Spreading the word

I am very keen to know how my colleagues “spread the word” with regards to hypnotherapy.

Like many others, when I started up in practice I wasted a great deal of money on advertising. No matter where I announced my services, nobody was interested. Then I put myself in the place of a prospective client and all became clear.

If I have a sore back and think a back massage would help, then I know to seek out a masseuse. If I think that foot reflex massage would help I look for a reflexologist. If my tooth aches … get the drift?

But if I am suffering from depression or panic attacks, how do I know that I need to see a hypnotherapist? The short answer is that in all probability I do not. This is borne out by the number of clients that tell me that I am their last resort, having tried all other therapies and finding that none of them helped!

Of course, some people do know about hypnotherapy, but it must be a small percentage of the people out there in the big wide world who could use our services.

One colleague has told me that he gets good results on Google when people search using the word “hypnotherapist” followed by the name of the town where he practices. I do not doubt that this is true, but do wonder how many clients he is missing because they do not understand that they need to type in the word “hypnotherapist” to get the help they need. After all, if I am a habitual liar, I am more likely to type in “stop lying” or something similar than “hypnotherapist large town near you”!

For the last couple of years I have been giving free talks to various groups in my area, groups such as the Women’s Institute, Rotary and the like. Slowly, as word spreads, my appointment book is filling – just by spreading the word.

Your comments are eagerly awaited, and I thank you for them in advance!
Denis

Tags: advertising, internet, keyword

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Woods on November 2, 2009 at 6:15am

Hi Denis,

I've been lucky and have 2 doctors and 1 RN in my karate dojo. Once they witnessed a few of my hypnosis skills, they started referring patients for appropriate issues. When you consider that most doctor's waiting lists are months long, that's a big potential. One oncology doctor at a local hospital currently has 75 patients and not much time for bedside manner and much less for drugfree pain/stress management.

The google thing does bring in some clients, mostly for smoking and weight, and I actually glean interest from Craigslist, too. Like you said, it takes a while to build up the business (like most any small biz)...

Best wishes,

Kelley

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Permalink Reply by Fred Crouter on November 3, 2009 at 5:03am

With Google you can place ads that will run in your city only and this might be a help.
In my area the local newspaper (over 200,000 circulation) had me mentioned in a front page article twice within 6 months.
Interesting enough is that not a one of my friends saw my name in the paper. That is what makes me think newspaper ads do not work.
In terms of ads remember that the greatest ad of all was "HEMORRHOIDS" and a phone number.

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Permalink Reply by Pete & Lorraine on November 17, 2009 at 11:05am

Hi .
We have found locally we usually get a good response from our paper The News with small or occasional large ads along with the odd editorial and our website seems to generate a lot of business. Also doing charity events with people who do holistic therapies and beauticians as well as WI talks. Yell.com Yellow Pages, have proved to be an expensive waste of time so far.
I think when people think of hypnosis they associate it with stage hypnosis and not therapy as I found when I have talked about it, there's that old chestnut about "turning into a chicken" . One reason for not using it for therapy, or using it as a last resort may be fear of "losing control" to someone else, giving away personal secrets.
Having said that hypnotherapy and NLP are fast becoming more acceptable through the TV, films, ads, and as more people train and qualify, and so more people have successful treatment, so word of mouth, (which is the best advertisement you can have), is spreading the word.

Pete

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Permalink Reply by Katherine Zimmerman on November 18, 2009 at 6:38am

Teaching classes has been the most effective way to attract clients. In fact, I have built my practice by teaching classes and by talking about my classes to anyone who would listen. I've become an expert on fitting into the conversation something about a class I'm teaching. I would also run an ad (this was 20 years ago) in the local small town paper. People would see the ad and call to see if I also saw clients privately because they didn't like classes. When I ran an ad for my private work, no one called.

Sometimes emotions come up during the workshop and they want to deal with them so they book fairly soon. Others wait for quite a long time... even a year or two... then call to do the private work. I'm going to guess that over the years 30-40% of my students have booked a private session or referred someone to me, often a family member.

Here's the thing, though. I charge enough for the workshop that I'm being well paid either way. There's actually good money in doing groups. My current self hypnosis class is $125 ($110 if they register 14 days in advance). I have anywhere from 6-12 students. 12 people at $110 is $1320. Divided by 5 (hours) that's $264/hour. Much higher than my private rate. I also sell CDs during class which brings in more $$ and helps the students.

When I was teaching more classes to the general public the same students would sign up for every class I offered. And still see me privately. These days my intent in teaching the SH class is to introduce people to the field of hypnotherapy as I'd rather teach that than do much else. When my intention was to attract private clients with my classes, I did. Now my intent is to attract hypno students and that is working as well.

In the SH class I mention a list of areas where self hypnosis can be used as well as areas where they will need a facilitator. It's also a short class... 2 class meetings, 2.5 hours each. Over the years most will say that they want to keep coming. If you leave them wanting just a bit more, they'll have more reason to do the private work. And they can accomplish so much more in a private session!

If we want people to use our services first we need to educate them. I've also given talks to groups, had booths at wellness fairs, etc. I was out there where ever I could to let people know about hypnotherapy. I took my business cards with me even when I used to go out dancing.

I hope that helps Denis.

Katherine