-
Deepak Chopra, MD
"EFT offers great healing benefits."
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques®) Where emotional relief brings physical health
Self help method often works where nothing else will No Drugs Involved ~ High Success Rate
EFT Resources
Building a Thriving Practice--Part VIII
Advertising is common sense. It doesn't take a genius to do it and, while experience is certainly useful, it doesn't take decades to become effective. A few weeks or few months of practice and trial & error with the right principles should make good advertisers out of anyone.
Advertising takes many forms. There are, of course, those ever present TV ads with their frogs, lizards, clowns and 30 second mini-dramas. There are also billboards, blimps, neon signs and a long list of other efforts designed to write jingles, slogans and logos on our mental walls. Are they effective? Of course! The advertising industry collects $billions per year from the corporate world and they do so for one reason and one reason only...it works!
Most of the advertising we see is designed to install "name recognition." This is important because name recognition fosters confidence and trust in a product--even if it is mediocre in quality. Consumers would much rather buy products they have heard of than "take a chance" on the unknown. Even though the amount of money spent for advertising has nothing to do with the quality of the product, we still prefer Budweiser, Tide, Goodyear and IBM to competing products that are not advertised. If we haven't "heard of it," we tend to be suspicious. Familiarity breeds confidence and comfort. “You’re in good hands with Allstate.”
I’m telling you the obvious here and I doubt seriously if I’ve gone over anyone’s head. It's like I said, advertising is common sense. For any business (including a healing practice) name recognition is imperative for true success. It opens doors and gives the public a perception of competence. Practitioners with name recognition don’t have to keep selling themselves. Nor do they have to explain their methods or hunt for new business. People come to them--they seek them out--because they are recognized “names” in the field. Examples are Joyce Brothers, Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra. You may be more effective at what you do than these folks--but that doesn’t matter. Given the choice, most clients want to deal with the big names.
So, do you have a few $million to spend on name recognition advertising? If you do, just hire some Madison Avenue firm to make up some cutesy little ditty about Harry/Helen the Healer (you) and splash it all over your local radio and TV stations. No need to read any further. Just throw big money at the problem. Your advertising worries will be over. Your budget and marriage may be over too but, what the heck, at least people will know your name.
Fortunately, there are many ways to create name recognition that require little or no cost. You can develop an enviable and recognizable presence in your community/state/country without raiding your piggy bank or refinancing your home. We’ll explore some possibilities along these lines, but first, let me ask you a question…..
Do you know my name?
Unless you are a real newbie to this list, you know my name quite well. You could even say I have name recognition in this field. Some might say I have a major presence. Doesn’t that seem a little odd? I mean, how does an unknown person without any formal credentials or conventional training become a brand name in a field filled with highly educated people that place MA, PhD, MD, etc. behind their names? Here’s the answer. It’s insultingly simple.
I write you letters frequently.
I give you case histories and how-to-do-it suggestions. I make announcements. I feature the ideas of other people. I give you inspirational stories, humor and personal experiences. I write about my Mom and my high school football coach and tie all this into our new Healing High Rise. And every time I do this my name passes before your eyes—name recognition. “You’re in good hands with Gary (smile).”
Interestingly, none of this was planned. Less than 2.5 years ago I retired and chose to spend part time launching EFT into Therapy Land. My goal was simply to make it available to the healing professions on an easy-to-learn and affordable basis. That was all.
But my message turned out to be a compelling one and an email list was a natural outgrowth of that. Today this email list is almost 100 times what we started with and thousands of practitioners around the world are using EFT regularly. Without conscious effort (or formal advertising), the EFT name (and mine) have developed substantial name recognition within the field. And there is more to come.
And what did all this cost? Peanuts. Anyone can start an email list for little or no cost. No stamps. No letterhead. No stuffing envelopes. Just write your message, press the send key and multitudes receive it.
In many ways this is more effective than paid advertising. Why? Because a newsletter can be written in a non-commercial way. It is a letter from a friend. People read it with interest. They study it and share it with their friends. It contains helpful information. It can be trusted. By contrast, paid advertising doesn’t enjoy anywhere near this level of acceptance. Why? Because the advertiser has paid to sell you something. Even if the message is a valid one, it must still get by a degree of suspicion if it is to be effective. Believability is a challenge with paid advertising but it is no challenge whatsoever with your friendly email newsletter. The corporate world would love to have this advantage.
Now I hope you have a glimpse of just how common sense, and practical, advertising can be. The informative fun-to-read email newsletter is but one example of effective, low cost ways to generate name recognition and get your point across. There are others, many others.
But that’s enough for now. Next time we’ll discuss how to start and grow a newsletter of your own.
Hugs, Gary
Return to Building a Private Practice--Main Menu
