The majority of physiotherapy practice owners do not own a practice because they love business but because they love physiotherapy. Therefore, it is an effort to create time to attend to marketing the business.
“I don’t have time” is the most common reason I hear for people not spending time on the marketing aspect of a physio practice. One of the key conversations I have with practice owners is around getting them to commit to MAKING the time to work on marketing.
The truth is that no-one is going to gift you the time. You have to carve it out in the diary. If you want your business to grow and thrive then you have to make space to get your brand name out there. There are three steps I recommend to people to build their marketing muscle!
Step 1: Book in a month strategy meeting
Plan at the start of the month all of the marketing activities you are going to do that month. From blogs to networking, PR to GP communication. Write a simple list of the actions you are going to take this month to grow your business.
Step 2: Book a weekly “Marketing Power Hour”
Now that you have an action plan from your monthly meeting with yourself, you can book in a “Marketing Power Hour” into your diary where you action those plans. Most people will skip the meeting if you do not 100% know what you are going to do during that time. A patient or practice need which is practical will always take your attention unless you know what you are going to do when you sit down with yourself in that hour. So go to your list that you wrote in your monthly strategy and start ticking off your actions.
Step 3: Reframe how you see “Marketing”
I often have the word “marketing” air quoted to me by physios which always makes me chuckle. It shows to me how uncomfortable people can be with the word and action of marketing. Reframe how you see marketing. You have a service AND information that is really useful to people who are uncomfortable or in pain. When you do not do marketing you are not enabling them to come to you and get help. Therefore, by sharing quality content and reaching out into the community to let people know you are there means that you can help more people. When you see marketing as a way for you to help more people it can be a game changer in how you FEEL about spending the time on marketing your business.
ABOUT DIGITAL PRACTICE
Led by Marketing expert, Muireann Fitzmaurice, DigitalPractice.ie is a social media agency that create branded social media content for professional practice owners. It is a subscription service that provides physiotherapy-based content to the practice owner on a monthly basis that can be used on all social media channels. Saving you time and headspace each month to concentrate on other areas of the business.
If you need help with your developing the total marketing strategy for your business, we have packages available.
