What's Getting in the Way of Your Marketing Success?
Many therapists struggle with marketing. You might have problems getting started, or your problem might be that nothing seems to work. In this article, we explore some common issues that could be preventing you from marketing successfully.
Fear
Is fear holding you back? You might be afraid of being pushy, worried that you won't be able to help your clients, anxious that you won't be able to cope with increased workload, hesitant in case you’re going to waste lots of money. Here's a little exercise to help you uncover your fears around your practice:
Take a moment now to centre yourself. Close your eyes and take 3 or 4 deep breaths. Sit quietly for 5 minutes pondering lightly "what am I afraid of?" Notice what comes up for you without passing judgement. At the end of the exercise take a couple of minutes to jot down any insights.
Bringing a fear into your awareness can sometimes be enough to turn it around, but often the best antidote is to do the thing you’re most afraid of. Or perhaps you'd like to share your difficulties with a friend or another therapist.
Lack of Persistence
Marketing needs to be carried out regularly to be effective. When someone sees your name regularly they start to trust you, even if they've never actually had much to do with you. This is why Kleenex tissues will always sell well - people automatically tend to trust companies or products they recognise. OK, so you're never going to match Kleenex's recognition level, but you can start to become known as the person to see for stress relief in your own local area.
In addition, most marketing methods can take a while to show results. For example, a new website will usually take 6 months or so before it even has a chance of ranking well in the search engines. Another example is traditional advertising, where people need to see your message a few times before they'll act on it. Even a leaflet drop takes a while to be picked up and acted on. This is why you need to do your marketing before your business shows signs of flagging.
Failing to Plan
Do you approach your marketing in an ad-hoc way, or is it a finely executed plan? While it can take a long time to put together a written marketing plan, it does give you insight into who you're competing with, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how you can improve your own service. It also allows you to plan your expenditure, decide how to reach your target market, and measure your return on investment.
If you don't want to write a complete marketing plan, I suggest you at least set some goals for your marketing. Write down what you're going to do, how often, and how you will measure the success. Review your goals every month or so, to make sure you're on track.
If something's not bringing in the results you were hoping for, try to work out why: Is the writing up to scratch? Does the piece look professional? Could it be where you distributed it? Has this method worked for other therapists? You need to look at what's working, and what's not, and adjust your plan accordingly.
In this article we've looked at some reasons why your marketing might not be bringing you in the results you'd like. What could you do today to bring in more clients?
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