Private Clients: The First Key to Business Success as a Coach or Therapist

This will be the shortest of the posts on the “four keys” to success as a therapist or coach because it is the one I speak about on the most regular of basis. So, in this article I am just going to run through a very simple checklist of everything you want to be doing to get private clients.

As I said in a previous entry (read it here), you need to do two things to be successful:
1) Define your niche.
2) Dominate your niche, so you are the first (and preferably only) person people think of when they are looking for someone in that niche.

1. Decide on a Niche

It doesn’t need to be totally original, but it needs to be something specific that sets you apart from the rest of the coaches and therapists out there. Think of a niche as a “need”, what need in people can you fulfil?

2. Define what you do in 90 seconds or less

If you cannot explain your niche enough to get the person so interested they ask for more information in 90 seconds or less (preferably less), you niche is not defined enough.

3. Shrink that 90-second sales pitch to one sentence, this is your strapline

It should be striking and memorable and explain a bit about what you do.
I like Joe Vitale’s “I can make you famous in 90 seconds or less – GUARANTEED!”

4. Get your marketing “literature” sorted

I put “literature” in inverted comments as I also include websites in this category.

Firstly, get yourself a website. It doesn’t need to be fancy (in fact I would recommend simplicity), but needs to explain what you do and how people can book you. Don’t worry with any fancy nonsense like video yet.

Then get yourself some well-designed business cards (not rubbish free ones!). Your business card is still your number 1 marketing tool.

Recently I have been advocating more “old school” methods such as A6 flyers.

5. Develop a presence and reputation

a) Online

Social networking is brilliant for this. Get yourself a blog, a twitter account, a facebook account, a linked in account, etc and start putting relevant, interesting and informative content on there (using social networking to overtly sell is a big “no, no” and won’t do you any favours, although people appreciate you are running a business, so asking for clients, etc, whilst giving  good quality content is OK).

Also, add yourself to as many free directory sites as possible, like DMOZ, Gumtree, Googlemaps, Selfgrowth.com and any other relevant directories for what you do, and work on your Search Engine Rank (suggestions on this will be in a future entry).

b) Offline

Deliver your leaflets (or get them delivered), they are no use in the box in your office!

Give out your business card to everyone you meet, go to (free) networking events (your local chamber of commerce will have details).

Get yourself in the media. Write a press release (it has to be interesting, newsworthy and relevant, don’t just send out a release telling everyone about who you are, that is just selling and will get binned) and send it to local TV, radio and newspapers. National media may be a good ego boost, but local media is what will get you clients.

It is deceptively simple (in principle) to become successful in this key area, but it does take a lot of hard work, perseverance and consistency. The secret to being successful in this key (and in all the other areas) is to develop an effective niche. Once you have that everything else will drop into place.

Matt

PS If you liked this post, please bookmark it on Digg, Stumbled Upon, Twitter, etc. I would really appreciate it

SEO Part 2: Reputation

Firstly, my apologies for not being as frequent as usual with my entries on this blog, normal service will resume very soon.

In this entry I wanted to carry on with the idea of SEO (see my last blog) and the need to build a reputation first.

In any business, but more so in the self help field, you stand and fall on your reputation (or “brand”). In any crowded field (and boy, is the self help field getting crowded!), it is often that a handful of people or businesses will be getting the lions share of the business, work and money and the majority are left fighting for the scraps.

So how do you become one of those that has the lions share?

Well you need to build a bulletproof reputation and become the “go to expert” in your field.

It’s that simple really.

To be a successful therapist or coach you need to become the RECOGNISED EXPERT in your chosen field.

To do this you need to 2 (surprisingly simple) things:

1) To join (or better still create!) a field or niche where you can stand out as the recognised expert.

I know I keep banging on about it, but this is down to creative thinking and research. Find out what NEED is not being fulfilled (or not being fulfilled very well) for your potential customers and create a SOLUTION for that need.

You could have the best niche in the world, but if there is a limited (or no) NEED for that niche you will fail. Always ask yourself (and research, research, research) why someone has not filled this niche yet??

2) Create a Reputation that sets you apart in that Niche.

Position yourself as the ONLY (yes, only!) person who is capable of fulfilling that need in your CLIENTS minds (remember, when developing your therapy or coaching practice, to be a success you have always ask “what does the client really want?”). You don’t need to be only person doing it, but you need to be the only person your prospective clients thinks of.

This means you have to do 3 essential tasks:

1. Dominate the search engines for your chose keywords (because most people will turn to the internet first nowadays when searching for answers). What keywords or phrases would your potential clients use to look for the solution you offer (see my previous post on this)? How can you make sure you appear on the front page of all the major search engines for these phrases, in the most cost effective way possible this will be covered in my next post)?
2. Creating a massive word of mouth reputation within your potential client base, so that you are the first thing on their minds when asked about the NEED you offer a SOLUTION to.
3. Creating a media profile that stands you out as the “expert” in your field. Why is it do you think Paul McKenna is so successful? Is he the best hypnotist in the world? Probably not. Is he the best known hypnotist though? Probably.

These things will cost you nothing (or very, very little). All it requires is a bit of time and effort to find the answers you need.

Matt

PS, if you have found this post useful, please bookmark it on twitter, facebook, digg, stumbledupon, etc. I would really appreciate it

SEO Part 1: Web Optimisation or Reputation?

One of the biggest questions I am asked by people starting out is “How do I optimise my website (ie, improve it’s rankings on search engines)”, or “Should I pay to optimise my site”.

Which is understandable, the self-help field is incredibly competitive and everyone is fighting to be found. And you need to be found to be successful.

But to be found do you need to be on the front page of Google (Google is still the number search engine, with over 85% of the searches being done through Google) for you to be found?

The first page of Google seems to have become the holy grail of small businesses. If you are on the first page of Google you are guaranteed business, right?

Wrong.

I have met people who are obsessed with getting on the front page of Google, who don’t even have a website yet! Often they haven’t even decided what they want to do, and they are already stressing about getting a good Google rank.

This strange belief has created a whole industry of people promising to get your website to the hallowed ground of the first page of Google (for the right price of course). Some are more reputable than others, but more on that in a little while…

The first question is…

…is investing in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) worth it?

Well, yes it is.

But not yet, you need to do some pre-work first.

Firstly, lets just talk very briefly about what the search engines do (I am sure you know this already, but it is worth reiterating). When someone searches for something, say “Life Coaching, UK”, the search engines use a (very complex) algorithm to decide which of the websites it has listed are most RELEVANT to this search. It them ranks them in the order it decides is most appropriate, with the most relevant at the top.

This relevance is decided on a series of (ever changing – and becoming constantly more refined) criteria, but to even be in with a chance you need have the right keywords to begin with. So if you are a life coaching living in the UK, you need to at least mention on your site the terms “life coach” and “UK” (obvious really!).

However, I am sure you can imagine there are lot of life coaches in the UK all trying to be found and fighting for the hallowed front page.

This is where the importance of niches and specialty comes in. You need to decide on your niche, your “unique selling point” and research it. It will be much easier to appear on the first page of Google for “smoking cessation, Leicester”, for example (not that I have checked that search term. I have no idea if smoking cessation in Leicester is a viable niche or not!).

Once you have found your niche, you need to find relevant and related keywords or terms.

I use a mixture of Google Keyword tool:
https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal

and Good Keywords:
http://www.goodkeywords.com/

to find relevant terms (including common misspellings, which can be very useful).

If you don’t want to do this yourself, this is part of what your SEO company will do (if you decide to employ one).

But, I don’t want to jump too far ahead in this blog entry about how to do SEO, I wanted to discuss what else you need to do to be successful.

Say you have managed to get on the front page of Google for the keywords that you have chosen and therefore are well placed to take the most advantage and pick up the most business in your niche. Right?

Wrong.

Before you even need to consider going about getting yourself on the front page of Google (either by taking the time and effort to do it yourself or employ an SEO company), you need to consider some key points, otherwise your arrival at the hallowed first page will be wasted (and most probably short lived).

Landing on the front page of Google means you are more likely to found, it does not make it more likely that you will get work.

Think about that for a moment.

Then consider the 2 following points:

1) You need to spend a long time planning and designing your website.

Which should be obvious really, but needs reiterating (so many people I work with who moan about lack of clients have the most appallingly bad websites). If your website is unclear, untidy, messy, badly designed, badly written, and cheap looking, you will immediately lose any advantage you have from your placement on Google.

But  most importantly (the crux of this post in fact, it has just taken awhile to get here):

2) You need to build your reputation.

In fact, I would argue that a good reputation is easier, cheaper and more powerful (and more reliable) than a good Google rank, and if you are starting out, it is better to spend your time money and effort building your reputation than improving your Google rank.

I know some very, very, very (you get the idea) successful coaches, consultants and therapists who never turn up on Google for the keywords you would think they would (and a lot of them have rubbish websites too!).

Because, they have decided to take the time and effort to build a reputation, rather than build an online presence.

In the next few posts I intend to cover a mini-theme. Firstly I am going to go into a little more detail on how to do SEO or how to choose an SEO company (if you still want to go down that route) and how to build an excellent reputation (I would suggest, if you have time, to do both, obviously!).

Matt