Why You Need to Start Marketing Your Private Practice Today (Even if You Don’t Feel Ready)
As someone who works with SLPs and other therapy-based businesses on a daily basis, one common theme I’ve noticed is that most businesses wait too long to start their marketing.
Business builders want to make sure they have all their ducks in a row and everything perfectly set up before they start announcing their practice. Sound familiar?
But here’s the thing: marketing takes time!
You need to initiate your marketing efforts long before you want to see the results. There is a lag between the conceptualization and initiation of marketing and its impact, so you have to be ahead of the game. Here’s why:
It simply takes time to create marketing.
Whether it’s social media or flyer, hiring-out or DIY, it takes a while to sit down and create the media, graphics, and content. Then, it needs to get printed or posted.
It takes time for marketing to reach people.
Marketing needs time to gain traction, whether it’s literally going out in the mail or simply being shared on social. Unfortunately for those of us who are trying to reach people - our efforts are not instant and they take longer than we think to get in front of the people we’d like to reach.
People don’t act immediately.
Even once our marketing gets in front of the people that we want to see it, we still need to wait for them to act. Depending on who you talk to, it is said that a customer needs to be exposed to a product over 20 times before purchasing. Of course, this varies by industry and many other factors, however, the point is that it’s unlikely your ideal client is going to hear about you for the first time and then immediately call to schedule. They may need to hear or see your name multiple times before acting, or they may simply need to wait until a later time for reasons that have nothing to do with you.
At the end of the day, most marketing isn’t as immediately effective as we may think, and we need to account for this by getting started on our marketing earlier than we’d ever have thought necessary.
Here are some brainstorm ideas to help get you started on your marketing:
1. Who are you going to market to and what physical materials will you need to do this? 🖇
2. How will people know you exist if they are searching generally for the services you provide in your area? 👀
3. If a family shares your name, what will they give their friend or where will they direct them (website, social media)? 💻
4. How will you establish trust and expertise with people who are researching your services? 🤝
5. How will you ensure that people see you or hear about you across multiple channels?
