Smell What Sells”. Have a look at your competition and the people who are typically coming to see you and you will find that some of your treatments will be ten times more popular than others. These need to form the core of what you offer as that is what is going to make you a living. Creating a niche is great but not when it is so obscure that nobody is paying to come and see you for it.

7) Where are They? – Once you have a better idea of where your target market is based you can start to market to that location. So if you are selling Hypnobirthing you need to target local midwives and doctors surgeries, playgroups and coffee shops. Get together with local Yoga and Pilates teachers to sell your services and so on. There is no point just sticking an advert in the local paper as it isn’t targeted marketing. You need to focus in as closely as you can to your niche and sell them more services.

8) What do You love? – Even though I don’t advocate choosing obscure treatments to focus on there is no harm in choosing to focus on the other areas that you love to work in. If you get a kick out of helping people to stop smoking then really focus in on making that part of your core business. If you hate working in other areas then leave them off your websites. I know that I don’t get excited about working with children so where possible I try and avoid  that kind of work. Others however will love the little ones. Horses for courses as they say.

9) Vocabulary – I saw a great website today from a Life Coach called “yourkickasslife.com”. The title of the website and the content stood out but remember that this kind of website has its limitations. It has been clearly designed to appeal to women and I would say an age demographic of 30 to 50. Having a website using similar language whilst offering treatment for older customers will simply not appeal in the same way. Choose the tone of your words and phrasing carefully to suit the customers you are trying to appeal to.

10) Keywords – Finally make sure that you use keywords in your copy that will help you get found. In other words think about what your customers would type into the search engines and then use those phrases in your website content. There is no point in wasting words talking about non related content as nobody will find you!

Defining an audience for your therapy marketing and targeting those customers can be easier than you think but it does take a little effort. Get it right and you will reap the rewards but get it wrong and you will be lucky to see a customer coming your way. If you need help with your therapy marketing strategy then getting a professional involved is a great way of making a difference to your bottom line. It can make the difference between success at your new chosen career or failure and heading back to your old day job!

 

 

10 Ways to Increase Your Hypnotherapy Business Revenue

Posted on by Martina McKeough

hypnotherapy businessBelieve it or not it can be very easy to make a difference to your hypnotherapy business revenue with some simple tweaks to the way in which you work. Here are just ten ideas which can help you to improve your earnings that are actionable today.

1) Raise Your Prices – Such a simple thing to do but so many therapists seem to lack confidence in their abilities and what their local market can sustain. In the recession when I started my business I actually raised my prices each year and I found that the demand for my services actually increased. Having cheap session prices sends out a signal to your potential clients that you offer low quality services. Oh and if you live in an affluent area you most certainly should have high prices and never discount. Unbelievably I see many therapists offering bargain basement prices to people in areas with multi million pound houses! If you are one of them stop subsidising your clients Planet Organic habit and raise those hourly rates now.

2) Upsell – Not sure what that means?It means offering a product or service to your client which is more than they originally intended to purchase. So if a client rings you and wants help with sugar addiction and you find that they actually also suffer from anxiety then you can up-sell your services to deal with that problem as well. This will benefit the client as their sugar problem may be fueled by the anxiety. Now instead of seeing your client for one or two sessions you may be seeing them for four to six. Remember this always has to be done ethically so you are not selling your customers services they don’t need.

3) Cross-Sell – If you have other services that you can sell then those can also be offered to your client. For therapists perfect examples of this may be offering your customers audios or apps to assist them in times when they are not in your sessions. Perhaps you have an eBook which has lots of useful tips for a client which they can buy. This advice can be applied to just about any therapist. I know that I recently visited my local Osteopath and I noticed that he sold no products at all in his clinic. Madness! So all his customers who visited him who were told to buy ice packs or surgical tape were heading to the local chemists instead of purchasing these things directly from him. I would have loved the convenience of getting the things I needed then and there especially when I was in pain. The last thing I wanted to do was make another trip somewhere else. Since I pointed out the error of his ways he has gone to a wholesaler and is now starting to sell some of these products. My guess is that he will increase his revenue by 20 to 30% by this simple action.

4) Bundle – I use this tool all the time. Earning more money by bundling products together. A perfect example of this are my hypnosis downloads. I have a number of weight loss audios when sold individually cost around £9.99 each. Now however I have created a full premium weight loss program out of these audios and these retail for £39.99!! You can do the same bundle your sessions or services and watch your profits increase.

5) Get Rid of Bad Customers – 99% of your customers will be great. They will pay on time, be friendly in your sessions and generally cause you no problems at all. Then you will get the one customer who makes your life hell. They are always late for appointments, they continually ask to change their appointment times. They don’t pay on time and want to speak to you on the phone for hours between their sessions. When you make the decision to not deal with these people your life will be so much simpler and it means you are freeing up your time so you can concentrate on other areas of your hypnotherapy business.

6) Take Money up Front – Even better never deal with a bad paying customer ever again and take their session fee up front. I do that with all my customers. Either they pay for individual sessions up front or I take a deposit for multi session products. Never fear this approach. If a customer is reluctant to pay for their sessions up front then you know they are likely to be the very people who wouldn’t turn up for their booked sessions.

7) Invest in the Longer Term – With the profits that you are making in your business you need to invest some of that money into longer term investments. Perhaps some of those profits can be used to creating online training programs, apps, audios or other helpful products that you can sell when you are asleep. This will help you to grow your hypnotherapy business beyond seeing customers and clients one to one.

8) Sell to Multiple People – There are only so many hours in a day which means that if you are seeing one to one clients you will eventually hit a ceiling on your income. Sell to groups of people and you can earn greater revenue if done well. Corporate well-being work is a perfect example of how this kind of work will be much more lucrative than seeing individual clients.

9) Extend Your Market Area – Are you just trying to sell your services to people in your home town? If so think again. People will come and see therapists from miles around so start thinking about advertising your services to your whole county, region or even country!

10) Get Help – Hire a marketing mentor to take your hypnotherapy business to the next level. For a relatively small investment you can transform your business by getting someone to help you transform your business. With the right advice and guidance your business could significantly grow. One of my recent clients has found that her revenue has increased by 30% already and now she has hired two new staff members to help with the workload. My guess is that by the end of year we will have doubled her previous years revenue. Probably the best investment decision she has ever made.

Are Therapists Afraid of Making Money?

Posted on by Martina McKeough

Therapy MarketingOver the past few months I have been participating in forums and commenting about therapy marketing matters to a number of therapists. Interestingly in many of these communications I have noted that a large percentage of therapists seem to have a belief system that they will not make great money from their chosen profession. This partly appears to be because some people believe that there is not sufficient money to be made in the therapy industry and partly because they feel as caring professionals they should not be charging premium rates for their services. Wow I thought no wonder so many therapists go out of business within the first year of starting out and see so few clients per week. I thought I would address some of these myths and beliefs as they are clearly preventing the profession from becoming well regarded and highly paid.

1) How Therapists are Perpetuating Myths about Low Pay – One of the comments that I see time and time again is that therapy is not a great paying profession. Well speak for yourself I do very nicely from my chosen field of work and I believe that is because of my mindset. I didn’t start my job as a therapy professional but as a trader in the city. I used to earn a large salary and get great bonuses so when I chose to start a new career I did so with the expectation that I could earn good money again. As a self employed person I knew that with a little effort and great therapy marketing I could attract a sufficient number of clients to earn a great living wage and with passive income efforts there was no ceiling on what I could make.

Now think of the people you encounter in the therapy profession who perpetuate the myth of low pay. Have they taken the time and effort to learn new marketing skills to assist themselves in increasing their business? Are they happy to see just a small number of clients per week and spend the rest of the time pottering around? What do their websites look like? How are they Networking? What is their social media activity? Generally the very people perpetuating these myths are doing so because they haven’t made the effort to move from a small business to a thriving one. If you are looking at becoming a therapist I would say that there is no income ceiling and that it is perfectly possible to bring in over six figures with some creative marketing efforts.

2) Fear of Becoming Legitimate – When you charge a small fee then you are going to be thought of as disposable. The people who come to your therapy will be less committed and you will get more no shows and worse results. Being a hypnotherapist or any form of therapist is a hugely valuable profession because you can change someones life dramatically. That skill and talent is worth lots of money but because many therapists especially hypnotherapists are seen as new age alternative healers many charge very little.

Well I can tell you that my websites scream out professional! They are slick and informative instead of airy fairy and plastered with images that are more suited  to hippy culture. The addresses where I choose to practice are up market and well regarded. When a client books with me they get a full contract and confirmation policy so they know exactly what is expected of them and of me. I dress professionally, conduct myself well and charge premium rates because of this. I would welcome stricter professional bodies and alliances with the medical profession as they legitimise our business. I frown on therapists who embrace the alternative side as they drag down the industry as a whole. Have you seen the websites I am talking about? The ones where the hypnotherapist offers hypnotherapy and crystal healing or magnet therapy! No wonder we are seen as quacks by so many people.

3) Worry about Charging our Customers too Much – Some therapists believe that when they attract clients they should not charge too much for their services in case those people can’t afford the therapy which could help them. Indeed this could be a legitimate worry if it wasn’t for the fact that most of the people who come and see me have made therapy a priority instead of:

  • A huge flat screen TV
  • Sky Sports
  • The latest model of phone
  • Going out all weekend to pubs and clubs
  • Smoking 20 cigarettes a day
  • Ipads and Computer Games
  • A holiday abroad

I could go on and on. Yes there are always some people who may not be able to afford therapy but in many cases it is a lifestyle choice. The people wanting the cheap prices are the ones living with all the latest gadgets whilst they want the therapist to earn such a pittance that they are living hand to mouth. This was perfectly illustrated by a friend of mine who ran a Montesorri playgroup in an affluent area. She used to charge the parents only when their children came to a session instead of by term. On some weeks there would be a number of no shows and she would be worrying about money. In fact she couldn’t afford to heat her flat properly. As you can imagine I had something to say about her lifestyle and business sense.

This does not mean that we should be money grabbing parasites but we should look after our own needs before concentrating on those of others. I worked very happily for two years at a Cancer Centre one day a week for free. It gave me invaluable experience and was hugely rewarding. My business however was growing outside those hours and my prices high.

4) Worry about Abilities – I know that some therapists charge very little because they think that is all they are really worth. Again a former marketing student of mine wanted to charge £40 an hour in yummy mummy Muswell Hill! An area in London where everyone lives in multi million pound houses. Where they have a Planet Organic and chic little shops. His thought process was that he had only just qualified so it seemed like a fair price. Well if you want to go out of business this is a great way of doing it. By the way women are particularly great at making this error. See my previous blog on gender differentials in hypnotherapy earnings.

5) Unable to Market Well – I would say lack of therapy marketing knowledge is one of the biggest reasons why the profession is poorly paid. Most of the therapists have insufficient marketing or business knowledge and it shows. This is why the vast majority of hypnotherapists in the UK see a handful of clients per week. As with any entrepreneur if you have not got the requisite skills you will go bust and in hypnosis the vast majority of new trainees are out of business within a year of finishing their courses. You can save yourself a fortune and a lot of hard work if you spend the money and hire a hypnotherapy marketing and mentoring professional to show you how it is done.

So never again believe it when another therapist tells you that you will never become rich. Is simply means that they have chosen to remain poor or did not have the appropriate therapy marketing skills to grow their business. Remember the only ceiling placed on your earnings is the ones that you have placed there!

 

 

Is Your Hypnotherapy Business Portable?

Posted on by Martina McKeough

hypnotherapy businessYou may have noticed that this latest blog post is slightly later than usual. This is because I am planning to move house and having sold in one area I am frantically trying to find somewhere to buy in another part of the country. Moving house of course is only part of the issue because it also means that I will have to move my business as well. Not just  a few miles away but to an entirely different area where I currently have no customers or clients who will have seen me. Am I worried? Well no because I believe that my business model will work in any area that I relocate to. The question is can you say the same for your business?

Even though you have no intention of leaving your current location and moving cross country at this time you never know what will happen to you in the future. I know that I had no plans five years ago to leave London but circumstances change. It therefore makes common sense to consider all possibilities when you set up your business as to what would happen if you had to move premises, town or even to another country.

Moving Premises

Unless you work from home or in a very small area with limited choice of rented rooms then it is very likely that you will move premises at least once during your therapy career. I know that I have moved premises a number of times in the areas where I have worked. Mainly because I was always looking for the best premises for myself and my clients. I always recommend that wherever you set up your hypnotherapy business you look at a location where you have a choice of premises. This means that if one place closes or becomes unsuitable you always have other locations where you can move without any disruption to your income. Income stability should be a big consideration when planning your business strategy.

When you choose your business location then I would suggest that you make sure that the set up is such that either you are the only hypnotherapist at that location or you have full control of your phone number and advertising. Why? Well let us say that you decide to work at a natural health clinic in your local town or city. You rent the room space, they field your calls and there is some form of joint advertising. In other words they advertise the clinic so you may get some business that way but the onus is on you to bring in the bulk of the customers.

So you begin to optimise your website for that location, link your Google places account to the same premises and generally get calls flooding in to the receptionist at the clinic. Then they decide to hire out another one of their rooms to another hypnotherapist. Now what happens? Well firstly the receptionist no longer knows who brought in the customer. That means that the new hypnotherapist could potentially be getting business because of your hard work. Always keep control of the phone number that you have on your websites. That way you get the calls and you book the people. If the other therapists are not proactive in their advertising they will have empty slots and you will be the busy one.

Moving Location

A loss of income when you move your therapy location is almost impossible to avoid unless your earn substantial amounts of passive income. However this reduction in income can be minimal if you have a great business model.

Websites – When you understand SEO and website design it can be really easy to replicate a winning formula and simply transfer it to another area. Of course organic rankings take time no matter how great you are but in the short term using pay per click will get you customers in through your door.

Understanding what Sells – If you really understand clients problems, know what they need resolved and provide them information on how you can eradicate their issues then you have a winning formula. It does not matter where you are in the Western world as the problems are always going to be the same. People always want to lose weight, there is always anxiety and confidence is always going to be lacking in some people. Show people how you can resolve these and your bank balance will always be positive.

Online – If you haven’t caught on to the online revolution yet then it is time to dip your toe in the water. Conducting therapy online is a great growth area. It means that not matter where you are based or where your clients are. Providing you have reasonable website access you will be able to do therapy sessions. Even better create an online course which does not even require you to be involved and you can earn money whilst you are asleep.

Passive Income – Never rely totally on income from one to one clients. Try and create income streams in other areas as well. That means that there will always be some money entering into your business. Selling audios, video courses, eBooks never rely on location and can be bought by people all over the world. Oh and don’t forget to collect those emails. Google may change and alter its algorithm but if you have a large database of email addresses of people you can sell to then you will never go hungry.

So if you want a great hypnotherapy business spent some time thinking about the what ifs. Remember change is inevitable at some point so you may as well have contingency plans just in case it happens to you.

 

 

 

 

10 Issues That Impact Your Website Performance

Posted on by Martina McKeough

hypnotherapy website designToday’s post is all about the issues that may be impacting your website performance and ultimately how these can push your website down the rankings super fast. Just because you hired a web developer to create your website does not mean that everything about your website is going to be working perfectly. Many web developers do not understand SEO and that means that their design can impact the way your site performs in the search engines. Then when you start adding content to your site it is very simple for you to make simple errors which could see your site being penalised and your hypnotherapy marketing ruined. Here are some simple things for you to consider when building and designing your site.

1) Mobile Usability – If you have not seen my previous blog post on this subject I suggest you read it to find out why having a mobile responsive website is hugely important. Websites that are not mobile friendly are actively penalised in Google. This is because Google wants to give its search engine users a great experience and if they are landing on a site that does not look good on their tablet or phone then they will click elsewhere. It appears that Bing will also be launching a similar penalty very soon. Paying for an upgrade to a mobile responsive website is now absolutely essential if you are serious about hypnotherapy marketing and building a great business.

2) Duplicate Content – This means that you cannot write content for web page and then copy and paste that content to another page and change a couple of words. It also means that you cannot write something on your website and then copy and paste that information somewhere else on the web such as on a guest blog post or article submission site. When Google is faced with two identical sets of information it does not know which version to trust or which should be placed in the search engine rankings first. Ultimately when faced with this dilemma it makes a simple decision to penalise you and place the content down the rankings.

3) Keyword Stuffing – So you want to appear high in the search engine rankings for the keyword hypnotherapy Birmingham. In order to achieve that goal you write those keywords multiple times on your first page and throughout your other web pages. This makes your posts virtually unreadable and is classed as a black hat technique by Google. As a general rule try and make sure that your keyword is used no more than 2-5% in your content.

4) Speed of Your Website – How fast your website loads is now a ranking factor. Nobody has the time or patience to wait ages while an old website slowly loads. You can read about what Google thinks about website speed in their Google blog.To test how well your website is performing then you can try a speed test on your website. Google PageSpeed Insights allows you to enter in the url of your website and analyses how quickly it responds. Once the analysis is complete it will tell you what changes need to be made to your website in order to improve performance.

5) Guest Blogging – Once upon a time you could quite happily write blogs on other peoples websites and place links within them leading back to your website. Writing a significant number of these could boost your rankings significantly but not anymore. Mat Cutts from Google announced that this form of SEO is now considered as spam and that from now on people doing it could expect to be penalised. You have been warned!

6) Geographic Location of Hosting Account – For those of you who don’t know about hosting there are companies out there who allow your website access to the web by placing your site on their servers for a fee. If you have a web developer they will have signed you up to a hosting account which you generally pay for monthly or yearly. What you may not know is that if your website is a .co.uk and your hosting is in The States you will find that your site is likely to be penalised in the rankings. As a general rule of thumb make sure that your hosting account is based in the country where your website is.

7) Low Quality Pages – So many therapists are guilty of this crime. They place up a web page with a picture and write two sentences about their product and that is it. Your website content needs to be useful and relevant to the people reading it if not Google will penalise you and your competitors will leap ahead of you in the rankings. Get your hypnotherapy marketing right and create quality content for your site instead.

8) Technical Issues – Ever used Google webmaster tools? If not sign up and add your website. It is a great resource and will flag errors appearing in your site. These technical issues may be preventing you from getting a higher ranking in the search engines. Don’t sit in ignorance and these errors will ultimately cost you money.

9) Fancy Web Design – So you hired a web designer to create you an all singing all dancing website. You have a video loading when people login or you have pictures that fade in and out or use flash on your site. Well don’t because the search engines don’t like it. They want a fast responsive website that can be read easily. If you have too much going on it slows down your site and can’t be accessed properly by the Google bots. If it doubt keep your website nice and simple.

10) Optimising Media– It is great sometimes to put images or videos on your website but have they been optimised so that they don’t impact your sites loading time. There is a line to be drawn between putting media on to your site and being penalised because your site takes too long to load.

For more interesting tips and tricks to increase your hypnotherapy marketing success you can buy my hypnotherapy marketing eBook online today. Don’t let marketing ignorance prevent you from building the business and income you deserve.

 

 

 

How Much are You Really Earning in Your Therapy Practice?

Posted on by Martina McKeough

therapy marketingEver taken the time and really thought about what you are really earning from your therapy work? Yes I know you will be charging your customers a price per hour but have you really taken a look at all the hidden costs that are there when you are running a business? Nothing in life is free and neither is Hypnotherapy Marketing. No matter how hard you try there are will always be costs associated with your business that need to be taken into account when you decide what you are going to charge your customers.

When you are advertising for clients you really need to think about how much money they are making for you and your business. Most therapists do not do this and instead charge a fixed price per hour which means a weight loss client is worth the same as a fear or phobia client. The reality is that a client with a simple fear or phobia can often be helped in one or two sessions whilst a weight loss client may need support over 5, 8 or even ten sessions. Now try and tell me that each of those clients is worth the same to you. Of course they are not. Someone who is going to fill your diary for eight to ten sessions is worth far more than a person who comes to see you once or twice. Therefore specifically advertising for the clients who make you more money is just common business sense.

But what about your other costs for your hypnotherapy marketing as well as your fixed costs have you ever stopped to calculate exactly what each client will earn you in real terms? When you really get down to the accounting nitty gritty you are going to be in for a very big shock especially if you have decided to charge very little per hour. This is because you will have a considerable amount of costs to cover in many cases that you have not factored in to you price per hour.

Hypnotherapy Business Accounting

So lets look at some of the charges that you will need to consider if you are seeing a client. Firstly unless you are working from home you will need a room to practice in and these of course can be expensive. You may be paying a monthly fee for a room or alternatively you may be charged by the hour. Either way room charges are going to cost approximately 10 to 20% of your client fees. Next think about how you are going to get to this room. In many cases it will not be within walking distance which means that you need to drive there or arrive on public transport which of course costs you money. If you are driving and the location does not have free parking expect to pay for that as well. Oh and don’t forget about tax. In the UK it is a general rule of thumb to set aside 30% of your earnings against tax and that is before you move into the higher income tax bracket!

Now lets think about all the other costs that go into running your business. Of course you need to advertise to get clients in the door (that is unless you have an all referrals practice). This means flyers, business cards, online advertising, newspaper ads, posters, and so on. Then think about the cost of calling these clients. I can spend a considerable time on the phone to each of my clients which means hefty telephone bills. I pay for insurance and professional membership fees. Stationary costs will also bump up my bills. Now think about the cost of building and running your website, that is unlikely to be free either. When you think of it there are many little costs that all add up. I suggest that you resolve to add up your previous years business costs and then work out how much that cost you per week. Then divide that number by the number of clients you see per week and you will have a good idea of how much these costs are per client.

To help you work out your real cost per client I have created a simple client profitability calculator so you can begin to understand how much you are really earning per hour. Simply click on the link and it will take you to a quick and dirty calculator where you can work out exactly what you are going to really earn from each of your clients. Be prepared for a shock when you see the real numbers.

I know that when I teach my marketing clients this exercise they immediately decide to up their fees and when you see the numbers you will understand why. I remember training one therapist who was only going to charge £40 per hour for his services in a very affluent area of London. He need to rent a room in the area and drive to the location and get parking. When you run the numbers through the calculator he would have been lucky to earn £10 to £15 pounds for seeing each client!

Factor in The Cost of Time

I have not added time into my calculator but that is important to add into the equation as well. When you travel to a location it takes time to get there and to come back. My Central London practice takes me nearly an hour to get to and another hour to get back. Remember you are not getting paid for those dead hours so the cost of time needs to be added to your price. As I am in Harley Street I can get away with a high price per hour but in other areas you are not going to be so lucky. If you have to travel long distances to see your clients really work out whether it is really worth the effort.

So if you are reading this and are serious about building a great business and taking your hypnotherapy marketing to the next level sit down and calculate all your costs. You will thank me in the end. What you charge per hour and the profitability per client is an essential piece of information that you need for your business. Once you have that number you can stop burying your head in the sand and really start to work smarter to earn the income you deserve. Need extra help with your marketing and hypnotherapy business plan? Then why not look at some of my marketing and mentoring packages designed to help you grow a booming business.

 

 

Are You Making This Pricing Mistake?

Posted on by Martina McKeough

Hypnotherapy Marketing PlanHow do you sell to your customers? Here is what I generally see when I visit other therapists websites. There will be a price per hour charge that is offered to most customers for general problems and then sometimes a more expensive price for stop smoking sessions or perhaps weight loss. That is it! No thought has gone into the packaging of these prices and how you can use price to make additional profits. Remember in order to really boost your profits you need a decent Hypnotherapy Marketing Plan.

So lets start with the basics. Offering a bog standard one off price for most of your sessions makes no sense whatsoever. You need to start thinking about what a customer is worth to you in monetary terms and how you can make additional profits by manipulating your price points. A single price per hour does not do very much towards making this happen.

For example you know that a weight loss client who needs to lose five stone will need to see you for multiple sessions in order to see real results. Offering them one session at a time is sending out totally the wrong signal to that person. It gives some people the impression that just like Harry Potter you are going to magic away their problem in one hour and you know that is not going to happen. When you advertise like this the client is going to be disappointed when they don’t see miracles happening after that first session and they will not bother to return. This is a wasted opportunity on both sides and therefore you need to create a better strategy to prevent this from happening.

Hypnotherapy Marketing Plan

Now if you were not aware most businesses create a three tier pricing structure for their products in order to maximise their revenue. You will have seen it everywhere but probably not noticed it or thought about apply it to your hypnotherapy marketing. Ever gone on to a website and been offered a bronze, silver or gold package for software? Or perhaps you were booking a flight and you were given the option of economy, business or first class? When you start looking out for this three tier pricing model it will become obvious how retailers and service providers are squeezing extra profits from their clients.

So how does this model apply to your hypnotherapy marketing plan. Well lets look again at the issue of weight loss and how your pricing could be adapted to this model. You can now tier your services so that you can move your customers into different pricing brackets.

Package One – Offering a three session suggestion hypnosis package. No frills, no in-depth analysis of why the client is overeating but three sessions of suggestion to motivate them and get them on track.

Package Two – A six session plan offering more interactive sessions involving regression and parts therapy to really find out why your client has the problem. Once the reason for the problem is found you then work on resolving that issue with more complex hypnosis procedures. You could even throw in the extras such as NLP, CBT or any other therapy that you would find useful.

Package Three – A ten session plan offering the deluxe, all singing all dancing weight loss support. Daily check in’s on email plus a full audio program and eBook. Nutritional support and exercise plan (bought in from other practitioners) and so on.

How Three Tier Pricing Will Transform Your Hypnotherapy Profit

Now you have no need to see a person for a one session wonder again. They are barely worth it to you financially. Instead you are arranging to see your clients for a minimum number of sessions to reach their goal. How you create these tiers and differentiate them is entirely up to you. What I have placed above is purely an example of what can be done so feel free to come up with your own versions. That weight loss client who rings you will now have a much better understanding of what may be necessary to really achieve their goal. By understanding they need to commit to a program of sessions means they will no longer be disappointed with a one off session. It also means at the very least you are getting to see those clients for a minimum of three sessions.

But things get better! It is a well known psychological fact that most people do not like paying the lowest price for goods and services. In their mind it means that they are getting poor value or a product that will only do part of what they need. A prime example of this is wine in restaurants. Most people will opt for a mid price bottle rather than go for the cheapest especially if they are trying to impress a date! That means that a good percentage of your clients will opt for the second package of weight loss support rather than the cheapest. This means that you can expect to earn five times more than you did with your one session wonder.

By having a three tier pricing structure you are also preventing people from trying to haggle down your prices or asking for discounts. As there is already a lower price option there is nowhere for them to negotiate down to and so those time sappers no longer even bother to ask the question. There is also the upside. Even though most of your clients will choose tier one or two there will be a small percentage who go for the full on 10 session mega package. Why? Because they like to buy premium products (the best TV, mobile phone etc) and so when it comes to weight loss they continue to want the most expensive product. That now means that you have potentially got some clients staying with you for weeks and months filling out your appointment diary in a much simpler way.

You Can Have a Successful Hypnotherapy Practice

If you really take the time out to analyse your business you can see that using this one tactic can alter your entire hypnotherapy marketing plan and your bottom line. Even better this three tier pricing policy can be applied to almost all of the treatments that you have on offer. By being smart about how you offer your products you can increase your profits substantially. So take the time out and really think about how you can apply this methodology to your business and watch your profits begin to rise substantially. Alternatively if you would like a little extra help you can purchase my eBook from the online store today or contact me for more details on my hypnotherapy marketing mentoring sessions.

 

How I Increased My Clients Monthly Revenue by 30% With One Small Change!

Posted on by Martina McKeough

Hypnotherapy MarketingFancy earning an extra £2,500 per month? I think the answer would be a resounding yes! Who wouldn’t want to earn more especially when this money was earned by making my client do less work rather than more. Sound crazy? Well the reality is that this is exactly what happened I made my client reduce some of her workload and she ended up earning more and I will explain in the rest of this blog post how a change in your business structure can help you to boost your income. You can apply the same tactics to your hypnotherapy marketing.

So first things first the woman that I am helping with her marketing is an accountant and not a hypnotherapist. She came to me originally for hypnosis sessions and following successful completion of her treatment she asked for help with her marketing. This small change that I helped her make to her business was the very first thing that we did together and is only the beginning of the improvements I am hoping to make to her revenue which I expect to increase significantly over the coming months.

With every client I see I ask them basic questions about their business to get an understanding of how they work. I asked her to tell me about the types of customers she was working with and most importantly to tell me how much revenue they generated for her. It soon became apparent that whilst completing a limited companies accounts was a great money earner for her there were a number of people who she did more minor jobs for who earned her very little and sapped her time and energy.

So who were these people? In her case they were people who needed help completing benefits forms. My accountant is Polish and she helped many people coming over to the UK to fill out the appropriate forms in English so they could claim extra money. The problem was that each form she helped them fill in earned her £50 to £75. It would take her a reasonably long time to do this and worst of all these clients would come back to her moaning if they didn’t get the money they were expecting even though this had nothing to do with her.

Clearly my client was spending a considerable time and effort on people who:

1) Made her very little money

2) Gave her no repeat business

3) Took valuable time

3) Made her life a misery with their complaints

It was therefore relatively simple to tell my client to stop working with them. Now I know that many people when they are told to cut out one of their streams of income start to get worried and panic. Even though they took up time they still brought money to the business so I was now asking my client to forgo this income. I know that hypnotherapists do the same. When they do their hypnotherapy marketing they take on all comers without a thought or a strategy just to get income through the door but once you are established this makes no sense. By wasting valuable time on these few people she was stopping herself from attracting the people who really earned money for her company.

80/20 Rule

If you have never heard of this rule in business it simply means that 80% of your business is usually attributed to 20% of what you do. So if my client looked at her revenue then 80% of her income came from those lucrative company accounts and the remaining income from the remainder of her activities. If you focus more on the parts of the business that are making more money then you will earn more. Simple!

So I go her to cut out the parts of her business that were generating very little and sapping her time. Suddenly with this extra time she was now able to concentrate on attracting new better business accountants. In her case this has resulted in 40 new clients who are generating a nice additional income of £2500 per month or a whopping £30,000 pounds a year. Because of this additional workload she has now hired some help and I expect her to grow the business substantially in the coming months as we implement further changes to the way she works. Giving up that small income was the best thing she ever did as she is now happier and has more time to concentrate on moving the business forward.

Hypnotherapy Business Plan

When I work with marketing clients I help you to formulate new business plans and strategies to drive your business forward so that you earn additional income in the easiest possible way. I know that in your businesses you will have similar issues which can be easily rectified with some simple tweaks. Creating a great business strategy is one of the best ways to drive your business forward to ensure an income that will continue to grow rather than stagnate. Looking at the short term picture when you are starting out may be ok but as your business grows then a longer term outlook is essential if you want to keep on increasing your revenue.

Want help to increase your revenue? Pop on over to our website hypnotherapymarketingexpert.com and have a look at my hypnotherapy marketing mentoring sessions. The prices are incredibly reasonable especially when you may also experience such life changing results.

 

 

Your Blog Posts are Rubbish and Nobody Wants to Read Them!

Posted on by Martina McKeough

canstockphoto19037812Think that I am joking with this headline? Well I hate to tell you that it is probably true. Over 95% of the blogs that I see on other therapists websites suck big time. By the way those of you that don’t blog are missing a trick and need to undergo some social media training with me fast! Anyway back to the bad bloggers that are out there. Are you writing boring and banal content that nobody is reading ? I have seen so many hypnosis blogs that would send you to sleep and are doing nothing to actually get people interacting and engaging with you. Want to know that you should be doing? Then here are ten things you need to be doing to really connect with people who want to buy your products and services.

Know your Audience – So many bloggers out there sit down and write a post without even thinking about who they want to read it. There is no point in writing a huge blog about the affect bridge technique if nobody outside the hypnotherapy community knows what the hell you are on about. You need to be writing blogs that speak to the people that you can sell your services to. So if Gemma Collins (for readers outside of the UK she is a reality TV star) talks about losing two stone from the hypnotic gastric band then you can write a post capitalising on her media coverage and explaining to your potential customers how you can do the same for them. Get it right and you will get a stream of new customers coming to your door.

Be Unique – Don’t think you can get away with reposting articles that are a total rehash of your web pages. Google hates duplicate content and you can be penalised. Instead write fresh content that is interesting and meaningful.

Use Headlines and Sub Headings – Nobody wants to read a huge long paragraph or block of writing. Break the content up into smaller sections so that visually it is more appealing.

Visuals – Talking about visuals use pictures and even videos to really make the content more interesting. Sign up to a stock image photo site and buy photos to add to your content to illustrate your points. Most of the biggest blog sites in the world use images to really engage their readers.

Don’t be Wordy – Some people are unable to keep it simple. Using complex industry words which you hope are showing off your intelligence are pointless. A good blog should have small sentences, be clear and concise and be aimed at the person you are hoping will buy from you not a Harvard professor.

The Devil is in The Detail – One of the worst crimes that I see hypnotherapists make is writing thin content. In other words writing a page on their website or a blog which is little more than a couple of sentences thrown together. Some of the big bloggers out there write posts with 1,000 to 4,000 words on them. So trying to get away with minimal amount is a waste of time. You may as well not bother to write anything at all.

Consistency – If you are going to start blogging then you need to do it consistently to build a group of followers. There is no point in writing a blog post today and then nothing for three months and so on. Make sure that you set yourself a blogging timetable and stick to it. I generally post on this blog once a week which I believe works for what I am trying to achieve. You can of course post more often if you want it certainly won’t hurt you. Remember that if your blog hasn’t been updated for months or in some cases years customers to your website are noticing this. Who wants to get hypnosis from a therapist who can’t be bothered to do the writing?

SEO – If you are writing a blog post then you need to optimise it so that the search engines can find it. Writing a bunch of meaningless words and hoping they will be found is totally pointless because how the hell with the Google bots find you? Make sure your content uses the keywords that are going to get you found.

Collect Emails – If people come to your websites and blogs then you want to continue building a relationship with them. Collecting their emails is a great way of doing that so you can send them your new content and sell them further services and products. Remember most buyers don’t necessarily want to buy immediately. Many like to lurk in the background considering their next move and an email from you may be enough to spur them into action. Also existing clients who have had successful sessions may need you for something else so if they receive an email from you it will remind them to book. All potential clients for example to this website hypnotherapymarketingexpert.com are invited to join my newsletter for additional tips and help with marketing.

Call to Action – Written your blog? Then what do you want to happen next? So many therapy bloggers simply don’t get the point of blogging. You need to monetise what you have written so that people buy your sessions, products and services. There is no point churning blog after blog if nobody is going to do anything with it. You need to tell your readership what they need to be doing next to improve their lives. If you are placing a call to action in your posts then you may as well not have bothered. Don’t miss this trick and leave money on the table!

If you would like help with your hypnotherapy marketing then I offer an hypnosis marketing eBook, website review as well as mentoring to take your business from surviving to thriving. Simply contact me via the form on the website and we can arrange a time to discuss what you need to build your booming business.

What are you doing this Bank Holiday?

Posted on by Martina McKeough

Hypnotherapy marketing planSorry for the UK centric post today but this weekend we get a bank holiday. A wonderful three day weekend instead of the usual two days. Now I know for the rest of the population who are not self employed this is generally a chance to kick back, relax and enjoy time with friends and family. But what about those of us who are self employed? How does the bank holiday impact you, your income and your hypnotherapy marketing?

Well in terms of income a bank holiday isn’t always a positive especially for a self employed therapist who isn’t earning a great income. Suddenly they find themselves losing a day where they would normally earn an income. This will be especially noticeable at times such as Easter or Christmas when they may be faced with up to two weeks of little or no business. When your earnings can be haphazard at the best of times this can be enough to make you run back to your day job. The skill with good hypnotherapy marketing is to:

  • Have enough income the rest of the year to cover these lean periods.
  • Earning a passive income so it means that you are always earning money.
  • Advertising yourself so that you actually work on the holiday and earn more income.
  • Always having a full practice so that a bank holiday is a mere blip on your radar.

So what does a bank holiday mean to you?

Saving Income

While it is tempting to consider money in through the door as instantly yours it is important that you begin to save some of that income not only for tax but to cover you for weeks where you might not be earning quite so much. Christmas which I mentioned earlier is generally a time of year when certainly the UK shuts up shop for almost two weeks. If you are not earning income during that period suddenly the festivities are not going to be quite so much fun especially when you are having to pay out for presents and expensive food and drink.

Learning to manage your income is a crucial step in building your hypnotherapy practice. Understanding that business ebbs and flows is important for any business. When you plan for these fluctuations in income then you don’t get any nasty surprises.

Earning a Passive Income

Learning how to create an income even when you are not seeing clients is the real key to success. Creating products which can be bought by anyone in the world at any time of the day and night means that you can create extra income whilst you are sleeping. In reality creating this form of income should be started almost as soon as you begin your new profession. Creating products takes time which means that the sooner you start the more you have earning you pennies here there and everywhere. Making this a part of your hypnotherapy marketing plan is crucial if you want to really start earning a great income. This means that it really does not matter if your clients ebb and flow. You will always be earning additional money to cover any short falls. Do it well and this could become even bigger than the income you get from clients.

Working the Holidays

Now here is an idea. Why not actually market yourself as a therapist you actually works those bank holidays and unsocial hours. Many people now lead extremely busy lives which means that getting to see a therapist can be very difficult when they don’t finish work until 7 or 8pm in the evening. I personally choose not to work at this time although I do get asked. Provide a service at these unusual times and then charge significantly more. Don’t make the mistake that I see many people making which is charging exactly the same as they would for a day time appointment. Evenings, weekends, bank holidays are all unsocial hours which means premium prices. People pay for convenience so use that to your advantage.

Always Being in Demand

When you learn to really create great hypnotherapy marketing strategies you should find that the bank holidays hold no fear for you whatsoever. At the beginning of my career I would take clients at all times of the day and on any day where they would see me. Now I am so busy that I use the bank holidays to either rest or work on my business. When you really learn to market yourself well you may even find that you turn some clients away because you simply don’t have time to see everyone. Or alternatively you pick and choose the cases that you want to work with.

What am I doing this Bank Holiday?

So if I am so busy I am going to tell you stories of how this weekend I am lying by a pool somewhere sipping on cocktails and counting my money? Well actually no. I am actually going to spend a good proportion of my weekend working on other aspects of my business. I love marketing and creating products so that helps but I also know that sitting on my laurels is not going to make things happen. Money does not mysteriously float into your bank account. The law of attraction principle can make people lazy. Thinking about having money does not make it happen. Taking an action towards earning money does.

So on that point have a great Bank Holiday. Find time to enjoy yourself but also think about what you are going to do to drive your business forward. Hypnotherapy marketing does not stop at weekends and entrepreneurs are always working on their business. Remember that principle and you will get the income you deserve.