Marketing.Action.Plan.for.Success.in.Private.Practice.eBook-EEn

Marketing Action Plan

for

Success in Private Practice

Bryan M. Knight, MSW, PhD.

The Chessnut Press

ISBN: 0-919848-54-0

edition

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

WHY BEING FANTASTIC ISN’T ENOUGH

PERSONAL MARKETING ASSESSMENT

FEE SETTING

SPECIALISATION & YOUR USM

THE FOUR MAIN MEDIA

PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

POSITIVE PUBLICITY

KEEPING MOTIVATED

BEYOND INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE

RESOURCES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GUARANTEE

ACTION CHARTS

Introduction

In this

Marketing Action Plan

I tell you exactly how to build your private

practice.
Marketing can be defined as everything you do to expand your clientele and
make more money.
While advertising is included, the emphasis in this book is on free or low-
cost methods.
Since marketing is essential to your success the information and guidance
contained here is priceless.
To begin with, you’ll find out what marketing techniques match your unique
personality.
You may have heard of some of them before.
But now you’ll know:
• which ones suit you

• why or why not to use a particular approach

• how to take action on each technique

• how to keep yourself motivated

You can use the

Marketing Action Charts

to set your goals and measure your

progress.
And you can keep up-to-date with our Resource hotlinks.
(Please note that links and references are included for your convenience
only. We bear no responsibility whatsoever for the content or conduct of
such sites or persons. Except where otherwise indicated, everything in this
ebook is copyright©2004 Bryan M. Knight.)

[Note: To receive free updates of this

M.A.P

. you must first register your purchase of this

ebook. All that is required is to send your name, street address, city, State or Province and
the date you bought the ebook, to me at

drknight@hypnosis.org

Registration is free]

Why Being Fantastic Isn’t Enough

“Word of mouth will have people lining up for months to see me.” Wrong.
You are reading this ebook because you know that being the most fantastic
nurse/coach/counsellor/chiropractor/art therapist /social worker
/hypnotherapist/psychologist or whatever is not enough.
Why is being marvellous at what you do not enough to build a great
business?
Because:
♦ Clients may not want to share you

♦ Clients may not want others to know they consulted you.

♦ Clients may think that they did all the work.

♦ Clients aren’t clear on what makes you different

♦ Clients may assume you are fully booked for months.

♦ You don’t ask for referrals.

Your clients may become quite emotionally attached to you (despite your
best efforts to maintain a professional distance!). In which case, they don’t
spread the word about you because, like siblings with a new toy, they don’t
want to share their treasure.
Clients who have seen you about something highly personal may be
reluctant to mention this to others.
Thus there is no word of mouth spreading from them about how wonderful
you are at helping persons in distress.
In many practices, especially those focused on one form or another of
psychotherapy, the goal is for the client to become more self-reliant,
independent.
A consequence of this success is that the client credits himself with whatever
progress has been achieved.
So, again, the client has no reason to talk to other people about you.

Clients can be happy with the work you’ve done with them but still be
unclear about your specialization(s).
So if, for example, they are chatting with someone who suffers with a phobia
they may not think of referring that person to you because they know you
only as an expert on depression.
Ironically, clients may also assume, because you are so wonderful at helping
them, that you’re booked up for months.
This ties in with the most common reason that just being amazing at your
profession is not enough:
You haven’t asked for referrals.
How you ask for referrals is less important than that you do ask.
You might put up a sign like the one in my dentist’s office:
“Our business continues to grow by referrals from our clients. Thank you for
recommending us.”
At the least you can casually mention to a satisfied client: “Perhaps you
might meet someone who could use my services. Would you like to have a
few of my cards on hand, just in case?”
Another way to gather testimonials is to build permission into an end-of-
service evaluation.
You compose a client-friendly evaluation form that ends with a three-choice
“may I quote you?”

Yes, with name

Yes, name disguised

Followed by a place for the client’s signature.
The evaluation form — which the client fills out at home and mails in the
self-addressed stamped envelope you’ve provided — asks such questions as:
♦ Did I help you resolve your problem(s)?

♦ If yes, what was most helpful about my service?

♦ If no, what got in the way?

♦ Whether you are satisfied or not, how could I have done better?

♦ Would you recommend my services to someone else?

♦ If yes, what would you say?

Personal Marketing Assessment

Print out the

PMA

sheet on the next page. Do not think about the statements.

Simply complete the sentences with the first thoughts that come into mind.
For a free, confidential appraisal of your Personal Marketing Assessment
send your answers to Dr Knight at

drknight@hypnosis.org

Please note that to use this service you must first register this

M.A.P

All that is required is to send your name, street address, city, state or province and
country and the date you bought the ebook, to me at

drknight@hypnosis.org

Registration is free.

PMA—Complete the following with the first words that pop into your mind:
“Money is . . .
“Rich people . . .
“Clients should see me because . . .
“Speaking to a group . . .
“The hardest part of my practice . . .
“My writing ….
“Spontaneous speaking …
“What most scares me ….
“People in the healing or helping professions ….
“I deserve ….
“Offering a free introductory session . . .
“Being a business . . .
“Healers and money …
“Fate …
“I am selling …

Fee Setting

One of your first marketing steps is to establish your fee-for-service.
Why? Because you need to know where you’re going. And marketing is all
about making money.
Decide how much you want and your

M.A.P

. can take you there.

There are several ways to set your per-session fee. You could, for example,
check what your colleagues are charging and set your fee higher, lower or at
a similar level.
Do you want to be known as the cheapest practitioner in town? Or the most
expensive? Or priced the same as everyone else?
The answers depend on your self-esteem and the image you want to project.
However, other ways to set your fee might be based on more practical
criteria.

Enter your goal for total earnings this year $ [£]_____

Divide by 50 = $_[£]____
This is the approximate amount you need to take in each week to meet your
annual target.
Next: To arrive at your per session fee, decide how many individual sessions
you would you like to work each week. Four? Ten? Twenty? Then divide
this number into your weekly goal.
That yields your per session fee, right? Wrong. It gives you only the gross
income target. You must also take your expenses into account.
So, go back to the first step, add on your total expected expenses — and
recalculate.
What to include in expenses? Basic expenses are:
• rent

• utilities

• insurance

• office expenses

• advertising.

These vary enormously depending on your location. The easiest way to find
out how much you’re going to have to pay is to ask colleagues who are
already in practice.
Renting a commercial space is not the same as renting a house or an
apartment. To know what to look for, check this informative article:

http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/june00/business_leases.html

Professional liability insurance is required by most professional associations.
You’ll also need tenant, or office, liability insurance.
And, when you’re established, consider income-replacement insurance.
Our emphasis in this

M.A.P

. is, of course, on free rather than paid, ways to

market your practice. But some initial money has to be spent on such basics
as:
♦ business cards

♦ stationery
♦ Yellow Pages

♦ “now open for business” ads in local newspapers.

Other factors to consider in setting your fee include:
Do you want to appeal to people of a particular income level?
Perhaps you want to position yourself at what retailers refer to as “the high
end.”
In that case, you would set a high fee that would bar all but the well-off from
seeking your services. So you would be comfortable with few clients but
high fees.
On the other hand, perhaps you want to appeal to people of all social classes.
In that case, you might offer a sliding scale. And you would be comfortable
with low fees but high volume.

Home Office

How does a home office affect your marketing? Most likely not favourably.
Clients might consider a home office to be unprofessional.
Referral sources certainly will. (This probably applies more to the United
States than to Britain where home offices seem to be fairly acceptable).

So while you save on rental costs (and in addition can legitimately deduct a
percentage of utility and mortgage or home rental costs from your income
tax) clients might wonder if you can’t afford a “real” office.
The interruptions from family, or the noises that can be heard from
elsewhere in the house, might make clients wonder about confidentiality.
Professional associations often require that their members provide a secure
waiting room for clients.
Your living room would not qualify. It is hardly a professional environment.
All this adds up to negative marketing.

And boundaries confused. You are not the client’s friend yet he or she is in
your home.
Your legal liability may increase — if a client trips and falls down the stairs
or claims to have been poisoned by the cup of tea you made.
A false claim against you of improper conduct might be taken more
seriously by the courts simply because you invited the client into your home.
It might even be illegal for you to operate a business from your house.
And if you are a tenant, you’d need the landlord’s permission. He or she
may be reluctant to increase their own liability.

[Sidebar: bringing possibly dangerous people into your home is hardly wise. Many
practitioners have been stalked or threatened by disturbed clients. At the least your
privacy is compromised.]

Group Practice

You might join a group practice. Some of these consist of an umbrella name
with practitioners renting space.
Others are true group practices in which all policies, income and expenses
are shared by the partners.
In either case, your marketing is enhanced by your association with an
established business.
When several practitioners offer a variety of services, but are housed in one
place, marketing is very cost-effective.

An art therapist knows that she can refer a client for a personality test to the
psychologist down the corridor who in turn can send the client for a massage
or a phobia cure to the respective therapists on the second floor.

Free introductory session

Should you offer a free introductory session?
Some practitioners find this to be an excellent tool for drawing in clients.
Others find the free offer attracts only bargain hunters who balk at
committing themselves to paying for subsequent sessions.
You may consider a free introductory session as a useful marketing ploy. Or
you may resent not being paid for your time.
Of course, your “free” session doesn’t have to be for a full hour. Perhaps
you’ll meet with a prospective client for free for 15 minutes. Then, if there
appears to be rapport, and you decide you are competent to deal with this
person’s issues, you’ll start the meter rolling, so to speak.
But many people believe “you get what you pay for”. Such prospects might
consider your offer of a free session to be a mark of desperation.
Others -- who hesitate to spend money, especially on themselves -- will
delight in the no-obligation chance you give them to evaluate you and your
service.
Ultimately the issue of whether or not to offer a free introductory session
will be decided by your values.
Especially by your attitude towards money.
That’s why the

Personal Marketing Assessment

is so valuable.

Package pricing

You might set an overall price by project. For example, I offer several
packages with pay-up-front prices

http://hypnosis.org/fees.htm

Such a procedure is forbidden by many professional associations so check
with yours before requiring clients to pay in advance.

Informed Consent
In many jurisdictions a private practitioner is obliged to have a prospective
client sign an Informed Consent form.
Good marketing protocol requires that you compose such a form in plain
English. The form is intended both to let the client know what you are
offering (and the risks, if any) and to protect you in the event of a lawsuit.
Be sure your Informed Consent form does just that.

Client Confidential Information

You might build the Informed Consent form into what social workers call
the Intake form. This is where background information about the client and
his or her problem is recorded.
In my hypno-psychotherapy practice I ask new clients to fill out such a
questionnaire themselves.
You might want to adapt this form to your own specialty. Feel free to copy
the questionnaire from:

http://hypnosis.org/register.html

Specialisation & Your USM

You’ve probably heard that you must have a

USM

nique

ales

essage.

(Otherwise known as UPS —

nique

elling

roposition.)

Your USM is what distinguishes you from everyone else in your field.
It answers the public’s major question:
“Why should I see you, rather than one of your competitors?”
Another way to look at this is: what do you have to offer that others don’t?
If there is nothing to distinguish you from other practitioners in the same
profession, your practice will limp along, and very likely, die.
Here’s how to create your

USM

1.  Choose a specialisation.
2.  Make a list of adjectives which describe you and your practice.
3.  Make a list of adjectives which describe the practices of others offering

similar services in your locality.

4. Cross off everything that appears on both lists.
5. From what’s left on your list, create a paragraph which sums up what

your service is and why it’s different to every other practitioner.

Why you should specialize

The main reason is that when you have a specialisation you have a focus for
your marketing. A magnet to attract clients and an easy way for them to
recommend you to others.
Who do you think the media are more likely to call upon about, e.g.,
violence in the workplace:
A psychologist whose publicity lists 24 problems ranging from anxiety to
zoophobia that she deals with, or
A psychologist whose publicity is focused on how she helps victims and
perpetrators of violence in the workplace?

So how do you select a specialisation

Choose:
♦ a gender

♦ a problem

♦ an age group

As a nutritionist, for example, you might choose to work only with women
[gender]
Or with eating disorders. [problem]

Or with seniors. [age]

Of course you could choose to either narrow your choice, or combine a
couple together. You might, for instance, narrow your expertise to working
only with women who suffer with eating disorders. [gender+problem]
Or your specialisation could, as an example, combine all three categories:
working only with the nutritional needs of depressed women seniors.
[age+gender+problem]
The reason to specialise is not to restrict you but to make it easier for you to
become known.
For instance, I have promoted myself as a hypnotherapist. This provides one
feature to distinguish me from the hundreds of other psychotherapists in
Montreal.
(I often amplify this by explaining that I am a psychotherapist who uses
hypnosis as one technique among many).
Then I chose to focus on anxiety, phobias, panic attacks and stress.
Those are the issues I publicise as specialties. So I rarely work with children
although I do help people who are depressed.
I don’t specialise in couples counselling but when it’s appropriate I do
counsel a couple.
For instance: a man makes an appointment to find out how hypnotherapy
could help him end his problem of premature ejaculation.
I suggest that, rather than hypnosis, let’s use a well-known behavioural
therapy technique. It would probably resolve the problem quite quickly.
Since the wife would be involved in using this technique I recommend they
make a joint appointment so I can explain it to them together.

The Four Main Media

The main media for your marketing efforts are:
• Print

• Radio

• Internet

• Television

Print

Newsletter
Books
Leaflets/brochures
Business cards
Newspapers
Magazines
Yellow pages
Posters
Postcards
Faxes

Radio

Commercials
Infomercials
Interviews
Shows

Internet

Email/sig files
Newsgroups
Website
Radio

Expert sites
Ebooks
Ezines
Lists

Television

Commercials
Infomercials
Interviews
Shows
Videos

Print

Newsletter

Regular receipt of a newsletter from you keeps your name at the front of the
reader’s mind.
It’s a good way to promote your business with:
♦ prospects
♦ clients

♦ media

♦ referral sources

Prospects are people who’ve signed up at your exhibition booth or taken part
in your workshops.
Clients are, of course, people who have already done business with you.
Never send your newsletter without the written permission of a prospect or a
client.
If you are promoting a health spa the receipt of your unrequested newsletter
might not cause consternation in the recipient’s house.
But imagine what disruption could arise if you are a drug addiction
counsellor and your newsletter is read by parents who had no idea their son -
your client - was abusing street drugs.

Or suppose you’re a hypnotherapist and you mail your pro-hypnosis
newsletter to a Christian fundamentalist home.
Or you are a nurse who specialises in counselling people with STDs and the
unknowing partner of your client receives your newsletter.
The point is not that these examples could spark helpful, even therapeutic,
discussions. The point is that your first responsibility is to respect your
prospect or client’s confidentiality and anonymity.
No such consideration stops you from sending your newsletter to the media,
or to possible referral sources.
However, keep in mind that your objective is to win them over, not to
antagonize.
For your newsletter to be of interest to the media, it must contain news. Or at
the very least, “7 Tips to Feel Great Every Morning” — in other words,
something the newspaper or radio station could use.
For your newsletter to be of interest to potential referral sources, it must be
worth the time that you’re asking them to devote to reading.
How do you do this? For both media and referral sources, you keep in mind
the same formula as in all your marketing: the reader wants to know “What’s
In It For Me?” [Known as radio station “

WIIFM

”]

So, let’s suppose you are a stress management consultant. You want to send
a monthly newsletter to physicians. It should contain:
♦ tips the physicians can use on themselves

♦ why they should refer their patients to you

♦ an option for unsubscribing to the newsletter.

Yes, of course, the second point is your

USM

. See how all your marketing is

interlinked?
In this case your

USM

would be adapted to

WIIFM

for doctors.

Your newsletter can be bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly or even an annual
publication. It can be one, two, four or twenty-four or more pages long.
But there are two reasons to keep it short:
♦ people’s short attention spans

♦ the time and expense.

Both media people and potential referrers are busy. A one-page newsletter is
therefore more likely to be read, or at least scanned, than is a 24-page
treatise. True?
For the media, yes.
For prospective referrers, no.

Media people are looking for nuggets of news.
Prospective referrers are looking for information.

By now you’ve probably guessed that one newsletter may not be able to
match the expectations of all your readers: clients, prospects, media and
referral sources.
And you’re right.
The solutions are:
♦ several newsletters

♦ one targeted newsletter

♦ one ‘detachable’ newsletter

This brings us to the time and expense. It takes quite a lot of time to compose
a newsletter. To have several would obviously eat up even more of your
time.
So perhaps you’ll choose to concentrate on one newsletter for each of the
four targets.
Or you could have a 4-pager which contains one page you could “detach”
and send to the media, another page suitable for prospects, etc.
All 4 pages together mean you have a newsletter of great interest to your
clients.
The content must be much more than a sales pitch for your practice.
By all means publish news of an upcoming workshop you’re offering. But
the bulk of the newsletter must contain information of interest to your
audience.
This can include but is not restricted, to:
♦ book reviews

♦ recent research

♦ letters from clients

♦ humour

♦ Q&A

♦ opinion pieces

With the software bundled with your computer, it’s not expensive to produce
your own newsletter. It doesn’t have to be fancy.
The major drawback to issuing a print newsletter is the cost of postage. And
the time to fold, and either staple or stuff into an envelope. Oh, I almost
forgot: preparing labels, too.
Although computers usually come with label producing software so this task
can be fairly easy, especially if you create databases of your “subscribers.”
Until you are widely considered a guru it is unlikely you could charge for
your newsletter.
But as with other marketing techniques, the payoff could be amazing. After
all, just one person becoming a client could lead to thousands of dollars (or
pounds!) worth of business — either direct or from yet other people he or
she refers.

Books

Despite the popularity of the Internet DVDs and ebooks, printed books are
still prestigious.
Your credibility is enhanced simply because you are the author of a
published book.
In terms of marketing, that’s just the beginning.
When the book is first out you may be interviewed by local media for whom
this is a newsworthy event.
Subsequently, you can give talks (especially in libraries and bookshops!) as
an expert on the topic of your book.
You might sell spin-off articles based on sections of the book.
You could re-cycle the material further, as articles or ebooks on your
website.
This is all very well, you maybe saying to yourself, but how do I write the
book in the first place?

Glad you asked. Here’s an audiotape that answers exactly that question. It’s
free to you because you bought the ebook you’re now reading. Just send $5
U.S. to cover postage and handling.
The tape is entitled “Write Your Own Hypnosis Book” but it’s packed with
guidance on how you can write and sell a book on your topic.
Want some tips immediately? Here’s my updated recipe — originally
published in Canadian Author & Bookman and subsequently republished in
The Canadian Writer’s Guide.

***

Success Schedule for Writing your Book

A successful creation to a writer is like a splendid meal to a chef: tasty
enough to please the palate of its creator and good enough to be sold to a
gourmet.
Superior chefs are

recise,

rganized and

isciplined.

Take a pea from their

POD

to create your success schedule.

Be precise about the ingredients: what you will write, how much, when and
where.
Is your goal to write a self-help guide? A batch of case histories? A history
of your field? Decide on the end product.
Then cut the task into easy-to-digest bites, say a chapter a month, or a page a
day. Establish goals and sub-goals that make you reach, but not overextend.
Be specific. A certain amount of time or number of words or pages each
session.
Will you write for three hours on Sunday afternoons, or ten pages a week or
three hundred words every day beginning at 7 a.m.?
Match your formula to your personality. Time frames allow you the
flexibility to produce a lot or a little. Word or page objectives must
challenge yet not overwhelm. Experiment.
Also be precise about when you will write. Some writers may write only
when they feel like it, but most of us need to fix a regular time and place.
Find out through self-observation when you feel most alert. Arrange your
writing periods around those peaks.

Aspiring writers are often advised to rise at 4 or 5 a.m. to write when they
are freshest. I don’t know about you, but I can hardly pry my eyes open at 8
a.m., let alone 5 a.m. If you peak at 10 p.m., that’s when you should write.
But if the only time you can possibly salvage is the lunch hour at the office,
or 15 minute segments between clients, so be it. You’ll be amazed at how
much you can churn out.
Never write on a full stomach: it’s the cells in your brain, not your tummy,
that need replenishing.
Similarly, when you know you’re going to write, be sure to eat foods that
invigorate. Tofu rather than spaghetti, for example.
Discover your body’s unique response to various foods. And don’t be
deceived by drugs; there are few writers who can truly write well in an
alcoholic or other chemical haze.
Make it a practice to write in the same surroundings. Self-conditioning
works, so develop helpful, rather than harmful, habits.
Prepare beforehand all the equipment you’ll need. Prime your writing
capacity: immerse yourself in the stimuli of familiar desk, comforting
rituals, and accustomed writing tools. Explore different musical backgrounds
— or even white noise.
The pleasure and pain of pushing pen, pencil or processor will gradually
inculcate professional skills. The more organized your approach, the more
you’ll learn, the more you’ll write, and the more your skills and self-
confidence as a writer will flourish.
Organization — the second ingredient of POD — simply means to rank your
priorities and to simplify your work and chores to maximize time for what is
most important: completing your book.
This involves the seven Rs:
♦ Reward

♦ Reverie
♦ Reading

♦ Research

♦ Rewriting

♦ Recreation

♦ Rest

Reward yourself
The final banquet will be the finished book. But as you cook, take delight in
delicious nibbles. For instance, if you work best in the morning, your bonus
for achieving your quota could be that you give yourself the rest of the day
off.
If your writing is squeezed into available minutes and hours sliced from your
practice day, choose less drastic rewards: a ten-minute nap, a warm bath, a
cup of coffee, a quick game on the computer, a plunge into a favourite novel.
The bigger the accomplishment, the more you should reward yourself. Ten
chapters merits a new suit; meeting your self-imposed deadlines six months
in a row deserves a night on the town, etc.

Reverie
Daydreaming is essential to the creative process. Fantasize about the content
of your book. Also visualize yourself having written: the joy of achievement
and the subsequent sale to publisher and public.
Images influence. Flood your mind with pictures of yourself as a successful
author. Used while you sit comfortably, muscles untensed, such imaging is
akin to self-hypnosis. It won’t in itself make you a fine writer, but it will
deliver a powerful boost of encouragement from your subconscious to your
conscious mind.

Reading
Breathes there a writer who does not love to read? Whether for escape,
pleasure or instruction, to read is to expand your repertoire of recipes, and
thereby enrich what you write.

Research
Writing requires research, even if that means merely to check a date or
locate a publisher. Some authors research voluminously before committing a
word to paper. Others write first, research later.
Your preference for cooking-by-the-book or the “pinch-and-taste” school
will be reflected in your success schedule. Provide enough hours for
research that your work will be accurate, but not so much that you spend
more time researching than writing.

Rewriting

Unless you’re an Isaac Asimov, rewriting is a necessity. Again, whether you
rewrite as you go, or in two or twenty-two sessions, depends on your
temperament and your skills.
A master chef knows a pinch of which herb to add to enhance the flavor of a
lobster bisque; the novice has to begin all over again.
Create first, critique later.

Recreation
Re-creation is part of the rhythm of a healthy life. As the word implies,
recreation encompasses anything that refreshes you, including exercise.
Don’t be misled by the current mania for strenuous activity. Choose what
suits you. If you like to swim, fine. If a walk around the block is more your
style, then stick with that.
An excellent “exercise” can be to write standing up. At a minimum, your
success schedule should include internal jogging: i.e., laugh breaks.
A hearty laugh does wonders for your heart, your blood pressure and your
digestion, not to mention your enthusiasm. Stir up your creative writing
juices with laughs at email jokes, comedy tapes, TV sitcoms, your children’s
giggles or anything else that momentarily derails your train of thought.
Authors who schedule success are like chefs who use all four burners on the
stovetop: something’s always cooking.

Rest
Rest cannot be ignored. But it must not be overindulged. Too much sleep
and you’ll be groggy at the computer.
Too many breaks and you’ll be drinking tea or walking the dog more than
you’ll be writing.
Sleep the minimum amount necessary for you to feel great during the day.
Arrange your breaks according to your natural cycle. One and a half hours of
mental exertion is a common rhythm.
Once your goals are

recise, your work habits

rganized, then

iscipline --

the remaining element of

POD

--- is the yeast you need to raise your success

schedule out of the ordinary.
Discipline includes ruthlessness with friends, family and colleagues.

First you and then others must view your writing time as sacred. To permit
interruptions is to demean your craft.
When you sit down (or stand) to write, write.
Freewrite on the topic; write whatever you feel at that moment; write your
objectives for that session.
Your book will take shape as you regularly mold the ingredients into a tasty-
looking dish.
Use a kitchen timer to jolt you to begin to write or to end a break.
Unless you delight in disaster avoid newscasts, news online and newspapers.
Slot them where they’ll do you the least harm.

recision.

rganization.

iscipline.

POD

. It’s not surprising these are the

makings of your success schedule; the same ingredients constitute the stock
for good writing.

***

Leaflets/Brochures

With the advent of home computers everyone has access to easy (well,
comparatively easy) ways to produce leaflets.
The sloppy results are evident everywhere. A fill-in-the-blanks leaflet is not
good marketing.
Better no leaflet than one that presents you as careless or incompetent.
A worthwhile leaflet will, of course, answer the reader’s

WIIFM

question

first and foremost. Naturally it will also include details about who you are,
your credentials, location, office hours.
Remember to mention that your receipt is acceptable to insurance companies
(only if that’s so, of course) and on the client’s income tax.
Unless you are an accomplished writer, give the facts and objectives of your
leaflet to someone who is. And have that person prepare your copy.
Do not be afraid of white space. You may think that you’ve got to crowd
absolutely everything onto your 4 panels.
As a published writer I can assure you that in writing less is more.
That means clear, concise words. Sentences of various lengths. Sentences
surrounded with plenty of white space so they are easy to read.

Long, detailed copy may be good for direct mail or for selling high-priced
courses on the Web, but it is deadly in a leaflet.
You want to move the reader to act. That is, to phone for an appointment, or
at the least to call with a question.
Include your photograph. It helps the reader feel she knows you.
Be sure the leaflet is spell-checked. But do not entirely rely on your
computer’s program.
It does not know the difference between “their” and “there”, between “it’s”
and “its” or between “than” and “then.” So not only should you read over
your text but it’s a good idea to have a neutral person also check.
Spelling mistakes or grammatical errors may turn people away.
“If you’re so careless about your publicity, how can I rely on you to be
careful about me?” might cross the reader’s mind.
A brochure might be viewed as an upper-class leaflet. It looks more
impressive because it is more impressive — coated stock, colour
illustrations, stapled back, etc.
Before you go to the expense of designing and publishing a brochure be sure
it really has a place in your marketing.
Ask yourself what you would do with a fancy brochure.
Could you place it in doctors’ offices? If so, that would be great if you’re an
EFT practitioner, for example.
A plexiglass container brimming with a couple of dozen of your brochures
could well bring in clients already favourably disposed toward you because
of the doctor’s evident endorsement.
Brochures serve a useful purpose when enclosed with a product someone has
bought from you through the mail or over the Internet.
A major use for leaflets and brochures is in mailings.
For a mailing to be worthwhile the prospect list has to be qualified. In this
instance “qualified” means that people on the list have expressed interest in
the kind of service you’re offering. And a willingness to receive sales
literature in the mail.
But suppose you’re a coach. You want to reach chiropractors to tell them
how well you could counsel them on how to build their practices.

In that case, “cold” mailings (i.e. no request by the recipients) would be in
order.
Three natural places for your leaflet or brochure are:
♦ in your press kit

♦ in your office

♦ at your talks

♦ in your mail

Every office visitor who wants a succinct, and discreet, way to let someone
else know about you can pick up a leaflet to give to their friend or
acquaintance.
Each telephone enquirer will be impressed that you offer to send him a
leaflet. And if that leaflet is focused on his specific issue [“7 Steps to
Stopping Premature Ejaculation”] he’ll be eager and pleased to read it.
For both media outlets and your public speaking events your brochure would
be useful in letting readers know you are not restricted to a single activity.
Hint: You could create a number of leaflets or brochures each detailing one
of your services.
If, for example, you are a hypnotherapist who runs a Stop Smoking
workshop, you could make it clear in your brochure(s) that you also offer
hypnotherapy for issues such as:
♦ Weight

♦ Anxiety

♦ Depression

♦ Sports enhancement

♦ Panic attacks

♦ Phobias

Note: Even if in reality you deal with dozens of issues, only list a few.
Remember the specialization arguments with which we began.

Business cards

Some time ago there was a fad among private practitioners to create business
cards that looked like theatre tickets. Why?
Because your business card is the potential client’s ticket to your services.

Regard your card as a miniature billboard. Make it as unusual and
fascinating as possible.
But keep in mind that billboards are for enticing viewers with benefits to
them. Not for boasting about your credentials.
Of course, your credentials are important but the person accepting your card
wants to know first and foremost what you are offering him or her, not how
wonderful you are.
Use both sides of the card. Especially if you have something unusual to
publish on the back, something that might prompt the recipient to hold on to
your tiny billboard.
Such as a recipe (if you’re a caterer). Or exercise tips (if you’re a personal
trainer).
One idea I copied from a hypnotherapist was to put the following on the
back of my business card:

RELAX.

Your next appointment is

You might use a folding card. This gives you more space to describe the
benefits of your practice to the reader. Even room for a little humour.
Personalise your card. Include your photo, a distinctive logo, an ebook
cover.
Make your cards the kind people want to keep -- and talk about.
Whatever you decide (unless you are an all-in-one graphic designer, techno-
whiz and copywriter) do not use the built-in business card software that
came with your computer.
Unless, of course, you want your card to look just the same as everyone
else’s.
Do hire appropriate creative people to design a unique and professional look
for your cards.
Do insist on seeing a proof before printing — and check 3 times for typos
and spelling errors.
Then, carry them everywhere. Hand them out wherever and to whomever
you can.

If it’s appropriate for your practice, distribute your card to each home in
your neighbourhood.
And pin several on bulletin boards. Libraries are good places, as are
supermarkets and laundromats. Replace your cards frequently.
Business cards are one of your cheapest marketing tools. They are excellent
for networking.
Some marketers used to advise us to include our business card in the
envelope every time we pay a bill.
However, in the age of Internet payment procedures and the banks’ instant
tellers, this may soon be an outdated advisory.
One idea that is not outdated is to approach a restaurant or other high-traffic
public place, with a win-win proposition:
If they will place a fish-bowl to receive customers’ cards, each week you
will provide one free massage [or one free hypnotherapy session or one free
couples counselling session or one free cooking class -- whatever you’re in
private practice to provide].
Your name appears on the little notice explaining this lucky dip. A stack of
your business cards graces the counter alongside the bowl.
The winner comes for the free session and may well turn into a long-term
client.
Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people see your name.
And, perhaps best of all, each week you have a number of cards from
business people who have expressed interest in your service.
You might even follow up with a phone call or a brochure. “Even though
you didn’t win this week please accept this invitation to enjoy a 20%
discount (until March 30) on your next massage at the Stay-A-While
Therapeutic Massage Clinic. . . .”
Think about creating a business card for specific services you offer.
For example, I have a card the front of which says:

Choose to keep on smoking?

That’s your business.

Choose to stop smoking?

That’s my business.

The back of the card reads:

Become a Non-Smoker for Life

Individual or Group Sessions.

Powerful Stop Smoking video.

Ask about my guarantee.

Bryan M. Knight, MSW, PhD.

(514) 489-6733

www.hypnosis.org

Newspapers

One of the easiest ways to market your name is to write Letters to the Editor
of your local paper.
Of course, you must have something to say. And your letter has to be on a
relevant topic in the news.
If your expertise fits the subject, fine. (A marriage counsellor might
comment on the effects of divorce on children, for example.)
Then you can slip in a comment such as “as a marriage and family
counsellor, I’ve noticed that . . . .”
But do not attempt to pass off an advertisement as a Letter to the Editor.
Another use of newspapers as a marketing tool is to have articles published
in them.
These are of two kinds:
♦ written by you

♦  written about you

It’s not so hard to have your opinions published. That is, provided:
1.  you have the credentials
2.  you have something worthwhile to say

Credentials are anything that defines you as an expert on the subject of your
article. Most likely, of course, in our context, that would include that you
conduct a private practice. Let’s say as a fitness instructor.
Then you could submit an article on a subject currently in the news (e.g.
how children could be encouraged to be more fit) or one that you create (e.g.
why women are generally more fit than men).

Most metropolitan newspapers have an “op-ed” page. That is, opinion pieces
that run on the page opposite the paper’s editorials.
It’s to the op-ed editor that you’d send your query.
(To find out what topics newspapers have planned for the coming year, go
to:

http://www.edcals.com/

)

Many neighbourhood papers welcome a short piece by a local private
practitioner, as long as the article offers useful information to their readers.
Newspaper articles add to your credibility. And to the spreading of your
name.
Even more so if the articles are about you.
To get such coverage you have to be someone, or to do something, of
interest to the editor. The opening of your private practice is of major
importance to you but will earn only a yawn from him or her.
However, if you can arrange for the mayor to cut the opening ribbon, or if
you rent a blimp and shower the area with discount coupons, or you
announce that you’ll publicly have a tooth pulled with hypnosis as the only
anesthetic, you might get some coverage.
Those examples are news.
You might prefer to be dramatic in print rather than in person. Then why not
draft a few controversial points to attract an editor’s attention?
Such as:

  “Back operations are often unnecessary” [chiropractor]
  “Fat is good for you” [dietitian]
  “Children do lie about abuse” [child psychotherapist]
  “Gambling has its benefits” [addictions counsellor]
  “The Truth about Hypnosis “ [hypnotherapist]
  “Phobias can be cured in 5 minutes” [EFT practitioner]

The above are just sample headlines. In actuality, you’d make a list, or at
least expand somewhat on the topic and send that as a brief press release.
Chances are that an editor would assign a reporter to interview you further.
Other ways to be newsworthy are:
♦ Contest the published views of another expert in your field.

♦ Provide the results of a survey you’ve conducted.

♦ Offer the story of how you helped a local celebrity (with his or her

written permission, of course).

Articles in newspapers are so much more effective than advertisements. So
much so that I say unless you decide to run your newspaper ad for a year,
forget newspaper ads.
True, you can get results with a few full-page ads in your local paper. You
can get results with a series of quarter page ads in your metropolitan
newspaper.
But check the costs. Figure out how many sessions you’ll have to work just
to pay for those ads. Is it worth the expense?
It’s remarkable how readers prefer articles to ads.
To introduce EFT to Montreal I ran an ad in a local weekly. Along with the
ad the newspaper published an article about my claim that this new
technique can cure phobias in minutes.
Nearly 30 people came to the workshop. Many others phoned for individual
appointments.
Hardly any of them noticed the ad.
And that is even though the ad was right beside the article, contained a
photograph and what I modestly consider good copy.

Press Releases
For detailed guidance on how to build a press release (more properly called a
“media” release) you could enjoy Canada One’s free, online 5-part
workshop. This even includes a template.

http://www.canadaone.com/promote/pressrelease.html

Newsletters (other people’s)
Your articles might be very welcome in the newsletters of relevant
organizations.
Find such outlets in the reference section of your municipal or university
library. Look for trade publications and the fat book of clubs and
organizations.
Select appropriate places to enquire. Check their submission policies. Follow
them.

Use the subsequently published articles (remember to ask for copies or “tear
sheets”) to bolster your credibility — at the least include them in your

Press

Kit.

Classified Ads
Think twice about investing in classified ads. They may work in some
communities or in certain types of newspapers for particular kinds of private
practice but usually classified ads are unsuited to a professional image.

Magazines
Articles in magazines have an authority and permanency that can’t be
matched by newspapers.
Just as with newspapers, the articles can be by you or about you.
There’s a hard way and an easy way to get published in magazines.
The hard way is to think of a topic, write the article, then either send it to
specific editors at appropriate magazines, or write a note asking if the editor
would be interested to see such-and-such an article.
The easy or at least, easier, way is to dream up several great ideas for articles
on topics in your field. Then you send outlines of these proposed articles to
editors at carefully-selected magazines.
What’s that you say? Can’t think of ideas? Well, here’s how:
1.  Read a few issues of appropriate magazines.
2.  Think like their readers.
3.  What aspects of your practice would interest them?
4.  Use freewriting to expand on the basic subject.

Let’s say you’re an art therapist. Look at what you do from the consumer’s
(reader’s) point of view. He or she might want to know:
♦  “I can’t draw or paint, so how could this help me?”

♦ “Would I reveal secrets through my art?”

♦ “Can this technique be used with children?”

♦ ‘What is the training of an art therapist?”

♦ “How valid is this approach?”

♦ “What problems can art therapy help remove?”

♦ “How does it work?”

♦ “How much does it cost?”

♦ “Is there a self-help version?”

♦ “Who’s more artistic, men or women?”

To creatively develop the outline(s) for your article(s) use freewriting.
This simple technique will likely yield more headings (for your outline) than
you could use.
Try it now: reduce one of the topics above to one word. Let’s take “children”
as an example. In the centre of a piece of paper write the word “children”
and circle it.
Now draw five to seven short lines out from the word in various directions.
On one line write something connected with art therapy and children. Let’s
say “colour” pops into your mind. Write that and circle it.
Then continue the line and add another word that “children” and “colour”
lead to. Such as “fun” or “mess.”
On another of the lines stretching out from your central word “children”
write another word that pops into your mind. “Fingerpaint” for example.
After circling that word, continue the line a little bit and write another word
that occurs to you. Such as “sensual.”
Continue this process until you’ve exhausted your creativity.
Then convert your words into headings that become, in effect, your outline.
Absolutely crucial to your successful article idea marketing: Approach the
right magazines.
Just as you specialise in your practice, magazines specialise in their
audience.
So, if your article idea is about “how women can know if a man is sincere”,
you would send the outline to women’s magazines.
If your article idea is about how male athletes can use mental preparation
you would send the outline to a sports magazine targeted at men.
If your article is about art therapy and children, as discussed above, you’d
send the outline to parenting magazines.
Think this is too obvious? You’d be surprised at how much time and paper
people waste on sending articles or outlines to magazines that have no
interest in the subject.

Professional Journals
Up to now we’ve been focused on consumer magazines.
To market yourself to colleagues you could write for relevant professional
journals.
Check their guidelines to know what they’re looking for and whether you
have something useful to share.
This is indirect marketing (colleagues may later refer clients to you). If your
primary goal is to build a clientele, writing for professional journals is best
left till later.
Keep in mind that peer-reviewed journals may take several months to
process your work. However, on-line journals can be much faster.

Yellow Pages
The larger the ad, the more likely the response.

An ad with your photo will draw more calls.

Of course, you include your Web address in the ad. When I first did this
readers were terribly impressed. Why? Because at that time (1996) private
practitioner web sites were rare.
Today, although such websites are very common, it’s still a good idea to let
Yellow Page readers know of this easy way to learn more about you and
your services.
The drawbacks to Yellow Pages ads are:
♦ the year-long commitment.

♦ possible printing errors.

♦ possible poor placement

You are stuck with paying out month after month, even if the ad does not
pull, even if an error appears in the text and even if your ad is overshadowed
by others.
On the other hand, people who look in the Yellow Pages are looking for a
specific service or product. (In contrast to, for example, newspaper readers).
Your

USM

should come through loud and clear. Unless you are a skilled ad

writer, hire a professional to create the words and graphics.

Do not let the Yellow Pages people design the ad --- their expertise is
unlikely to match what you could enjoy with a graphic designer/freelance
writer in private practice.
In a large city there may be several Yellow Page books. How many of these
you place your ad in will depend on the geographical area(s) you choose to
cover --- and on your budget.
If there is a neighbourhood book, can you find out whether locals use it? Is
there a large enough local population to make your investment potentially
worthwhile?
Before your first year in the Yellow Pages is over, you’ll be faced with the
decision about a second year of advertising.
This is why it is so important to keep track of where your enquiries/clients
are coming from.
Consider also, the online Yellow Pages. There are many of these. In some
cases your local print Yellow Pages automatically includes a listing online.
Again, the only way to know whether an online Yellow Pages ad is
productive for your practice is to try it.
Probably someone will find you more readily through a search engine or
online directory (many offer free registration).

Posters
A well-designed, eye-catching poster can be terrific as a marketing tool for
your practice.
Tied in with say, a workshop you’re offering, a colourful poster would make
a wonderful souvenir for the participants.
And their friends are bound to notice the poster on the kitchen wall.

Postcards
Postcards are a comparatively inexpensive way to promote your practice.

Create your own postcards or buy them ready-made.
Among the marketing possibilities of postcards:
♦ to announce upcoming seminars

♦ as mini-newsletters

♦ to offer special pricing on books, audiotapes and videos.

♦ to whet the appetites of potential referral sources

♦ to send thank-yous to referrers

You can even have postcards made of pages from your website. And here’s
a Canadian business that will do that for you:

http://www.gfxinc.com

Faxes
You are well advised to not send unsolicited faxes. The annoyance factor
will certainly not enhance your marketing success.
However, you could offer “fax-on-demand.” This is a service whereby a
person can call your fax, choose an article or two and receive that
information almost immediately.
Your fax-on-demand collection could thus offer a number of informative
articles either written by you or made available with permission by others.
Your discreet name, address and

USM

at the bottom of the fax spreads your

name and expertise.
How do people know you are offering fax-on-demand? Because you market
the service, of course.
Notice of the service could be included, for example:
♦ in your email signature

♦ on your business card

♦ in your newsletter

♦ on your stationery

♦ on your web site

♦ in your telephone answering message.

Incidentally, the back of your business card could include the list of topics
available through your fax-on-demand.
Another fax marketing method is to fax a “newsletter”, “specials”,
“contests”, “tip sheets”, or “surveys” to clients or referral sources.
Be sure they have first given you written permission to send them faxes.

Radio

Commercials
Radio commercials can be productive, providing:
♦ the station’s “demographic” matches your target market

♦ benefits are offered to the listeners

♦ the ads run at suitable times

♦ your phone number is repeated 3 or 4 times

♦ the recording voice is friendly but authoritative

♦ the ad is well-written

♦ your name is repeated 3 or 4 times.

Each radio station has a preferred “demographic”, a fancy word for
audience.
So, if your

USM

proclaims you to be an expert in counselling adolescents

you might consider advertising on a station that features music teens want to
hear.
You would not want to waste your money on a station devoted to classical
music.
But a stress management consultant might well reach his targeted clientele
of middle-aged executives through that classical music station.
As with all your marketing,

WIIFM

comes into play, even on an AM station,

if you’ll pardon the pun.
The listener wants to hear that you can solve her problem --- whether that’s a
sore foot, a broken heart, a phobia, a mid-life crisis or a depression.
She’s not interested in a laundry list of how great you are.
Suitable times to run your “spots” depend on the kind of private practice you
are marketing.
Suppose you are an addictions counsellor. Then you’d want to reach drug
addicts who listen to the drive home prime time slot. Why?
Because they’re likely to be employed and therefore able to pay your fees.
The same commercial mid-morning would likely reach addicts who are
home because they’re on welfare.
On the other hand, a non-addicted friend or relative who hears your ad in the
morning might encourage an addict they know to call you.

(By the way, as with all counselling-type business, more new clients are
likely to seek you out from such third-party endorsements than from
satisfied clients.)
Repetition in advertising is essential. That’s why it’s important your name,
service and phone number are repeated as many times as possible within the
commercial.
You’d be surprised how much can be said in 30 seconds.
Should you record the spot yourself? Not unless you have special training.
Far better to let the station select background music and on-air “talent”. If
you are lucky enough to have a well-known voice (i.e. in your locality)
record your spot, be thankful.
That’s a subliminal endorsement.
For effective marketing you need the right words. For the right words you
need a writer who understands:
1.  radio
2.  what you’re selling
3.  how to sell it

Usually, there’s someone on the station staff who makes his or her living
writing advertising copy.
Listen to that person.
For example, the original text I drew up for a commercial contained the
expression “help you overcome childhood sexual abuse”. (Because that is
one of the things I do in my private practice).
The radio station’s copywriter suggested that the phrase might sound too
harsh for some of the audience. And would anyway apply only to a minority
of listeners.
So we changed the text to “have you been mistreated …” thus appealing to a
broader target: wives who’ve been abused, husbands who been cheated on,
teachers verbally assaulted by students, victims of the injustice system,
minorities passed over for promotion, as well as persons sexually abused
when they were children.
If you have a catchy phone number or domain name your commercial will
have a greater impact. Why? Because it will be memorable.

Do not make outlandish claims. Not only will they be received with
skepticism but they could lead to a lawsuit when the client’s experience
doesn’t match up to your promise.

Infomercials

A growing trend is the 1 or 2 minute infomercial. This is, as it sounds, a mix
of information and commercial.
A dietitian might, for example, give a weekly nutrition tip, a seniors’
counsellor offer care-giving advice and a child psychologist proffer
parenting guidelines.
Offer these in printed form and you can gather names and addresses of
potential clients.
When such infomercials are linked to the station’s regular programming
[”Dr Brown, child psychiatrist and proud sponsor of XYFD’s afternoon
sports program, brings you ‘Ten Ways to Persuade Your Teen to Clean
Up”…] you have an excellent marketing tool.
Some stations sell air-time in larger blocks. You could, for example, have a
one-hour program complete with promotion spots during the rest of the
week.

Interviews

By far the best use of radio is the interview.
One such interview a few years ago (on a rock n’ roll station!) proved to be
wonderful for my private practice.
It directly brought me 48 paying clients --- the last one came for the first
time two years after the interview ran.

How do you get a request to be interviewed?

By:
♦ being available

♦ being in the news

♦ creating news

Radio stations often call me to comment when a hypnosis story is in the
news.
Occasionally I’ll do something which prompts a station to call for further
info, and thus an interview. Such as the time I offered a one-session
guaranteed cure for phobias.
Or I’ll send an appropriate press release to the producer of a particular
program.
An example is the print-out from my website of my “Dump Your Diet—
Before It Kills You” article that I sent to a show whose announcer I knew
was attempting to lose weight.
The producer recognised the potential controversy—and therefore the
interest my views would have for the listening audience.

[ Read this article at

http://hypnosis.org/Dump.htm

]

You could gain experience in radio by volunteering to talk on student-run
university radio stations.

In the process, you might even pick up some clients.

Press Kit

Should really be called a media kit since you could use it for radio and
television as well as newspapers.
Often in the form of a folder, a Press Kit contains:

♦ a list of benefits you offer

♦ background on your private practice

♦ your photograph

♦ business cards

♦ copies of articles by or about you

♦ brief biographical information

♦ brochures or leaflets about your practice

Also important to include is a list of suggested questions the media source
could ask you.

This list must be tailored to the particular outlet.
Keep your Press Kit up to date. When a media outlet wants to know more
about you they’ll appreciate that your Kit saves them time and effort.

Shows
Even better than an infomercial is your own radio show for which you are
paid.
Payment might be in the form of cash; more likely (until you are an
established radio “personality”) it will be in the form of promotional spots.
To gain your own show you have to offer the radio station a concept that
would interest its listeners --- and you have to be able to talk spontaneously.
You should be clear about the station’s policy on self-promotion. Are you
allowed to sell your own services? Or does the station consider the indirect
publicity from the show itself and the supporting commercials sufficient?

Internet

Email
The main way to market your practice through email is the signature file,
better known as the sig.
Here, with a little creativity, you can promote many aspects of your practice.
Some examples from my own practice are given below.
What exactly is the sig file? It’s the identifying few lines (usually a
maximum of 6) which comes at the bottom of your email.

How do you make the best use of your sig?

By writing emails to appear in:
♦ newsgroups
♦ networking lists

♦ your own newsletter

♦ answering questions

♦ others’ ezines with your articles

And what is great is that you can design different sigs for different outlets—
and change them whenever you choose.
First you create your list of sig files and then you choose which one to
accompany the email you’re about to send out.
I use a great, free, program called Pegasus which allows you to set up to 9
different sigs.

http://www.pmail.com/

Until my mailing list grew too large I even used Pegasus to send out my
monthly newsletter.
Here are my sig files (current at the time of writing—I might have changed
them by the time you read this).

1. Regular

===============================
Free email, free referrals, free newsletter
Hypnosis Headquarters

http://www.hypnosis.org

Bryan M. Knight, MSW, PhD.
==============================

2. Correspondence with Registry members

I

nternational Registry of Professional Hypnotherapists

Bryan M. Knight, MSW, PhD., registrar

http://hypnosis.org/newirph.htm

3. Promotion of our Training Site

Good hypnotherapy begins with good Education

http://www.hypno-training.com

4. Publicising my Second Site

Bryan M. Knight, MSW, PhD.

http://www.therapyinsights.com

Secrets of psychotherapy revealed

5. Advertising My “Dream Job” ebook

=================================

"How To Get Started As A Hypnotherapist"
The Dream Job ebook by Dr Bryan Knight

http://www.dreamjobstogo.com/titles/djtg0061.html?10723

6. Promoting my Radio Show

"Mind Talk" -- Let's hear from You
              MindTalkRadio.com
The first hypnosis Internet talk radio show
                 Dr Bryan Knight

7. Advertising the Ebook You’re Reading

Bryan M. Knight, MSW, PhD. Author:
"Marketing Action Plan for Success in Private Practice"

http://www.marketing-action-plan.com

http://www.hypnosis.org

And numbers 8 and 9?

Number 8 is personal, for writing to family. And number 9?
It’s blank. For those occasions when I want to avoid clutter, e.g. my
newsletter before it became so large it had to be hosted by Topica.
Clearly the uses of sigs are limited only by your imagination.
In addition to the type of promotions you’ve seen above, your sig files
could:
♦ Pose a question (for fun or research)
♦ Offer discounts

♦ Advertise sales

♦ Tell readers times they can chat online with you

♦ Announce upcoming special events

♦ Promote your favourite charity

♦  Spread some humour


To make the most of your sig marketing you should:
♦  Post to newsgroups

♦ Post to lists

♦ Answer questions

♦ Debate in forums

In other words, be prolific in your use of email.
But be sure to be:
♦ appropriate

♦ helpful

♦ courteous.

And do not succumb to the temptation to send millions of your messages out
at once.
This is called spam and will not only incur the wrath of the recipients [the
exact opposite of what you want] but may cause the shut-down of your email
service.

Newsgroups

These are misnamed — they are actually discussion groups. And there are
thousands of them on every topic you could possibly think of.
Marketing in these groups is indirect (through your sig file) -- unless they
allow advertisements in which case you post “AD” on the subject line.
Always lurk for a while before posting so you become familiar with what is,
and what is not acceptable.
The best way to do some positive marketing in newsgroups is to answer
questions, post helpful information, and so on.
Become known as an authority in your field by being helpful to posters.
You can find newsgroups relevant to your field by searching in Opera,
Netscape, MS Explorer.

Or here:

http://www.newsfeeds.com/

Or by downloading such newsgroup readers as FreeAgent or Google.

http://www.forteinc.com/agent/index.php

http://groups.google.com/

Website

Yes. Open up that Web site. Promote your person, your practice and your
products.
In the Resources section of this ebook you’ll find all the guidance you need
to create and promote your Web site.
To begin, here’s a checklist that tells you what to aim for:

http://sitetipsandtrickss.com/steps/

And here’s some more tips for neophytes :

http://grantasticdeigns.com/tips.html

The next link takes you to the Newbie Club, with which I am affiliated. Use
this because they send me a commission☺ when you log into the fantastic
advice available here expressly for Newbies.

http://www.newbieclub.com/?quickandeasy

To have your own domain name on the Web is a great idea—almost a
marketing necessity. A domain name is something short and catchy to make
your website easy to market.
And here’s a low-price place to register the unique name you create:

http://www.godaddy.com/

You might find a name, or be inspired to create your own, by visiting
Nameboy

http://www.nameboy.com/

For almost everything that can be purchased on the Net there’s a free
version.
Here’s my web designer, Patrick Conlin, a social worker:

http://www.wel.net/providers/

And this site will tell you all about viruses:

http://www.vmyths.com/

To make your website different --- and inviting --- here are two suggestions:

Create your faq (Frequently Asked Questions) page in audio, and
Present a video of yourself selling your products.

Research how to present audio and video on your site by looking up
“streaming audio” and/or “streaming video” in a search engine.

Internet Radio

Extend your private practice to the world. A website is a good beginning.
Internet radio (and soon, video) could be your major next step.
The most obvious advantage of Internet broadcasting is to expand your
potential pool of clients.
Your business can really be world-wide. The sound of your voice --- coupled
with informative text on your website --- can:
♦ Help sell your products

♦ Bring clients from near and far

♦ Dramatically increase your credibility

You might even be paid for broadcasting on the Internet.
There are several ways to proceed. Some Internet broadcasts are live and
interactive, some are live one-way and others are taped shows repeated over
and over.
Your choices are to:

  Pay to be on someone else’s site
  Be a guest on an Internet show
  Be paid to broadcast through an Internet station
  Broadcast from your own site
  Be on a regular station which is also heard on the Net.

The last two possibilities have been discussed in the Radio section above.
It seems to be difficult to have a true interactive talk show over the Internet.
Very often, what is portrayed as a talk show is one-way, i.e., listeners can
not call in (though in some instances, they may email). Such is the case with

http://www.RadioDestiny.com/

For a while I hosted the first Internet talk show on hypnosis through

http://www.alternacast.com

but at last view they are looking for an alternate source to provide
broadcasting services.

Expert Sites
There are many sites on which experts answer questions from surfers either
for free or for a fee. These can be useful to you, not only in providing
exposure, but in bringing people to your website and in providing material
for a Q&A forum on your site or in your newsletter.
Some expert sites require you to pay for the privilege of being a part of their
service (e.g., the locally-focused site at

http://www.expertsmtl.com

Others offer a mixture. The granddaddy of expert sites, which has absorbed
competitors, is at

http://www.allexperts.com/

Another kind of Expert site lets freelances and private practitioners list their
services. You might profit from such a listing on:

http://www.emoonlighter.com

http://www.elance.com

Ebooks
Creating your own ebooks is like writing a regular book — only it’s more
fun.
The one you’re reading is my fourth and I have many more planned.
Ebooks yield all the same marketing advantages for you as hard copy books
but with some distinct additionals:
♦ Little or no cost to produce.

♦ Links to online resources provide added value.

♦ Feedback is simple for readers.

♦ Distribution is instantly world-wide.

♦ Distribution is essentially free.

♦ Updates are easy --- no re-setting of type and no re-printing.

(Some of the countries, in addition to Canada and the United States, from
which I’ve received ebook orders are:
Argentina

Bulgaria

England

Australia

China

India

Belgium

Costa Rica

Indonesia

Brazil

Croatia

Ireland

Here’s a great place to start learning how to create and sell your own
ebooks:

http://www.wayneperkins.net/ebooks/write.html

Here’s another of my own ebooks:

If you like the covers of my ebooks, here’s the secret

http://www.bannerboxuk.com/

To actually order SELF-HYPNOSIS: Safe, Simple, Superb go here

http://hypnosis.org/self-hypnosis.html

Lists
Lists provide a way for you to learn from colleagues and also to directly or
indirectly market your practice.
Lists are like the so-called newsgroups except that instead of reading and
posting messages in a public forum you post and read in your email.
Often Lists are restricted to members of a particular profession (e.g., the
Hypnotherapy List of the Clinical Societies). Others are moderated, meaning
the owner of the List decides who can join and what can be posted.

Ezines
An ezine is any form of magazine or newsletter published on the Web and/or
through email to subscribers.
There are thousands of ezines. Those in your field can provide you with up
to date information.
Those to which you can post messages provide yet another outlet for your
marketing: either in your sig file or by writing articles for publication.

Ezines are usually created and published by individuals. So you could create
your own and thus have another promotion vehicle. However, the market
may be saturated with ezines on your favourite subject so check first.

When an ezine achieves a large number of subscribers the creator is likely to
transfer publication to a host such as Yahoo groups or Topica.

http://www.yahoogroups.com

http://www.topica.com/services/apn.html

Where to find ezines?
Here’s a partial list of newsletter directories:

http://www.Lockergnome.com

http://www.bestezines.com

http://www.ezineseek.com/

Television

Commercials and Infomercials
It’s the hypnotic nature of television that makes commercials on it so
effective.
However, network television spots are usually too expensive for a private
practitioner.
But an infomercial might be affordable. They usually run at less than peak
times. A tasteful promotion of your practice during the wee hours of the
night might well be profitable.
And you’ll have a video of the infomercial that you can show during
seminars and workshops.
The creation of a video infomercial is not to be undertaken by amateurs. You
need the advice and experience of a skilled writer, director, producer and
videographer.
Probably, by the time your practice can afford such talent, you won’t need
the promotion!
But there is a way you might still produce a professional-looking video at
almost no cost. No, I’m not talking about your brother-in-law and his
Christmas camcorder.

I’m referring to community television or cable television. Many towns and
cities have local programming that might well include you.
Naturally, they prefer to consider their work as a community service,
bringing information to their viewers, rather than as an ad, bringing clients
to your practice.
Nevertheless, a carefully planned program, or series of programs, could be a
wonderful marketing opportunity.
You are featured as the expert and all the technical details are taken care of
by the television station --- for free or at worst, for a nominal cost.

Interviews
You get invited to be interviewed on television for the same reasons as
radio:
♦ being available

♦ being in the news

♦ creating news

Maximise your chances by arranging your newsy event for a holiday, or at
least a weekend. Why?
Because these are usually slow news days.
(That’s why we scheduled

International Health and Happiness with

Hypnosis Day

for the fourth Tuesday in July).

Avoid calling a TV station in the afternoon. Usually the news team is busy
preparing the evening newscast.

Shows
A network show is extremely unlikely until you have made yourself famous
through other avenues.
But a show on community television is distinctly possible --- providing, as
always, you suggest a concept that would interest their viewers.
You will probably be surprised at how many people see the show. Your
instant credibility can only enhance your practice.

Videos

These can be of any length. Some practitioners even mail a 10 or 15 minute
video to prospects (on request only) and referral sources.
Such a promotional video need not be as fancy as an actual television
program.
It could be as simple as a recording of one of your seminars --- or as
elaborate as a professionally filmed infomercial.
The key in all television and video appearances is to be yourself.
Don’t imitate the people who make a living on the tube.
You are neither an actor nor an announcer.
You’re a massage therapist/counsellor/psychologist/
stress manager/art therapist/hypnotherapist/social worker/nurse or whatever.

Allow your natural concern for people and your knowledge of your field to
shine through the camera into the living rooms of prospective clients.
Let the interviewer parade your credentials. Concentrate on what the
audience wants to know: how you can help them. (Remember

WIIFM

Public Presentations

Workshops

Workshops are an excellent way to spread your name among the public.
Even free workshops bring in people --- some of whom become clients. And
the beauty of offering free workshops is that you can publicise them for free,
thereby spreading your name even more.
Most media outlets devote time or space to public service announcements or
PSAs. (Sometimes they’re listed under ‘Community Announcements’ or
something similar). That’s where you list your free workshops.
Be sure to observe the deadlines and format of the radio, newspaper or
television outlet that offers such free listings.
Give the participants value for their presence. Time for questions.
And plenty of handouts, such as:
♦ fact sheets

♦ quizzes

♦ bibliographies

♦ articles

♦ book excerpts (yours)

♦ print-outs from your website.

Don’t worry about giving away too much.
While your purpose is to educate (with an underlying objective of promoting
your practice of course) remember that very little of what you say is actually
remembered by the participants.
Note that last word. Be sure that people who come to your workshop
participate. That’s why it’s called a workshop, rather than a talk or a lecture
or a seminar.
Plan ways to involve the attendees. It’ll be more fun for them --- and you.
Do nothing that puts anyone on the spot, of course.
A workshop that people pay to attend means you have a captive audience
who really want whatever it is you’re offering.

(A curious phenomenon that you are bound to notice is that some people
who see the ads but do not come to the for-fee workshop will nevertheless
book sessions to see you on a private basis.)

Lectures
Is an invitation to speak to a group that meets on a regular basis [church
men’s group, synagogue sisterhood, senior citizens’ centre, etc.] as good a
marketing outlet as offering your own lecture?
No.
Why? Because people in the first category are not there to hear you. You are
merely fodder to fill in the lunch break or to complete someone’s quota of
guest speakers.
But in the second instance people are coming because they are interested in
the subject.
There may be a small benefit from the spreading of your name when you fill
in the time for regularly scheduled groups.
But you gain that plus immediate clients from offering your own lectures.
To gain confidence to offer such public speaking you could join
Toastmaster’s International. They’re dedicated to encouraging terrified
people to become accomplished speakers.

http://www.toastmasters.org/

Here are Toastmaster’s Ten Tips for Successful Public Speaking
(reproduced with permission)

1. Know the room. Be familiar with the place in which you will speak.

Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the
microphone and any visual aids.

2. Know the audience. Greet some of the audience as they arrive. It’s

easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.

3. Know your material. If you’re not familiar with your material or are

uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase. Practice your
speech and revise it if necessary.

4. Relax. Ease tension by doing exercises.
5. Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking,

your voice loud, clear, and assured. When you visualize yourself as
successful, you will be successful.

6. Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be

interesting, stimulating, informative, and entertaining. They don’t
want you to fail.

7. Don’t apologize. If you mention your nervousness or apologize for

any problems you think you have with your speech, you may be
calling the audience’s attention to something they hadn’t noticed.
Keep silent.

8. Concentrate on the message—not the medium. Focus your

attention away from your own anxieties, and outwardly toward your
message and your audience. Your nervousness will dissipate.

9. Turn nervousness into positive energy. Harness your nervous

energy and transform it into vitality and enthusiasm.

10. Gain experience. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to

effective speaking. A Toastmasters club can provide the experience
you need.

Libraries are excellent locations for your public presentations. And you
don’t need to be an author. You could discuss anything that is within your
area of expertise.
Since the library takes care of publicity this is an ideal way for you to
become known.
You could even give a workshop in a restaurant. The best-attended of my
“How To Avoid A Bad Relationship” seminars was held in conjunction with
brunch in a trendy restaurant.

http://hypnosis.org/therapysite/avoid.htm

When you give a speech most of your audience is won or lost in the first few
seconds. To grab their attention you should be able to convey your message
in less than 10 seconds.
Which is why — unless you’re a comedian — you should never begin your
speech with a joke.
Begin with your message. In 10 seconds or less. Repeat that message
throughout your talk.
The audience will remember only a fraction of what you say. Make sure they
at least remember your main point.
For example, I would open a seminar based on the ebook you’re reading
right now by saying:

“Your success in private practice is guaranteed when you follow this
Marketing Action Plan.”
Variations on this theme would be sprinkled throughout my speech.
Such as:
“Follow this M.A.P. and your private practice success is inevitable.”

And
“This M.A.P. will take your private practice to whatever success you desire
— guaranteed.”
How do you whittle down your 1 or 2 hour workshop to a 10-second
memorable phrase?
Here’s how:
Write freely until you’ve exhausted everything you can think of to say about
your topic.
Run through the text looking for subtopics.
Put the subtopics on 3 x 5 file cards.

[Sidebar: There’s the outline for your speech. You could, of course, memorize your
whole text but it is very hard to sound and be lively when you’ve gone over and over the
same speech. Much better to glance at each card and then extemporize.]

Rehearse what you have to say. Then slash.
♦ Slash the whole speech down to a page.

♦ Slash the page down to a paragraph.

♦ Slash the paragraph down to a sentence.

Slash until you have the essential message you want each person in the
audience to leave with.
When you give your speech, remember to:
♦ Tell the audience what they are about to learn.

♦ Show them. [With flipcharts, overheads, slides or demonstration].

♦ Involve them. [One way is to pair them off for discussion or practice of

what you’re teaching].

♦ Tell them what they’ve learned.

♦ Invite them to evaluate the seminar and to suggest improvements.

[Prepare your Evaluation Forms in advance].

The last point reminds me of a disastrous presentation I once gave to the
alumni of one of the universities I attended.
The audience had been less than thrilled. One person even wrote: “The best
part of the evening was the coffee and cookies.” ☺

Parades
Ever think of sponsoring a float in your local community parades? Could be
newsworthy in its unusualness and at the least would spread your name
among people who work on the parade — or watch it.

Networking
Working a net? What this means is that each of us is in contact with a host of
other people --- something like a spider web if you were to illustrate the
connections.
When you consciously travel along the web strands --- making contact with
people as you go --- that’s networking.
So you can network with people informally in:

  social gatherings
  in business groups
  in political clubs
  in school committees
  in service clubs (Shriners, Lions, Kiwanis, Rotarians)
  in professional associations
  in women’s groups
  in charitable organizations

Or you could network formally in business groups such as the local
Chamber of Commerce, Business Network International [BNI] or LeTip.

http://www.bni.com

http://www.letip.com/

The last two allow only one member per profession in each chapter. The
organizations exist to network among their members not so much to do
business with each other as to bring business to each other.
As the other members understand more and more what it is that you do they
are able to “sell” your services to others.

Positive Publicity

Your telephone
Is a potent tool for marketing.
Your voice on the phone --- live or answering message --- should be upbeat
and welcoming.
Your answering machine presents an excellent chance for you to inform
callers about your services. If you’re offering fax-on-demand, or have a
website or a radio show, let-em-know.
Always keep

WIIFM

in mind.

A psychologist I know used to answer the phone even while he was with a
client. When I questioned the ethics and practicality of this, asking if the
client in the office got angry at the interruption, he said: “Well, if she does,
that becomes something else to be explored in therapy.”
Since many of the in-office clients would themselves have first reached the
psychologist while he was with a client, not all of them viewed these
interruptions as an invasion of their therapy time.
You may prefer to have your phone answered by:
♦ an answering service

♦ a secretary or associate

♦ a machine

Whatever answering system you choose, test it.
You might be surprised how your telephone is answered by a secretary or an
answering service.
While the caller may appreciate that a live human has answered the phone
she may not appreciate ignorance or indifference on the part of the person
who, after all, represents you.
If someone else is going to answer your phone, be sure he is trained in what
to say and what not to say.
Some practitioners never answer their phones. Every caller is met with a
message, recorded by the clinician, on either her own or the telephone
company’s answering machine.
Three major advantages of this approach are:

1.  Frivolous callers are discouraged.
2.  You have the choice of which calls you will return.
3.  You are in control when you do return a call.
4.  You can replay the message when necessary.

The disadvantages are:
1.  Some callers may be serious but still not leave a message.
2.  A competitor may respond sooner.
3.  You have to frequently check the machine for messages.

How about when you are calling and you reach the person’s voice mail?
What’s your best marketing method?
First, glean whatever you can from the recorded message.
Such as:
♦  How to correctly pronounce the person’s last name.

♦ Whether they like to be addressed with an honorific (doctor, president,

ms., …)

♦ What first name they prefer (e.g. Sandy or Sandra, Ted or Edward).

♦ If they have certain times of the day they can be reached “live”.

♦ An indication of whether this person, like the answering machine

advocate described above, prefers to conduct business through recorded
messages.

♦ Names and numbers of other people who might be easier to reach.

If you do choose to leave a message you can take the time to compose a
marketing spiel that includes:

• your name

• time of your call

• your phone number

• reason you called

• when and how you can most easily be reached

First step is to smile. Your smile can be heard. (Try it, you’ll hear I’m not
kidding).
Your message should sound natural and friendly. To make sure, you might
want to practice taping and listening to yourself. (Call your answering
machine!).

Keep the message short and clear.

1-800 Numbers

Consider whether a 1-800 (now more likely to be 1-877) number would help
your practice.
This might be highly beneficial if your practice is in a rural area and you
want to draw clients from a large geographical region.

While it is wonderful for the potential client to be able to call you for free
are you prepared to pay the cost at your end?

More importantly, are you able to have the number competently answered
24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
One solution—if you feel this could be a good marketing tool—is the 1-877
number that can be yours for a fee by clicking on

http://www.ureach.com

Another way is to use the free Internet phone services. Check in a search
engine for current offerings.
(Ask Jeeves is a good place to start:

http://askjeeves.com

Or the parent,

Google:

http://www.google.com

)

Audiotapes

Audiocassettes sold or given to your clients can enhance your practice. Such
tapes can be:

  prepared
  off radio
  in office
  personalized

Prepared audiocassettes are ones that you record on a specific topic,
reproduce en masse and either sell or give away to your clients. Rather like a
verbal leaflet. With the same

WIIFM

credo.

Off radio are, as the label implies, recordings of radio shows or interviews
that you’ve broadcast. These are particularly exciting for clients who were

previously unaware of your radio activities. Rather like a verbal business
card.
In office are tapes of your sessions that you give to the client for his or her
listening pleasure at home. These can be especially useful if yours is a
psychotherapeutic practice because the therapy is reinforced (and perhaps
finally understood) each time the client replays the tape.
Personalized are tapes like the ones I prepare for people about to undergo
surgery.

[Sidebar: An semi-amusing story that illustrates the sometime limits of marketing: I was
recovering swiftly in ICU after my 8-bypasses-in-one operation while listening to a
hypnosis tape prepared by a colleague.
“I don’t know what he’s listening to,” said the Head Nurse, “but everyone should have
such a tape.”
Did she even ask about what I was listening to, let alone recommend it to other patients?
No!]

http://hypnosis.org/kn-audio.html

Affidavits/Testimonials

Gather testimonials from satisfied clients as early in your practice as
possible. Be sure to also have written permission (preferably within the
written affidavit) to provide such letters to the public.
Even with the client’s permission, it might be wise to nevertheless maintain
his or her anonymity. That’s what I did with some testimonials on my sites.
(By changing their initials and any identifying details).

http://hypnosis.org/therapysite/EFTtestimonials.htm

http://hypnosis.org/store.html

You can also request testimonials. How?
When a client is nearing completion with you, especially if he or she is
expressing their satisfaction, casually suggest that if they feel comfortable
doing so, a letter (with permission to “publish”) would be a wonderful way
to let others know of your credibility.

Gimmicks

Appropriate gimmicks can become memorable marketing tools. An example
is my “Keep Ahead with Hypnosis” baseball cap. ☺ Ditto re ID plates on
your car. Take a look at this

http://hypnosis.org/platencap.htm

CD-ROM biz cards
A variation on the standard cardboard-based business card, is the CD-ROM
“card.”
They can be any shape. Usually much smaller than a standard CD-ROM, the
major advantage of these “cards” is that you can pack a great audio-visual
presentation onto them.

http://www.interbizcard.net/

http://www.pro-motioncard.com/

http://www.rsbdisc.com/en/home.html

Free screenings

Offer the public a free screening in your specialty.
For example, let’s say you’re a marriage and family counsellor. You could
use my “Rate Your Relationship” questionnaire [request from me at

drknight@hypnosis.org

] as a fun way for members of the public to meet

you, and to likely book an appointment with you.
Talking about appointments --- be sure (in your leaflets, mailings to
physicians, listings in the local paper, etc) that your free screenings are by
appointment only.

Charity support
Active involvement in your favourite charity — particularly if there’s a
connection to your practice — helps to spread your name.
Some practitioners donate a percentage of their fees or general income to a
specific charity.
I’m ambivalent about the marketing potential of making this public
knowledge.
For instance, when I see a website that proclaims that 10% of sales are
donated to such-and-such a charity my first thought is “why don’t they just
reduce their prices 10%?” and the second thought is “what if I’m not keen
on that particular charity?”

And my third, skeptical thought is “how do I know they really send the
money to the charity?”
So, in contrast to your active involvement of time and expertise in helping a
charity, the public proclamation of generosity could backfire.

[Sidebar: my own sales support an association that I consider is not really a charity,
though it is undoubtedly charitable. It makes loans low--income people who have a good
idea for a small business].

Pizza boxes
One of the latest advertising fads (along with totally covered cars and banner
ads on trucks) is to have your message printed on pizza boxes.
Might be appropriate (or, on the other hand, guilt-inducing) if you are a
nutritionist or weight-control specialist☺.

Community activities
Some private practitioners place advertisements in ethnic directories or
community playbills or other limited-audience outlets.
While these ads do to some extent help spread the practitioner’s name they
are really more of a commendable “return-something-to-the-community”
endeavour than a serious marketing tool.

Exhibitions
Renting a booth in an appropriate exhibition offers several marketing
advantages:
♦ meet many people

♦ sell products on the spot

♦ gather names for your mailing list

♦ distribute your leaflets/CD-ROMs/business cards

♦ be interviewed by the media

Think long-term when looking for results of your exhibiting. I once took part
in an “Alternative Health Expo” where, for $5, we offered a just-for-fun
Personality Test.
We were also selling Psychovisual Therapy videos. Four years later a man
became a client after his friend told him about how our “Self-Confidence”
video, purchased at the Expo, had changed his life.

Coupons
If it suits your private practice, you could issue coupons offering 2-for-1
sessions, or “Bring-A-Friend for free” or even the standard “20% off till
March 30”.
Some practitioners have found those packages of coupons delivered door-to-
door productive.
A much more expensive option: Magazine publishers offer coupons with
programmable spots and a tiny scanner that enables a reader to be linked to
your website by waving the scanner over the spot.
Or how about this variation:
There’s a physician who includes a Referral card in the newsletter he sends
to his patients. When the Referral card is signed by a patient her friend or
colleague can enjoy a free evaluation visit with the doctor—and the patient
gets a $100 credit to her account.

Cooperative endeavors
Cross-marketing can be a creative way to promote your private practice.
Essentially you link up with a non-competing business to each promote the
other.
For example, a catering firm that deals with nursing homes, engagement and
wedding parties, might include a discreet “menu” from you --- the
psychologist who specialises in family stress issues --- and you would offer
workshops to which the catering firm provides the munchies.
An even simpler version is to exchange coupons with someone who wants to
market a complementary practice --- a psychotherapist with a chiropractor,
for example.
The clients of one are offered a “special” by the other.

Compounding
Similar to adding value this is a simple, but important technique.
Every client should leave your office, seminar, workshop or other contact
with you with more than they expected.
You might give every new in-office client the latest book you’ve written.
At the very least you might, for example, provide your Stop Smoking
workshop participants with a leaflet describing other services you offer.

Gary Craig (of EFT fame) provides a free 13 minute video you can loan to
clients to introduce them to energy psychology.
Such inexpensive marketing techniques let clients know that you can help
with issues other than what brought them to you. At the same time you make
a positive impact.
Goodwill objects such as imprinted pens, desk sets, fridge magnets, baseball
caps are often used to promote businesses. You’ll see in your local Yellow
Pages that there are many promotional companies that manufacture or
procure such items. One online company is CafePress at

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/index.aspx

Keeping Motivated

How do you keep yourself motivated to market your practice?

  Keep track of your efforts.
  Make marketing a habit.
  Re-read testimonials from satisfied clients.

Whether you keep track with paper and pencil, or with a sophisticated
computer program, or by filling out the Charts below, just seeing the work
you are putting in provides the incentive to keep going.
To create a positive habit you could decide to devote the first hour of each
working day to marketing.
That people took the time to write about how you helped them is in itself
invigorating; to re-read such testimonials is heart-warming.
N.B. Marketing is something you do every day. Even when business is
good.
Why? Because no matter how well things may be going today, you can
expect there will be a slump tomorrow, or next month, or six months from
now.
That is, unless you’ve been continually promoting your practice. So the
slump is either minimised, or avoided all together. Even when there is a
temporary slump, business soon picks up again because of the marketing
seeds sown months before.
And how do you maintain this daily enthusiasm? Here are four main
methods:

Inspiration from gurus
Near the end of this ebook you’ll find a plethora of resources. Many of these
are marketing gurus with a wealth of ideas. Let them inspire you.
Here’s one example:
(copyright©2000 Marcia Yudkin. Used with permission)

** The Marketing Minute **
brought to you every Wednesday by Marcia Yudkin

Marketing Consultant, Author, Speaker

http://www.yudkin.com/marketing.htm

mailto:marcia@yudkin.com

“Gusmano Cesaretti and Michael Mann, who have collaborated
on Heat and other movies, don’t shoot a single scene until
after a long process of taking moody still photos of
streets, buildings, and other locations. They also cut out
pictures of sunglasses, clothes, chairs and other props from
magazines, then arrange all the images in a scene-by-scene
collage, providing an atmospheric schema for the
cinematography.

Try following their lead if an analytical approach to
marketing your business gives you a headache. Snip out
pictures of your imagined clients suffering the problem that
you typically solve and then enjoying themselves after
you’ve worked wonders for them. Collect objects like cigar
rings, church programs or pill bottles that evoke your
clients’ lifestyle.

Then lay out this stuff and mount it so it tells a visual
story. Use your collage to communicate to new employees how
you serve clients. Or post it on your wall to anchor you
while you make follow-up calls. Let the images and objects
inspire you to invent creative promotions and perfect new
packages of products and services.

[For a free weekly marketing tip, send your request to

majordomo@world.std.com

Message: subscribe marketing [Subject line doesn’t matter]”

EFT
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. You can use this simple
approach to quickly re-enthuse yourself.
Links to more information about EFT can be reached through my EFT page.

http://hypnosis.org/therapysite/EFT.htm

Hypnosis

Hypnosis can help you stay on your marketing track by either getting to the
root of your despair (and then dealing with it), or by changing your
symptoms from procrastination to action.
For the former, look for a hypnotherapist near you in my International
Registry of Professional Hypnotherapists:

http://hypnosis.org/newirph.htm

Or for self-hypnosis, buy my ebook, “SELF-HYPNOSIS: Safe, Simple,
Superb.”

http://hypnosis.org/self-hypnosis.html

Psychovisual Therapy
Psychovisual Therapy is currently packaged in video and DVD formats. I
am the distributor for these top-quality self-help tools. Of the 10 titles the
four most useful for helping you to maintain enthusiasm are: “Serenity”,
“Self-Confidence”, “Relax & Let Go”, and “Positivity”.

http://hypnosis.org/kn-video.html

Beyond Individual Practice

There’s a limit to how much you can earn when you work in private
practice, one client at a time.
The formula is:
HF x NC - Ex = MI.
Or, in plain English:

ourly

ee times

umber of

lients minus

penses equals

aximum

ncome.

With this formula you can easily calculate your MI per week, per month or
per year.
You can immediately see that this yields only two ways to increase your
income:
♦ See more clients

♦  Raise your fee.

But for most practitioners there is an upper limit to how much they can
charge --- and how many clients they can attract.
Which is why you might want to imitate your colleagues who have
expanded beyond their individual practices.
How have they brought in income extra to their private practices?
Not by becoming beholden to HMOs and giant EAP firms.
Although this might be a way to get started it does not bode well for the
future of your private practice. In my experience, such companies demand
lots of credentials, oodles of paperwork yet pay very little.
No, extra income comes by:
♦  Working with groups
♦  Creating corporate programs

♦ Setting up an association

♦ Offering training

♦ Publishing books

♦ Selling related products

♦ Running conferences

♦ Franchising

Working with groups
When you work with a group you have a ready-made marketing tool: each
member of the group has a “circle of influence”.
That is, people outside of the group with whom the member has varying
degrees of contact ranging from intimate to casual.
So, not only do you make money with the group (and, in my experience,
have a lot of fun) but those members are your ambassadors to the “outside.”

Creating corporate programs
If your practice has any aspect that could be adapted or tailored to
corporations, go for it.
Once you’ve sold management on your program (stress management,
stopping smoking, laughter therapy) you can enjoy the direct benefits of a
high-priced package and the side-benefits of individual employees coming to
you for personal issues.
Remember that the key to selling corporations on your work is how it will
increase productivity (a polite way of saying make more money—for the
company, of course).

Setting up an association
Create an association in your field. One result is that you spread the word
about your expertise. Another may well be a swelling of your coffers.

Offering training
A practitioner who should know once told me that very few hypnotherapists
earn a full-time living from their private practices.
Which is why so many of them offer training. Weekends, month-longs,
summer sessions, four-year schoolings, distance learning, Web courses, etc.
[Mmm. Did I tell you about the internships I offer?☺]

Publishing books

A very hard way to make money. Although some private practitioners profit
from book publishing I suspect their numbers will dwindle even lower in the
years to come.
Stick with ebooks.

Selling related products
Although you may balk at this for ethical reasons I think it’s fine, for
example, for a psychotherapist to sell appropriate self-help products such as
books, audiotapes and (of course!) videos.

Running conferences
Often one aspect of conducting an association, this can be profitable.
However, the amount of labour you’ll put in might be better spent on other,
less stressful, kinds of marketing.

Franchising
Develop a formula that works successfully in your field and sell it to many
other practitioners.
The key here is that there has to be something the franchisees must purchase
from you on an ongoing basis.
Otherwise they will resent doing all the work (as they see it) yet having to
send you a percentage.

Affiliate websites
Similar to franchising but web--based. Other people sell your products and
receive a commission.

Resources

For free updates to this ebook, register your purchase with me at

drknight@hypnosis.org

All that is required is to send your name, street address,

city, State or Province and the date you bought the ebook. Registration is
free. Subject line: “Free Updates to MAP.”
For a reasonable price I am available for private consultation, idea spinning,
review of your marketing efforts, etc.
Please note that to benefit from this service you must first register this

M.A.P

Marketing Books

http://shpm.com/ppc/review/books/bkrevpub.html

http://www.bizweb2000.com/freebook.htm

Useful Lists

Mary Gillen

jacgill@idsonline.com

[Marketing Idea a Day]

Web Help

http://www.marketingpsychology.com/reports.htm

http://www.canadaone.com/

http://www.frugalfun.com

http://www.knowthis.com/

http://www.capstonecomm.com

http://www.psyfin.com

http://www.supertips.com

http://wdfm.com

http://www.wilsonweb.com/marketing/

http://jackstreet.epubliceye.com/jackstreet/jacklivefeature.htm

http://SuccessDoctor.com/

http://jimworld.com/

(

Highly recommended

)

http://www.SitePoint.com

http://netmechanic.com/

About the Author

Bryan M. Knight, MSW, PhD, holds a degree in psychology from Sir
George Williams University, a master's in social work from McGill
University, and a doctorate in counselling from Columbia Pacific University
for his dissertation, Professional Love: The Hypnotic Power of
Psychotherapy.

His 37 years in private practice taught him to appreciate the uniqueness of
each individual, and how to strengthen the client's positive values.

Dr. Knight is the author of numerous articles and several books, including:

The People Paradox;
Enjoying Single Parenthood;
Love, Sex & Hypnosis: Secrets of Psychotherapy;
Health and Happiness with Hypnosis.

And these ebooks:

Hypnosis: Software for Your Mind;
SELF-HYPNOSIS: Safe, Simple, Superb;
How To End Phobias, Anxiety & Panic,
How To Avoid A Bad Relationship,
Easily Hypnotize Anyone and
How To Get Started as a Hypnotherapist.

Dr. Knight has frequently been a speaker at the National Guild of
Hypnotists. Consulting Hypnotherapist to the Westside Medical Clinic in
Montreal, Canada, he is also the distributor of Psychovisual Therapy
hypnotic DVDs and videos.

http://hypnosis.org/kn-video.html

He created The International Registry of Professional Hypnotherapists.

http://www.wellnet.adahost.com/IRPH/join.html

And The Global Directory of Hypnosis Training.

http://www.hypno-training.com

Guarantee

This

Marketing Action Plan

is guaranteed.

Not just your money back. But double your money back.

Use

M.A.P

. for one full year. If not satisfied, send me details and samples of

everything you did—your Personal Marketing Assessment appraisal,
completed Charts, Yellow Page ads, phone answering messages, speeches
you gave, radio shows you hosted, commercials you purchased, websites
you created, etc., etc.
On receipt of such evidence that you put the M.A.P. into practice yet are not
happy, I will send you double your purchase price.
[Please note that to validate the Guarantee you must first register this

M.A.P

. All that is required is to send your name, street address, city, State

or Province and the date you bought the ebook, to me at

drknight@hypnosis.org

Registration is free.]
Bryan M. Knight, MSW, PhD.