The advice we share time and again at the Academy is simple. YOU MUST HAVE A PLAN!
Your plan needs to cover how you will free up your time to grow your business and what you will use that time for. It should also cover your aim, for example what targets must you meet. Most importantly though arguably is HOW are you going to grow your business; who do you want to work with, how will you make contact with them and what will you say? For us, that is key to being productive.
Chris Phillips, Principal of the Academy and Sports Massage Therapist, shares some ideas of how to put a plan in place based on how he has marketed his own practice over the last 25 years.
Make your action plan now...
First step - Define your target client groups
Choose three target client groups, the people that you would most like to do business with. Try to be as descriptive as possible as per the example rather than simply saying 'sports teams' or 'key workers'. Think about factors like gender, age, location, education, profession, interests & hobbies, income, media preference & values. The specifics will make your marketing strategy much easier to manage. For example -
'A 35 year old woman living in Cirencester, working in the NHS as a nurse who is a keen runner and netball player. She earns 30K per year, is active on social media and is passionate about helping and caring for others'
Next step - How are you going to reach your target groups, what will you do and what will you say?
With your target client groups in mind to answer the below questions, again the value is in the detail. We always love this discussion in our Building your business workshops as this is where the creativity flows and there's always an idea we haven't thought of before!
Q: What are you going to say to them?
Q: When and where are you going to say it?
Q: How do you make sure they book with you?
Having an elevator pitch is invaluable. Imagine you had 30 seconds to tell someone who you are and what you do - this elevator pitch is well worth practicing and delivering with passion.
Final step - Explain what makes you different from other therapists.
Your unique selling point (USP), point of difference (POD) there's many different ways to describe the things that set you apart, make you memorable and help people relate to you and ultimately keep them coming back to your business. If you are struggling to answer this question then perhaps think about your journey and the passions that have brought you to this point. If you are an established therapist what compliments do you receive and why do your clients sing your praises. A great way to demonstrate this is to share your knowledge at every opportunity - you've worked hard to gain it so share it!
Top tip -
Start today - We often think of marketing and networking as being a formal activity, predetermined even, but once you have your action plan in place and elevator pitch prepared what is stopping you from telling everyone you meet today what you do! Always carry a business card with you and be ready to tell the world what you do one person at a time, sometimes that's all it takes to get the ball rolling.
Looking for more marketing support? At the Academy we run regular business focused workshops and courses to support you throughout your journey into this industry and beyond.
This workshop is focused on working out what your target market will be, but more importantly, how you will get yourself in front of those groups of people. Throughout the workshop there are opportunities to share ideas with other therapists and hear from Chris Phillips, Principal of the Academy about his journey into the industry and the tips and tricks of marketing yourself to drive success.
Want to see more like this? Take a look at our other blogs about growing your business...
