PUSH THE RIGHT BUTTONS WITH YOUR MARKETING

It is important, when creating effective promotion and marketing for your practice, that you do some very basic research to narrow down the exact "buttons" for potential new clients and those "buttons" that will get past clients to return.

The first thing you have to understand is - what is a "button" and how does it work?

A "button" is that message or idea that gets a potential patient to react, it's that thing that perks their interest and makes them want to come to your practice (or at least makes them want to find out more about your practice).

Each area has a general "button" and you want to know what it is so you can push it and fill your practice with patients.

The research you need to do is actually pretty simple. The first step is to determine what general mindset and styles dominate your particular city or area your practice provide services to. If you're from the area, this may be even simpler as you will probably have a pretty good idea of what the general mindset and attitudes are. Regardless, I would recommend doing a rapid survey with people you know from the area and see if each of you share the same opinions on this.

Now, if you're not from the area you need to ask people from the area to get this information. Here are some example questions that can elicit the information:

- What do you feel is important to this area?
- Tell me what best describes this city?
- What is important to you?
- What about _____________ (based on your field of medical practice) do you
consider important?

There are also online resources you can use to get demographic information that may help you determine your area's attitudes and mindset.

Additionally, I've found that it's very useful to survey what the more successful practices are doing (promotion and marketing wise), as it's working for them and there might be some things you can incorporate into your own promotion and marketing that will also work for you. Take a look at three or four successful practices. Checkout their websites, blogs, online marketing, their Facebook page, LinkedIn page and any traditional marketing that they're doing. You'll want to note their designs, colors, messages, any particular "buttons" they're pushing, etc. Obviously, you're going to be original in creating or improving your marketing, but doing this simple research will help you with ideas.

Once you've done the above you'll want to review what you've done in the past with your own promotion and marketing. Look over advertisements, brochures for your practice, newsletters, slogans, logos, your website, billboards, client word of mouth successes, social media and any other internet marketing you've done that has resulted in increased patients.

Check this by reviewing the dates of when specific promotion and marketing actions were being done, against dates that showed increases in office visits and new patients. This will show you the pieces and actions that were successful.

Once you've collected all the above information you'll have a general idea of what your area's "buttons" are, where to go with your online and traditional promotion and marketing and will be making good strides towards filling your practice with new and returning patients.