With over 70,000 thoughts swirling around in the average persons mind daily, even if you are relevant, you are still likely not going to make the cut. It's a mind consuming culture we are in, and media is blasted within our daily life and it's numbing us out. There is a science when it comes to marketing effectively, and it's all about understanding the way people think, the environment people are subject to, the neuroscience of the brain, and consumer culture.
I have a background in marketing and it greatly helped me in my own holistic business, the problem is that marketing help that will really drive your business to great heights, is usually out of reach for the tiny size business which is holistic practitioners, it's just out of budget to play ball with these uptown marketing specialist, so what is one to do? Well there are all sorts of online marketing buy in's for the holistic entrepreneur now, and I'll tell you that many of them are offering stellar advice and direction but you aren't marketing conscious necessarily and probably won't spend the money. People think marketing is a waste of money, but ask any of the big guys? they all have a healthy marketing budget and strategies, they also advertise on top of that. Marketing and Advertising are two different subjects all together. From a business perspective it's true you need to spend money to make money. Marketing is going to be your next greatest foundation besides your products of offering. It's a lot better to spend money and market effectively than wait out the 2 year hump of letting your business grow - that's assuming it does.
Now that that is out of the way we can talk about your situation. Usually it's one of two. 1. You may have no budget as you've wiggled your way through school and now are all set up with your products & or services but have no way of getting it out there. 2. You have money, you just don't know what to do next.
#2 let's start with you, you need to get marketing help, I can give you a list of great recommendations for starting yourself through online help, or more hands on professionals.
#1 Let's think outside the box! Seriously, no budget - you're still able to do this, you've got to think grass roots, Gorilla style marketing, direct sales marketing. This is not the time to roll out tons of funds in media. Example of not a good idea with little budget is Radio ads, big investment to make successful as the average person needs to hear your message 7 times before it's relevant and they will be impulsed to buy. Airing your message during prime time is very expensive and you need to have it playing multiple times per day for a long time to be heard. I've flopped this avenue on my own - 4 years ago even with a market conscious commercial I spent $4000 with zero return. -gross mistake! That is a lot of massage & holistic consultations to make that up :(
What to do instead, work with what you've got and lose the fear! Thank God I was naive to the possible mistakes I could have made as it took away the fear to plunge ahead, I probably succeeded off the adrenaline that was pouring through my veins in my wild efforts to have a business that paid me upon launch.
Here is what I did to launch 2 separate similar business with success.
Since you are small and your business is based on health, you are inviting people to allow you to be a trusted expert in their life and discuss and work with intimate issues. Trust is key, so how do you break the ice before you meet them. Through instilling trust in someone they know first. How did I do this?
I was in a small enough town that I found a few local hair dressers, as with Massage - Hair dressers also build pretty intimate conversations with their clients and have a sense of trust, so this was my first choice of a JOINT VENTURE!
I offered the Hair dressers one of 2 options 1. A free massage weekly for handing out my information and recommending me to their client. or $15 for every person they sent me. I created a pamphlet with all my services, and I also prepared a business document that supported the proposal of a trade or fee. Since they didn't know me, I made an effort to express that they are going out on a limb but it could be an awesome opportunity for both of us, and as I build then I can also send them more business. I also made sure to get them in to try the service with no obligation to ensure they felt comfortable promoting me. It worked like gold! I had some awesome JOINT VENTURE partners and literally built my business through the local businesses. To compliment this, I hung additional posters promoting myself, and then offered my customers incentives to rebook and tell friends by offering deals if they booked in advance. Some examples: a membership rate: if they made a friendly commitment to book weekly or monthly they got a reduced rate. I figured out how many regulars I wanted at that rate to keep my finances stable and that was the amount of members I allowed. This made membership exclusive and a good deal for members financially, they also got the benefits of regular treatment. The regular treatment encouraged tons of referrals - which are the best marketing ever. The other people that could not be members were happy to receive other things, like bonus handouts and programs I put together, or a free pass to a workshop I was hosting.
All of these things led to my credibility and positioning me as an expert. I also made sure to give options, people like to have options so I built outside the box treatments, I made packages that mixed modalities and this made my business more premium. I payed great attention to each of my clients and worked to make each relationship important. They valued me for my sincerity and services, and I valued them for their commitment and trust in me. I put all of their contacts into online marketing opportunity ( Mail chimp). Here I could send out and track monthly news and incentives.
80 % of your business usually comes from 20 % of your customers, and 80% of your marketing budget in my opinion should go into your current customers as they already love you and trust you and will spend more with you if they have a reason. So instead of offering the great new deals to outsiders, I offer special deals to my customers to create that understanding that I appreciate them, and they always refer more to me, so we both win. Example: Members special Buy One service and get one Free for a friend. This saves them a christmas or birthday gift, and that gets me a new customer.
So here are just a few ideas. I'll be back with another post to share my second Launch in the next few days, so stay tuned. Maybe even get out a piece of paper and write down a list of complimentary businesses around you and think of a few ways you may be able to help each other joint venture!
Until next time :)
Tamara Pereira
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