10 Ways to Market Your Private Practice Today

Are you waiting to start marketing your practice until you know exactly what to do, what to say and where to say it?

 

Don’t wait. The best thing you can do is get your toe into the water and try some marketing to see what works and what doesn’t.

Here are 10 things you can do TODAY to market your practice:

1. Decide on your specialty. Marketing a generic practice will NEVER work.

2. Start a blog. Easy and free at www.wordpress.com, www.typepad.com, orwww.blogspot.com. Start writing about what you know that is helpful and valuable. [see my practice blog at: www.childdevelopmentpartners.com as an example.]

3. Get a twitter account at www.twitter.com. Tweet away, link to your blog and other information related to your speciality such as newpaper/magazine articles, otehrs blogs, etc.

4. Call a colleague and plan to go out to lunch/coffee and talk marketing. A marketing buddy gives you someone to bounce ideas around with and can hold you accountable when you start to slack off the marketing plan (we all do!).

5. Start collecting your current clients’ email addresses and begin mailing out an e-zine or e-newsletter. You must get permission from people to send them this information (no spamming allowed), but once you do you can keep them up-to-date on the latest research, offer simple coping skills, and inform them of upcoming workshops or programs in your practice.

6. Write an article on a relevant topic and send it to your local community newspaper.

7. Create a quick survey and ask your current clients for ideas on what services and support they would like to see you offer (I did this once and got GREAT feedback that helped me design my Homework Survival Bootcamp, which is very popular).

8. Change your email signature to include some marketing info such as your contact information and a tag line about your practice.

9. Send “thank you for your referral” letters to all your referral sources.

10. Provide top-notch service. “Wow” your current clients with up-to-date clinical interventions and amazing customer service. They will tell their doctors, friends and colleagues. Word of mouth referrals are the most powerful marketing you can get.