Martina McKeough, Author at Hypnotherapy Marketing Expert

Therapy Marketing and Retargeting Plus a Great Case Study

Posted on May 26, 2017November 25, 2020 by Martina McKeough

Well we are almost half the way through the year already. Time flies when you run your own business and we it won’t be long before the holiday slowdown so I thought I would talk about some techniques to get some customers in through your door before everyone takes a vacation. Today I wanted to write a post about therapy marketing and retargeting. Plus I have a great case study that I wanted to share with you from one of the therapists who used my Google Adwords course to attract new clients in Sydney Australia.

So What is Retargeting?

If you are not using retargeting in your advertising then you are missing a trick. This is such a simple concept yet so many therapists have not even thought about applying the principles to their marketing efforts.

Very simply retargeting means marketing to clients who have already shown an interest in your products or services on your website. Although we can of course retarget to people who may have sent us emails in the past or used us to help them before the term retargeting typically is linked with website visits.

You have probably seen this in action before but have never really thought too much about it so let me explain. Have you ever visited a website before and looked at certain products debating on whether to make a purchase and then found that when you left that website you suddenly saw adverts for the exact product you were looking at? If you use the internet then this is probably happening to you daily. As an example yesterday I was on a website printing off information about getting a new house sign made. Five minutes later on Instagram, an advert was served to me with the exact same sign enticing me to make a purchase.

Therapy marketing and retargeting can do the same for you but only if you set it up correctly otherwise you could be wasting your money.

How The System Works

When a person heads on to your website a portion of JavaScript “Cookie” is placed into the person’s browser. As they continue to surf on other sites this “Cookie” notifies retargeting platforms to serve up ads based on your browsing history. So if a person comes across my website and spends time looking at my Stop Smoking page I can have ads set up to remind that person of my service. I can then follow them around the web until they eventually pick up the phone to book with me.

Although this is the simple version it is a little more complex to set up to get right but immediately you can see the potential. Remember only a small portion of your visitors will convert into purchasers on their first visit. Retargeting means that you up your chances of success of eventually getting that sale.

The Pitfalls for Therapists Remarketing

Firstly getting retargeting approved on Google Adwords is incredibly difficult because of the sensitive area that we work in. In fact, I bypass that platform for this particular purpose. I can totally see their point as well. Imagine you are browsing a web page about erectile dysfunction and immediately I start serving ads up to the person about my therapy to help solve the problem. Now imagine that this person lives with their family and another member uses the same computer and sees the ads. This means they immediately know something about a family member that should have remained very private.

Facebook however does not have such stringent rules and retargeting therapy is possible providing you serve ads in the correct way. If you purchase my Facebook Ads Course I show you how to use this lucrative form of advertising to get more sales and leads.

There are other problems with remarketing as well. Go back to the example I gave you earlier on about heading to a website offering house signs. In this instance, I had already purchased the sign a month or so earlier. I was actually revisiting the site to print off the details for one of the builders because he wanted something similar on his house. The company that had served me the advert had actually already made the sale but were still spending money showing ads to me which were now unnecessary.

In addition how many times have you gone to a website and browsed a product to find it is exactly the thing you didn’t want. Now imagine the horrible product following you around the internet day in day out. If anything you are now put off ever visiting that website again as it has a negative impact on you.

The key to remarketing is striking the right balance between serving up ads that directly speak to a person but doing it for just the right amount of time so that it does not become stale.

Retargeting and Shopping Carts

Another useful area where remarketing can be used is when someone heads to your online shop and abandons the cart without finalising the purchase. Statistics show that around 68% of people never finish a purchase on a site which is a huge amount of money being left on the table. Reminding those people of your product can significantly reduce that figure. A perfect example of how therapy marketing and retargeting could make you lots more money especially if you are selling big-ticket items.

General Remarketing

As I said earlier even if you consider it too difficult to set up a remarketing campaign you can retarget customers using a simple email. Where possible you should be collecting emails of visitors to your website as well as people who use your services. If you send them offers, information on new services and general interesting updates you can get additional business. This is a no brainer! Remember it is hard enough to attract customers who spend with you in the first place. Once you have those customers nurture them and provide them with extras that make them want to buy from you again and again.

A Case Study

Finally, I just wanted to share with you a quick case study from a hypnotherapist in Sydney who just finished my Google Adwords for Therapists Online Course. This therapist is a newcomer to hypnotherapy and had just started a therapy business in a highly competitive city. He knew that just waiting for SEO to help him get some business was going to be a long process so he decided to buy my course on paid advertising to see if it could help him get some clients. He was happy to give his permission for the following statistics to be shown to you all.

On his very first attempt at creating ads his results were as follows:

Total Ad Spend – $914.09 (including GST which is 10%).

Total Revenue – $2740

Lifetime Customer Value – $342.5 (based on my first 8 clients – I suspect this will go up over time).

% spend on advertising – 33.3%

As you can see the numbers speak for themselves. In a really short space of time, he had attracted 8 new clients and earned back significantly more than he had spent in advertising. He believed that with tweaking he could lower the percentage he spent on advertising. I believe that not only could he substantially lower that figure he could also have significantly increased his revenue by selling programs rather than individual sessions. This is the power of pay per click advertising done correctly.

Just as an interesting aside this means that this therapist made back over twenty times the cost of my course on his first attempt. Not a bad investment especially when similar or even better results can be repeated time and time again.

Of course, not everyone gets this right first time and without guidance, I have seen people make some horrible errors and lose lots of money because they did not understand what they were doing. Those same people believed that Adwords was simply not worth the money when in fact it was them who had the problem rather than the system. Be careful dabbling in something you don’t understand!

Until the next time

9 Great Sources of Traffic for Hypnosis Marketing

Posted on March 16, 2017November 25, 2020 by Martina McKeough

Today I am going to talk about traffic and hypnosis marketing and some of the amazing sources out there that can help you to advertise your products and services. So firstly what do I mean by traffic? I am talking about directing potential customers to your business online rather than to a bricks and mortar location. Without online traffic it is highly unlikely that a hypnotherapy business would survive in 2017 which means a huge part of your marketing plan needs to factor in getting more people to hear about your business. Now even though attracting traffic sounds difficult it is actually incredibly easy especially if you pay for it however the trick is understanding how well the traffic you attract to your website actually converts otherwise you will be wasting a load of time and money and ending up with no new sales.

It is important to also differentiate between cold and warm traffic. When traffic is warm it means that the visitors to your website have already engaged with your business or actively sought you out. An example of warm traffic might be a client that you have seen in the past who actively goes back to your website a year or two later with the thought that they may use your services again. Cold traffic involves people turning up at your website and blog who haven’t actively thought about hiring you or buying your products. Your job is to convince those people to use your services or buy your products.

Here are just some of the places where you can go to create both warm and cold traffic in order to boost your hypnosis marketing business.

Google Adwords

Google Adwords is the mother of all traffic generators and with over 6 Billion people using its search engine every day you have the perfect source of traffic. Even better the people that click on your ads are highly targeted individuals and if you set it up correctly they are also motivated to spend money. Google is literally handing these potential customers to you on a plate providing you pay them a finders fee.

Sounds wonderful but of course, it also has huge pitfalls. Set up Adwords incorrectly and you may as well be burning your money. The thing with Adwords is that it is a relatively complex site which means it can be very easy to make a costly mistake. A former therapy clinic owner I knew threw away thousands of pounds on the site because her SEO guy set up her account incorrectly. Instead of attracting people to her complementary health clinic who wanted therapeutic massages, she managed to attract every sleazy man in the area looking for something a more intimate form of massage. Ouch!

If you are a newbie at Adwords and don’t want to get burned check out our online course which will show you how to set up your account without the common pitfalls.

Google Adwords for Therapists

Bing

In the UK most people still use Google but over the past few years Bing has been increasing its market share and now makes up 20% of the UK market. This means that when you are creating content or using ads this search engine needs to be considered. Also because the competition for ad space is still low on this particular search engine the cost for clicks is still relatively cheap which means it is worth considering in some niches as your return on investment will be significantly more.

Facebook

Now once upon a time creating a fan page and adding useful articles and videos on Facebook was a great way of reaching lots of new potential customers. That was until Facebook started to reduce the reach. So what is reach? It simply means the number of people who would see the content in your posts. Once upon a time around 16% of the audience who liked your fan page would see your posts that has now dropped to around 2% unless of course, you pay.

Facebook Ads are becoming increasingly popular because of the sheer number of people that you can reach on the site if you are spending the cash however it is worth noting that if you are not targeting real fans of your page then the traffic is cold. That simply means that you have to find a way of turning the people who come across your content into believers who are willing to spend on your services.

Pinterest

Yes, you may associate the site with pins of interior decor or recipes but it is also used to drum up traffic for many businesses. Add captivating pictures that link back to your website content or blog posts and some people will click through to see what you have to say. If they like what they see and hear then you are going to have a sale or a new customer. Of course, Pinterest has also got into the habit of getting people to pay for promoted pins.

Email

Some of the old fashioned methods are the best. Every hypnotherapist should be capturing the emails of visitors to their website or their clinics. Just remember that the people who come to see you need to have agreed to sign up to your mailing list. Once you have that email you can start to market to those customers and sell them solutions to their problem.

The great thing about email is that nobody can take your list away from you. Yes, some people will always unsubscribe from your content but in general, if you are sending out useful information it can only continue to grow. Yet your Google ranking can change in a heartbeat depending on the latest updates tanking your traffic as quickly as you built it. The money, as they say, is in the list!

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation is another way to get found and to attract visitors to your website. If you are a hypnotherapist without a website then you have a problem as that is where most people go to get information. The problem is that SEO takes time and you have to know what you are doing in order to get your content found in the search engines.

Even if you do get your SEO right and get that coveted number one Google slot for your particular keyword you still have a problem, the pesky ads. In high traffic areas, there are likely to be four other people paying to advertise above your listing which means that you are half way down the page even before you have begun. SEO can be great but the consensus appears to be that it won’t be long before the first page of Google is almost completely dominated by ads.

To set up your website correctly for SEO my Turn Your Therapy Website into a Client Magnet Can Help.

Marketing a Therapy Website Online Course

YouTube

YouTube is one of the most popular channels in the world with people. People love to view the free content on the site and they love to solve their problems by searching for video solutions. I know I have used it to solve IT problems, help with DIY and of course for fun. In the case of hypnosis marketing, it is the perfect place to upload videos either about your business or to demonstrate how you can solve other peoples problems. If you aren’t using the site then you are missing a trick.

Directories

In the UK one of the largest directories is the Hypnotherapy Directory which is a traffic source and can help to bring in referrals. This is a niche directory as well which means that the people who are searching on it are actively looking to get help for their particular problems. There are of course thousands of other directories both free and unpaid which you can place your details on to get customers in through your doors. Be cautious where you spend your hard-earned cash and never pay for a directory or a listing in a publication when you are cold-called.

Instagram

People love actually seeing things which is why sites such as Instagram and Pinterest have taken off in the last few years. Now with this site, there is no point in just putting up picture after picture of your therapy practice or logo because people will unfollow straight away. For example, there is a gym near me that just puts up post after post of boring pictures of their equipment and classes. Yawn! Make sure that you are putting up interesting content about other events and places you have been and then every now and again drop a picture of one of your success stories or promotions. That way your followers won’t get bored and will be actually engaged by what you have to say.

Getting traffic doesn’t have to be hard but the key for hypnosis marketing is to make sure that it is diverse. I have talked before about not putting all your eggs in one basket. If you are getting all your traffic from one source then you need to start to find other alternatives fast. Having a number of great places where you can attract new customers is the key to propelling your business to success.

Oh and finally I have decided that my hypnotherapy marketing mentoring rates are going to increase from June of this year. This is simply because the time and effort it takes to mentor one person is significant vs the revenue I make from my online work. So if you are looking to work with me on a one to one basis I suggest you book in now as my fees are going to double from the middle of this year.

Why You Must Use Calls to Action in Your Therapy Marketing

Posted on January 30, 2017March 20, 2017 by Martina McKeough

I hope you are all having a profitable New Year and are getting a flood of calls and sales into your business in one of the busiest months for therapists. We have had a very busy month not only fielding new client enquiries but also creating a new look for this website. This was prompted not only to freshen up the site which frankly every therapy practice should do every two or three years but also because of the latest Google Algorithm change penalising pop ups on mobile devices. As of the 10th January pop ups on mobile devices are now actively discouraged so if you have any on your website take them down now and find another way to connect with your clients. We hope you like the new look. Now on to the main blog topic for today calls to action in your therapy marketing.

What is a Call to Action?

If you have never heard the term before it simply means that an image, text, video or email capture has been placed on your blog or website telling your customers to do something. One of the biggest mistakes therapists make on their websites is that they don’t instruct their readers exactly what to do. They will create a page of copy but at not stage will they instruct their potential customers what they need to do after they have read it. It isn’t enough to just have a mobile number at the top of your website page or a contact me page you need to force clients to take an action.

Very simple calls to action may be:

Email us Today
Book Now
Download
Subscribe Now and Get our Free eBook
Register for our new course
Follow us on Facebook

Of course many marketers are now getting increasingly clever in getting readers to take action. When you get creative and start to create compelling copy it is possible to come up with more sophisticated ways to get the attention of potential customers. Wordstream have some great examples in this blog post and you can find plenty of other examples in Google search that you can adapt as calls to action in your therapy marketing.

What to Include in Your Copy

There are certain elements that should be included in your copy so make sure that when you are creating some calls to action you include these elements.

Immediate Response – The design of a call to action is to get your potential clients to do something immediately. So that doesn’t mean next week, year or month but at that very moment. If you can make the offer compelling and visible enough the person reading your post should want to sign up or call you immediately.

Design – There is no point in designing something that blends into the background of your website. You need to find something that is visible and that stands out so your offer is immediately visible.

No Risk – People are now wise to many marketing techniques which means that you have to make your offer have little or no risk. Free consultations as part of your call to action might be a way of doing this. No obligation confidential telephone assessment. It means that potential customers can call you without worrying initially about spending money. This way of attracting people is used all the time in big business. How many people do you know who signed up to the free months trial for Netflix and are still paying for the service a year or so later?

Limit Your Offer – Adding a limited time frame for your customers also means that some of your customers will act now rather than waiting for later. I never like to see discounts offered on websites as it cheapens your brand. Instead try and create additional value as part of your limited offer.

What is the Benefit – Make sure that the person being shown the call to action actually understands what they are getting if they take action. Are they getting an eBook, free video lessons, a download or a telephone call? You need to spoon feed the information to potential clients rather than making it difficult for them to know exactly what you are offering.

Location – There is no point tucking your call to action at the very bottom of a web page that many people may never read. Make sure that your call to action is placed somewhere that it can be seen preferably above the fold in your website.

What’s on your Therapy Website?

Now go back on to your therapy website and see where you can add some calls to action in your therapy marketing to increase potential conversions. Remember that every person who comes to your website is a potential customer and if you can compel a few more of them to make contact with you then over the course of a year you are likely to find that you have significantly increased the number of people either buying your products or booking sessions. As I have said before if you have a website that can’t be easily changed bin it now and get one created where you can alter the copy. Too many therapists rely on webmasters to look after every single change on a site and this means it is costly and time consuming to create alterations. This leads to inaction and in the end the therapist does nothing missing out on huge potential income.

Google Adwords

Finally just a mention that my Google Adwords course is rising in price on the 1st Feb from £29.95 to £49.99. If you are not using Adwords yet then you are potentially missing out on a large number of potential customers. To give you an idea of its power my ads in just one location alone were placed in front of 7,500 people in January. Not only did a large number of people see my ads all of those people were actively looking for therapy services so they are highly targeted customers. Of course a significant portion of those people also then clicked on my website and took action. Very few therapists would be able to get that kind of performance on their own which shows you how important Adwords is as a part of your marketing strategy. Are you missing out on this great traffic source.

49 Hypnosis Marketing Strategies You Can Implement Today

Posted on December 9, 2016October 11, 2019 by Martina McKeough

Firstly welcome to the last blog post of the year. I hope you have all had a lucrative 2019 and are now getting ready to multiply those practice profits in the New Year. December is the perfect time of the year to be planning your hypnosis marketing strategies for 2020. As your clients thoughts turn to overeating, drinking and being merry you are likely to have a couple of quiet weeks where you plot and plan that income boost that always appears in the New Year.

Now as many therapists are aware in order to be a wealthy therapist you need to be killing it when it comes to your competition. That means you need to work smarter and harder than your competitors whether they are based internationally or locally. Here are 49 Hypnosis marketing strategies that you can start to work on today to boost your income and build that amazing business of yours. There is no need to work on everything at once as it just is not possible but pick a few from the list and make a start on marketing your products and services.

In order to help you we have a number of additional tools which can help you to build your business faster. An Online Hypnotherapy Marketing Ebook with more details on some of these strategies. Our Turn your Website into a Client Magnet that shows you just what you need to do to attract paying customers into your practice. I also have a new course on Google Adwords which I will be releasing in the New Year to help you get to Number One on Google and slay your competitors.

So until 2017 I wish you all a fantastic Xmas and New Year.

49 Hypnosis Marketing Strategies to Start Using Today

Create Gift Vouchers – What can you get the person who has everything? Why a hypnosis gift voucher. It can be for relaxation sessions, law of attraction work or even just to target the curious. Market them on your website, create a beautiful online voucher and you are ready to go.
Target Your Doctors Surgery – Talk to the practice managers, leave leaflets in the surgery or offer specific services to each GP. This is the perfect target market for anxiety clients.
Head to the Gym – No not to work out but to put up your leaflets. Get there before January and help all those clients who want to lose weight as part of their New Year resolutions.
Free Noticeboards – Stick those leaflets up anywhere you see a free noticeboard. Bus stops, coffee shops, supermarkets and so on. Even better if the leaflet is somewhere where people have to queue!
Set up an Account on Pinterest – Get pinning those inspirational images that make your business seem irresistible.
Driving Schools – Where there is a nervous driver there is a hypnotherapist who can help. Contact those instructors and offer to help.
Corporate – Find the movers and shakers in companies local to you and start to offer them your services. Create promotion packs to sell stress management, stop smoking or sales performance sessions.
Video – Start creating videos and marketing them on YouTube or any of the other video sharing sites. Show proof of your skills, clients beaming with happiness as their problems fade away and watch the hits on your website increase.
Awareness Days – Find out the awareness days for 2017 and create special promotions around them. Such as depression awareness, Stoptober and Dry January.
Team Up – Find some local massage therapists, personal trainers, physios and team up with them to create a package of services or to cross refer.
Hand Out Leaflets – Outside stations, busy fairs or events or even in a shopping centre promoting your services. Just make sure you get permission from the relevant authorities first.
Create an Online Course – Although you will always need the personal touch with some clients others will respond with some simple self help online. Give them the tools to empower them and they will thrive.
Get a Website Review -Find someone who really knows about hypnosis marketing strategies and get them to review your website. With some simple changes it is often possible to double, triple or quadruple your revenue by rectifying your copy and website structure. My online course “How to Turn Your Website Into a Client Magnet“ enables you to review your website yourself and make changes so that you can multiply your income.
Contact Those Dentists – Nervous dental patients or clients with bruxism as perfect candidates for some hypnosis to alleviate stress and anxiety.
Create and Instagram Account – Advertise your business, like others and generally get involved in your community.
Yoga Classes – Hypnobirthing and Yoga Classes go hand in hand. Offer taster sessions with the local yoga teacher at the end of a class and start attracting new clients.
Start a Blog – Blogging is a great supplement to your website and if done well can go viral or create a community of followers in your niches.
Design a Logo – Create an identity for your business and use it on your website, marketing materials and emails to stand out from the crowd.
Get on Facebook – Get involved locally or in a group important for your niche. Heah even better start a group of your own and control the content!
Market Research – Find out what your customers really want. Get out on the street or go online and ask questions to find out what is selling then tailor your products and services to meet demand.
Get Testimonials – Put them on your websites, on videos and in your marketing materials. People love proof that hypnosis works!
Record some Self Help Audios – Start recording self hypnosis audios and market them online and to your clients. Just make sure that they are the very best quality you can make.
Upsell your Products and Services – Package your sessions to that you are selling programs. Upsell email support or your self help audios to bring in extra revenue. Even buy wholesale products and have them in your therapy room for your customers to purchase.
Find your USP – Your Unique Selling Point is what makes you different to your competition. Work out what it is and start to use it in your hypnosis marketing strategies.
Build a Therapy Centre – Rent a premises and start selling the other rooms to therapists for a fee. The other therapists will cover your room costs and you should profit on top!
Use Paid Advertising – Google Adwords and Facebook advertising when done well gets you in front of your target audience. Use it wisely and see customer numbers jumping. I have created an online course to help you master Google Adwords for Therapists and another for Facebook Advertising.
Connect With Other Therapists – Counsellors, CBT therapists and psychotherapists are perfect people to network with and create cross referrals.
Start a Podcast – Offer people tips and strategies for self help on a regular podcast and build a network of followers.
Citations – Build citations in local directories and link them back to your website. Just make sure they are relevant or local.
Networking – Join some local networking groups and connect with others. Spend very little initially until you find the ones that work for you.
SEO – Learn about Search Engine Optimisation and start to put your knowledge into practice. Good SEO can boost your organic rankings and get you found in Google and Bing.
Forums – Get involved in niche forums and offer your advice. Put your links in your profile and wait to be contacted.
Get out on the Street – Why not demo your hypnosis skills in front of the general public. Amaze those passers by and wait for the stream of people who want to book an appointment with you.
Wedding Planners or Dressmakers – Who doesn’t know a bride who didn’t want to lose weight for the big day? Create a weight loss package and market it to bridge and even the bridegroom.
Health Food Stores – Get to know the owners. Put up leaflets and offer taster sessions and talks.
Email Lists – Start collecting emails from your customers and potential clients and remarket to them.
Local Newletters – Find out who runs your local newsletter and either write an article or take out a small regular advert.
Press Releases – Got a new product or amazing service that you need the world to know about. Create a press release and advertise just what you can do.
Twitter – Get on Twitter and engage in the community or with people in your specialist niches.
Create a Workshop– Start by creating a workshop or a mini course for people to attend. Seeing twenty people at once will always be more lucrative that seeing one person at a time.
Get on the Radio – Ok so you may have a problem getting on the National stations but there are hundreds of local and community stations that would love your input.
Create an ebook and Sell it – Have a great solution to a problem? Then get writing and marketing your ebook. Self publishing on Kindle makes it easy for you to be a published author. My eBook on Hypnotherapy Marketing goes into considerable detail on how to market your business effectively.
Broadcast Live – Periscope, Meerkat and even Facebook allow you to broadcast live and post directly online. Create a session with the wow factor and put it out there for the world to see.
Snapchat – Learn how to use Snapchat and build a following.
Volunteer – Get a gig volunteering at your local hospital using your hypnosis skills. Once you have people convinced of its effectiveness you can market your sessions to those who can afford to pay.
Local Help Groups – Get involved with local help groups and offer taster sessions or talks.
Google+ – Get on Google + and Google My Business to appear on those maps!
Create a Membership Website – Offer clients continual value so that they sign up for your services month after month or year after year.
Local Newspapers – Get in touch with your local newspaper journalists and offer them a story. How you cured a local person of a fear of Santa Claus. How you created stress reduction sessions for families who were worried about Brexit. Make it topical and local.

Enjoy putting in place those hypnosis marketing strategies hopefully they should keep you busy until my next post in the New Year!

How Pandas, Penguins and Possums Are Impacting your Hypnosis Marketing!

Posted on November 15, 2016March 20, 2017 by Martina McKeough

hypnosis marketing google panda Ok you probably think that I have lost the plot by talking about animals and marketing but I can assure you that these creatures are highly important to your hypnosis marketing and to Google. So what the hell am I on about? Lets start from the top. When you enter a search query into the Google search bar to ask to get information the results that get returned to you are based around a sophisticated algorithm. Just some of the factors that determine which websites you get to see include:

Mobile Friendliness
Location and Proximity to you
Backlinks
Synonyms
Site and page quality
Web history
Keywords
Content
SSL Certificates and on and on the list goes.

In fact there are around 200 different ways in which google decides what they want to show you not including the information they show you in their ads. Having a basic understanding of the algorithm is essential as without this knowledge it can be hard to create a website that gets found. Most therapists just create a website they like the look of with a web designer but this is a perfect way to disappear and never be found by the general public. My online course How to Turn Your Therapy Website Into a Client Magnet gives you many of the basics so that you can start to optimise your website to get found.

The Google Zoo

So what has this got to do with animals? Well Google has a mission to give searchers the most useful information they can and that means that they are always tweaking and adjusting search results so that their users get the best experience. They also work on ways to close loopholes that allow spammy or low quality websites into the search results. In recent times these updates have been given code names and you guessed it Panda, Penguin and Possum are the names given to some of the major changes that have happened in the past few years.

Having a basic understanding of these changes is essential because if your website is on the wrong side of the changes then your business could vanish overnight from the search engines. A perfect example of this was the company Interflora in 2013 who paid for newspaper advertorials to link to their company so they could get a boost in the search engines. Google found out and the next thing Interflora disappeared from the search results. Imagine how many millions they lost whilst they frantically tried to recover their website.

Just as with Interflora the same things are happening to your websites and in many cases you are probably unaware that your hypnosis marketing efforts are being destroyed because of things you or your website developer has done to your site. So here are some of the basics that you need to consider before creating content or links to your website.

Panda

The Panda updates revolve around demoting websites which are of poor quality. This could mean websites that contain lots of spam or sites that simply have very little unique information to offer. It also penalises websites that contain duplicate content. That means if you have two websites you cannot repeat any of the information from one and place it on another.

Penguin

The Penguin updates tend to concern themselves with links created by spammers to give their websites a boost. Now if you have outsourced your SEO work to someone else how do you know what they are doing is actually helping or hindering your website. I have come across many companies who have paid for SEO services and the person doing the work has built a lot of rubbish links to their sites that could get them penalised. Also never be tempted to buy backlinks from one of the companies that I regularly see advertising on the web. This is a perfect way to destroy your website.

Possum

Possum is an update which has happened in only the last month and impacted how local search results were shown. Previously a business really needed a central location in a town or city for it to appear highly in Google maps or the organic search results. Since Possum you can rank for an area if you are outside the town centre provided your website shows that you are offering services to people in that location. This update is ongoing as we speak so the full impact is still not known.

It is worth noting that many of these code word updates have a number of revisions. Which means you will see a Panda 1, 2, 3 and 4 as Google becomes more sophisticated. There are also other codewords including Hummingbird which is the code word for the Google algorithm itself and Pigeon for local SEO results.

Keep Yourself Informed

Having a basic understanding of search engine optimisation and how Google decides to show your website is vital if you have a website. Without this knowledge you could find your business impacted overnight simply because you got some of the basics wrong. Whilst you may not be an Interflora it could be enough to significantly harm your income.

Oh and for those of you who still have not got a Mobile website I suggest you do so asap. Rumours are that at some point in the near future Google may simply stop showing non mobile friendly websites in the search results at all. Over 50% of searches are currently done on mobile devices so it is obvious why they are thinking of making this change. Don’t bury your head in the sand, ignore hypnosis marketing and hope the problem will go away. My online course has information on where to create a new website for under $200 which is a small price to pay to avoid vanishing from your potential customers.

9 Shocking Habits Therapists that Need to Stop Now!!!

Posted on October 27, 2016March 20, 2017 by Martina McKeough

Just in time for Halloween my fright night horrors that I come across when dealing with therapists and their websites.

For many years the general public have considered hypnotherapy to be a non serious profession. Yeah it is ok to use on TV when you are making fun of people but as a serious therapy the vast majority would rather get their teeth pulled out at the dentist than see a hypnotherapist to resolve their problems. Some of us are slowly trying reverse this perception by upping standards in the courses and education as well as by educating people in the media, online or even face to face. BUT there are a small number of hypnotherapists who just don’t get it and are jumping on the hypnotherapy bandwagon and trying to do things on the cheap and it still shocks me that the modern profession has training schools that send their students out to meet the general public with this attitude. Here are just some of the unbelievable things I have encountered lately whilst working with therapy marketing students.

Professionalism – I won’t name and shame but I recently booked in a newly qualified hypnotherapist for a series of marketing sessions. This was to take place via Facetime or Skype. On the morning of the session I started the session to see that they were sat ready to start the session in their car! If that wasn’t bad enough the car was located in a fast food outlets car park. What the hell!!

How on earth am I or for that matter the general public going to take a therapist seriously who thinks it is ok to conduct coaching sessions in the car park of a fast food chain? What message does that send to me? It says I can’t be bothered taking time out of my day to work on my business seriously and I am cramming you in before doing something else. If you truly serious about your profession then sessions need to be conducted in a space that is suitable for the person you are going to meet. No therapy, marketing, coaching or business meeting is suitable for discussions in a car. This goes for your clients as well. Unbelievable as this may sound one of my clients also wanted to conduct a Skype session from her car as well. It is time for this madness to stop.

Courses – Time and time again I hear on from my students that they chose a course because it was cheap. Another student of mine when questioned on their qualifications was not able to tell me if they could even get into a reputable UK professional body. They had no clue because they had gone on a churn and burn course online. No medical doctor looks for the cheapest course they can find. They look at the best possible medical schools they can get into for the best possible training as they are saving lives. In a way we are also doing the same. If we can get someone to lose weight, stop smoking, tolerate chemo or stop an addiction we can do the same. So why oh why does our industry attract people who think they have the ability to do this after a few online lessons and a tiny fee? Research your courses, talk to the professional bodies and then pick the absolute best there is!

Websites – One of my personal hatreds is seeing a website that has been thrown up by a therapist in the hope that it will do. No it won’t do as it looks awful and your clients will think the same. If your pictures are out of proportion, if you have big gaps in your template, if your fonts vary significantly or you have areas where links are broken then they need to be fixed now. Who wants to look at a website that is a mess? A website does not have to cost the earth if you know what you are doing. If you don’t then get help. My Turn Your Therapy Website into a Client Magnet online course shows you exactly what you need on your website in order for it to be a success. This is essential information and most hypnotherapists don’t know this important information.

Another of my students started our sessions together and showed me a website that a developer had created for them for hundreds of pounds. The website consisted of one page! Talk about throwing your money down the drain. To top it all the website was on a developers system so it can’t be altered easily. In this case the website was scrapped and we will have to start again. If you don’t want to make these costly mistakes get help before you start.

Spelling and Grammar – Whilst we are on the topics of websites how many of you have really proof read your sites? You can get away with the odd typo of course but every now and again I come across a website that is littered with problems. I saw one of the worst possible yesterday where nearly every sentence had an issue. What would a potential client do if they came across the same? Well I can tell you that my first instinct would be that if a hypnotherapist can’t do basic spelling then I don’t want to see them. How could they possibly solve my problem if they couldn’t even get some basics right? Get an educated proof reader to look through your work and run everything through a spell checker online. It won’t catch everything but it will certainly iron out most of the problems.

Dress – Appearance is everything in this profession as if we are dressed right then we will inspire confidence in our clients. Now that does not mean a formal suit in every case (even though in certain clinics or locations this would be expected) but certainly smart clothing. Yet many therapists dress inappropriately. Flip flops, jeans, dirty or scruffy clothes, slippers and so on. If this is you it is time to smarten up now. Just because you are self employed does not mean you can get away with this.

Location – Many years ago I went for a therapy session at a woman’s house in North London. When I was there I couldn’t pay any attention to what she was saying because I was staring at her carpet which needed a hoover badly. I never returned for another session. I have left clinics because of problems with toilets, moths, cats and general cleanliness. Luckily I am now in the position to have my own clinic attached to my home which is spotlessly clean, spacious and quiet. You need to make sure that you have the same. If you work from home then the space has to be absolutely appropriate for the therapy to take place. So no animals, dirty washing, interruptions or general mess. If you can’t provide this in your home then find a suitable professionally run clinic and believe me they are not always easy to find.

Copyright Issues and Plagarism – I have just finished off a conversation with a potential marketing client who was looking for help to grown their hypnotherapy business in the UK. As with all these calls the first thing I do is check if the person has a website and then I went to have a look. Imagine my shock when I saw that their logo was also identical to mine, same keyword and similar colour and style. Now I didn’t get angry at the person on the phone. They were naive sure but they had not thought to check if the work they had been given was really original. In fact I have experienced this before when a website designer had copied the wording on every single page of my website (yeah I caught him as well)! Be aware that you can’t go stealing other peoples names, content or designs otherwise you will be getting legal letters before you know it.

Lying – If you are creating a website only put in your real experience and qualifications. I have just come across another student who claimed they were a master practitioner, one of the elite in the profession and so on. This person had not seen one client. Lying about your qualifications and experience is a good way to end up in court when your clients find out that you haven’t a clue! Google in the UK certainly is coming down heavily on holistic therapists at the moment and is banning websites from paid advertising that don’t have significant disclaimers on every page where they make a claim. The Advertising Standards Agency is also waiting to pounce on those who are misleading the general public and making outrageous claims. There are ways to write content without admitting you are a novice and without lying about your experience. Use them and stay on the right side of the law.

Giving up the Day Job Without Real Consideration – A marketing client just spoke to me about how they had sunk £2000 into their website and still were not appearing in the search engines. They admitted they were not particularly literate with computers and were no sales person and the money was running out. What were they going to do? The simple answer was pay someone to teach you or go back to work. So yeah hypnosis, reiki, counselling is your passion but if you have no business skills then do not be naive. You have to get clients through the door and throwing money at an expensive website is not going to help! Many of my students can be up and running by spending less than a couple of hundred pounds at most. Talk about throwing money down the drain. Spend your money wisely on someone who can actually help rather than second guessing how you are going to make a living in this industry.

Stop your website and business featuring in my tales or horror next Halloween and get professional help to get things right. Simply contact me to get more information on how you can build an awesome business that attracts customers the right way.

In Hypnosis Marketing Image is Everything!

Posted on June 21, 2016September 26, 2019 by Martina McKeough

Hypnosis Marketing Images Today I want to talk about image and images and how important these are in our hypnosis marketing. As therapists we like to dig beneath the surface of our clients issues so that we can help them overcome their problems. That means spending time with them getting to know them and working through their problems and worries over a series of sessions building a great therapeutic working alliance. A potential client however generally spends only a few seconds picking your therapy services over your competitors unless you were a referral. They are generally superficial and will see if:

Your Website Looked Nice – Such a weak word “nice” but probably the colours and images appealed.

There were Testimonials – If you have written/video proof of someone else saying you are great then you must be.

You Practice in a Good Area – In London Harley St or the Hale Clinic mean premium prices so that means you must be great. Most towns and cities will have similar chi chi clinics or areas.

Your Photo – It was a great smiling photo and you looked like a super model or were handsome (shallow but true). Alternatively you looked authoratitive and like a therapist so met your clients expectations of what a therapist should look like.

Media – You have appeared in numerous famous publications and you plastered the links on your site. If you are good enough to get in a paper/magazine or appear on the TV then you are THE EXPERT!

Statistics – You quote meaningless statistics at your clients such as unqualified and unprovable success rates. If you resolve 99% of problems then there are going to be fixed in one session!

You Link to a Guru Someone Knows – You were trained by Paul McKenna and there is a picture of both of you on your front page. This means by some form of strange osmosis you are the next best thing to seeing the man himself.

Why do These Hypnotherapy Marketing Tactics Work?

Very simply a potential client who comes across your website randomly has no idea whether you are any good or not. They are looking for really simple and easy ways to identify whether you are the real deal. The generally haven’t got the time or the inclination to research the industry inside out so they are going to pick someone who gives the impression of success. The examples I gave above are just some of the reasons one website would be more likely to stand out against others. Of course not all of the examples are ethical but they are tactics that I see employed by certain hypnosis practices time and time again to pull in customers.

Now there are of course websites that offer a client the absolute opposite impression. As I like to call them anti sales websites. They virtually propel clients to their competitors without even realising it and I come across them all the time. One I came across this morning had two white Lilies that looked like funeral flowers on the front page. Another I saw had an incomprehensible section about metaphors linked to a video about a village. Sorry but these images and videos do nothing to attract clients. Your website should just do these simple things:

Client has problem and comes to your website.
Your website demonstrates that you work successfully with this problem. Where possible have testimonials related to this problem.
You present the potential client with a phone number and email to contact you as easily as possible.

Yes of course your website can become more sophisticated as you master these three basics. Sell courses. collect emails, offer eBooks and so on but get the three basics right if you are looking for client bookings. Appear confident, show authority and offer insight into your clients problem. Show that you have knowledge, skill and ability to resolve problems and you have a sale. Look quirky, bonkers and write about things that have nothing to do with these basics and your clients are lost. They have no idea why the use of metaphors can be great tool in hypnosis and they don’t care. As the saying goes “Keep it simple stupid”!

The Use of Images in Hypnosis Websites

Hypnosis marketing and image can also be important for SEO and attracting clients attention. Here are some therapy marketing tips to help you with using images on your website.

Firstly make use of images in your blog posts and on each individual page on your website. There is nothing more boring that reading content without something to break it up. Try and make the image relatable to the content.
If you are using an image of yourself make sure you look great. Sadly quirky looking people don’t sell products and services in our niche.
Label your image in the alt tag sections. For those of you who are not aware a typical image may have a name like 123img.jpg. Obviously this name is totally meaningless and in no way relates to the services and products that you are offering. This means that you need to rename the file to something that Google or another search engine can recognise. Change the file to something like Hypnosis in Derby and you will now start to appear in Google image search.
Whatever you do reduce your image sizes. Why? Your page loading time is one element that is used in your website ranking. Whenever you have an image that takes more than a second to load your potential client has given up and gone off to another website. You can edit your images with tools such as Pic Monkey, Plixr and Fotoflexer. To find out more about your page loading speed head on over to Google’s page speed tester.
If you have a website with decorative background swirls and design beware as this can also be classed as an image and it will no doubt slow down your load times. Where possible try and create clean sites with optimised images.
Remember that there are a number of free image sites out there where you may be able to get something that is usable on your website. In some cases the licence may require you to acknowledge the original photographer. I typically use paid websites such as canstockphoto where you can buy a bundle that allows you to download a certain number of images. Beware copying something from the internet which is owned by one of these sites without paying a fee. Expect threatening letters from their lawyers demanding large sums of money.

Get Help to Combat Your Anti Sales Techniques

If you aren’t sure about your website then get a second opinion. Leaving it to chance means that potentially you are leaving thousands of pounds on the table. With the right help you can turn your website and images from a client repellent to a client magnet. Our mentoring and hypnosis marketing services help turn failing businesses into thriving concerns. Believe it or not over 50% of our clients had no customer calls in the six months before they rang for help. Without our expertise those clients would have given up and gone back to their old day jobs (which they generally hated). If this sounds like you then give yourself a fighting chance of success by contacting us via email.

Building a Hypnotherapy Business by Having a Plan

Posted on November 10, 2015March 20, 2017 by Martina McKeough

In the last month I have spent a considerable amount of time creating a hypnotherapy marketing plan that will help my business be ready for January 2016. In other words I have created a systematic and detailed way of getting my business to rank in my local area as well as creating plans for future products to increase my passive income earning potential. Trying to do well at marketing a hypnosis business without having a plan is pointless as the world of website creation, content generation, social media interaction and SEO requires detailed thought and regular input to get real results. Here are just some of the things that you will need to consider if you are to create a successful business.

A website as I have discussed before is a must have for any therapy business starting up now and in order for it to succeed it must be set up correctly. Getting the elements of your website right is key to getting the customers you deserve. What I have noticed is that just about all of my competitors in my local market are failing in this area. These are just some of the big errors that I am seeing when I look at my competitors.

Spelling Mistakes – Nobody is going to trust a hypnotherapist who hasn’t taken the time to proof read their website. I can forgive the odd mistake but a competitor in my local area has huge ones in the headings of his web pages. This is a turn off for many people who arrive at your site.

Keywords – Frankly many of the local hypnotherapists around me haven’t even thought about using them in their copy which is unbelievable. Google and the algorithm it uses needs to see keywords when it crawls your website otherwise it doesn’t have a clue where to bring up your business in its listings. So if you are a hypnotherapist in London you need to write that somewhere on your website. If you have no address in London, no mention of London in your copy or the fact that you are a hypnotherapist then how the hell do you expect to get found?

Minimal Pages – I have said it before and I will say it again. Hypnotherapists in general are lazy when it comes to doing anything marketing related. They can barely be bothered to write four or five pages of copy on their site. Most of my local competitors have a website that has too few pages. Yes it takes effort to write a website and lots of time to do it well but get it right and it can reap rewards. As I mentioned before with keywords these need to be all over your site leading customers directly to you. If you don’t mention that you do confidence coaching or work with depression then you will not get found when a client places a query in a search engine.

Minimal Content – Even those therapists who have placed in a number of web pages tend to write thin content. In other words they can barely summon up the energy to place a picture on the page and a short paragraph. Content is king currently. Write thin content and your website will be penalised and you are wasting your time thinking it will attract business.

Pricing – Oh I could weep for the local therapists and their business pricing. Some of the locals around me are charging as little as £40 a session! I am already the most expensive in the area by miles and guess what clients are still coming to see me. Undervalue your skills and charge too little and you will never earn a great living. From a business perspective I sell a gastric band audio download program for £39.99 on my website which is a form of passive income. I have recorded it once and now I can sell it again and again with little effort at all. Why would I want to see a client for £40 when I can earn that from a passive income product that requires me to do very little? Clearly my local competitors are not thinking like a business.

Hypnotherapy Business Plan

Now of course it is impossible to do everything at once but having a business plan which lays out your markting strategy is vital for the health of your business. I know that I have a great one for mine and it is working. Bit by bit my websites are moving higher up the search engine rankings and getting me not just on the front page of Google but in the number one slot.

As an example in my nearest local town I am number five on Google. So in just over six weeks I have gone from nowhere to beating websites that have been up and running for years. This town has a population of 25,000. I expect to have the number one or two slot by the new year. I am now repeating this formula in all the surrounding towns which means that I should have a population reach of well over a million potential customers.

I am also systematically creating great web pages and content for each of my key niches and building backlinks. This means you will find me on the front page for all kinds of issues related to hypnosis such as fear of flying, weight loss, depression and so on. By January I should have hundreds if not thousands of pages of content out there for people to find me. With the right guidance and work ethic you can do the same and not just earn a great living but dominate the area that you choose to work in. For more details about my hypnotherapy marketing mentoring send me an email via my contact me page.

Are Therapists Afraid of Making Money?

Posted on June 26, 2015March 20, 2017 by Martina McKeough

Over 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!

How Much are You Really Earning in Your Therapy Practice?

Posted on June 1, 2015March 20, 2017 by Martina McKeough

Ever 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.