My colleague, Anne, was referred a new client from a close friend. The potential client looked for Anne online and couldn’t find her. Anne found out later that the client didn’t hire her because she didn’t have a website! Needless to say, Anne now has a beautiful website and is working with a new client in Singapore because of it.  

Before the internet, there were limited choices for marketing.  Businesses used advertising, brochures, networking and cold calling to grow their clientele. Now, websites connect people. 

Consider these facts, cited in “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson. Internet searching has recently overtaken television as our most time-consuming activity. In fact, the average person is watching record-setting lows of TV per week. Box office, radio, newspaper readership and magazine sales are all at their lowest levels. The 2006 Olympics, for instance, had its lowest rating in 20 years – after seeing its highest peak in 1994 – the start of public expansion of the internet. It is estimated that 6 billion people will be using the internet this year – it took television 50 years to get to this point.

What does this mean for you as a practitioner?

Developing an effective, professional web presence should be your #1 priority. 

Your potential clients are looking for you on the web. Are you findable? In the age of the internet, your website IS your brochure. It’s hard to imagine a business without one. Done well, websites can produce a steady stream of new clients. Done poorly, they can hurt your credibility. 

Your potential clients are looking to find someone with your skills online. They EXPECT to find you online. They expect you to answer certain questions on your website, such as “Can you help me?” before they contact you. It’s a bit of a screening process. They can search for and evaluate several practitioners in minutes. It’s easier, more efficient and less risky for your potential client to search the web than to call you right away. If they resonate with what’s on your website, and they are ready to take an action step, then they contact you. 

Your website is the front door of your business. It has a big job to do. It needs to reach off the page and speak clearly to the needs of your potential clients. You need to communicate a professional image through your site, and you need to do it quickly. Why? Consumers make decisions in a matter of seconds. If you don’t have a compelling web presence, your potential clients will be gone in 1 click. 

It’s even more important for EFT practitioners to have a professional online presence than other service professionals, because there are more potential objections to overcome. EFT is still fairly new and won’t be embraced immediately by everyone. 

You may even wonder if there are enough clients. As long as there are problems, there will always be plenty of people who need your help . . . and there is no shortage of problems. 

The only reason it can feel like there aren’t enough clients is that you don’t have a big enough reach. Maybe you are only looking in your local area. Or you do limited kinds of marketing that aren’t consistent enough. For instance, you may do a talk 3 times per year, or you tell all of your friends and colleagues what you are doing, and wonder why that’s not bringing you clients. 

That is simply not reaching enough people. There are lots of ways to connect with potential clients, but you need a big enough reach, and you need to reach out to clients consistently over time. 

With the internet, there are no boundaries. It’s just as easy to have a client halfway across the world as it is to have one next door. Having an international practice adds depth, variety and a constant flow of clients to your practice. It also helps people find you if you have a particular niche. 

We all know how transforming EFT can be. Your job is to connect to and communicate effectively to those who are looking for your help. They’ll thank you for it!