This is the first in a three part series about marketing mistakes. Each week I will address one mistake in detail.

The specific type of marketing I am addressing is the marketing of businesspeople who could loosely be called “healers.” In that category I include medical professionals, psychologists, tarot readers, life coaches and energy healers, amongst others.

Basically, I am addressing practitioners of healing arts, either allopathic or alternative. I am doing this both to help my colleagues benefit from some of my experience as a successful practitioner, and also to warn against some marketing problems that could be devastating to a new business.

The first mistake, and the one I will cover in this post, is so simple it is surprise that it’s a problem at all.

The first marketing mistake, and one that most healers make, is to be shy about marketing, or to not put any energy in to marketing at all.

If we wanted to be marketers we would have majored in marketing in college and we would be working in that field now.

We are healers because we are called to be healers. The problem is, we may know very little about marketing. We may easily fall prey to expensive rah-rah networking schemes that don’t work. We may truly believe that if we burn enough candles and visualize hard enough our angels will direct our clients to us. We may be uncomfortable talking about ourselves. Marketing may make us feel boastful, insincere and impolite.

Here’s what healers need to do.

Be honest and direct in your marketing. Be clear about your purpose. You simply want to make people aware of who you are and what you can do for them.

Decide who your demographic is, and how to best reach them.

If there is something you don’t know how to do, or don’t understand, research it. Don’t be afraid of technology, and don’t be afraid of learning something new.

Don’t let high-pressure ad execs talk you into expensive media campaigns or unnecessary “SEO.”

Believe in yourself, your ability to help people, and your ability to be successful.

Do the research you need to do to learn the best ways to market your practice.

Learn the technology you need to know.

And, most importantly, don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. It’s not boastful to market. It is appropriate to make it easy for people who need your services to find you.

Next week, we will tackle the second heinous marketing mistake!