If you have been marketing to the educational community with little success, you may need to slow down and reassess your own educational history.  Your personal relationship with education may be getting in the way . . . .

Linda L. Lawless and G. Jean Wright suggest in their book, How to Get Referrals: The Mental Health Professional’s Guide to Strategic Marketing, that you ask the following questions when reviewing your educational history:

"Not My Hat!" by Alan Levine / cogdogblog

• Are there any teachers in your family? Are any family members employed by the school system?  What is their input to other family members regarding their work and the system?
• What has been the family response to their vocation?
• What educational levels have been attained by family members?  Did they attend public or private schools?  If private, was it religious or nonsectarian?
• What has been shared about their experience?  What was the quality of the experience?
• What has been your educational experience from kindergarten through graduate school?  Your siblings?  How do you rate it?
• Who were your favorite teachers?  Worst teachers?  In your experience and /or perceptions, what were the characteristics of each that made them “good” or “bad” teachers?  As you reflect on these relationships, what are you feeling now?
• What are your family’s belief systems, biases, prejudices, regarding education and the educational system (school taxes, the school board, election of board members)?
• Did any family members ever serve on the school board?
• What is your trust level of teachers?
• Do you have special training that would correlate with the experiences and needs of educational professionals?
• Do you have children in school?  If so, public or private?  How do you make decisions regarding your children’s education?

It is critical when marketing to the educational community that you feel comfortable and that they know that. Liberally share your unique school stories with other professionals in the educational community.  Use your unique experiences to help guide where you choose to enter the market.  If you attended a private or parochial school, consider focusing your energy on the same.

By taking the time to reflect on your own school experiences, you will increase your comfort and effectiveness in marketing to this community.

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Tags: School, Stories

This is the ninth part of an 11 part series on How To Build A Great Marketing Kit.

Before you read further, you may want to read the introduction here.

Client testimonials are a key part of any marketing kit.  After all, these are the people who can speak with authority about your strengths (and weaknesses).  Their experiences can go a long way in supporting potential clients to initially consider working with you.  In transparent and ethical ways, you need to gather testimonials or other data in support of your effectiveness and clients’ satisfaction with your services.

This piece of your marketing kit may look like quotes or letters of reference.  If you opt for either of these, make sure that you have omitted or disguised all identifying information for your clients.

If you have been gathering data from your clients and want to use statistics to represent your clients’ experiences with you, your testimonials may look like statistics i.e. “Ninety-nine percent of Tamara’s clients say that they were satisfied with her services” and “Ninety-eight percent say they would return to use her services again if needed.”

When using statistics, it is critical that you have collected the data in an organized and consistent manner.  Don’t just fabricate numbers that sound good.  That could be considered unethical and false advertising.

Either way, you will want to put a human face on those testimonials.  Be ready to back them up with stories . . . about your clients’ presenting problems, how working with you was unique, and how your clients were better off for the time they spent with you.

Tags: Statistics, Stories, Testimonial

This is the third part of an 11 part series on How To Build A Great Marketing Kit.

Before you read further, you may want to read the introduction here.

For those of us who have spent half of our lives in academia, our stories about our professional lives can become monotonous and predictable rather quickly. That can present a problem when you get to the second essential item in your marketing kit, your professional biography. The purpose of your bio is to highlight your expertise in and interesting and engaging fashion. It is not to regurgitate your resume ad nausea. At a later date, I will share with you a recipe for your professional bio.

For now, put down in writing the story of how you came to do the thing that you do best in your professional life. What is that? Is it using your sense of humor? Is it your intuition or your ability to motivate your clients? Think about your mentors and role models. Consider the traits and skills that come effortlessly to you. And, finally, note the bumps in the road along your path that resulted in you being the person you are and the therapist you have become.

Now, tie those all together in an interesting and engaging story about who you are. This is the basis for your professional bio.

(If you would like additional help constructing your professional bio, consider working with me as your brainstorming coach to help you find those engaging nuggets. Or, consider hiring a professional copywriter like Kathryn Bass at Kadroodle.com to simply do the work for you!)

Tags: Resume, Stories