I'm really glad you're here and decided to take this first step into developing your marketing strategy. The first step is an exploratory phase, you're going to uncover insights that will drive your marketing activities
The objective of this step is to explore the market you compete in and understanding trends that are occurring now and over the next two to three years. We'll take a detailed view of your target patient that you want to attract to your business then review your competitors, examining their strengths and weaknesses. Through this activity, you will uncover opportunities for your business to grow and threats that may impact you in the future
So let's jump in.
Video is ~10min long or written instructions continue below.
If you would like an example of a Marketing Plan please click here
1: Review the Market you compete in
First we will review the state of the industry you compete in.There are key metrics you can look at to understand what's going on.
Demographics of your Therapeutic Area
Is the market growing?
Is it declining?
What trends are occurring in this market?
What's the age group/gender etc attracted to your market?
The population of practitioners vs patients
Average age of the practitioners
Are practitioners specialising within their therapeutic areas?
Now that you've gathered this information, examine what you've found and list the opportunities or threats that raise to the top
Demographics of your Target Market
If you're targeting your local area, understanding the following will help you uncover potential trends that will impact your business
Population size by age group
Growth in these age group areas
Birth rates
Employed vs unemployed
Local developments planned for
These metrics will indicated population trends you will need to be prepared for eg. Is the population aging, therefore you need to ensure your business has the skills to treat these patients. Are most of the population in employment, therefore opening hours may need to be altered etc. You can find a lot of this information online for free or through your local council. Google searching is the best place to start
Highlight the key takeaways that you feel will impact your business both as a potential opportunity or threats
2. Reviewing Market Trends
This part of the plan can involve a lot of educated guesses but utilising colleagues will help the process. There are many online resources that can help here eg. Google trends or trendwatching.com A key source of information about your therapeutic area is your country organisation or educational facilities who train new students or provide further education. I would recommend taking all the trends you've accumulated and map them out on the below example. This will help isolate the trends that will be important to you and impact your business
Isolate your top positive and negative trends that will impact your business and map them on the above graph based on the potential for them to impact your business vs potential impact on your market. You will then be able to identify 5 key trends that you can plan for in your marketing strategy and activities
A simple example, wearable technology for tracking health is going to continue to grow and this is something you could incorporate into your practice to track patient progress. You can always use this proof to the patient of consistent work and impact on their problem. You can then use this proof as social support that your program works. Online programs are being developed everyday for people to exercise at home, can you use these apps to support your post in practice care?
You now have an understanding of your market it's time to understand your target customer
3. Your Target Customer and their Journey
Through your experience and study, you're likely to be passionate about a particular target patient problem. You probably get excited when a patient walks in with this problem and you can't wait to solve it. It's important you start to outline the detail of who that customer is. Some people would call this "niching" you into a customer type or a patient type but please remember, just because you choose one or two patients that you really want to specialise in, doesn't mean that you can't treat a number of different patients. This is the area that you're really going to be great at and where your passion lies. Patients will travel hours to see you about this problem.
You need to deeply understand and empathise with this patients and understand the following
Their demographics, age, gender etc
Family situation
Living situation
What does this patient generally experience first on their journey?
What does their life look like?
What motivates them?
What motivates them to come to you?
What are the values?
What are they hoping to get out of seeing a practitioner?
The goals they want to achieve and try and tell their story.
These steps will be so important to help you with your marketing activities. These insights help you find target your marketing activities effectively and efficiently, you'll be able to craft your messages that resonate with your customer. This is an extremely valuable step and can change and there can be more than one. I recommend you interview these patients and let them express their experience in their own words.
Now that you've identified a patient target, it's important to understand their journey. Their journey started long before they came to see you, it started when they realised they had a problem, even before they thought they needed help. Understand their thought process and what was compelling them to make decisions along their journey and the pain points that frustrated them as they sought help. Here is an a more in-depth explanation of developing a "customer journey"
As you explore your patient's journey, empathise with their experience and continue to ask "why" they did what they did to uncover the emotion and feelings behind their decisions. Here are some questions which will trigger your process
How did they start their journey? When did you realise you had a problem
How did they start to look for care?
What was your decision process before closing a therapist to go to?
What were the alternatives they could havegone to?
And why did they choose you?
Why would they choose you over another practitioner?
Why would they choose you versus doing nothing?
Draw a map of their journey highlighting areas of problem but also of great experiences they've had. Areas of friction will always be areas your business can take advantage of and capitalise. If you can help problem areas for patients you'll be on the road to success and will make your marketing meaningful with heartfelt impact. Marketing isn't about tricking people, it's about helping people uncover how you can help them.
4.Understanding You're Competitors
Competitors can be anyone that is targeting the same patient you've uncovered in the above section. Remember, competitors can be invisible, as patients who need help may be apathetic and not realise they have a need. Take a holistic view of who competitors are, competitors may not be be within your therapeutic area, they could be in other therapeutic areas eg. physiotherapists, osteopaths, physicians and chiropractors will often treat back pain so examine all competitors.
Here are key areas you need to uncover:
How they're promoting themselves?
Who is their target patient? Do they have a specific niche patient? What do patients say about your competitors (how are they positioned in the mind of your target patient)
What do you think they do well or not so well?
What are their strengths or weaknesses? How do they compare to your strengths and weaknesses?
How do they promote themselves - what language do they use, which media do they promote their practice and how successful are they?
Are you able to gather their market share, sales or number of patients. Sometimes the number of practitioners working in a practice will provide insights into the potential number of patients
Practice size and catchment areas - do they have an online practice or just face to face?
Bring forward 3-4 key insights or opportunities that you feel will impact your business moving forward
You will have gathered a number of insights throughout this process, some will be potential opportunities or threats but also some weaknesses of your practice and strengths compared to your competitors. This is fantastic information which we'll need to bring into the Step2 on the road map to developing your marketing plan
It's not always easy and can be time consuming but don't give up, it will be worth it. We're here to help and offer advice at anytime contact@aquabluemarketing.com for any questions.