building a hypnotherapy practice Archives - Hypnotherapy Marketing Expert

Hypnotherapy Marketing eBook 2018 Edition – Time for an Update

Posted on May 20, 2018May 25, 2018 by Martina McKeough

How to Build a Hypnotherapy Business in 2018

If you are marketing a hypnotherapy practice nothing stands still for very long. Something that was appropriate two or three years ago make not work at all when you are trying to attract sales and clients in 2018. When I first wrote my Hypnotherapy Marketing eBook in 2015 it had all the latest up to date information about how to create a thriving practice but in just a few short years what was relevant then is no longer useful just a few short years later. So I have spent the past couple of months refreshing all the information and making the Hypnotherapy Marketing eBook 2018 edition 50% bigger than before.

It is amazing to think how much changed since the first edition of my eBook. Here are just some of the changes that have occurred in just three years.

Instagram is now one of the biggest social media sites in the world. It didn’t even get a mention in my first hypnotherapy marketing eBook!
Meerkat the live broadcasting medium has disappeared.
Facebook Live was introduced to capitalise on our need for instant video.
The Google +1 button has vanished.
Snapchat has become a huge social media channel for millennials.
Google my business has become an essential for local businesses.

When I work with my marketing students I get asked time and time again why they can’t just create a website, put up a Facebook Ad or create a YouTube video and then just forget the marketing they have completed. This is because everything changes and much faster than you think.

I get regular calls from Google Adwords for example every two months updating me on the latest changes to their advertisting platform. If I leave up my original ads without making the necessary updates and changes I suddenly find my ads which were making me money are now getting a lesser click through rate. If I don’t update my website or write some blog posts or get social media shares my website falls down the rankings. Marketing a therapy practice requries you to constantly update your content and strategies otherwise you will get left behind.

What’s Coming Up?

I spoke a few years ago about how Google was starting to prioritise mobile friendly websites in their rankings. Well now they have gone one step further. They are currently introducing their mobile first search engine which means that mobile versions of websites are being prioritised for indexing and ranking over desktop sites. This update is currently rolling out as we speak. For any of you still sticking with an old desktop only website this spells big trouble!

Also the new GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) in Europe roll out in the UK on Friday the 25th May. How many of you have completed the necessary updates to your websites to make sure you are complaint? Have you updated your privacy policy, contact me forms, lead magnets and the way you control your data? And for those of you that I see on forums in the UK who believe they don’t need to register with the Information Commissioner I can tell you that you are wrong. If you hold data about your customers such as emails, phone numbers or medical information you should have signed up. In fact you should have done it years ago.

How many of you are thinking about how to capitalise on voice search? Believe it or not looking for things by typing words into a search engine is not going to be so popular in a few short years from now. Think about Alexa, Siri and Ok Google and you can start to see that the way we look for information is changing all the time. Writing a website that uses voice search phrases instead of typical paragraphs can make all the difference to your profitability.

Get Help to Make Your Therapy Business Profitable

If you are staring out on your journey as a therapist or are unsure how to get clients in to your hypnotherapy practice the my latest eBook is designed to help you understand the elements that you need to work on to have a successful business. Here are just some of the things I discuss in the latest edition of my marketing eBook.

How to run a marketing budget
Website creation and search engine optimisation
Marketing funnels
Newsletters
Remarketing
Using social media to attract clients.
Online therapy
Free networking strategies
Using paid online ads
Understanding your competition
Getting in the media
Passive income
Group and Corporate Work
Referral networks

With over 150 pages of information you can get informed about the very latest ways to make a difference to your practice. Good luck building your booming business.

How to Successfully Set Up a Hypnotherapy Practice

Posted on February 14, 2018November 25, 2020 by Martina McKeough

Setting Up Your Hypnotherapy Practice It has been a good few months since you last head from me for two reasons. Firstly this website got hacked! Nightmare scenario and a real problem when you find out the quality content you have been writing has been updated with adverts for viagra and vapes! What a steep learning curve I have been on attempting to resolve the situation. I will write a blog post on my experiences so that you never have to go through the same. Secondly In the last half of last year I have been concentrating on making some new products and services for the website and curating some new free content to share with you all. In particular a completely free guide to successfully set up a hypnotherapy practice.

As I was looking over some of my posts I realised that many of my marketing emails talked to those of you who have already set up your practices and were actively trading but I had completely neglected to talk to those of you who were just getting ready to make the leap from regular employment to setting up a hypnotherapy practice from scratch. So in the past couple of months I have been busy working away creating a new eBook to show you exactly what you need to do.

What Are The Questions That most Therapists Ask when Setting Up a New Business?

I regularly participate in a number of hypnotherapy forums and I see the same questions from new therapists appearing again and again.

Where should I practice from?
How much should I charge?
How do I make more money?
What services should I offer?
Why are clients not showing up?

You see going on a hypnotherapy practitioner course is great for teaching you how to help people but in most cases, it doesn’t teach you how to help yourself. When you are a sole trader it soon dawns on a new therapist that they are the person responsible for just about everything. You need to arrange a website, their advertising, their branding, accounting, legal requirements and see clients and that is just for starters. Of course, when you get going it soon becomes obvious that there are going to be some big gaps in your knowledge. Unless you pay someone to mentor you then you have to muddle through on your own or ask questions in forums to see if anyone can give you any advice which might help. This can work but if often means that you miss important stuff or spend ages trying to work it all out before you get it right. Time is of course money when you are running a new therapy business! So I thought I would create a really simple eBook to give the absolute basics that you need to start off in the right way.

Building a Therapy Practice Basics

So what have I included in this eBook to get therapists started? Well I cover everything from:

Are you cut out to be a therapist?
Planning your practice.
How and Where to work.
Equipment
Insurance
Data Protection
Regulatory and Tax Structure
Domain Names
Branding
Trademarks
Must have Essentials on a Website
How to Charge and Package Sessions
Cost control
Specialising or Generalist work
How many clients you need
Taking Payments
Contracts
Getting Those first Customers
and much more…

Creating the Right Foundations for your Therapy Business

Setting up a therapy business without putting any thought into how it may work or what you need to legally do is a recipe for disaster. Getting off on the wrong foot and not doing some basic initial work can mean wasted months or even years floundering trying to work out why you aren’t getting any customers or earning enough money to pay the bills. I regularly mentor other therapists in six months programs and I see the same problems coming up again and again. Poorly created websites and marketing campaigns that won’t bring in customers or create conversions. A lack of understanding of the very basics of business. Businesses that have been set up and then never reviewed so that basic mistakes linger for years. Remember if you have never set up a business before or been self-employed then you are going to need a little help. Even seasoned marketers and internet successes regularly pay for courses to take their businesses to the next level so what makes a therapist any different?

Get the Book Absolutely Free!

My mission in life is to make sure as many therapists as possible get to run a highly successful booming business which is why I am offering the free eBook as a total freebie. Yep, that’s right it won’t cost you a penny! You can get the lowdown on how to set up the right foundations for your hypnotherapy business so that you can start on the road of earning a great income instead of doing what you love. I have personally tried and tested everything that is in the eBook and it certainly worked well for me. Not only did I successfully set up a hypnotherapy practice in Harley Street London I moved location over two years ago and created another thriving practice in the Midlands at the same time as renovating a 9 bedroom house! If I can do it then so can you. To get your free copy of the eBook simply follow the link below and you can gain access to the download.

Hypnotherapy Marketing for New Hypnotherapists

Posted on August 30, 2017November 25, 2020 by Martina McKeough

I felt that I had to write a blog post to cover some basic hypnotherapy marketing for new hypnotherapists following an email I just received from my contact me page. As the email was received from one of my hypnotherapy websites and not my marketing site I assumed it was from a client and rang them up to ask them what they needed help with. The answer that they gave shocked me! It appears that they were about to finish their hypnotherapy training and wanted to know if I could tell them a clinic that they could practice in locally. Err what the hell? Yep, a person was contacting their local competition and asking if they could help sort out a room for them to use to run their therapy practice from and they wanted this information for nothing!

This call almost rendered me speechless (and that never happens). I mean what hypnotherapy courses are preparing their clients to run a business by not giving them some basic direction as to what to do? But besides that, if a person who is about to start a new career as a self-employed person is incapable of searching for some therapy rooms to practice from what are they going to be like when they try and attract new clients into their business? I can already give you the answer they are going to end up back in their old day job fast. Prompted by this call and some threads I have recently seen on some forums here are some simple marketing basics.

Learn Therapy Marketing Skills

If you don’t know anything about marketing then spend some money and learn the basics. Hypnotherapy is a hard business because you are always marketing to find new clients. Unlike hairdressing where you are likely to have a solid client base that will return again and again with hypnosis, you have hopefully resolved your client’s problem in a few sessions meaning you will need to find new clients faster. This constant turnover of clients means that you have to be better at marketing than the average small business. No wonder most new hypnotherapists don’t last in business for very long.

To run a business you need to understand how to attract clients, how to run a website, how to use paid advertising, how to network, do accounts, how to budget and so on. If you have always worked as an employee with a salary in a job which didn’t make you think on your feet or have sales targets then you likely to underestimate the effort and skills it takes to get a business off the ground. Someone offering marketing mentoring can help you navigate this making your job just that little bit easier.

Don’t Expect Decent Information For Free

As a business my time is money. Unless I am doing pro bono work for charity expect to pay for my services. I charge for advice, my time with clients, my products and so on. Why? Because my experience is invaluable and that is what you are paying for. It means that when I am seeing a client I help them make positive change faster. When I work with a marketing client they will see profits sooner and so on. If I need expert help in an area where I am not a specialist I get out my wallet and spend some money. I don’t worry about this expenditure because I know it will help me get more rapid results or earn more money. You should do the same.

Learn How to Fend for Yourself

Running a business means that you have to find solutions for yourself. When I used to work in the corporate world I could call the IT helpdesk and get immediate help to fix my computer or software. If I wanted to some legal advice I would head to see our corporate lawyer. When you are self-employed you simply don’t have that infrastructure around you which means you have to learn to do things for yourself or pay someone else to do them for you.

It is amazing what you can learn when you set your mind to it. I am now proficient at creating websites, recording and selling products, search engine optimisation and much more. Did someone give me that information for free? Nope, it took some hard work and dedication to acquire the skills. So remember hypnotherapy marketing for new hypnotherapists requires effort and time.

Understand Basic Accounting

A regular question I see on hypnosis boards is how much should I charge for my services? My answer is if you don’t know what to charge then you are not ready to run a business. Being self-employed and turning a profit is all about the numbers. That means understanding some really basic details.

How much do you need to earn as a minimum per month to cover your general outgoings such as mortgage, food and bills?

What are the fixed costs in your business as a monthly number? That means rent, insurance, phone bill, travel costs, professional memberships, tax and so on.

So let’s say you need to cover outgoings of £1000 per month or £12,000 per year.

In addition, you have to cover £300 in costs related to your business meaning total outgoings of £1300 per month.

With some simple maths, you can calculate that you need a minimum of 13 client sessions per month at £100 per session to cover those fixed costs. Alternatively, you can see 26 clients at £50 per session or 6.5 clients at £200 per month and so on.

Now have a look at what your most expensive local competition is charging to at least get a vague idea of the top of the market this will allow you to assess the level you should charge.

This is just simple arithmetic yet so many hypnotherapists don’t think like a business person but pluck a number out of thin air and hope for the best. Do the maths and get the real numbers.

Get Your Website Right

Whatever you do don’t throw together a basic website and hope for the best because it won’t work. Creating a website for a business is an art and it has to be structured correctly otherwise you will have no chance of getting any business. Don’t make a website that you like the look of, make a website that converts browsers into buyers. Also, find a web designer that has experience in search engine optimisation as well as web design. If you don’t do that you will find that the expensive website that you paid a fortune for is likely to be a dud. This is why I designed an online video course for creating and marketing hypnotherapy websites to help new hypnotherapists.

The Law of Attraction Doesn’t Work

So many people believe that if they simply think about having a successful business the law of attraction will provide them with one. Well, keep on dreaming because it actually takes time and effort to get a business off the ground. Hypnotherapy Marketing for New Hypnotherapists is initially a time-consuming task. You need to add yourself to directories, create a website, write content and blogs and a myriad of other tasks. If you don’t do this you can’t be found and you will be waiting for the phone to ring. Sorry, you just can’t sit there and hope that something will happen. Running your own business can be incredibly rewarding but in the early days, it can also be lots of hard work. Get it right and you can watch the money flow into your bank accounts but get it wrong and you will be broke, depressed and back in your old career before you know it.

Should I Practice from my Home?

There is no reason why you can’t practice from your home to keep the overheads low when you are first starting out but only if you have a really professional set up. On a forum the other day someone talked about running their business from their utility room. Hardly the professional image that you want to give a client. You need a dedicated room in your house with a desk and therapy chair and your certificates proudly framed on the wall. When you are in that room you don’t wear your slippers and comfy home wear but a smart professional outfit. If you don’t have that set up then find a therapy room and pay for it.

Next, if you do pay for a therapy room in a clinic make sure that you are the only hypnotherapist operating from the clinic. In addition, make sure that they are not making or taking your bookings for you and that you haven’t used their number in your advertising. Keep control of your biggest assets which are you and your website. Never pay the clinic a portion of what you earn. Instead, arrange a fixed fee per hour or per time slot and stick with it. Where possible try and have at least two places you practice from as if one has a problem or shuts down you have a base to work from. This is simply common sense.

Should I do Free Consultations?

I generally have a quick chat with a potential client on the phone before I book them. This is to make sure that I believe they are a suitable candidate for hypnosis and that they aren’t shall we say threatening or problematic. Where possible I keep this chat to a maximum of ten minutes after that I charge. Yet time and time again I hear of therapists arranging to meet potential clients first to have a discussion about the therapy. In one case I heard the other day a therapist had spent 3 hours unpaid with a client. This is a great way to end up broke.

Meeting clients take time and energy where you could be doing something else. You don’t only lose the time you are talking to them but the time around the appointment where you can’t book someone in case they are is a slight overrun. So a one hour chat with a client can take nearly two hours out of your day. In addition, because someone is not committing to paying you they might simply not be bothered to turn up. Meanwhile, intelligent hypnotherapists are getting in paying clients for that time and earning money.

In my old practice area a number of therapists I knew used to run free talks in the evening to try and attract new clients into their practice. For that evening they would be earning no money. I meanwhile usually had a full practice with four or five clients paying me a nice figure for every consultation. Live and learn.

Hopefully, these pointers can help a few of you new starters to make a great living from a fantastic profession. Just remember that hypnotherapy marketing for new hypnotherapists is a skill just like any other and that it can be learned either slowly by working things out for yourself or more quickly by getting therapy marketing help. You are simply the person who chooses how quickly you want to grow and the time and commitment you put into your business.

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.

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.

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.

New Beginnings and More Exposure in The National Press

Posted on October 8, 2015March 20, 2017 by Martina McKeough

If you are wondering why you haven’t had any emails for the past six weeks it is because I have moved house. That has of course created upheaval, mess, tradesman and a never ending list of things to do to get the new house into some sort of liveable condition. Whilst this has been going on of course it also means that I have moved my business as well. This is a bigger issue because the area where I have moved to has no clue about my skills, I have no referrals to boost my income and I have no search engine rankings locally. That means I am having to start all over again putting my in a similar position to a new Hypnotherapist. So the next series of blog posts are going to be about I begin to dominate the local area and rebuild a thriving practice. You can also read my previous blog post on what makes a hypnotherapy business portable.

Balance Hypnosis in The Daily Mail

But before I begin I had one piece of great news this week. A contribution I made to an article on Nail Biting Hypnosis was finally published in The Daily Mail this week. When I say finally I should point out that I actually gave the interview to this journalist nearly two years ago. I would have missed the story completely (most journalists don’t bother to contact you to say when you will appear in the press) if it had not popped up on my husbands news feed on LinkedIn. It is worth noting that just because you are interviewed by a journalist it does not mean that you will instantly get a story in the press and it almost certainly can be parked for a long time before publication.

Now I should point out that having a mention in the National press does not necessarily lead to a stream of nail biting clients ringing for help. If you want that kind of exposure then the story would really need to involve an issue such as weight loss or your face over a major news story.on television. What this story does do is make me more credible for my hypnotherapy marketing. I can now happily add the words as seen in The Daily Mail on my website as well as adding their logo to my front website page and in the media section of the site. That means when people come across my site and have to choose between a therapist with a low grade website and myself they are more likely to pick the hypnotherapist who has appeared in many of the national newspapers and demonstrates expertise.

Hypnotherapy Marketing in a New Area

Anyway back to the real issue which is how to get clients when you are just starting your business or have moved to a new area. Well I always start in one place and that is getting a website up and running. Now because of the house move I actually did something that I don’t do very often and that was hand the setting up of the website to a SEO and website building expert. Big mistake! Why? Because despite this person having all the credentials and knowledge to create a fantastic site to dominate my local area they have not as yet delivered. This is despite the brief having been given to the company concerned back in June! Luckily I have set up a considerable number of my own websites before and at the last minute I have had to create a website myself to get some exposure. This means that I am at least three months behind in my marketing plans which is far from ideal.

I have written previous posts on not putting all your eggs in one basket as well as staying in control of anything you own or produce and I still stand by that. If it were not for my web knowledge I would be feeling stranded right now. This is why I still suggest that any Hypnotherapist who is starting out takes the time to learn how to get a website up and running. No it does not have to be an all singing all dancing website but it does have to do the basics which is tell people where you are and what you do. Having these marketing skills will be a great back up to you if you should ever need them.

Getting Your Hypnotherapy Website Right

Being found in the local search engines is the one major thing that you need to work on when you start up in an area for business. There is no point writing a fantastic website if it makes no use of keywords and nobody knows where to find you. At the moment this is my number one task and I am afraid it takes time. Your content needs to be original, you need plenty of it and then you need to structure your website in such a way that Google wants to place you on its front page (ideally in the top three organic rankings). This takes a methodical approach, knowledge and the ability to write quickly. Currently three weeks after getting my website up and running I have front page rankings for 17 locations in my area and one number one spot. For more competitive locations I am generally appearing on page two of Google despite the fact that my actual location is not in that area. The next month will be spent boosting those rankings to the front page. Note I do not market in one small area and make sure that the radius I cover is at least 30 miles wide.

Do not forget location specific keywords are not the be all and end all of getting business. So if you are a Hypnotherapist in London and trying to rank for the front page of Google you are going to need a couple of years at the very least to get to that spot. That means you need to target long tail keywords instead. That means phrases of three or more words which will help you get found. If you were not aware nearly 50% of searches placed into the Google search engine are brand new and have never been searched for before. Such as “hypnotherapy in London to help migraines” , hypnosis to stop my IBS flare ups” and so on. Concentrate on targeting the long tail and business will eventually start coming your way. I know that apart form my keyword phrases for locations I have 21 top five rankings already for my weight loss keywords in those areas. In some places in fact I dominate the front page. Over the coming months I will use the same tactics to corner other niches that I specialise in.

I expect that my big push into my new location will now happen in the New Year as business for most Hypnotherapists starts to wane in December which is not that far away. I will be also be on holiday that month but I will look forward to sharing with you some of the other tactics I am using to build my face to face hypnotherapy business over the coming blog posts. Remember if you need help structuring website content so that it converts or want help with your hypnotherapy marketing I offer coaching and mentoring programs. The proof of my abilities as you can see is written in black and white in the National Press this week (or colour if you go on to The Daily Mail website).