You Don't Need to Be Afraid of Marketing--Or Lose Your Inspiration, Passion, or Integrity

HAVE YOU EVER WISHED YOU HAD A WAY TO BE FULLY SUPPORTED BY YOUR GREEN BUSINESS, HOLISTIC HEALING PRACTICE, OR PERFORMANCE CAREER SO YOU COULD SIMPLY FOCUS ON BRINGING LOVE TO MORE AND MORE PEOPLE EVERY DAY--WITHOUT BECOMING A SLEEZEBALL?

Do you want a web site that draws to you a steady stream of the people who really need your services?

Well I want you to have one. I want you to have the best marketing copy possible. Because I believe what you do makes a difference. With the crisis in health care in this country, the destruction of the environment, community, and our children's future, heart-centered business is needed more than ever. I can't do acupuncture; I haven't invented any super-solar-panels. But I can write--and I even went to Harvard. And I know in my gut I can give you as good marketing as the hacks on Madison Avenue are giving MalWart.


THREE COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS MOST HOLISTIC PEOPLE HAVE ABOUT MARKETING

There are many common misconceptions most holistic people have about marketing for success that tend to turn them off or scare them from the start. I myself used to think this way, and I didn't know anything about marketing. As I've learned the truth, I've realized that there are great advantages in the new, alternative marketing that most holistic healers are missing out on.

Here are three:

#1: It will cost a fortune.
#2: You have to pressure.
#3: You have to lie.

Misconception #1: It will have to cost a fortune.
And no matter how much you do it will only be a drop in the bucket and bring you a trickle of inquiries. You need to saturate the world with advertisements in order to have any effect. Your ads’ content doesn’t matter; only the quantity of ads placed, the and the amount of money spent placing them; you’d need to purchase a spamming database and do a mass mailing in order to get any visitors to your web site,

Truth: Alternative, no-pressure marketing can be inexpensive. The content of your copy is much more important than the quantity of ads placed on the internet or in the world. You don’t need to spam anyone; rather, you need to make sure that those people who do look at your copy are can see that you’re worth their time and money. Clearing the channel of communication is far better than brute force. Most of the waste occurs because the business's ads or business cards or web site are filled with platitudes instead of information.

Misconception #2: You have to pressure
Most visitors to your site won’t end up buying from you anyway. If you want to be financially successful, you’d to pressure your customer in order to get them to buy from you. You’d have to be like those slick used-car salesmen, and lie and fast-talk your prospect into making a purchase, and you’d never want to do that so you’ll be satisfied with not doing much business and not making enough money to do your work full time.

Truth: You don’t have to pressure anyone. Pressuring the prospect for a service like holistic healing is counter-productive. People who are looking for holistic healing tend to make their decisions based on their gut feeling, their heart, and convincing evidence-based information. The relationship is the most important thing. Pressuring people sets up a bad relationship from the start, so don’t do it.

Misconception #3: You have to lie.
To be really persuasive and make lots of cash, you’d have to make false claims.

Truth: Obviously, lying about your services would be counterproductive also. It will build a bad relationship. What you need to do is to tell the full impact your services are able to have if you want people to make the investment. It’s necessary to be free of the demons that say your gifts aren’t worth that much. Then it’s also necessary to spark the person’s imagination, by describing in detail the exact nature of the service so she or he has a sensory picture in her/his head. The prospect should breathe a deep breath because your description is so vivid that his body itself responds and says, “Yes, finally, someone who understands!” The words on your website can be so vivid that they act on the prospect’s energy field like an acupuncture treatment. The effect should continue to adjust his/her energy field for 72 hours after the needles have been removed. Artful words can do this.

MY PROCESS

First I interview my clients for at least an hour and a half. You tell me your passion—what it is exactly that you most want to offer to the world, and who are your ideal clients. Not just the ones who pay well—the ones who feed your spirit to work with.

Next I’ll ask some more practical questions. Your clients’ needs, their values, what evidence they need to feel they’re making the right choice in doing business with someone. These are great not only for marketing, but open up opportunities for you to reflect on your gifts and your challenges. It’s often helpful to have a second person near to help one focus on things that are up close every day and that one tends to begin to take for granted. Maybe you’re always stuck in the thought, “I don’t know where to begin,” but in reality you need a chance to remember that you already have a few web sites that inspire you that you’ve been meaning to check out. You have that information in your head; what you don’t have is a mechanism for accessing it—a mirror. I’ll be your mirror.

Then, I’ll toot your horn. If you’re like a lot of people, you undervalue your work because you’re afraid of doing this. Who can see your worth more objectively than you can? The answer is anyone else. Especially if they’re paying attention and care. You don’t like to toot your own horn—so I’ll toot it for you.

Then I’ll come back at you with a draft, and we’ll work collaboratively as you care to—and I hope you’ll be very involved throughout because this is your web site we’re trying to build. You’re free to nix anything, of course. The only thing I won’t let you do is sell yourself short. And I’ll hold you to the rule of specificity—unique, specific ads are what I’m after. Poets and marketers agree on one thing: platitudes do everyone a disservice.

For more information, visit my website at www.inspiringwebcopy.com, or call the number there to set up a free 30-minute consultation.

Thanks for your time reading this. Good luck getting people to know about what you offer.

Joshua