I've been brainstorming with a friend of mine, trying to help him resuscitate his business. I'd appreciate any suggestions from the brain trust here.
Michael and his wife are both clinical hypnotherapists. Deborah handles a wide range of psychological issues; Michael is focused on smoking cessation and weight loss. That's where the bulk of their income comes (came) from. They are very good at what they do; Michael says their smoking clients generally only need one session. They tell their clients if they have any problems or relapse, come back and they will work with them for free. After 10 years and almost 1000 smoking clients, they've had very few people come back for "boosters."
Because they're so effective, they don't get much ongoing repeat business. For the most part they see someone once or twice and then they're "cured." So they have to generate a continuous flow of new clients.
They've tried offering incentives for referrals, posting flyers in dentist offices and elsewhere, and several other attempts to fill their funnel. Their most effective business source for years has been Google.
Until the last year. The Panda updates put a real dent in their lead generation. Unfortunately neither of them is very tech-savvy, so Michael didn't realize how much Google could damage their income source. Then there was another change in March, and their calls stopped almost overnight. They dropped from high on page 1 to some low position that wasn't working. Their income dried up two months ago and they're long past desperate.
I referred Michael to several local SEO experts I know, and they're working with one of them now. They just submitted their improved website to Google yesterday. The SEO person says she's confident she'll get them better results than they had before, but at this point Michael would be delighted and relieved if she just got them back to where they were.
So:
Any suggestions, ideas, recommendations for ways they can generate a steadier flow of clients? Anything outside of the obvious things that their SEO expert is likely to recommend? Any non-online marketing ideas?
I asked Michael if they have to work face-to-face, or if they could take clients over the phone. He says it works best if they can have at least the initial session in-person, but they can do phone sessions after that. I might prod him to consider if they really could do their service without any F2F contact, since I suspect they could hugely expand their business if they didn't limit themselves to local clients.
Thanks for any ideas!
Michael and his wife are both clinical hypnotherapists. Deborah handles a wide range of psychological issues; Michael is focused on smoking cessation and weight loss. That's where the bulk of their income comes (came) from. They are very good at what they do; Michael says their smoking clients generally only need one session. They tell their clients if they have any problems or relapse, come back and they will work with them for free. After 10 years and almost 1000 smoking clients, they've had very few people come back for "boosters."
Because they're so effective, they don't get much ongoing repeat business. For the most part they see someone once or twice and then they're "cured." So they have to generate a continuous flow of new clients.
They've tried offering incentives for referrals, posting flyers in dentist offices and elsewhere, and several other attempts to fill their funnel. Their most effective business source for years has been Google.
Until the last year. The Panda updates put a real dent in their lead generation. Unfortunately neither of them is very tech-savvy, so Michael didn't realize how much Google could damage their income source. Then there was another change in March, and their calls stopped almost overnight. They dropped from high on page 1 to some low position that wasn't working. Their income dried up two months ago and they're long past desperate.
I referred Michael to several local SEO experts I know, and they're working with one of them now. They just submitted their improved website to Google yesterday. The SEO person says she's confident she'll get them better results than they had before, but at this point Michael would be delighted and relieved if she just got them back to where they were.
So:
Any suggestions, ideas, recommendations for ways they can generate a steadier flow of clients? Anything outside of the obvious things that their SEO expert is likely to recommend? Any non-online marketing ideas?
I asked Michael if they have to work face-to-face, or if they could take clients over the phone. He says it works best if they can have at least the initial session in-person, but they can do phone sessions after that. I might prod him to consider if they really could do their service without any F2F contact, since I suspect they could hugely expand their business if they didn't limit themselves to local clients.
Thanks for any ideas!
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