The image of muck spreader marketing really resonates with me!
Being a Farmer’s daughter from Shropshire meant that Autumn was a time when I had to delicately pick my way across the farmyard. Great caution was required as I dodged the piles of pungent poo and headed towards our lane to hike up to the main road to catch the old school bus. My Dad’s ancient muck spreader generally flung its putrid contents all over the place and we risked skidding in the slimy stuff and landing our pristine school uniforms in it.
Flinging our marketing all over the place and hoping it will stick somewhere and be useful is a poor use of our time, energy and money. So many Osteopaths struggle with boom and bust cycles of patient bookings. The trouble is that it’s an easy trap to fall into.
We market like crazy, sharing anything we can on our Facebook pages. We might try paying for expensive adverts. We might pay for costly listings in out-dated directories. We might busy ourselves creating leaflets and stuffing them through random letterboxes.
But nothing really sticks
So we get some help to learn how to stop this wretched muck spreader marketing and start working in a more strategic fashion. It’s like magic! New patients begin to roll in and we feel elated. The diary is booked solid and it’s all good. Clearly the marketing worked so that’s that. We stop and get on with what we do best.
Maybe there’s a dip for a week or two and suddenly we notice that we have ZIP, ZERO, ZILCH bookings. The diary is a sea of pristine white. Now what?
Panic!
The muck spreader marketing begins again, sharing random stuff across social media. Maybe it’s the fault of the website so we spend a fortune on a new one. Perhaps we should give Google loads of money and have a go at some Ads.
The result? Sadly you’re out of pocket, you’re worrying about income and paying the bills and even worse you’re failing to get the word out effectively to potential patients that you can help their pain. It’s so frustrating.
What are the symptoms of muck spreader marketing?
- Being unsure of what to actually do to attract in new patients
- Inconsistent or panic marketing
- Bland and cheerless messages
- No call to action
- Trying to be ‘professional’ on social media
- Attempting to get everyone’s attention with a single message
5 Tips for effective marketing
- Listen carefully in Clinic to what is bothering your target audience
- Understand how this affects them and focus your message
- Repeat these words back to similar groups of people
- Be clear and avoid medical terminology and jargon (no MSK please!)
- Consistently market your message even when you’re busy!
And if you’d like to speed up this whole process then just get in touch and we’ll work out what’s the best way to work together. I know what you need to do and I know how to get the results you want. I am passionate about helping you because #OsteopathyWorks and more people need to know about you!
