10 Tips For Marketing Your Holistic Business or Modality

Your Passion
Congratulations! After years of agonizing you've finally decided to live your dream. You've taken the plunge and started your own business.

How fantastic. The world needs more people following their passion. More specifically, the world needs your service or product.

Spread the Word
The problem is: how do you tell the world (or even the people living in the surrounding streets and suburbs) about your business? Advertising is expensive and how do you know your money will be well spent? Even if you target the publications that you think will give you the best result, how do you make your product or service stand out from the rest?

Perhaps you don't even know what to call your business. Should it just be your name or would something else be more eye catching and easier for people to remember? Should you get a website designed or business cards printed or would it be more cost effective to get a flyer done (you could probably produce it on your home computer) and distribute through the neighborhood?

10 Tips for Effective Marketing:
After many years spent in marketing and as a freelance writer, I have developed what I call the WritePackage based on the following 10 simple steps:

1. Who Am I?
Get Clear About Your Business. Set aside at least an hour to brainstorm. Armed with butchers paper (available from any art supplies' shop) and colored pens, simply write down words and phrases as they occur to you. Some questions to ask yourself: What do I offer? What's my specialty? What do I bring to my business that is special? What do I call myself? What do I want people to remember about me?

2. Mission Statement:
From your brainstorming you should get some ideas. First write these as a sentence eg I am in the business of …or Clients will remember me because … This is your raw data. From this you can write a ONE sentence mission statement eg My business serves others through …

3. Key Words:
Now reduce your Mission Statement to three or four key words eg Healthy In-tune Bodies.

4. Business Name:
What do these words make you think about? Have fun doing some loose word association and mind mapping. To me, the phrase 'in tune' makes me take notice. It suggests someone singing, or a car that has had its engine 'tuned' so everything is working perfectly. I would capitalize on this by calling the business (let's say it is massage or kinesiology) something catchy and different like, Tuned Bodz or similar.

5. Tag line:
Now I have a name I would play with a tag line (supporting, reinforcing statement) such as For bodies that sing with good health.

6. Who is My Market?
This is the next big question to answer. Perhaps you decide your target market is 'men and women aged between thirty five and sixty five.' How are you going to reach this market? You may need to do some research and you will have to make some decisions. For instance, are you targeting ALL men and women in this age group or just those who live in your local area? Using our example of a massage or kinesiology business, the answer is most probably: in my local area.

7. What Type of Marketing?
Therefore, using our example, a website may not be the first priority but advertising in the local paper or doing a letterbox drop might be the best use of your limited advertising dollar. The advantages of a flyer are: you can probably design and produce it yourself. Distribute to all community facilities/supportive businesses such as libraries, community centers, bookshops, cafes and so on. If you decide to do a letterbox drop you can walk the streets yourself, cajole your children, family and friends to help, or pay professional distributors.

8. Editorial:
The advantage of paying for the placement of an advertisement in your local paper is you may get a free article about your service. These free articles are called editorial. You may need to write this yourself and even supply photographs or the paper will write it from information you send them.

9. Angle:
To make your editorial stand out from the rest it must have an ANGLE. In other words, something that makes you worth writing about. Some suggestions: perhaps you are the FIRST kinesiologist in your area to offer your particular modality, perhaps there is something remarkable about your transformation ('Butcher Turns Masseur') or your premises ('The Kinesiologist and the Haunted House').

10. Don't be shy:.
Lastly and most importantly, OWN your business. Marketing is just another word for standing up and being counted. You are proud of what you offer. You treat every client with great respect. You are a healer. Stand in it and live it. Don't be afraid to tell others about your great modality and service. It isn't boasting, it's about walking your talk. BEST WISHES for a great business success.