The most important thing you can do attract new patients is to figure out who it is you are targeting. You need to define your audience by using research and common sense.
Things like social media, analytics, and keyword searches will help you identify the types of patients who will ultimately comprise your audience. Your customer base will be diverse, so you have to recognize lots of groups.
To start, you have to identify your general market by doing some keyword searches. Look on social media to see who is talking about the medical services you offer. If you have any existing customers, survey them.
You’ll want to set up customer profiles by reviewing the demographics, then create a unique selling point.
Are they high school students? Are they middle aged? Are they senior citizens? Your target audience may cover a wide variety of ages – or a particular range. It just depends on what your company offers.
Do your customers live in your local area, or is your target area much more extensive than that? You may only do business in your town, but if you have an online e-commerce business, you may have no geographic boundaries at all.
This may also be relevant, depending on the type of products and services you offer. If your product is more technical, your target audience is most likely going to consist of people who have the more advanced education than those who didn’t graduate from high school.
Knowing what your customers can afford will guide you in the types of products and services you offer, the margins you use, and the overall ‘tone’ of your medical website.
Some products and services are considered ‘luxury,’ and ‘high end,’ and only those with plenty of disposable income will be able to afford them.
Do the people who purchase your product have specific careers or work in a particular industry? Are they stay-at-home parents? Are they students in grade school, high school or college?
This critical question is often overlooked. Why are your products or services valuable to your target audience? What do your customers need your products or services for?
See Also: 5 Things You Can Do Today to Attract New Patients
Customers have quick responses to products and services, and often, these responses are based on emotions instead of rational analysis. Put just, people’s simple ‘likes and dislikes’ are usually not so simple.
Behind their preferences are a combination of socioeconomic class and lifestyle tendencies. Understanding why a customer likes – or worse, dislikes – your product or service is EXTREMELY important.
Are your products or services such that only a particular or unique group of people would be interested in them or need them? Perhaps you want to sell products for left-handed people, or that only cater to very large or very small people.
In the broader picture, niche marketing of this type can be very lucrative if you are the only provider in the space, or if you can develop good customer loyalty.
But it’s important to note here that you don’t want to get too far down in the weeds. For example, a hairdresser who only cuts the hair of blondes over six feet tall may be restricting things a little too much!
A unique selling proposition – or USP – is something that only you offer. It may just involve 4 short steps, but they are important ones.
Go Back to The Basics. Define the products or services you’re selling. Define your target audience. Define what you do well.
Solve A Problem. Identify your target audience’s problem and explain how your product or service solves it.
Identify Your Differentiators. Identify what about your solution is better than your competitors.
Make A Promise. This step combines the essential elements of the previous steps into a concise statement that embodies the value your firm has to offer. As you work through these four steps, one thing should immediately jump out at you: if you’ve worked through everything in this chapter as instructed, you already have everything you need to complete this step. You just need to package it all up.
Since your USP is, well, unique, there is no one-size-fits-all set of recommendations I can provide that will help you get from point A to point B.
Read Also: Top 8 Reasons to Use SEO as A Health Professional
At the end of the day, coming up with your USP is a creative process that develops partly through hard work and partly through inspiration.
Here are a few tips that I feel will help you with this part of your branding journey, however:
Your customer personas represent your ideal customer – the person you really want to sell to. As long as they exist in sufficient numbers (a consideration not to be forgotten!), don’t be afraid or ashamed to appeal to them directly AND boldly.
Ask yourself honestly, what the public’s perception of your industry is. Is it ideal? Is your sector highly respected and valued? If not, how can you overcome that perception and be different and better?
Whatever answer you come up with may end up being your USP.
Everyone wants to be the best. If you’re regularly racing to be on top, you’ll never stop running, and unfortunately, despite your best efforts, you will probably never get there.
So instead of focusing on being the best, focus on being different. Find things that set you apart – then nurture and develop them.
As a business owner, you are your own best company asset. Don’t be afraid to cultivate your personality – quirks and all – and project that out as the foundation of what makes your firm different.
Amongst all this differentiation, don’t forget that at the end of the day, you need to be selling if you want to stay in business. Your USP says, “Buy this brand for these unique benefits.”
Stick to the message and don’t get lost in fluffy ‘image’ creation that doesn’t sell. Find a USP that is not offered by your competitors and one that has mass appeal.
Learn simple ways to attract new patients. |
To start, you have to identify your general market by doing some keyword searches. Look on social media to see who is talking about the medical services you offer. If you have any existing customers, survey them.
You’ll want to set up customer profiles by reviewing the demographics, then create a unique selling point.
How Old are Your Customers?
Are they high school students? Are they middle aged? Are they senior citizens? Your target audience may cover a wide variety of ages – or a particular range. It just depends on what your company offers.
Where Do They Live?
Do your customers live in your local area, or is your target area much more extensive than that? You may only do business in your town, but if you have an online e-commerce business, you may have no geographic boundaries at all.
What is Their Educational Background?
This may also be relevant, depending on the type of products and services you offer. If your product is more technical, your target audience is most likely going to consist of people who have the more advanced education than those who didn’t graduate from high school.
What is Their Income Level?
Knowing what your customers can afford will guide you in the types of products and services you offer, the margins you use, and the overall ‘tone’ of your medical website.
What is the income level of your audience? |
What Do They Do for A Living?
Do the people who purchase your product have specific careers or work in a particular industry? Are they stay-at-home parents? Are they students in grade school, high school or college?
Why Do They Need Your Products or Services?
This critical question is often overlooked. Why are your products or services valuable to your target audience? What do your customers need your products or services for?
See Also: 5 Things You Can Do Today to Attract New Patients
How important are they to them?
What do they mean to them? Once you start asking yourself these types of questions, it’s easy to see why lifestyle classification is so important.
What Is Their Emotional Response?
Customers have quick responses to products and services, and often, these responses are based on emotions instead of rational analysis. Put just, people’s simple ‘likes and dislikes’ are usually not so simple.
Behind their preferences are a combination of socioeconomic class and lifestyle tendencies. Understanding why a customer likes – or worse, dislikes – your product or service is EXTREMELY important.
Is There Anything Special or Different About Your Target Audience?
Are your products or services such that only a particular or unique group of people would be interested in them or need them? Perhaps you want to sell products for left-handed people, or that only cater to very large or very small people.
In the broader picture, niche marketing of this type can be very lucrative if you are the only provider in the space, or if you can develop good customer loyalty.
But it’s important to note here that you don’t want to get too far down in the weeds. For example, a hairdresser who only cuts the hair of blondes over six feet tall may be restricting things a little too much!
Create A Unique Selling Proposition
A unique selling proposition – or USP – is something that only you offer. It may just involve 4 short steps, but they are important ones.
Create a Unique Selling Proposition |
Go Back to The Basics. Define the products or services you’re selling. Define your target audience. Define what you do well.
Solve A Problem. Identify your target audience’s problem and explain how your product or service solves it.
Identify Your Differentiators. Identify what about your solution is better than your competitors.
Make A Promise. This step combines the essential elements of the previous steps into a concise statement that embodies the value your firm has to offer. As you work through these four steps, one thing should immediately jump out at you: if you’ve worked through everything in this chapter as instructed, you already have everything you need to complete this step. You just need to package it all up.
Since your USP is, well, unique, there is no one-size-fits-all set of recommendations I can provide that will help you get from point A to point B.
Read Also: Top 8 Reasons to Use SEO as A Health Professional
At the end of the day, coming up with your USP is a creative process that develops partly through hard work and partly through inspiration.
Here are a few tips that I feel will help you with this part of your branding journey, however:
Appeal To Your Ideal Customer
Your customer personas represent your ideal customer – the person you really want to sell to. As long as they exist in sufficient numbers (a consideration not to be forgotten!), don’t be afraid or ashamed to appeal to them directly AND boldly.
Create A Unique Personality in Your Industry
Ask yourself honestly, what the public’s perception of your industry is. Is it ideal? Is your sector highly respected and valued? If not, how can you overcome that perception and be different and better?
Create A Unique Personality in Your Industry. |
Whatever answer you come up with may end up being your USP.
Avoid The ‘Be The Best’ Rat Race
Everyone wants to be the best. If you’re regularly racing to be on top, you’ll never stop running, and unfortunately, despite your best efforts, you will probably never get there.
So instead of focusing on being the best, focus on being different. Find things that set you apart – then nurture and develop them.
Get Personal
As a business owner, you are your own best company asset. Don’t be afraid to cultivate your personality – quirks and all – and project that out as the foundation of what makes your firm different.
Don’t Forget To Sell
Amongst all this differentiation, don’t forget that at the end of the day, you need to be selling if you want to stay in business. Your USP says, “Buy this brand for these unique benefits.”
Stick to the message and don’t get lost in fluffy ‘image’ creation that doesn’t sell. Find a USP that is not offered by your competitors and one that has mass appeal.
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