Let's Talk Promotion and Marketing for the Private Practice

Let's face it - marketing can be a pretty confusing subject!

Most people, when it comes to marketing one's business or practice, will happily turn over the marketing responsibilities to someone else in hopes that they won't have to worry about it or in hopes that the other person will do the job a heck of a lot better then they would.

Others go hog wild and do what ever comes into their heads, where it really just becomes a lot of noise and confusing messages to public. They hope that at least someone will get interested and come in to the business or practice and some money will be made as a result.

Neither has a guarantee of any success and more than likely will result in a waste of money.

The truth is - marketing is simple, once you understand some basics.

Marketing only seems confusing because some of the most basic aspects have never been defined. As a result most professionals are tossed around in the tornado of misconceptions and lack of know how.

But when you break it down it's actually quite simple. So, let's break it down:

Marketing is defined as the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers and the packaging of these products and getting them into the hands of the intended customers. It is the strategy and actions to prepare the product and to get it placed in the market so it reaches the greatest amount of potential clients possible.

Promotion is publicization of a product, organization, or venture so as to increase public awareness and thus sales. It is campaigning to get a product or idea well thought of and accepted. Promotion is the activity of offering a product in such a way that it creates response and want by the intended customer base.

Dissemination is scattering widely, to spread abroad; promulgate. When we say disseminate we are talking about making widely known the value and availability of a product, activity or service. This includes many different ideas and methods such as the use of the internet, social media, letters, calls, word of mouth, news paper ads, etc.

Each word is different and have distinct meanings. They are different words that are related, but at the same time are not the same. Understanding each should give someone a greater understanding of what makes up promotion and marketing.

Marketing really covers the entire evolution of selecting and preparing what products or services you have to offer, what you will promote to your client base and how you will go about getting that done. It encompasses the color of your office walls, how your logo will look, the type of paper you use, etc. It also includes the managing of your marketing activities to see that it is resulting in increased sales and determining what you have to reinforce or get rid of.

Promotion is an aspect of your marketing. It covers the actions reaching out to your customer base and getting a response. As covered above, this could be done in the form of an ad in the paper, a flyer, a tweet, a post on your fan page. It is the act of your staff promoting your service to your clients or patients and creating response.

Dissemination is a more all encompassing term that includes the promotional actions of sending out flyers, posting tweets, having a good website and also includes the packaging of your services and products and any methods to reach your customers.

All three of these together marketing, promotion and dissemination create a complete package and create the flow of new patients, new clients or new customers that all business, medical practices or other group, depends on.