So many of you say to me that you don’t want to target your potential patients and do the hard sell on them. You don’t want to be endlessly harassing them and hounding them into submission. You don’t want to be appearing to be yelling at them constantly to get their attention.
Fortunately, you don’t need to be doing that – there is another way…
I certainly wouldn’t want to be operating in that manner either. These days marketing has changed dramatically and we do need to look at things differently than before.
Getting new business and new patients used to happen rather more organically. But with the advent of the internet, website shop windows and the rapid growth of social media, the way we work has become far more proactive.
It used to be that a listing was placed in the local business directory and then, hopefully, people would find you and decide you were the best person to approach to help them. Even bigger and costly adverts placed in such directories were very bland and general, attempting to appeal to everyone.
Otherwise, there were expensive local newspaper adverts which were hit and miss and it was left to chance as to whether or not a potential patient saw your advert in the first place. Back then, with smaller communities, word of mouth worked extremely well.
This kind of general marketing just doesn’t work anymore and hugely different strategies are the ones which now need adopting.
Marketing yourself can feel like you’re being rather obnoxious and boastful!
But it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s a good idea to flip the concept around. You’re not marketing yourself as such; you are letting your community know how you can help them. If you make it all about them, their needs, their issues and their problems, then you are showing that you are understanding them perfectly. Then they will begin to see that you may well be a solution.
Asking them questions like ‘Are you putting up with pain?’ and ‘Did you know that we love to look for the root cause of your pain?’ will get them answering in their heads. Probably yes to the first question and no to the second! It’s a little tickle which gets them thinking.
Because your treatment is hands on and therefore quite intimate, it might well take people a few days, weeks or months to decide that you are the right person for them. Indeed I have found that it can even be years before someone says to me. ‘Right – that’s it! I need your help!’
The gentle marketing tickle
So don’t forget that people may be watching you from the periphery, looking at your social media posts, your website and your testimonials. They might think that they’ll give it another month to see if it improves and then decide whether to try you. But you need to keep on tickling. And on social media, be aware that most won’t actually visit your page, they may only see the odd post coming through their news feed, so it had better stand out and have impact! And to have massive impact it wants to be about them, resonate with them and promote Osteopathy as a solution.
A random post every few weeks is therefore not going to work as a marketing strategy. With busy online and offline lives, our marketing needs to be consistent and persistent or it will disappear like a snowflake on your hand.
All our marketing materials must tickle, tickle, tickle and then ASK them to do something. A great call to action is crucial in helping them to make that final decision to click the button and book or to call you for help.
This marketing tickle strategy works supremely well. The key to it is to provide fabulous content like humourous quotes and images, advice, tips, stretches and the latest health information Don’t be cautious about giving too much free advice away. By tickling gently in this manner, you are indeed quietly elevating yourself to expert status without ever a single boast or obnoxious sales tactic.
Go on – try a little marketing tickle today!
