Promoting your NLP business with leaflets...

[hypno-therapist]

Hi NLP'ers

I just wanted to make a quick post regarding marketing your NLP business'. One way that I have seen a benefit is to do some leafleting!

I have read many articles on leafleting and they nearly all bring back a success rate of between 0.5-4%. I guess the the content that you put in is your main amunition.

0.5-4% does not sound great, but lets break it down.

If you deliver 1000 leaflets it should take no longer than 3-4 hours.

Then you only get 0.5% response with is 5 new clients.

These clients come to see you for on average 6 sessions at 50-120GBP per hour.

You would have worked 4 hours leafleting and 30 hour in therapy, thats a total of 34 hours

What you would get in return is between 1500-3600GBP. Not bad for not even a full weeks work in total.

Hope this helps!

What other tips do others have?

[Alan Allard]

Good assessment...

To build on your comments:

The primary factor in getting responses will be the quality of the target market, who the leaflets are distribited to. So, distributing door to door will likely generate less responses vs. having leaflets displayed in a doctors office or even another business that recommends you.

Third party endorsements will drive the response much higher.

Alan Allard
http://www.geniusdynamics.com

[vigo]

A nice example Richard, and certainly a great lesson ("get up off your ass and market), but I'm afriad you've fallen into a statistical fallacy.

The quoted success rate of 0.5% - 4% is about right for a direct mail piece (generally 0.5%-1% for a single-piece campaign to a blind market with no experience of the advertiser) but what is being measured is enquires, not sales. And the number of enquires goes down in direct propartion to the prospect's interpretation of the "risk" and/or "cost" of taking that step (generally email will out pull phone will out pull return mail).

Now you're a persuasive, enthusiastic and influential man, Richard, but I doubt you convert everyone who phones for information into a client!

Here's a quick couple of tips for you:
1. Don't worry too much about fancy branding. Words sell, image only aids.
2. Try offering a free bonus like a report for some simple, easy to take action
3. Think about making your advertising drive people into your marketing system, don't try to sell in one-step to a skeptical and misinformed public: get prospects to raise their hands and spend your time and money marketing to the few who are already interested in what you offer.

Nath

[hypno-therapist]

Nath,

I quoted 0.5% as I generally get at least that in clients from leafleting, although it is normally higher. I ain't done it fo a good while though so things might have changed.

[vigo]

Great you get such a good response from leafleting (or used to anyway, guess you don't need to do it anymore!). Maybe you used some secret jedi mind trick to compel people to phone you

I was wondering, did you ever experiment with having leaflets delivered with the local free paper or just by a local school child?

[hypno-therapist]

Well... with the local rag I didn't do so well, but I think that this is cause the leaflet just got binned with all the other inserts and domino's menus that come in the local weekly.

I think that if you use the right words and post them in the right estates - leaflets are an ideal way to boost your business - well that is unless you run an ice store at the north pole

[vigo]

LOL!

I can think of a couple of guys who could sell ice to eskimo's (P.T. Barnum sold a truck full of "white salmon" by sticking a label on it saying "Guaranteed not to go pink in the can". Genius )

Leaflet's are definitely a great promotional tool for businesses who market to a geographic area, like therapists. I wonder if postcard marketing to past clients (maybe a 3-7 step system to reactivate old clients & get new referrals) would be effective?

[hypno-therapist]

"Guaranteed not to go pink in the can".

I don't get it??

How do you mean with the postcards?

[vigo]

White Salmon doesn't exist! I think he had tinned cod or some such very common fish but needed to sell it quicker and for more money than he would otherwise had got. So Barnum invented a unique benefit, a talking point for fancy dinner parties really, a brand new product - never heard of before: white salmon, guaranteed not to turn into boring old regular pink salmon.

Postcards: I mean sending out a series, or even a one-off, of cards to past clients to check up how they are doing and maybe even give a few tips related to the problem they came to you with (not sure how practical this last bit would be). The goal is to 'reactivate' past clients to help them with any issues they currently have in their lives and to stimulate referrals. Historical evidence would seem to indicate a brief postcard campaign to a client between 6 and 12 months after the end of treatment would be helpful to the client, their friends and the therapist.

[hypno-therapist]

White Salmon doesn't exist? Damn - whats that I got in the freezer then?

Good idea with the postcards, although it would need some thinking.

[Alan Allard]

A series of postcards spaced out every 2-3 weeks is very effective. Of course, the copy and the target market impacts response rate.

Mailing to inactive clients is excellent, especially when a great tip for improving your life is included or even the main feature. Have a call to action at the end, perhaps offering a free special report or booster session at a discounted fee because they are past clients

[hypno-therapist]

Great idea!

I can see how this would work. I like the tip idea, however what other things could you put on a card like this?