By SCOTT RICHARDS
If you are reading this, it is because you care about putting forth the effort needed to create success for your brand and medical practice. This is because you have been looking, reading, learning, evaluating, and even trying different options. In turn, you become disappointed when they fail in living up to the hype they used to pull you in and frustrated when, at the end of the day, the time and/or money spent did not deliver results.
It’s time then to take the first steps in what you will need to do and know if you are looking to expand or grow your medical practice.
With what you know about your practice and the industry, you have been doing just fine. In fact, maybe you have been doing better than some others, but you would still like to scale and/or expand and grow. Maybe one way to grow is to evaluate your business in a different perspective to create growth.
Step around the dimensional circle of perspective for your business and open the door to bring in new clientele, reach new target markets, save money in business expenses, and increase the average potential of revenue from each of your current clientele as well as possibly reach out to past clients to generate a bit of additional revenue.
Let’s first take a quick moment to talk about visibility and what it should mean to your practice. When people are searching for your products and services do they find your business or your competitors? There are a few different parts that all add to your visibility.
It has parts in local visibility.
That is making sure that in the proper local area where the target market for your practice is, you are making your office/practice an option, available and there for the consumer to make an appointment the moment they think they need to. It is making sure that in that specific locale your branding efforts are strong enough that even if you have plenty of competition, you will know how to differentiate your brand from the others and make sense to the target market chosen to support your practice.
It has parts in online visibility.
That is making sure that when potential clientele are searching for your services online, that they are able to find your practice. It also helps if they find your business, and less and less of your competitors so it increases the opportunity for you to gain that new client. It encompasses search engines such as Google and Bing and also social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook (Meta) and You Tube.
It has parts in 24-hour visibility.
That is setting up opportunities for you to put your practice in front of new target markets in new locations that might see your service in a different angle than your current clientele does.
It has parts in Public Relations visibility.
That is when the professional industry and media, as well as the consumer, consider you and your practice as brand experts in the field you are in. This will put you and your team in front of others to inform them of information either about your office/practice or about the industry in different media outlets such as radio, television, and print.
Visibility means money, simple and straight forward. It means new clientele and it also means brand awareness and brand recognition. It means an increase in online and offline traffic to your website and your physical locations. It means getting new patients through emails, phone calls and people stopping in. It means getting some of your past clientele coming back to appreciate what they liked about you or the practice and doing some more.
Now that you see the various parts of visibility that you should be thinking about, there are key elements about your practice that are essential to know if you are looking for growth.
What are some tips for Growth?
Verify your revenue streams. Do you know where all the revenue comes in from? Do you have Multiple revenue streams? Are you focused on strengthening the weaker streams while pushing the stronger ones for more success?
- Review your top competitors. Do you know how to identify who your top competitors are? List them out and see what they might be doing better than you. See what keywords they are using in their marketing. Try to figure out what they might be doing for advertising. How busy are they?
- Identify your key target market. After reviewing and listing out a minimum of 3-4 different target markets, compare them and see which one has the highest margins with the least amount of expense in obtaining them as clients. The result is your key target market that you should be consistently marketing to. Think of multiple SUB target markets you can reach out to throughout the year to bring in new patients/clientele.
- Know your USP (Unique Selling Point). If you need some help in identifying your own particular “USP,” try this little exercise: On a sheet of paper, write down this sentence: “Most Practices in my industry do_____________. But what we do is _______________.” As the blank spaces suggest, I want you to write in whatever it is that sets you apart from others in your same line or field of practice – what YOU do that they don’t or can’t do. That’s your Unique Selling Proposition or point.
- Focus on your strengths. Make sure you are working on the services you provide and do a great job at doing it. Know what your strengths are. Is it customer service? Is it the quality of a service? Is it the pricing structure or the great offers you have? Is it simply your record of success in a certain procedure?
Planning is a great way for a steady strong evolution. It's a good idea to review your current performance on a regular basis and identify the most likely strategies for growth. Plan and allocate resources effectively. Set goals and timelines and keep data on the analytics of the results. You can really outline where you want to go, what you will spend to get there, and then after you do it, you can do it again.
Understanding all there is to know about the practice is a great first step toward the continued growth. Next month we will focus on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and things to do right now.
Scott Richards is CEO at Faceless Marketing, a Full Service Marketing Firm Providing Complete Marketing Plans/Campaigns and: Graphic Design, Printing, Direct Mail, Social Media Marketing, Public Relations, Multimedia and everything that a business needs to assist in creating success. Offices in Orlando, Miami & Denver. Contact him at Scott@faceless.marketing or visit www.Faceless.Marketing
