After spending lots of time and money on internet advertising, marketing, whatever you want to call it, it's still hard.  I guess I got so used to client referrals in the UK, which are still my biggest source of clients. But I'm in South Africa (Cape Town).  The clients are coming in as a trickle not a flood.  But my efforts have been a flood not a trickle.  Paper advertising is so expensive, I'm not sure I want to go that way.  I also advertised meditation groups, Reiki shares, etc, and people are just not interested.  Most want just an extra income, as long as they don't have to let go of their own negative emotions.  So yesterday, I spent 5 hours on an ad for extra income, which got rejected for publication!  And people are just not trusting.  They want to come for many sessions for smoking, for instance, and don't trust my satisfaction guarantee.  Then I explain that they will probably need only one or two sessions, and if not, I'll tell them straight away.  I can't exactly be deliberately bad in how I do my sessions, just so that they'd come back.  I suppose I could, but I can't get myself to do it.  I did special offers, in case it's price. No joy, so I charged what I can barely afford instead.  Today, in a few hours, 41 people clicked on my stop smoking advert for Cape Town, and not a single phonecall or even newsletter sign up.  Clearly, I'm doing something wrong.  I need at least a client a day.  Any ideas? 

Hi Suzanne,

Thats a lot of good questions you ask. 

I dont know all the answers... but they are good questions!  <grin>

Seriously now, I would, in your situation, do a number of things...

1. Sit down and think about the type of clients you want to attract - or what type of clients ARE you attracting.  Where do they live? What do they read? Do they have internet? What are their issues?   Then you are more able to focus your advertising.

2. Think about running groups.  Many people will come to group sessions that will not come to "A THERAPIST"   Organise your groups on a particualr theme...  eg  Weight. Smoking. Abundance, Self-Esteem.  Etc.

3. Think about running EFT Training sessions. 

4. Prepare success stories for local newspapers.   Most newspaper reporters and editors are basicly lazy.  If you can write an article on a success story that is more or less "newspaper ready" interesting and a bit "shocking"  then you will likely get it published.  For example, if you prepare a story about someone who had a phobia of Baked Beans, that would be of interest.  (Yes, that is based on a real case! LOL)  However, the case of someone who had Migraines all their life would probably not be so interesting. (albeit equally amazing in reality!)

5.  One very VERY successful hypnotherapist here in England that I know got all his clients by doing a weekly "Agony Aunt" column in the local newspaper.  Of course he did this for free.    But he got a LOT of clients from it by choosing from the letters he recieved only the issues he wanted to deal with. 

These are just some thoughts for you that come imediately to mind.  The more I think, the more that come to mind...  but the above 5 are a good starting point. 

With blessings and love

Philip

 Hi Philip,

Thank you.  I am doing all the above except for the agony aunt idea, which I will persue.  I also have other long-term plans which I am putting into place.  There is a huge difference between South Africa and the UK, though.  South Africans will rarely spend by card, for example, and I have to wait days before money is in the account before giving someone an urgent telephone EFT, for example.  Emails are responded to days and weeks later, as the government limits internet use (and puts a cap on content).  In the UK, EFT groups were very popular (and I still run them in London through my practitioner there) but here, people are just not interested.  It really is like getting a supersonic plane through impossibly thick custard sometimes.   Yesterday, I had 81 clicks on a stop smoking ad, and not a single enquiry or even newsletter signup as a result.  In the UK, this would have been impossible.  At the moment, it just means tripling every effort time-wise.  I do wonder if anyone with an in-depth knowledge of people in Cape Town can shed light on how to approach this.  There is a better way, it's just a matter of finding it.  In the meantime, I work three times as much - I won't give up on the local market  :-)

Suzanne,

Just a small question...  why do you wait for the money to be in your bank before giving treatment?  I always give the treatment and then wait to be paid.

In all the hundreds of phone sessions I have given, I have only not been paid once.  (and that person claimed no benefit from the EFT)

Perhaps you cant do that in SA?

With Blessings and love

Philip.

Hi Suzanne,

So you made it to Cape Town! Congrats! :-)

I had several clients from South Africa (we worked with Skype), who suffered serious trauma in gated communities. They were raided by gangs, and said that this happens a lot, that everybody there is just terrified. Everybody they know has been through this, and it is a horrific experience to be woken up at gunpoint and watching everything getting stolen. These people had more than enough to pay for my sessions, money was not of the issue. But they needed EFT to move on with their lives. It was a  wonderful experience to see how, within one hour they released their overwhelming fear, andger, feeling of victimization, and could just take a deep breath and make decisions that worked for them.

I was told that if I lived over there, I could have as many clients as I wanted, as so many well of families, including their kids, are going through this trauma right now.

Given your expertise in EFT, I am sure that you would be profound for them.

Maybe you could manifest the first client, or use your experiences with a client from England, or talk about how you could help traumatized kids, write about it for a local newspaper and be open for referals. These gated communities are a world in themselves. Once you're in, you're in. At least that was my understanding.

This could be a very powerful, new path for you as well as for them.

Remember that you are needed over there, that's why you moved there! Maybe this could be a next step for you.

Just some thoughts.

Good Luck and please keep us posted. It is so nice to hear from you, even after you moved!

Blessings

Ingrid

Philip

Because you did not demand payment first you were in a position to save my sanity when I had trigeminal neuralgia  4 years ago and was ready to shoot myself the pain was so bad (and you fixed me!).  When I started to work by telephone that experience stayed with me and I decided there and then, even though many therapists I have used asked for payment up front I would not do that.  It has not failed me once. Paypal does make it even easier as well.  I think its where my love of working by phone was born as well.  It had never occured to me that I could do it also as I used to do combinations of therapies, but I choose now to focus solely on EFT and working by phone and skype  has transformed my practice .  I have clients from different countries and do not feel confined to this little area of Scotland.

Suzanne would that be possible for you.  To carry on your English practice via telephone and open yourself up more Internationally as well?

Gill 

Hi Ingrid,

Thank you so much.  Basically, I should start writing articles to the local press about trauma.  I will start putting some thoughts together and let you know when the first articlre is published :-)

Philip Davis:

Suzanne,

Just a small question...  why do you wait for the money to be in your bank before giving treatment?  I always give the treatment and then wait to be paid.

In all the hundreds of phone sessions I have given, I have only not been paid once.  (and that person claimed no benefit from the EFT)

Perhaps you cant do that in SA?

With Blessings and love

Philip.

Hi Philip,

I assume your business model is a bit different to mine, so let me elucidate where I'm coming from :-)

I love my card payment facilty.  It has made a huge difference, freeing up a great deal of time that I can spend on my clients and further training. I highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about it.

Coming from this angle, I'd say that if the client does not wish to trust me enough with their card details but wants my bank details, that tells me:

• They think I may be a thief and therefore do not respect me;
  
• They are used to mistrusting people; 
• They think that by some magic, if I take their money in my account, they have more power, which is total nonsense.  A credit card payment offers protection like no other payment method.  Even if you carry cash, you can get mugged, then unless it's insured, it's all gone.

If I pander to this paranoia, the down-side of this involves: 

• I am forming part of this paranoia and adding to the country's fear, which is the total opposite of what I am about; 
• I am accepting that we start the session with the client's disrespect;
• I then have a two-tier client system, where South Africans pay in arrears and everyone else pays as normal, which is unfair.

• In South Africa, there is relatively less consumer protection, and little litigation and client complaints.  I find this unacceptable.  People put up with bad treatment rather than complain.  This is unacceptable too.  As part of my sessions, I am educating clients about their rights and that it is good to complain if someone harms you in some way.  Part of the not-trusting is the fear of consequences.  I choose to bring the message that you can be strong and you can fight for your rights.

So I choose to start the relationship with mutual respect.  So far it has not been a problem except to add the hassle of doing the bank payment thing.  It adds time to the process, which I now think it is best to factor in somehow.  

One good consequence of this is that I now realize just how much business I used to get from referrals. So given time, this will happen here too. 

Suzanne

Thats interesting.

When I was being turned down for desperately needed treatment as there was no time to pay in advanced, I felt I was not being trusted and that their need for money was the most important thing.  When in pain and desperately afraid there is no time to think of a business model.

I do realise that brings up tappable issues, but most of our clients will not have tapped on their beliefs either.

I still obviously have some tapping to do on this subject as your post brought up all sorts of emotions.  None of it is about you, but it is about my experiences in the business world and how I was treated.  If I clear this I am sure it will be of benefit as I continue to build up my business.  I am doing fine on attracting clients but the idea of being a 'business woman' turns my stomach.

Thank you for highlighting this to me and I wish you success in your new venture.  Ingrids insights certainly sounded so valuable.  I have a friend who as a South African ex-pat, an elderly lady and she tells me of some of the experiences her brother and his children have over there.  They are quite terrifying, the boys being dropped off by taxi feet from the front gate and robbed and stripped off all their clothes before they got there being one that I remember.  I have enough problems coping with the fact my son is out on the road and I don't have to be concerned whether he will be mugged and beaten on the doorstep when he gets out of the car.

I thought then when she told me this that South Africa needs EFT! 

Gill 

Gill Wightman:

Suzanne

Thats interesting.

When I was being turned down for desperately needed treatment as there was no time to pay in advanced, I felt I was not being trusted and that their need for money was the most important thing.  When in pain and desperately afraid there is no time to think of a business model.

Been there done that, and I still have £13K of debt to prove it.  But, on the other hand, I am glad to be alive and very much kicking :-) and there is no amount of money that can replace that.  If it helps you, you might find my personal blog a help - I think there are a few live EFT tappings on that there.  To give you an idea, I've already paid back about £50K.  This heavy debt is one of the reasons why I have to earn enough money.  Again, I am grateful for my health.   

Gill Wightman:

I do realise that brings up tappable issues, but most of our clients will not have tapped on their beliefs either.

Yes.  I took a client who said could only afford so much.  Afterwards I found out she has a lovely home, 2 cars, a swimming pool, etc.  Do I need to feel the energy of resentment every time someone isn't worthy enough to pay for my services?  No. But I do have a policy of never letting anyone down because of money.  These days I ask for proof of low income.  I have done EFT for as little as £2.50.

Gill Wightman:

I still obviously have some tapping to do on this subject as your post brought up all sorts of emotions.  None of it is about you, but it is about my experiences in the business world and how I was treated.  If I clear this I am sure it will be of benefit as I continue to build up my business.  I am doing fine on attracting clients but the idea of being a 'business woman' turns my stomach.

Oooh.  Very worth tapping.  Have a look at my blog circa 2005 - plenty there LOL!  Not exactly same experiences, but a lot iin common, I think.  

Gill Wightman:

Thank you for highlighting this to me and I wish you success in your new venture.  Ingrids insights certainly sounded so valuable.  I have a friend who as a South African ex-pat, an elderly lady and she tells me of some of the experiences her brother and his children have over there.  They are quite terrifying, the boys being dropped off by taxi feet from the front gate and robbed and stripped off all their clothes before they got there being one that I remember.  I have enough problems coping with the fact my son is out on the road and I don't have to be concerned whether he will be mugged and beaten on the doorstep when he gets out of the car.

I thought then when she told me this that South Africa needs EFT! 

Gill 

Very interesting.  Oooh much tapping for me to do, as this brings up plenty for me now.  I'm so glad I started this thread.  Thank you :-) IMHO you're far more likely to get mugged in London, where I'm from.  I live in Cape Town and the danger is in Johannesburg. But then again, as a Reiki Master, I can see it is Karma.  Many of the robbers' ancestors' lives were wrecked by the ancestors of the same people living in the gated communities.  You reap what you sow, and now everyone in this equation is hurting.  Hey, I am tapping plenty on my trauma of what I see here!  And still more of my tapping to do!  The fact is, the minimum wage is £120.00 a month, and most costs are the same as in the UK.  If I was on the wrong side of the tracks, I would have no option but to rob too.  There is a need for real healing here, holistically, so that no-one needs to rob at gun-point in order to have a safe roof over their heads.  But then again, that's another issue altogether!

 Suzanne,

For many years, my psychotherapy practice limped along in a small town.  I can hear your frustration and have been there.  Since discovering EFT and other energy therapies and using them to clear away my limiting money beliefs, my income has tripled.  And, that was BEFORE I learned how to effectively market online.

I have a couple of suggestions.  Granted I'm no expert on South Africa - I've never been.  However, I believe I hear some limiting beliefs.  For instance "people here are just not interested" and  "It's like getting a supersonic plane through impossibly think custard" (great image) sound like limiting beliefs to tap on.  So, my first suggestion is to find these and tap on them.

Next, I would suggest thinking about a shift in focus.  It sounds like you are used to face-to-face sessions.  I would suggest opening to the possibility that a large percentage of your business could become phone sessions.  That is true of my practice.  It opens things up and, once I've gotten comfortable with it, has become quite fun.

Third, I'd suggest doing some research about effective online marketing techniques.  For instance, my free ebook on the EFT based Money Makeover 2.0 Program has become a viral marketing tool.  People like it and tell thier friends who tell thier friends, etc.  The result is new clients in my practice.  There are many other online marketing strategies that are free or low-cost and they work.  

If you'd like more info about any of these ideas, let's find a way to talk.

Thank you so much everyone for your suggestions.

I have been studying the figures for my marketing and doing split-tests.  I have one very popular email offering with a worldwide subscriber base.  When I usually send the emails out, I consistently get something like a 60% open rate within the first few days.  Doing a split-test, with the South African members this drops to 16%.  This is not because South Africans ignore the email, but because internet access is severely limited here.  There is a cap on the amount of data you are allowed to upload and download, and additionally, a cap on content.  However, the more money a potential client has, the more likely it is that they have purchased several internet options and can open their email.  Internet, like running water and constantly-avaialble electricity, is something that I got used to in the UK.  Now I pay several times as much for the internet and often struggle to get on.  To keep my clients happy, I have subscribed to various options.  One kicks in when the main one goes down, then there's another backup and so on.  But I am fighting the panic to buy paper advertising. This is just as expensive as it is anywhere in the world, and it is just like throwing money away.  With internet advertising, I am building a client list, even if only 16% can access the information.  16% is much better than 0%  :-)

South Africans will rarely pay by card, so I have learned to adapt.  Now I send them bank details and accept that this extra task is part of doing business here.   

Workshops I have found very expensive to market here, unlike the UK, so we are doing small workshops with small numbers of attendees. Again, in general, many here like to come and learn, so that they may let go of emotion in private.  So I am adapting my workshops accordingly as much as I can.  There is a lot of exciting work we are doing in this direction, which is finally starting to take shape.  It has to go through all the official channels, so January-February it may be complete, and in the meantime, I am learning all the ways of getting clients here.  

I am also pleased to report that I have stuck to my high standards as much as possible.  We are educating people that they have rights and telling them about our satisfaction guarantee, rather than limit the work done in one session in order to make money. Phew!  No doubt I will report with more good news later on :-) 

 Another update  :-)

We had occasion to buy a massage bed this week.  Now, I'm a very physical person, and massage is my favorite way of introducing people to EFT.  So I now have 3 relatives booked in to try this and tell everyone they know.  It feels right to me, and is another string to my EFT bow.

 Suzanne

Good luck.  The amount of energy you are putting into this means its got to happen eventually!

My husband has a very busy full time prctise, booked out 3 weeks in advance for his Craniosacral business.  His business is totally word of mouth, he has not advertised anywhere once and only is on my website because I put him there.   Many come through the door initially for massage.  I know if I offered massage I would probably be the same. But I don't need or want that volume of work, plus I never trained in massage:) 

However the way it does work for me is that he then refers them on to me, once in the door for physical treatment they seem more open to the idea of what could be behind the pain.  Or they have other problems, weight issues, grief issues, problems caring parents with dementia or family members with mental illness (my specialisit subject) and he mentions EFT, gives them a leaflet and because they trust him they are open to consideringit.  I am very fortunate to have my biggest fan marketing me:) 

However my point is what gets them over the door in the first place is the idea of a physical therapy for their immediate pain.  I think this could work!

Gill

Suzanne:

Workshops I have found very expensive to market here, unlike the UK, so we are doing small workshops with small numbers of attendees

Hi Suzanne,

Believe it or not, a lot of your issues are very similar to Spain !

Particularly re; workshops. I mainly do ' one to one ' or very small groups because logistically people appear from all over, generally a great distance.

I adapt to them eg: trained  a great guy in Gran Canaria and switched dates to accomodate his expensive flights/travel etc

I have to be honest I get as much from the small workshops as they do!

Over five years ago when I was learning EFT here...it felt like I was the local ' witch doctor '...literally no one had heard of it!

I made it a mission then ( stemming from genuine ill health ) to really get EFT known.

Five years on I dont think I would ever get back what I have invested ( Sorry LOA ) in advertsisng, TV, newspapers ...all so expensive here.

I can see when I read on the Meridian Energy Groups etc the vast difference between EFT in UK and Spain and obviously where you are.

I know it has been said..but we are needed in these countries.

I am soooooooooo proud to say now , on reflection that I know I have made a definite impact on getting EFT known here in Spanish & English....and still do.

However , the times that friends, family said ..get another job...de dah de dah..

What about the Try it On everything Angel programme ?  If you email me off line I can give you some extra info.on this and a slight adaptation !.

Also what about a Yahoo Group Suzanne...I have one in Spain..only small numbers of memebers still but helps to spread the word.

It also makes you feel not alone....I felt so alone with EFT here for a long time...no one would believe you !!

Well much happiness and keep spreading the word.

Marie