The Art Of Optimism

Matt Damon says of going to see a hypnotist to stop smoking:

“It Was The Greatest Decision I Ever Made In My Life…”

Do you think sharing this video and information with people via the stop smoking section of your website might help you get more stop smoking clients?

Yes, of course it would.

And what about the following?

Popstar Lily Allen, quoted in the UK’s Daily Mail in October 2007, credited hypnosis with helping her drop from a UK size 12 to size 8, saying “After the hypnotism, I want to go to the gym every day, otherwise I feel really bad…I just want to get more toned and healthy. I’m really good about everything at the moment – I’ve never been happier.” http://bit.ly/AAhEC

The wonderful and positive experience that Ms Allen reports here is almost exactly the same as feedback I get from my weight loss hypnosis clients regularly.

Do you think that the above story, professionally sourced with an exact quote, would serve you well on your weight loss marketing materials?

Again, a resounding YES – of course it would.

I have had a few raised eyebrows from people reading The Hypnotherapy Report (to say the very least)

A few people have contacted me recently to question my advice on advertising. They say it’s too strong and could get people into trouble with the advertising authorities.

So, I really think I need to set the record straight on a few things.

1. I have now added the following disclaimer to the Hypnotherapy Report:

‘The information in this report is presented to you free of charge and with the best possible intentions.  However, any ideas that you choose to integrate into your practice must be undertaken at your own risk.  For instance, if you choose to implement any of the recommendations regarding advertising, it is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with the laws, regulations and codes of your home country, region, state or territory.’

2. Using powerful advertising messages DOES NOT and NEVER SHOULD entail lying, exaggerating, hyping or misinforming.

Hypnosis is such a powerful, effective, well researched and popular tool that we as practitioners are profoundly privileged to be able to educate others about it.  Unlike many other solutions to people’s problems, it does not need hyping up.  We don’t need to show beautiful young bodies on the beach, tell funny jokes or use clever slogans, and we certainly don’t need to lie. Described accurately and passionately in terms of benefits it sells itself.

3. I still stand by all of my advice.

You see there are two ends of the scale.  One is the over the top, hyped up claims for the magic of hypnosis, ‘the miracle cure’. The other end of the scale is the kind of dry, feature based, boring, often boastful advertising that will make your potential clients fall asleep.

And in my experience the vast majority of us are guilty of pitching our marketing and advertising way too far to the boring end of the scale. And if you do this it will HURT you.
I obviously recommend you have a full understanding of advertising laws in your area and exercise caution. But that said, for goodness sake make your advertising exciting, passionate and irresistible to your market. If in doubt think about the alternatives they have (the BIG names in all the different niches) and look at how they advertise. You will learn an awful lot.

Ways in which you can use third party sources to ignite your marketing messages

Read both of these carefully because there are rules and you have to exercise the appropriate caution, but used properly both will help you to achieve buzz and excitement from your marketing and to get way more clients than you know what to do with.

1. Research

Hypnosis comes with so much positive research it’s outrageous that the vast majority of the population aren’t frantically banging on our doors all day long.

Here is a page on Wiki Answers where someone has kindly provided a list of popular and positive hypnosis research.

http://bit.ly/DgJWM

VERY IMPORTANT – Research is your friend and will supercharge your marketing but you must never misrepresent it. Understand very clearly, compelling evidence is still NOT PROOF. Never claim it is, it is just evidence and if you claim it as PROOF or ABSOLUTE you can get in a lot of trouble.
ALSO VERY IMPORTANT – Source the evidence. This takes a bit more work but you really must do it if you’re going to go this route. A friend of mine does a lot of his academic research on Wikipedia but only as a starting point. The web is notoriously unreliable. If you find research that backs up a service you offer, don’t blindly trust it is official research. Go to the source and double check before quoting it!

There is an abundance of positive research on websites such as bbc.co.uk in the UK, that can be quoted as “A popular story on the BBC website suggests that Hypnosis ‘reduces cancer pain’” http://bit.ly/ZAqaB

Just be very careful that you are quoting a source in a transparent manner, because the minute YOU start suggesting that hypnosis reduces cancer pain, you may find yourself in very hot water.
2. Well known people

I am going to embed the Matt Damon video above on my stop smoking page, complete with his quote about how effective he found hypnosis for stopping smoking. Why not? It’s an official source and it’s definitely him saying it. So long as I use quotation marks and don’t take anything out of context or misrepresent, then I’m sure all is well.

You can use these kinds of marketing tactics too. There’s nothing more powerful for a potential client that a passionate testimonial from a famous client recommending a service that YOU provide.

And if you go look, you’ll find there are countless examples of quotable testimonials for hypnosis from countless public figures.

What are you guys going to do to sharpen up your advertising and bring in more new clients? It would be great if you’d share your ideas and thoughts here…