Once you have an effective marketing message, or unique selling proposition, (USP) you must integrate that USP into any and every media that leaves your hands, or the hands of your employees. It is how you get the message about what you do out into the real world where patients and prospective patients see what makes you different.
This is very simple and straightforward, but essential to properly branding your practice.
With People
The first place you must integrate your USP is with all of the people in your practice. You, your employees, and anyone who represents what you do must understand what your practice’s USP is, and be able to project it to patients and prospective patients.
Your receptionist must be able to demonstrate your USP when they answer the phone. As an example, let’s use the USP I used in my practice. The phone rings, and the receptionist says: “Thank you for calling Hambrick Chiropractic, where we’re providing relief without any popping twisting turning or cracking.”
Now I know that sounds corny, and we never answered the phone that way, but you get the idea.
The important point is to make sure that all of your employees knows exactly why you’re in practice, and why a prospect should choose to do business with you versus any and all other chiropractors in your area.
With Literature
If your practice has promotional literature, such as brochures, information packets, etc. then you must have your USP prominently displayed and exposed on all of it. Of course, it must look natural, and not forced, and if your USP doesn’t naturally fit into your current literature, then you should revamp it. Websites would also fall into this category. And if you don’t have any literature… why not? If no one else in your industry is producing literature, then that’s all the more reason why you should.
With Business Cards
How many business cards have you been given in your life? Now how many of those have you kept? Now how many of those have you referenced more than once?
Business cards are a necessary evil. Everyone expects you to have one, and expects you to give them one, and those that have them love to pass them around like confetti hoping that one lands in the right hands and translates into business for them.
The truth is, your card is probably never going to be used, and if it is, it will probably only be used once and then filed away and forgotten about. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Business cards could potentially be valuable real estate for your marketing message. Your USP should be the first thing that stands out on your business card. That’s what is going to make people remember your card, there-by remembering you, and file it way for whenever they have use for whatever specific need your practice meets.
On a side note, your business cards should be used as a direct response device that collects leads for you by offering free information, or sending people to a website that will catch their information so you can then market directly to them.
That in my opinion is the most valuable use of a business card, but that’s for another time.
With Ads
Every ad that your clinic produces should prominently display your USP. It should be the focus of your ad. It should be the reason the ad exists… to spread the reason why people should do business with your company vs. any and all other options available to them.
A huge mistake that most practices make is creating an ad where there practice name and phone number is the headline. This is known as “institutional advertising” and is a notorious waste of advertising dollars. Institutional advertising never catches anyone’s eye unless they already know all about the company.
You must use expensive ad space to broadcast your USP. This is especially true for YellowPage ads. An ad is merely a printed form of a sales rep, and a sales rep would never call on someone and merely just say the business name and phone number in a loud voice without actually selling the prospect on becoming a client/customer/patient.
With Business Paperwork
This includes letter head, business forms, invoices, work-orders, even notepads that are used to write notes that might go home with your upper cervical patients. Waste no space, if there is some sort of paperwork that will leave your office, then find a way to integrate your USP into that paperwork. It doesn’t need to look awkward, but can easily and organically be integrated into the most business-like of papers.
On Hold Message
If you have an on-hold service that just plays music, then you are wasting valuable advertising space that could be explaining to everyone on hold why they should be doing business with you. This is very easy and cheap to do if you already have this system in place. You can have your USP professionally recorded, or record it in your own voice.
With Web Site
Your web site is merely another medium of communication with your patients and prospective patients, and your web site must convey your USP. Any emails as well should also have your USP integrated into them in some fashion.
There’s no point in having a compelling marketing message that differentiates you from all of the other practitioners in your area, if you aren’t broadcasting that message and making it clear and obvious why you’re different. Integrating your USP is a step that can not be skipped.
You could even include video marketing that pertains to upper cervical messages. When people can see you live on the internet, they feel like they know you before they set-foot in your practice. It can build rapport quickly while relaying your message in a more personal way 🙂
Continued success!