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How do I Promote My Practice online - but WITHOUT a website (John, Reflexologist and Craniosacral Therapist).

by John, Reflexologist and Craniosacral Therapist
(Dublin, Ireland)

I run a combined Reflexology and Craniosacral Therapy practice in Dublin, Ireland with about a million people in the local catchment area. I am thinking of building a website - but before I do, I am wondering if you have any suggestions you have as to how I might promote my therapy practice locally through online promotion - but without a website OR paying for advertising!

Comments for
How do I Promote My Practice online - but WITHOUT a website (John, Reflexologist and Craniosacral Therapist).

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Mikes Reply (part 1):
by: Mike

Well, you're not asking for much!

But, I will give you some very effective suggestions and while you will not need to invest in a website or pay for advertising - it will take a little of your time to get right.
Let's start with a little context:
Whenever you start some promotional activity for your business, it's important to be clear about what you want it to achieve e.g.
  • More telephone enquiries about your therapy?

  • More invitations to speak to interested audiences?

  • People taking up on a special offer available only for this week?


By taking this first step you can measure the effectiveness of any investment you make in advertising. I realise that this is common sense - but in my experience, following through on this approach is quite uncommon.

The nice thing is that - when it comes to online promotion ? the effectiveness of what you do can be easily measured.

But let?s not get ahead of ourselves - let's roll right back to the beginning.....

Here is the overall gameplan for successful online promotion of your therapy business:
  1. Get the attention of people who are:
    • Looking for your service i.e. reflexology and craniosacral therapy in your area (i.e. Dublin).

    • or Looking for support for a condition e.g. chronic back pain in your area (i.e. Dublin).

    Your promotion must provide the link between these "seekers" and your services.
  2. Make the "seeker" comfortable with your experience and qualifications.

  3. Encourage the "seeker" to take some action such as pick up a phone and talk with you to arrange an appointment.


For the rest of this reply we will concentrate on point number 1 above - points 2 and 3 have to do with the copy that you end up writing on your promotional material and website when you get around to it.

See next section below....
Mikes Reply (part 2):
by: Mike

Google is the only real game in town.
In the old days, when people needed a plumber they went to the yellow pages and looked up P for plumber and found all of the local plumbers. The yellow pages were printed for local consumption. However, you couldn't look up "I have a leaky tap - what do I do?" OR even "complementary medicine for chronic back pain".

But you can do BOTH of the above on the internet - and people do all the time - and they use the Google Search Engine.

In fact, it is now estimated that Google has an 80% share of the search engine business - and this business has taken over from local yellow pages directories.

All of this makes your goal for the online promotion of your therapy business quite simple:

Get your business contact details onto the first page of results for all Google searches for your therapy in your Local area.

Take the example from the original question:
  • The therapist has a combined Reflexology and Craniosacral Therapy Practice

  • In an particular area ? Dublin in Ireland

  • The therapist wants to get her listing (business contact details) onto the first page of results whenever a potential Dublin client types any of the following into the Google search engine:
    • "Reflexology Dublin" OR "Reflexologist Dublin" OR "Craniosacral Therapy Dublin" OR "Craniosacral Therapist Dublin"

    • Or some of the following common ailments that the above therapies treat: "Colic" OR "Back Pain" OR "Sciatica During Pregnancy" and so on.


So, where do you start? How do you get your listing moving up the google charts? And, as a result, bring in more local business to your local practice.

The following are 5 approaches - all of which work for my clients. And, when you use them together, you will typically find the calls to your business increasing after about 2 - 3 months.

Just before we dive into these 5 approaches - I want you to write out a descriptive paragraph that will be used when you list in directories.

The easiest way to approach this is to write out the words that describe your therapy e.g. "reflexologist" and "reflexology" as well as the words that describe the types of ailments that your therapy treats e.g. "stress reduction" OR "detoxing" and so on.

And then, write out something like the following:
  • "Reflexology and Craniosacral Therapy" (this will be your heading).


  • Reflexology and Craniosacral Therapy services available in the Dublin area to treat a wide range of conditions such as baby colic, stress, back and neck pain, sciatica, constipation.
    Tel: xxxxxxxxxxxxx email: yyyyyyyyyyy" (these will be your descriptive words and contact details).


You may not end up using all of the above words - but the key thing is these phrases include:
  1. Your Therapy

  2. Your location

  3. The conditions you treat

  4. A means of contacting you



OK, lets push ahead to the next section...
Mikes Reply (part 3):
by: Mike

Approach 1: Get listed in "Google Local".
If you are not already using Google Local already - then you really must go to the back of the class!

Try this experiment now:
  • Go to google.com

  • Type in "reflexologist" or "craniosacral therapist" or whatever your own therapy is and hit return (if this does not work for your area - try typing in "San Diego Chiropractor" instead to see what mean).

  • Most likely, a map of your area with red pins in it will be the first returned entry. Each red pin represents a local business that has already registered with Google.

  • And now they are number one in the returns!


To register with Google local ? go to Google Local and the "put your business on Google Maps" option. Follow the instructions.
  • Make sure that you provide as much information as possible, (e.g. your website address if you have one - a photo of your business etc.)

  • Ensure that you include the type of therapy you provide in the name of your business e.g. "Croi Ban Craniosacral Therapy Clinic"

  • Ensure that your provide lots of words describing the service you provide in the description as well as the local towns you service (use the paragraph you did earlier).


OK - let's move onto the next approach below...
Mikes Reply (part 4):
by: Mike

Approach 2: Get onto "Craigs List".
Have you heard of Craigs List? It offers free classified ads in cities around the world. For the past number of years, it has been responsible for putting a big dent in the classified advertising revenue of local newspapers.

It is VERY popular - and Google loves it.

Here is how you use Craigs List to get your practice onto the first page of Google results:
  • Go to www.craigslist.org

  • Find your local country and city listed

  • Go to the "therapeutic services" page - e.g. dublin.craigslist.org/ths/ for my Dublin example above.

  • Post your advertisement. Use the keywords already generated previously. For our example "Reflexology and Craniosacral Therapy". And, in the body of the ad, mention lots of the words we discussed above.

  • When you post your listing, it will stay for about 30 days.

  • After about 10 days or less, your post should feature on the first page of google results (can depend on the local competition for your service) for the service you are promoting. Google gives a lot of credence to Craigs Listing.

  • Repeat every 30 days or so.


Now, move on to the next approach...
Mikes Reply (part 5):
by: Mike

Approach 3: Get listed in local directories.
OK - moving along. You may have already thought of this one. Listing your business contact details in a local directory can yield very quick results.

I suggest you start as follows:
  • Go to Google.com and type in your therapy e.g. "reflexology" or "craniosacral therapy" - you know the drill by now.

  • You will see lots of entries as a result. However ? if I look at an example for "reflexology Dublin" in my area - I see professional organisations such as reflexology.org returned. That?s fine - but if you list with these directories/organisations it is important to realise that your info is often buried deep in their website - and NOT VISIBLE IN GOOGLE RESULTS!

  • On the other hand ? I also see the following directories:
    • Goldenpages.com

    • Holisto.com (I think this one costs 50 euro per annum).

    • Gumtree.ie

  • And each of these displays relevant local entries when people look for your therapy ? so, these are the places to list your practice to get local Google visibility.

  • Go to the relevant directory and follow the instructions to list your business. A lot of these directories are free ? and some charge a nominal amount.


P.S. Another directory example for Craniosacral Therapy practitioners is our own craniosacral therapist directory - free to use for 2010.


And now onto the next approach below...
Mikes Reply (part 6):
by: Mike

Approach 4: Create ezine articles around your speciality.
Another great way to get noticed by Google and show off your knowledge - is to write an article on some aspect of your therapy (or condition that it treats) and put it onto an article directory such as ezinearticles.com

Here's what to do:
  • Go to ezinearticles.com and register as an author. This process also gives you the opportunity to provide info on what you do and where you practice it.

  • As a first article ? I suggest that you pen one such as "5 Ways MYTHERAPY helps THIS CONDITION" e.g. "5 Ways that Craniosacral Therapy Relieves Sciatica".

  • Then - research and write up your article (of about 300 - 400 words) - and post it onto ezinearticles. If you place the location of your practice in the first paragraph of the article AND the description of the article, it will typically show up in the first page for Google search results in your area with a couple of weeks.


Have a look at this sample ezinearticle here.

And - now onto our final approach in the next section...
Mikes Reply (part 7):
by: Mike

Approach 5: Make a video and post it on Youtube.
This one may sound a little more advanced than previous examples - but as usual, the first time is normally the most difficult.

Youtube is a very popular video DIY and viewing site (and owned by Google).

As before, if you type in e.g. "reflexology" into Google search, you will typically see a related youtube video on the first page of results.
You can sign up to youtube , shoot a 5 minute overview video of your therapy/approach and then upload it to Youtube for all to see.

In the description for your video, you can include keywords relevant to your treatment as well as your location and contact details - these will be captured as being relevant to local viewers.

You can also imprint your contact details on the video screen (see this sample reflexology video here.



Conclusion.
So, that's it!

In my experience, if try 3-5 of the above approaches, the contact details for your therapy business will appear to local searchers on the Google search engine within 4 weeks.


Finally, when you do get around to building your website (or want to really tune up your current site) then you can link a lot of the above to your website which will contain more illustrations of your experience and expertise.

You may also wish to read the story of my own practice website - it tells the story of how we built our own therapy practice to really feature for local searches.


And that's it - we'd love to know how you get on - so please feel free to contact us with your questions and results. OR just put a comment below.

___________________________________

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Great ideas!
by: Barbara Roberts

Mike, this is a fabulous answer to these questions. I think they should just start an SBI site as that would be the easiest. :-)

Seriously though, I am a massage therapist so I can relate with your CT work. However, the other thing that I do is officiate at weddings (I am a non-denominational minister) and I am just beginning to brainstorm what I need for my second SBI site on that subject.

My fist site is www.HealthyEatingOnTheRun.com which is my passion. I want to help people get well, just as your wife does with the craniosacral work. But I also love doing weddings.

Since the wedding site is local in nature, (I live in the mountains of north Georgia, USA) you have given me very valuable information on how to make it work. I really appreciate that because I was struggling with it. It is so very different from my other one.

Thank you for your very in-depth response and I wish you both luck in your endeavors.

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