Hypnosis marketing: How to hypnotize your clients

I often say that everything is hypnosis. So is marketing your business. You also see that marketing has evolved tremendously in the last hundred years to be more hypnotic. This was necessary because in the past (say before the 1930s) we only bought what we needed. So to buy something of luxury it was necessary to make that necessary in the minds of the customers.

But how do you do it

What is hypnosis

To answer this question, it’s important to first understand exactly what hypnosis is. When you’re under hypnosis, you’re in a state where you’re open to suggestions. This state is very similar to relaxation, but it’s not the same thing.

A hypnotist can put you under hypnosis with the suggestion “go into hypnosis”; deeper techniques are then used to reinforce the hypnotic state. MRI research shows that this state is also reflected in slightly reduced brain activity.

This makes it easier to go along or be more responsive when a hypnotist gives you a suggestion, such as "you are the best entrepreneur/employee." This then directly affects how you feel because you go along with it. You feel you become stronger and more confident, so to speak, because of such a comment.

Hypnosis is therefore often used to resolve personal issues. For example, through various techniques, such as a suggestion designed to help someone gain more self-confidence.

A technique also commonly used in hypnotherapy is visualization. This can be a guided visualization or you visualize an idea as something very tangible. For example, if you are afraid you can visualize that idea of fear as a cloud dissolving or something similar. Especially with children, this can be very helpful in releasing fears or the state of anxiety.

Visualization can therefore influence beliefs, ideas, feelings, and behavior. All of this is possible with hypnosis, and it’s really cool when you use it to improve people’s lives.

This is one of the reasons why hypnotherapy is so popular and effective.

What is marketing

Marketing has the same goal as hypnosis, but instead of improving someone's life (which of course is also a goal), what matters to the person doing the marketing is that the person receiving the marketing message goes to the store and buys something because of it or becomes a client with you if you are a coach, for example.

Because there’s so much advertising all around you these days, it’s very difficult to get people to buy your products or services. Entrepreneurs therefore often use marketing messages to influence the beliefs, ideas, emotions, feelings, and behavior (such as going to a store and making a purchase) of the recipients of the marketing message[1].

This involves influencing beliefs about the product or service. For example, how necessary it is to have.

Using hypnosis for your marketing

Because marketing seeks to influence the same things as hypnosis, but often for a different purpose, it makes sense that you would want to use hypnosis for your marketing.

In hypnosis, one of the first steps is to create docility. Indeed, this is what a person is when he is under hypnosis. Although he will never do anything against his will.

So how do you do it? Because it's not like the television, poster, PC or phone allows you to grab someone and force them to follow you. Even during a hypnosis session, you don't do that.

For example, one reason television was so popular for commercials is because television makes people very docile. You sit down in front of the television. You relax and your eyes are focused on 1 point. (It's like hypnosis)

Thereby, you are not expected to do anything while watching television. You just watch the program, follow the storyline and that's it. You also notice this because you begin to identify with the main character in, say, a movie. His goals become your goals, which is why you can become totally absorbed in a movie and sympathize with the main character's emotions. If he drinks Coca Cola, you want it too if you think it's important to be "cool." This is one of the reasons why product placement is so popular.

So for marketing, some channels are very useful for that following. In doing so, you give certain suggestions, such as "real men like beer." A person who wants to identify as a real man then thinks "yes, I want beer" and can thus become motivated to go to the store or to remember this while shopping.

So just like with hypnosis, marketing is all about the suggestions you make. The visualization—if it’s a video ad—that inspires you about what your life could look like. That’s one reason why many soda commercials always focus on parties and having a fun, active time. As a result, you link those two things in your beliefs, and you end up with soda in the fridge at every birthday party—even though you might otherwise drink only water and tea.

Marketing Hypnosis

So how do you go about marketing hypnosis properly? What suggestions help people choose hypnotherapy when they suffer from a problem, a fear, a "disorder" (which I don't believe in).

Initially, marketing for hypnosis also involves gaining followership. To do this, you must first grab attention. Like television, you can create a video explaining what hypnosis is, for example, and distribute it on social media.

When people watch social media, they are somewhat more active than when they watch television, but watching a video remains a compliant activity. Then again, if the video is interesting enough to grab their attention, you at least have an audience that wants to listen.

Grabbing attention can be done with color, eye contact (looking straight into the camera) or with a unique action.

Then it's still important to give good suggestions about hypnosis. So you do not say "hypnosis is not scary." Because in this the word scary appears and then people focus on that. It is better to say "Hypnosis is safe". This suggestion immediately gives you a different feeling than a suggestion with "not scary."

Other suggestions may include:

"Hypnosis is scientifically proven."

"With hypnosis, you only need a couple of sessions to get rid of problems," he says.

"Hypnosis creates liberation."

Depending on the focus of your hypnosis practice, you can also choose other suggestions. These are just examples.

Then, if you have proof of effectiveness, such as through clients waxing lyrical about you in references, you can add that to your marketing message as well. Ultimately, evidence and seeing how it has worked for someone is also a good suggestion that it can work for others.

The suggestion of help

Ultimately, the most important suggestion—whether for a business selling a product or for a hypnotherapist—is that you want to help people with something. As a hypnotherapist, you want to help people break through mental blocks, change unhealthy patterns, overcome fears, and become healthier.

Especially that you offer help is something that is attractive to people, because who doesn't want to be helped?

Would you like to know how hypnosis works and how you can use it to help others? Then come to the hypnosis workshop to learn in just one day how to hypnotize people and verify whether they are truly in a hypnotic state.

Would you like to get started right away with techniques to help people—and maybe even open your own hypnosis practice? Then sign up for one of the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands. These are held in Zwolle, Wormerveer, and online.

[1] https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13522750210432977/full/html