WHAT ARE WE DOING TODAY? 1
Business Development with a specific focus on: Marketing Financial Management 2
In Australia, the new business failure rate in the first four years of operation is? 3
ABS data from 2008-2012 show that just over half of new small businesses failed in their first 4 years 4
Why? Lack of experience Wrong location Poor cash flow 5
The 2 primary reasons for poor cash flow: Lack of effective marketing Poor financial management 6
What gets between the average CAM practitioner and business success? Failure to recognise that we have 2 relationships with a client- a therapeutic relationship and a business relationship Concerns that ethics and commercial success are incompatible and that marketing is dishonest Failure to focus on the business side of the clinic Failure to realise that if we don’t make money, we can’t keep doing what we love- healing people Lack of confidence in our worth Thinking that marketing is about being an extrovert Assuming that people will beat a path to our door just because we open a clinic 7
Marketing is about 1 thing and 1 thing only… COMMUNICATION 8
Marketing is critical to the success of a CAM clinic, particularly in the first 5 years of operation. BUT, it should never be forgotten that on average, it costs 6 times more to attract a new client into the clinic, than it does to maintain an existing client. So, while new clients are important, maintaining our existing clients is even more important. 9
The tasks for the marketer are to: 1. Have an aim 2. Work out what you want to communicate 3. Work out who you want to communicate with 4. Work out how to communicate it 5. Work out what it’s going to cost (in time and money) and if you can afford it 10
The aim? The aim of marketing in most cases is to improve cash flow. But for us this needs to be quantified in terms of increasing our client intake. It also needs to accommodate: Launch strategies Growth strategies Strategies used to: Maintain your current market position Capitalise on new opportunities. 11
Before you do any of this it’s useful to conduct market research… Who is your market? Where are they? What do they want? How can you communicate with them? 12
Who is your market? The primary consumer of complementary medicine services in Australia is female, aged 20-60 (peaking at 35-49), is middle class, born in Australia and are well-educated. Research from 2011 has shown that around half of this population has used or will use the services of a CAM practitioner within a 12 month period. This is our primary demographic segment or target market. The type of data that’s used to determine these statistics is demographics. Secondary consumer segments that we may wish to market to could include people recovering from sporting or other forms of injury, or those with persistent pain such as lower back pain, headache, insomnia, post-operative nausea and vomiting, allergies, fatigue, depression and anxiety, digestive disorders, including IBS, infertility and menstrual disorders . Note that if you’re going to do segmental marketing via email, that you don’t breach the Privacy laws or Anti -Spam laws. 13
What do we know about them that will influence our marketing methods? Psychographics: They’re health conscious They’re time poor They’re the primary decision -maker in the family for healthcare options They’re concerned about the health of friends and relatives They’re internet savvy and influenced by what they find there They’re influenced by the healthcare experiences of friends and relatives They use CAM for chronic illnesses and prefer “natural” generally over drugs Prefer prevention to treatment They want a healthcare provider that they can relate to, will listen to them and take the time to get the job done properly They’re motivated to get well and will contribute to the process They usually research their health issue before seeking therapy Is there anything peculiar to the local market you want to work in that you need to know about? 14
Is there anything peculiar to the local market you want to work in that you need to know about? 15
Where are they? Everywhere to a greater or lesser degree depending on the geographic location you choose to work in and the nature of your practice. For most clinics, the local area or marketing area can be defined by driving for around 10 minutes in every direction from the clinic, marking these distances on a map and drawing a circle made by these points around the clinic. This is the area from which you’ll source most of your clients and is referred to as your marketing area. Doing any marketing outside this area may be a waste of resources. Do you have enough of the target demographic living locally to satisfy your needs? How do you know? 16
Here’s an example For a clinic being set up in the middle of Parramatta: ABS data from 2011 states that the population within a 10 minute drive from the centre of Parramatta (from places such as Carlingford, Dundas, Ermington, Harris Park, Northmead etc) is 162,000. 22% of these are tertiary educated, 70% were born in Australia, 68% are aged 20-60, 47% are female, 40% are middle class. So around 10% of this population or 16,200 form your primary demographic segment within this region. How many of these people do you need to see per annum to run at a profit? Is this population enough ? 17
Where do you get demographic data from? Other businesses dealing in healthcare Councils ABS The ABS census statistics can be useful in analysing the population characteristics of the marketing area. The national census occurs every four years and provides details on: Age Background Language spoken Employment status Housing status Family type (couple or single parent etc.) Number of children per household and their ages Level of income Whether the dwelling is owned or rented Numbers of those working and unemployed Numbers of those working full time, part time, or casual Type of occupation Educational background 18
What do they want? UK research via the NHS has shown that acupuncture is most frequently used to treat: Sporting or other forms of injury Persistent pain such as lower back pain Headache Insomnia Post-operative nausea and vomiting Allergies Fatigue Depression and anxiety Digestive disorders, including IBS Infertility and menstrual disorders 19
What do they want? Australian research data from 2011 tells us that CAM users generally are afflicted with the following health complaints at least once every 6 months: Headaches 48% Colds 45% Stress 37% Musculo-skeletal pain 34% Weight issues 28% Hay Fever 28% Allergy 25% Flu 23% Anxiety 23% Diarrhoea 23% Depression 19% Hangover 17% 20
What do they want? Treatment that either has a long history of successful use or is perceived as such or has had widespread fame for success in clinical trials Cost-effective treatment Safe treatment- free of risk or side effects Preference for natural or perceived as such Fast treatment Clinically effective treatment- cure vs palliation Convenience of treatment- local, easy parking, easy to find, located near some other reason to be there, e.g. shops, school, gym, uni etc Healthcare delivered by a qualified and experienced practitioner Some sort of familiarity or feeling of connection with the practitioner or the practice 21
How can you communicate with them? To determine this we need to know about their habits. If you want to market your services you need to know where to present your marketing. How are you going to get their attention? It’s useful to be aware that the average Australian is exposed to around 5000 marketing messages every day. So, yours needs to stand out. 22
Marketing Tools- which ones to use? TV Commercial radio/Community radio Letterbox flyers Newspaper ads- print and digital Magazine ads- print and digital Community notice boards Signage- fixed and mobile Clinic brochures Business cards- a portal rather than a tool Yellow pages/White pages- print and digital Local lectures Local promotional activity Website Internet forums Email (as long as it doesn’t breach the Anti -Spam laws) Internet-based business directories (Natural therapy pages, Yelp etc) Youtube/Vimeo/Webinars etc Social Media- in 2013 69% of Australia were on social media SMS Blogs- make them relevant, brief, use grabbing header, sub-headers and a hook, remember keywords, use content curation Ebooks Podcasts Face to face/networking groups etc- the elevator speech 23
A couple of things about websites Don’t expect anyone to click past your home page Have your contact details on your home page Keep your home page download size to a minimum to avoid slow downloads- Google ranking punished slow downloads Road-test your content with your demographic Monitor activity regularly with Google analytics and act on what it tells you- know your landing and exit pages, time spent per page, bounce rate etc Keep changing it Keep your downtime to a minimum Check your links regularly to ensure they’re not broken Keep it topical Test your website across all browsers- most websites are written on Firefox or Chrome and may not necessarily open on Internet Explorer Make it easy to navigate Avoid spelling or grammatical errors Make it relevant- use your content to answer questions your demographic are asking Don’t be afraid to use testimonials Display your pricing 24
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