|
Track your
website's
traffic
Free
trial
Hot Tip: How to submit your website
to over 40,000 search engines:
click
here
|
Would
you like to grow your holistic business, but you're not sure how to
start? With marketing and advertising, patience is the biggest
challenge. Many people expect too
much too quick. They want an instant increase in business, and more
clients immediately. They place an ad and expect the phone to ring off
the hook. Unfortunately, it doesn't work this way.
The mega-bestselling
book Chicken Soup for the Soul
is a good example. After going through over 140 rejections from
publishers and finally getting the book published, coauthors Jack
Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen spent two years relentlessly marketing
their book before it became a best-seller. They tried to average one
interview every day, and sent out countless press releases, among other
things. Now that series has sold over 80 million copies. But if they
had quit after six months, you never would have heard of this book.
This is where planning comes in. If you have realistic goals and a
budget to cover it, then you can afford to give your marketing plan the
time it needs to really kick in. Repeat
exposure is the key. There is a
process you must go through in most cases. From the point of
introducing yourself to a new client or patient to the point that they
actually work with you takes time. When people first see your ad, read
your direct mail letter, or hear your radio commercial, they may not
pay it much attention. After all, they are being bombarded with a
million messages every day. But you have taken the critical first step
in making them aware of you. To quote Jay Conrad Levinson, author of
the best-selling book Guerrilla
Marketing, "It is easier to achieve a healthy share of market if
you first obtain a healthy share of mind." In other words, in order for
you to become successful or dominant in your field, people must think
of you first when they need your service. If you are a couples
counselor, you want people to think of you if they need help with their
relationship. Likewise, if you are a chiropractor, you would want
people to think of you if they injure their back and need treatment.
You might have
a service that folks don't think about until the need arises. For
instance, let's say you have an acupuncture practice and you specialize
in helping people with allergies. During the winter when most people
don't suffer from allergies, they may not be thinking of you. But when
the time comes and they need help, if they have seen your ad or
brochure and need help, they will feel comfortable calling you.
6
steps your potential client goes through starting with the first time
she sees your advertisement:
1. She basically ignores it the first time.
2. She notices it, realizes she's seen it before and that you are
not totally new in business.
3. She begins to accept you as a stable business, because she has
seen you around for a while so you must be doing pretty well. She may
consider calling you, or she may file your name away for the next time
she needs your service.
4. She reads your ad word for word. By now you are very
frustrated, because you have spent all this money on advertising but it
hasn't generated the business you had hoped. But this potential client
is now ready (or almost ready) to call you and actually make an
appointment. Many people give up between steps one through three. They
are making a big mistake, and wasting a lot of money. These folks may
be your competition--you can gain a huge competitive advantage over
them if you stick with it.
5. The customer is finally ready to call a (couple's counselor,
psychotherapist, personal coach, etc.). Who is she going to call now
that she's ready? Your competition who stopped advertising six months
ago after step 3, or YOU, the consistent business name she's seen and
whose ad she now has in front of her?
6. Your business now really takes off, as the fruit of all your
labor is finally ready for harvest. And your new, satisfied clients
refer more new clients, which in turn gives you the cash flow to market
to get even more new clients...and the positive flow continues.
Janice
Hughes and her partner Dennis Hughes publish The Share Guide, a
holistic health magazine & resource directory for Northern
California, and shareguide.com
a resource on holistic health for the online community.
Dennis
and Janice are experts on marketing--after having published the
magazine for 18 years, they have the tools to help you get the word out
about your holistic health business.
To
learn more about advertising in The Share Guide: click here
©
2006 by Janice Hughes, all
rights reserved
Get The Share Guide's Free Health Newsletter: SUBSCRIBE
Track your website's traffic: Free Trial
MORE FREE BUSINESS
RESOURCES
Home  Health Directory Articles Index Interviews Index
Reviews Links About Share Guide Contact us
|
