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Marketing - How to Get More Clients and Market Complementary Therapies
By: Steve Harold

For a complementary therapist, whether reflexologist, hypnotherapist, massage therapist, acupuncturist or other, to succeed in private practice requires a good helping of marketing skills. It is no good being the most effective nutritionist or Bowen technique practitioner in the world if you dont tell the world that you exist.

Your practice will be a success or failure depending on your therapy skills and your marketing skills. Most therapists have to rely on their own judgements and instincts with regards to what will make the telephone ring.

The newly qualified therapist full of excitement and energy and keen to get going quickly may be tempted to buy their clients. Often throwing money at marketing leads to disappointing results. Advertising in newspapers, magazines, numerous editions of yellow pages, journals, local directories, doctors surgeries, appointment cards, radio and TV without informed ideas can be waste of money. Advertising should be researched and approached in the thorough way that you would apply to your therapy clients.

It is essential to always keep records of how your clients heard about you. It is the only way to know whether an advertisement or marketing strategy has worked. Look at what the other massage therapists, counsellors, psychotherapists, iridologists and other therapists in your area are doing. If they place a regular advert in a particular place then there is a good chance that it is working for them and could work for you. Whatever you do, dont just use a carbon copy of their format. Try to be original. Think of what extra value you could offer to prospective clients that would knock the competition into a poor second place.

To keep a regular flow of client enquires you will need to market your practice every week. If you become tempted to stop marketing when you are experiencing a glut of clients then you will soon experience a barren time. Some marketing methods require a longer lead-time to get a response, which may be weeks or months. Other methods can be very rewarding quickly and some literally within hours. If you continue to market your practice every week you give yourself what every therapist desires: a regular flow of new clients week after week.

Make a decision about how much of your therapy fees you are going to spend on marketing and stick to it. This can be your budget which you will need to get the most value from.

If you decide to pay for an advertisement anywhere, always negotiate. Never accept the first price you are given. Often local newspapers find it difficult to fill the space they have. Ask to be informed when they have last minute space. This is advertising space that they have not been able to fill and where they are grateful to sell it at all. They will offer quite a substantial discount to anyone who can provide advertising copy quickly, so have yours ready.

Alternatively you can always achieve better coverage without paying a penny. When you read your local newspaper always look out for any stories that could allow you to incorporate a therapy slant. From Local Dietician Helps School Kids Concentration to Massage Therapist Eases Footballers Strains. Make sure that any feature incorporates details of target groups that you can help, such as people with phobias, muscle strains and injuries, low confidence, weight problems, stress etc and of course details of how you can be contacted.

To Summarise: -

(i) Keep records of where your clients heard about you.

(ii) Continue those marketing methods that are effective.

(iii) Stop or amend marketing that doesnt work in a reasonable period of time.

(iv) Haggle over price: tell them you have a limited budget and you want their best deal

(v) Be creative with local news that you can add a therapy twist to.

(vi) Keep marketing your practice every week.

Follow the above and you will soon hone your marketing to successful strategies that produce paying clients.

Article Source: http://health-diet-alternativemedicine-info.co.uk/health_articles

Steven Harold Author of Marketing for Complementary Therapists Marketing Therapy

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