For a complementary therapist, whether reflexologist, hypnotherapist, massage therapist, acupuncturist or other, to succeed in private practice requires a good helping of marketing skills. It is no good being the most effective nutritionist or Bowen technique practitioner in the world if you dont tell the world that you exist.

Your business, and you should view your therapy practice as a business, will succeed or fail depending on your therapy skills and ability to market yourself. For financial reasons many therapists have to rely on their own judgements with regards to what they need to do to attract clients.

The newly qualified therapist full of excitement and energy and keen to get going quickly may be tempted to buy their clients. Often throwing money at marketing leads to disappointing results. Advertising in newspapers, magazines, numerous editions of yellow pages, journals, local directories, doctors surgeries, appointment cards, radio and TV without informed ideas can be waste of money. Advertising should be researched and approached in the thorough way that you would apply to your therapy clients.

It is vital to maintain a note of how a client heard about you. It is the only way to know whether an advertisement or marketing campaign has been effective. It is therefore crucial to observe what the other massage therapists, counsellors, psychotherapists, iridologists and other therapists in your area are doing. If they place a regular advert in a particular place then there is very chance that it is working for them and could work for you. Never use an exact duplicate of their format. You will succeed more often by being original. Consider what extra value you could offer to prospective clients that would make your competitors seem second best.

In order to keep a steady stream of enquires coming in you should market your practice every week. That means every week. If you stop marketing when you are experiencing a feast of clients then you will soon experience a famine. Some marketing methods require a longer lead-time to get a response, may be weeks or months. Others can be very rewarding very quickly and literally within hours. If you continue to market your practice every week you give yourself what every therapist craves: a steady stream of new clients week after week.

Make a decision about how much of your therapy fees you are going to spend on marketing and stick to it. This can be your budget which you will need to get the most value from.

When paying for an advertisement anywhere, do remember to haggle over the cost. You should never accept the first price you are given. Newspapers do find it difficult at times to fill the space they have. Ask your newspaper or magazine to inform you when they have late space. This is advertising space that they have not been able to fill and where they are grateful to sell it at all. They will normally offer a large discount to anyone who can provide advertising copy quickly, so have yours ready.

Alternatively you can always achieve better coverage without paying a penny. When you read your local newspaper always look out for any stories that could allow you to incorporate a therapy slant. From Local Dietician Helps School Kids Concentration to Massage Therapist Eases Footballers Strains. Make sure that any feature incorporates details of target groups that you can help, such as people with phobias, muscle strains and injuries, low confidence, weight problems, stress etc and of course details of how you can be contacted.

To Conclude: -

(i)Maintain records of how your clients found you.

(ii)Continue those marketing methods that are effective.

(iii)Stop or amend marketing that doesnt work in a reasonable period of time.

(iv)Always negotiate over price: tell them you have a limited budget and need a better deal than that!

(v)Look out for local news that you can add a therapy twist to.

(vi)Keep marketing your practice every week.

If you follow the ideas and add to them, as your marketing experience grows you will soon enjoy confidence and security in your business and therapy practice.