There was this humorous commercial on TV a few years ago wherein a traveler stopped at a gas station and asked how to get to a certain destination point. The gas station owner thought about it, scratched his head, hemmed and hawed, and finally said, “You can’t get there from here.”
The same could be said of growing a practice. If you don’t have a map of how to grow the practice and where you want it to go, you won’t get THERE.
Skillful Marketing Strategy
The first thing you need to do in order to market effectively is to work out a Marketing Strategy. One of the definitions of “strategy” is: The skillful planning and management of anything. So take some management time to work up a marketing strategy for your practice. And by the way, you can get your staff in on this as well.
1. Who do you want?
The first thing to decide is what kind of patients or clients you want to attract. Seriously! Many practices just open their doors and hope people walk in and are often dismayed that they suddenly became the dumping ground of patients or clients that none of the other practices in the area wanted. Selective, purposeful marketing can avoid this scenario.
Really name out the qualities and characteristics of who you want to treat. Find out all about them demographically, economically, age group-wise, and so on, so you can focus your marketing messages to that group.
For instance, there are different age groups that buy differently. They are roughly delineated by age brackets as follows: the Millennials (aged 19 – 35), the GenX (35 – 50), the Boomers (55 – 69), the Silent (70 – 85).
For some practitioners, you want to attract certain types of people: holistic, sports-oriented, family-oriented, and so on.
2. Emotional Triggers
The next thing to consider is: how are you going to make that public you have chosen WANT your service and come in and get it? What will make them choose YOU over your competition?
Keep in mind that WHAT you are selling (such as: “well maintained teeth and gums,” or “corrective eyewear,” or “healthy animals who lead long and happy lives,” or “natural looking dentures that fit like Mother Nature’s,” or “wellness for life,” or “happy, comfortable feet,” etc.) is NOT what is going to cause the patient or client to buy your service.
In fact, what you need to figure out for the people you want to market to is: What emotional trigger will make them reach for YOUR service … an idea or concept that sets you apart from other practices and gives you an amazing competitive advantage. There is a law of leadership: When you are the first one to do something, you become #1. It is a battle of perception, not a battle of products. Perceptions = emotions = feelings. For example: “Hate, hate, hate how crooked your teeth are?” as a marketing message will attract anyone who has that emotion about their teeth. For denture wearers: “Want to experience the joy of eating your favourite foods again?” For physio and chiropractic patients: “Remember the freedom of movement and wild abandon you had as a child?” Get the idea?
3. Promotion
Now get that message you have worked out communicated to your potential new patients or clients. Through every medium you can imagine. On your website, through blogs online for certain groups you are interested in, fliers, door knocker fliers, talks at schools or community centres or wherever your prospects frequent, radio and TV if allowed by your profession, Facebook, even your own patients or clients can pass the message.
In Summation
You must work in that sequence above. To just randomly promote without doing the first two steps is to waste an awful lot of marketing dollars.
Imagine the excitement of a ton of new patients or clients
(of the kind you would love to treat) pouring in on your practice!
Let us help you make it happen!
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