We ran a competition at www.naturalbloom.com. It called for the best marketing and promotion techniques. Thanks to everyone who participated. The competition ended yesterday and I got to read the entries to judge what I thought was the best tip. Here is what I think:

Give your all to your clients: Quality, expertise and healing with love and presence. Word of mouth clients referred from clients who believe in you are the best.

This entry comes from Mitta from California. Thank you very much for this insight and congratulations. We’ll be doing a phone consultation in the next few days. Congratulations also to the other winners: John from the UK, Jean from the UK and Emma from Australia. All of you receive a free Passionate Training to help you move forward.

Why is it the Best?

You might wonder why I think this is the best tip. Very simply: it starts with the most important concept: the client. Giving the client everything puts total focus on creating value for whoever walks in the door. It steps away from the need to sell or the worry whether there will be enough clients.

That is the true meaning of marketing: providing that exceptional service. All other advertising and marketing tools are just supporting this one essential thing. And without the great service, nothing else will work.

So congratulations again and I look forward to our phone conversation.

If you have not yet received my free report: The 7 Biggest Business Mistakes Health Practitioners Make, just enter your name and email and I'll send it to you. Name: E-Mail: I respect your privacy and will never sell, share or pass on your details.

My main problem seems to be keeping the majority of clients coming for more than 2 or 3 visits.

Is there a certain phrase or seed that can be planted in their minds from the initial contact that will have them returning for week after week month after month?

Find out Why

As a first step, I would want to find out why they are not coming back.

• Have you healed them so well that they do not feel they need it?
• Are you doing something they don’t like (maybe become too familiar)?
• Do they feel it is getting too expensive?

How to find out? Call them and talk to them a certain time after they have been with you.

Take the Lead in Making Contact

Either they tell you something that you can change for the better. Or you might actually find that your calls result in many of your clients coming back.

Turn that into a system where you make contact in a variety of ways.

• send cards
• phone
• email
• send a text message

The Passionate Training has a section on how to set up that system.

Lock them in

Most humans are lazy. Taking action is an effort. So you need to take away the effort for your clients to come back.

Here are some possibilities:

1. Book them into the next appointment when they leave
2. Call them a certain time after their last visit, inquire how they are feeling, offer a new appointment
3. Book them into a recurring spot (e.g. Wednesday at 10am every fortnight)
4. Sell a pack of 10 appointments for a reduced price (payable upfront)

But the most important first step is to find out why they are not coming back. If there is anything you can learn from that to improve your service, you’ve gained a lot.

Yesterday’s post made me think a bit further.

Any business does better when it sells more than one product. So what are some other massage products that you could add to your services?

Here are some possibilities:

1. Sell CD’s of the music you are playing
2. Sell Yoga or other fitness DVD’s
3. Sell the massage oil blends you are using
4. Sell a nutritional drink (you could serve it to them as a welcome gift)
5. Package deals with other local suppliers that you are affiliated with
6. And of course massage gift vouchers

Listen to Your Clients

When you listen to your clients, you will get inspiration as to what they want. React to that. Service and satisfy them.

Whatever you do, remember that massage (or your modality) is your main service. Do not dilute that by peddling other stuff. Instead offer it as an added service.

Joining a networking marketing company can be useful, as they often provide services beyond just providing the products (e.g. the invoicing, the shipping, holding stock, etc.) . However the training they provide is on selling as much of their products as possible, often to the detriment of the seller’s relationships.

So keep your focus on your main service and use the other massage products to satisfy your clients wishes (and to gain additional income).

Fingertips shared a fantastic idea about value added massage services. She was thinking about how to differentiate herself and came up with the idea of offering to take clients’ blood pressure.

Not only does this give clients something memorable and unusual to talk about to their friends, it also shows the benefits of massage in a very direct way. Clients can compare their blood pressure before and after the treatment.

Other ideas could be

1. A footbath detox while clients wait
2. A footspa or just a footbath
3. A footmassage wobbler (don’t really know what they are called)
4. An automatic massage chair in the waiting room
5. A heatpack for the shoulders or the back before the massage

Or something to stimulate the other senses

1. Music (I guess most of you do that already)
2. Essential Oils in an oil lamp
3. Offering a detox tea
4. Offering energy balls (you know these healthy sweet things)
5. Having changing artist exhibitions in your office

All of this does not cost very much and makes the experience with you special and memorable.

We plan to move out of the city into a rural area in the next 6 months, is it worth trying to build up my practice before that, and learn some skills (not to mention, building my confidence) that will make it easier for me to build my practice again once we move?

Dear Catherine, building a practice takes a lot of effort, consistent effort.

You are definitely right about building your confidence by practicing what you have learned. That is the most important thing, so I definitely would not wait for 6 months before doing anything.

On the other hand, building a practice takes a lot of energy, especially in the early months. Probably more energy than what your income will amount to in 6 months.

Well connected?

Unless you are really well connected and respected in the community you are living in now. Then you still have to educate people to trust you as a health practitioner now. But it makes it easier.

One idea would be to focus on treating people, rather than building a practice. Set a goal of how many people you want to treat. Maybe you do this as a fund-raising event. 50% of every Dollar made (or even 100% if you can afford it) goes towards a community project.

Maybe the community project is in the rural area where you are going to move to. That way you could arrive there with a BANG (not to speak of your confidence in treating).

You could use it as PR ( in the city where you live now and in the rural area where you are going to.) People would not have to be sold too much on the treatment, but more on the value of the community project.

Ok, just an idea.

Exit Strategy

The other option would be to build up a practice that you actually sell when you leave. For that to work, you would need to have totally different goals (not how many patients you want to treat):

• A specific number of regular clients
• A profit target
• Marketing materials
• Systems that are working
• Possibly even staff

In all that it would be important that the relationships are built with the brand of your practice, not so much you as a person. That way whoever buys it gets value, rather than losing out because you walk out.

The biggest risk is that the practice is not yet well enough established in 6 months to get a good enough price for it.

The other risk is that you will not find a buyer who has go the money to purchase it.

So if you go this route, it would be good to have a buyer in mind from the start (maybe even start it as a partnership with an agreement on how the other person buys you out).

Building a Trial Practice or Practicing

I do not think that building a practice in the city has much impact on how well you will build it in the country. As you already know, it is a lot about personal relationships.

If you try it half heartedly in the city, you might even have it more difficult to do it again, because of how slowly it grew.

I definitely think practicing your modality is most important. Maybe there is the possibility of employment (or being a contractor) for the next 6 months, so that you can focus on practicing, rather than building the practice.

I love all your advice. I live in a tiny town in South Africa and have a health practice - massage, reflexology, Indian Head Massage etc. The place is actually too small to specialise, which is why I have branched out. My question is -

What is the best way of attracting new business (apart from word of mouth)? How do I go about promoting myself?

The short answer is:

No one can tell you what the best way is for you. You need to test it out.

The longer answer: Specialise!

You say that you live in a tiny town. That is actually ideal. It makes it possible that you get known much more quickly for what you do.

Specialising does not mean to say: “I do Indian Head Massage only”.

Specialising means defining what problem you solve and for who.

Maybe you are a stress buster. People with a headache (often developed through stress), you use Indian Head Massage, people with tight muscles (often developed through stress) you massage and where the stress has manifested in problems with the organs, you use reflexology.

In each case, you make sure that your clients feel rejuvenated and relaxed after the treatment. My guess is that happens anyway, so it is just a matter of pointing it out.

You become the expert on stress, chronic stress, acute stress, etc.

Why?

Specialising puts a spin on your promotion. It does not limit what you do.

The biggest reason for putting that clear spin on it is that people can talk about you more easily and consistently. I know you wanted something else than word of mouth. And I ended up here anyway.

There is no way around it, word of mouth is the most effective marketing tool. With your help, it works faster and more effectively. Being a specialist with a clear message is one ingredient.

Giving a great service that over-delivers on your promise is the second important ingredient.

The detailed answer:

The Passionate Training consists of 25 detailed exercises to help you promote yourself.

A common problem is smoothing out the peaks and troughs where one week is very busy followed by a very quiet week. What do you suggest for achieving a more consistent workflow?

Great question.

My answer is going to be a bit controversial.

What is your work?

The way you asked that question makes one big assumption: Your work is treating patients.

I do not believe that is the whole truth. Other important parts of your work are

• Marketing
• Networking
• Following up with your clients
• Bookkeeping and paying invoices
• Ordering products
• Keeping up with new developments in your field

So in a way, you should be thankful for the times with fewer clients, because it allows you to focus on all these other things.

I write down every idea I have for exactly that reason: Whenever I have some spare time, I look at my list and do some of these things.

Market when you are busy

I have written about post about marketing your practice when you have clients. In it I talk about how much easier it is to market yourself when you are busy and excited by your success.

So in an ideal case, set some hours aside each week for your work other than treating clients. If clients want an appointment, make them wait (until the next week that is not busy yet). That helps to smooth things out, it might also show how wanted you are and make clients book in earlier (or for a regular treatment time each week or each fortnight).

A Practical Massage Marketing Tip

Let’s say that you have completed all your “non-treatment work”, you’ve got time left and you need some more income this week.

Send out a special via email or text message. Tell you best clients: “I’ve got a few spots left this week and would like to fill them. The first five people to call for an appointment pay for a 1 hour massage, but get 1.5 hours.”

If you do that make sure

1. the offer is enticing (not just 10% off, in fact stay clear of discounting, instead add value)
2. that there is some urgency to it (you could also send it out in the morning for appointments the same afternoon)
3. that you do not do that too often!

One last Thought

Get clients on ongoing massage plans. That way you have them booked in each week, fortnight or month and know what income you can rely on. Again make that enticing. You can afford to earn less per treatment, because you do not have to spend the time and money to sell over and over again.

The first step - before thinking about advertising or even a website - is to get clarity on what problem you solve and for who.

The more clarity you have on that, the better you will be able to communicate in a way that attracts the right clients. The key is to find your special niche, where you become the expert in your town. That way, word of mouth will spread much more rapidly.

I know that it seems to go against common sense. Many natural health practitioners I have worked with wanted to offer many different things to get more clients. But that way any message that you get out, be it in advertising or on your website is diluted and does not grab anyone.

If you serve one specific target market with a solutions to a single problem (or some related problems), your message hits home with the people that have that problem.

Building a practice is an investment. There is no way around it. That investment can either be made in money or time. If you do not want to spend money, but have time, it is the best thing you can invest (and usually more effective than investing money) because it allows you to build personal relationships.

Special offers are an excellent way to invest your time. Rather than discounting, offer something like a free checkup (that relates to your specific target market). By given value beyond what people expect, you will start to build a trusting relationship. And with the right nurturing, your happy clients will become your best marketing tool: they just spread how great you are through word of mouth.

The Passionate Training takes you through each step.

Without knowing where you are at in building your practice, my answer will be a bit broad.

But it is true all the same: Focus on creating value for your clients. By having in mind what you are giving – what your contribution is – you will make the best decisions.

What Is Your Contribution?

Being a health practitioner is about serving other people. It is about
contributing something to the world, making it a better place, helping others
to become healthier and more aware about themselves.

It usually involves some or all of the four levels of experiencing life: the
physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level.

Why are You a Health Practitioner?

What made you decide to be a health practitioner before you started out?
Has that changed since being in practice? Honestly ask yourself how much
time you spend worrying about having enough money and how much time
you spend contributing to the wellbeing of your clients?

If money outweighs contributing, you might need to reassess your
approach. Are you really ready to be a full-time health practitioner? If you are
just starting out, have you got the funds or the backing to keep you going
without much of an income for 6-12 months? That is a normal time-frame to
build up a reliable client base, when you really work on it.

If this concerns you, think about ways you can generate financial stability:
get a part-time job, reduce your expenses, use your savings, or even borrow
money (be sure that this reduces your stress).

Once you have created financial stability, start concentrating on what it is
that you actually contribute to your clients’ wellbeing.

Whether someone is good in selling or not usually comes from the mindset of what you are trying to achieve.

As long as you are stuck in the: “I have to convince someone to give me money.” it is very unlikely that you will have much success. But when you return to what you really want to achieve, what made you become a health practitioner in the first place, your focus will shift to providing value for your clients. Then the “selling” turns into providing value to others in need and they start asking you for more.

A clear vision helps to reconnect with that original reason why you do what you do.