STAGE ONE—The Introduction
You’ve put a ton of work into starting your clinic. You’ve asked what people want and need. You’ve been careful to differentiate what you offer vs what is available in your community. Now it’s time to actually open the doors. What’s the best way to announce your Grand Opening? You may decide to have a soft opening first where friends, colleagues and your inner circle are invited to experience your clinic first-hand. This helps to build your confidence and fuels the word-of-mouth networking that is invaluable.
About a month after your soft opening you’ve probably seen a couple of patients as a result of your soft opening event. Your confidence is increasing everyday and now it’s time to formally make an announcement. Time to create some buzz and excitement. Below are some good places to advertise the birth of your clinic! Buzz Marketing
Grand Opening Announcement to:
Chamber of Commerce
City Club
Toastmasters
Social Media- Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn
Nickel Ads
Newspaper
Flyers posted—Health Food Store Bulletin Boards, Schools, Library, Small Employers, Yoga and Fitness Centers
Local Churches
Community Center
STAGE TWO—Relationship Building
Your Grand Opening event is over. Whether you are pleased or disappointed with the outcome, now is the time to passionately push your vision forward. Keep the conversation going. Ever been at an event where you are introduced to someone who then retreats into stony silence as you try to carry on a conversation? Too many times that is exactly what happens with new practices. We introduce ourselves and our clinics. We make a small splash, only to retreat into our clinics, obsessing about who is or isn’t walking through our doors. So how do you keep the conversation going? Talk to everyone. This is called Business to People Marketing. B2P
Whether you are at the grocery store, paying a bill, at the health club or elsewhere in your community…tell people about what you are doing. Frame it as something you are passionate about. Two sentences and a warm smile goes a long way and gets the word out.
When patients start to show up, deepen the conversation. Develop a relationship and begin to build trust. It is only a matter of time before that casual conversation, those few seeds you planted at the beginning, take root and you realize you have your first loyal patients. Loyal patients love to get the word out about their awesome experience with you. Loyalty Marketing is powerful. People want to help. In this scenario, they get to help their friends AND YOU!
Relationships are not only personal, however. You can take your newfound confidence and begin to connect with local businesses. Form some alliances with like-minded community leaders who would love to be a part of your vision. If you are an introvert, focus less on the conversation and more on the vision. It’s easy to talk one-on-one about what inspires you. You aren’t selling anything, you are sharing your vision. Your community NEEDS you! Share unabashedly. This is Call to Action Marketing. CTA
Want to know more?
COMING SOON~ STAGE THREE–TYPES OF MARKETING AND WHAT FITS YOU BEST
STAGE FOUR–STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS SWOT