How to start shaping your marketing strategy

The goal of this blog post is to discuss marketing, especially in relation to your perfect patient. We define our perfect patient, or target audience, by looking at demographics, psychographics and your target audience's background. We also determine their pain, fears, goals and dreams. You might be wondering, what is marketing? I define marketing as a very high level of communication or the start of a relationship. The goal with your marketing strategy is not to get you new clients, but to generate leads while building a relationship.

One of the largest misconceptions is that credentials or state of the art equipment equals better value. Being the best known in your area versus the “best kept secret” will increase your success. Real marketing is about deeply understanding your target audience. It is about solving the problem that they have instead of focusing on being a jack of all trades.

Most clinics actually don’t do marketing, they do advertising. What is the difference between the two? Advertising is about you, your credentials and your services. Not about your clients or potential future clients. Marketing is about them. Their problems, frustrations and goals are all addressed. Done in the right way, marketing can be an essential lead generation tool for your business.

The traditional way that I’ve seen a lot of physical therapists market their clinic was to ask the veterinarians around their area for referrals. This is similar to the human PT world where referrals from physician offices are asked as a way to drive traffic to a clinic.

Can that work? Is it sustainable? It can be IF you have a marketing assistant who is consistently nurturing those relationships. But, the risk is that you have no control over it. For example, what if they start offering “rehab” or what if they get sold to a corporation who refers somewhere else? Or, if it is a specialty center, what if they open their own rehab department?

The solution is direct to consumer marketing with a focus on educating pet parents and building a relationship before they even become a paying customer.