Your Practice Is Like A Record Store

Getting your name out there is the first step in successful word-of-mouth. And, in the absence of other information, when people are offered alternatives they’ll nearly always choose the more familiar.

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Two Step Dental Marketing

Showing your TV commercial one time, running an ad in the newspaper once, or doing one mailing of postcards may not be enough to grab and keep your target audience’s attention.

More on page 116

Massage Therapists Need a Marketing Strategy

Many advertising tools used by massage therapists are used in a manner that results in disappointment. Learning how these advertising tools should be used in a well thought out marketing strategy is paramount to a successful advertising venture.

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A Capacity Lesson from Dentistry - The Four-Handed Chiropractic Office

Four-handed dentistry became popular in the 1960’s and is a procedure that utilizes a dental assistant at the chair side of the patient with the dentist.

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“How Much Does an Eye Exam Cost?”

The voice on the phone asks “How much are your exams?” Do you know how you should answer?

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How To Market Your Private Physical Therapy Practice

Posted May 1st, 2008

Choosing the people you’d like as patients is the first step. What follows is a simple step-by-step marketing plan for physical therapy practices.

by: Erika Trimble

If your goal is to have more clients and more freedom, and to build a truly prosperous business, this simple 5-step guide will show you how. Follow these steps, and watch your client referrals and revenues double.

1. Identify a target audience to which you want to market.

You cannot market to the world, so choose an audience which you know has a need for, and could derive great benefit from, your services. Consider who you truly enjoy working with, and what your special service strengths are. Then, identify your ideal clients: those who need your services, are easy to find, have the means to make the decision to use physical therapy services, and whose problem your services will solve.

2. Research your target audience to understand what they want and need.

In your research, find answers to these questions:

—what keeps your target audience from enjoying life fully

—what is your target audience afraid of

—what are their top three frustrations

—what trends are occurring in their businesses and lives

—what do they desire most

—where do they typically go for help?

When you have answers to these questions, you’ll know how to market to your target audience, what to say to them, where to reach them, and how you can help them. More on page 148

Five Ways to Stand Out as a Great Doctor

Posted April 24th, 2008

The key to great word-of-mouth is out-of-the-ordinary treatment. Here are five ways to insure a better patient experience.

By Steven L. Brown, MD., PhD.

Patients today have learned that doctors are just like any other group of people. Some of us are good, some are bad, and some are mediocre. The most discerning patients (and those are the ones we all want) evaluate us the same way we have evaluated each other since our training. How would your patients rate you in these five areas?

1. Thoroughness
When I was an intern, one of my residents told me that there were only two reasons not to do a rectal exam: 1) no finger and 2) no rectum. Do you still demonstrate the same thoroughness you did as an intern? Do you ask about the patient’s entire medical background, or pretend you can get away with only focusing on the presenting problem while ignoring the rest? Patients know that the best doctors want to get the whole story.
More on page 145