Five No-Brainers for Marketing Your Private Practice
Marketing doesn’t have to be complicated and it doesn’t have to take a long time to get it going. Here are five no-brainer ways to market your private practice. Most of them you can start doing today.
Of course, these don’t take the place of a well-thought out marketing plan, but they are easy to implement and can make a significant difference in your results.
Use Your Email Signature
Create a signature that tells a story about your services (the “what”) and the people you serve (the “who”). Use it on all of your emails. Add it whenever you make a post to a forum or message board. I once saw someone turn an abbreviated version of their email signature into a return address sticker.
As an example, here is the email signature I use:
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Dianne E. Dawson, M.A.
Marketing and Business Development
http://www.PrivatePracticeMarketingRoundtable.com
http://www.TheCustomWebDesignCompany.com
Eastern Time Zone – USA“I work with self-employed professionals who believe their practice has reached a plateau – it’s stuck! – and what they really want is fresh ideas and savvy strategies to bring in new clients, dramatically increase profits, and create more time to enjoy life.”
Coaching – Training – Web Design
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Open and Post to a Twitter Account
Use twitter to allow people to get to know you and your interests. Set-up your profile to tell a little about your business. Upload a picture of yourself (some people upload logos for branding). Tweet about topics of interest to you as well as snippets about your practice.
If you are hoping to find clients through twitter, don’t do tweets on personal escapades that do not inspire confidence in you as a professional provider of the service they are seeking (some things just won’t seem all that funny to your clients).
Instead, use the space to post a combination of interesting personal “stuff” (hobbies, trips, things you are doing), links to articles (especially when the article is on your website), updates about your practice and services, and replies to the tweets of others.
You can view my profiles for examples – and follow me on twitter – in two places. One I use for tweets on private practice marketing and one is used to share information with online store owners (etailers).
Build a Referral Network
Think outside the box. Don’t just focus on others in your field or closely related fields. Think about where your market “hangs out”. Go there and build a network of referral sources from the influencers in that setting.
It’s another way of saying get out of your own circle of colleagues and mingle with other groups. It’s great when you are the only expert in the group for your services. Others will naturally turn to you with questions, resource needs…and referrals.
Put Up a Website and Promote It
Make your website a reflection of your practice and the services you offer. Again, it’s another way for people to find you and get to know you before picking up the phone to call for an appointment. Put your website address everywhere (business cards, stationary, email signature, etc.). Work with a SEO guru (search engine optimization) so your website can be found.
If you go to Google and type in BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COACH, you’ll find that I come up #1 (www.dawsonresources.com). I would be happy to talk with you about getting your website optimized to show well in search results (yep, I’m a SEO guru!).
Create a Great Story
Don’t Keep Your Services a Secret. Develop 2-3 great stories you can tell that involve your services. Keep them light, short and interesting. Sprinkle them into conversations when it fits with the topic – and be alert for opportunities to do so in a natural way. Your goal is to get these stories into circulation for word-of-mouth “advertising” about the great results people get from working with you.
People like to work with successful, upbeat and interesting people. They like to brag about the great ____ they found (therapist, insurance guy, dentist, fill-in-your-profession).
Use these five ways for marketing your practice as a quick start for taking action. However, don’t let their simplicity fool you. You still need to first identify your target market. Otherwise, how will you know where your market hangs out, what type stories to tell or what to twitter about that would capture their attention?
[firstname], if you still don’t have a firm handle on your target market, click over to our “How to Get Started Developing Your Marketing Plan” and get going!