Key to Effective Marketing For Alternative Practitioners

Effective Marketing For Alternative Practitioners

A Feldenkrais practitioner came to me about a year ago needing more effective marketing materials for her practice. I was excited to help because Feldenkrais had given me almost total pain relief from severe and chronic back pain many years ago. To me, Feldenkrais is a Godsend. I knew creating marketing material would be fun and it was something I completely believed in and wanted to support.

When I started gathering information and material for Feldenkrais, I searched the web to see how other Feldenkrais practitioners marketed themselves. I was astounded by the lack of marketing know how. Almost every site out there starts out by explaining what Feldenkrais is or who Dr. Feldenkrais was. It’s all stuff like, “It’s a movement re-education system, blah blah blah.” Almost no one talked about benefits like pain relief.

When I talked to the practitioner about telling prospective clients about pain relief, better balance, and better coordination, she hesitated. Not everyone got pain relief. Having experienced such dramatic pain relief myself, I absolutely wanted her to market with this. I also know potential clients want to know you can help them.

Since then I’ve worked with other “Alternative” practitioners and workshop leaders. Universally, I find that they don’t use benefits to market. They all want to talk about the process. The problem is, your prospects don’t really care that much about the process. They are really focused on results. They want to know what’s in it for them. Will you or will you not solve their problem, stop the pain, build their self esteem, etc.?

If you want more clients or more class participants, you need to start educating prospective users about how you will help them. Don’t explain the process. Tell success stories. Tell how other people have benefited from what you did for them. When they ask how you do it, invite them to a session with you to experience it for themselves. Don’t fall for the trap and start explaining how it works. Yes, they asked how, but what they really want to know is, “will it work for me?”

Your answer should be to ask what pain or problem they are experiencing and then to share a time that you helped someone in a similar situation. Follow up with an offer to have a session with you to learn more. And don’t offer this as a free session. Even if your practice is “alternative”, I assume you are trained and highly skilled. Charge for the first visit. You deserve it.

Update your marketing materials as well. Do they headline the problem you are solving? If not, revise them. If you are going to “explain” how you work, put that at the end. Better yet, don’t do it. Tell success stories instead. Use quotes from clients. Let them know you can help. My Feldenkrais client experienced a five-fold increase in participants at the first introductory talk after changing her marketing. Not everyone gets this kind of increase, but you can expect to double your success rate or more. That’s a lot more people that you can help. I’m sure you started in your profession to help others the best you can. Using these guidelines you can help others and help yourself at the same time.

Wishing you all the best,

Michael Clark
Business & Beyond
415-461-3520
www.biznbeyond.com

If you’d like to learn more about marketing your alternative business, check out my website at www.biznbeyond.com. Go to the Business Revelations page to see other articles on small business success. If you’d like a free copy of my workbook, From Vision to Action--Simple and Powerful Steps for Business Success go to the home page and fill out the form.

Please feel free to forward this to associates that may benefit. Please include the entire email message. Thank you. Copyright Michael Clark, Business & Beyond, 2005


About the Author:
Business consultant and professional speaker Michael Clark has been helping businesses including Fortune 500 companies such as IBM and Cellular One succeed for over 20 years. Michael is a serial entrepreneur having opened multiple successful businesses over the last 12 years. Before that he had a successful career in finance and accounting for large corporations.