I hope you had a good week and are feeling ready for Friday.
This is the last day of our short email course to help you with easy marketing - 4 emails, Monday to Thursday this week.
The ideas Iâm sharing are principles that have helped me immensely on my practice journey.
show gratitude
be consistent
build solid foundations
refine your strategy
My marketing journey
When I started training as a homeopath I thought that everyone would feel the same way about homeopathy as me, if only they knew about it.
I thought if I just shared how much it had helped me, that would be enough to 'convert' people and soon I would have a thriving practice.
After I graduated in 2007, my first few years in practice were quite challenging due to a series of hard things happening in my personal life.
My practice grew, but very slowly, and as people got better, they stopped coming to see me.
I had lots of referrals, but not all the people who were referred to me were as âon boardâ with the idea of homeopath as the person who referred them.
My website and my clinic brought in a couple of new enquiries each month, but I needed more.
I was determined to make homeopathy a proper career, so I tried all the different marketing strategies I could think of.
Marketing strategies I triedÂ
Homeopathy workshops - this led to a few paying clients.
Talk at the Womenâs Institute - led to one client.
A paid stall at several NCT Bring and Buy Sales - led to two clients.
Posters and fliers - this was definitely worthwhile but did need topping up regularly.
I did a paid advert in my local NCT newsletter for several years and this was a good source of enquiries.
I wrote a monthly column in a free local magazine, with a small paid advert, which brought interest but not many paying clients, if any.
For three years I paid for membership at a local networking group and attended networking lunches every month with limited success.
I did therapy swaps with other practitioners, which was fun, and led to a couple of referrals.
I met up for coffee with a local mum who made creams for eczema and while I brought her business she didnât seem super interested in homeopathy.
I built my Facebook business page to 1000 likes and shared useful content there (usually likes and comments were from friends and other homeopaths). I left Facebook eventually and honestly don't miss it.
I ran a low-cost clinic for several years at a local charity, which was very worthwhile, and gave me valuable experience, but again, did not help to build my practice.
The last summer before my husband finished his PhD I wrote a 30-day decluttering course and promoted it with a small number of paid ads on Facebook. This made me a useful amount of money so I could take my kids on holiday for a week but didnât really grow my practice.
I joined three network marketing companies and put a lot of effort into selling products. This resulted in some clients choosing the products instead of homeopathy which had not been my intention at all. (I still promote Nealâs Yard as part of my practice which is not hugely profit-making but I love the products so it is worthwhile).
I set up listings on several therapy listings sites, which has generated one long-term client to date.
Set up my profile on Linked In and asked for testimonials there.
There are probably some other things I tried, but these are the main ones I can think of at the moment.
Looking back, Iâm impressed by my persistence.
Reflections on my journey
I think it did help that I had a background in teaching, and therefore was quite confident about speaking to groups.
I also paid for my initial graphic design and website building while I was still a teacher, so my salary at the time paid for them.
The long list of marketing strategies took up a lot of time, and energy and while some of them helped me make money, most of them didnât break even.
In all honesty, I didn't get enough return on any of them to make them very worthwhile.
Marketing strategies that paid off
Alongside all of the things on the list you just read, I steadily worked on writing blog articles and focused on sending a regular newsletter.
To be honest, I didnât know what I was doing, and I definitely didnât know if either of them would work.
Gradually it dawned on me that most of my new enquiries came from people who found my website and read the articles I had written.
How my awareness of SEO began
In 2018, the clinic where I worked hired an SEO expert who helped the clinic improve its website.
The SEO expert gave all the practitioners one main piece of advice.
Set up Google my Business with all the information it needs, add photos and ask for reviews.Â
This advice turned out to be incredibly valuable.
I simply went all out to get people to leave reviews for me.
I was also inspired to read up about SEO and to focus on writing better content on articles related to topics in my niche.
A decision to rebrand
Around this time I also invested in a new logo, new photography and new web design.
My husband had just finished his PhD and got a minimum wage job for six months while he applied for consultancy work.
This meant that I was no longer the sole wage earner in my family, and so I could put a chunk of my earnings each month went towards the next stage in my rebranding.
Encouraged by my new design, I refined and curated my newsletter so it was warm, friendly and full of links that people wanted to read.
I watched my Google Search results improve, and my newsletter open rates steadily increase.
Finally I felt confident enough to increase my fees so that I could pay myself properly for the work I was doing.
When I graduated in 2007, the internet was not what it is now, and so all those different marketing tactics were really important.
But now that everyone looks for everything on Google, I want to encourage other homeopaths to focus on SEO, blog writing and newsletters too.
You can do this too!
If you would like to know more about my style of marketing, I would like to invite you to join me for a four-hour webinar that focuses on:
Google My Business
Writing blog articles
Writing a newsletter that people want to read
If you have enough new enquiries or your practice is full, you donât need this webinar. đ
But, if you have a website and you would like more enquiries, there will be skills and strategies you can try.
Skills, Checklists and Strategies to Grow Your Practice Online
Friday 10th February
10am - 2pm
Early bird ends tomorrow:Â ÂŁ40 until 9 am, Friday 27th January 2023
ÂŁ50 thereafter
Join live, or watch on replay.
The webinar includes a clear set of notes, links to recommended tools and more.
If you have questions, please reply to this email and I will do my best to answer them. đđźââď¸
Now, on with the last part of Easy Marketing!
Today weâll look at refining your strategy.
The goal: refine your marketing strategy
The strategy: research, reflect and set goals
Look at your client base over the last year or so and look for patterns. Who do you enjoy working with? What do they have in common? How can you attract more of those clients?Â
Set up client interviews to find out more about your ideal client. How did they find you? Why did they decide to work with you? What do they see as the benefits of working with you? Has there been anything that surprised them?
Once you have done the client interviews, ask if you can use their words as testimonials on your website. Use their language to help you revise your wording for your website, plan content for your blog articles etc.
Use normal, everyday language to explain what you do. Write short simple sentences. Use lots of white space. Avoid jargon.
There are 1000s and 1000s of pages on homeopathy on Google.
You want to be the one that people find when they are looking.
Google My Business, positive reviews, good photos, everyday language and focused blog articles are not an overnight fix, but once you have them in place you will steadily get more enquiries.
Writing content aimed at real people (like your ideal clients) will attract more people like them.
"You need to be specific." Seth Godin
[link to his post on being specific]
A few words about pricing:
People make assumptions based on your pricing.
Pricing shapes what people believe about your service.Â
If you price yourself well, you can afford to offer concessions.
Tip:
If you are not busy enough, and you want to offer concessions, make this clear on your website (and social media too if you want).
Books you might like to read:
1. Chilpreneur by Denise Duffield Thomas
2. Playing Big by Tara Mohr
3. This is Marketing by Seth Godin
Resources you might like to read:
Final thoughts
It does get easier, I promise.
I know I said this would be 'Easy Marketing' and maybe you feel it wasn't quite as easy as you hoped it might be. đ
Hopefully, though, it's been a worthwhile and interesting week.Â
The truth is, you just need to figure out your strategy, and then keep working on it. đĄ
Build trust and be consistent and you will stand out.
You'll be the person people find when they're looking for someone like you.
How did you find the exercises today?
Please leave a comment and I promise to reply. â¨
Thank you for being here.
Tracy đŠđźâđť
P.S.
If you only take away 2 things from this course...
1. You donât have to be like everyone else.
2. Itâs a long game. Invest your time where it counts.
I hope you will join my webinar Skills, Checklists and Strategies to Grow Your Practice Online Friday 10th February, 10 am - 2 pm đĄ