I’m not sure who said it first, but it’s a great metaphor to keep in mind every time you want to market your hypnosis services and products (you do have products, don’t you?).
What ‘selling the sizzle’ means is this… sell the benefits of using/owning a thing, rather than the thing itself.
Benefits VS Features
Especially in the Hypnosis industry this seems to be all too common problem, and here are some examples of how it manifests…
1. Typically in the advertising used, the focus is on HYPNOSIS instead of the rapid solution of the problem prospects have. Even more important to the prospective client, is how much BETTER there life will be once their reporting problem is no longer a problem!
2. Marketing HYPNOSIS to a broad audience in a ‘one size fits all approach’ instead of targeting each unique niche. For example: Women who want to lose weight is a niche (this can be narrowed down even more by age, income, etc.). Then matching the message to what these women need.
3. Putting an alphabet soup of letters behind the name in ads and on business cards. Almost no one knows what that stuff means and it does nothing to convince someone you can solve their most burning problem.
4. Headlines that say "Happy Days Hypnosis Clinic" instead of "Stop Smoking NOW Without Drugs or Painful Withdrawl"
5. Expensive Yellow Pages ads that look like a boring business card. These not only offer no benefit, but are often in the WRONG part of the directory. People who want to lose weight are not looking in the Hypnosis section. Think about it, where would YOU look if you didn’t know about hypnotists?
When you are creating your marketing materials, think about the difference between a cut piece of meat approximately 12 ounces (features)…
And seeing a fat juicy steak being gently touched by the flames on a grill, smelling it as it slowly cooks in just that perfect way you like it, and hearing it SIZZLE as you begin to anticipate the delicious meal you are about to enjoy. (benefits)
Now of course, if you don’t like steak, either you won’t have a reaction to that paragraph or worse if you are vegetarian, you may even ab-react to it.
What that means is… you are not the target market for me if I sell steaks, and you have just disqualified yourself as one of my prospects.
This is exactly what you want to have happen. Big lesson coming up here:
If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one!
However, if you are a steak lover, it’s very likely you started thinking about eating steak, either the last really good steak you had, or maybe having one at your next meal.
This is exactly what you want to do with your marketing copy. It’s called ‘entering in to the conversation in their mind’. As a hypnotist, this concept should be EASY for you to understand and use.
I’ll talk more about this in future posts. For now, remember… Sell that Sizzle!
Now go get some clients!
Craig
