As I prepare to leave for India in a couple of days, it occurred to me that I had posted Part #2 of this series of blogs on marketing solutions several weeks ago and that I won’t be back to post any more for three weeks! So here goes…this is the third most common marketing problem that I hear about from students and young practitioners and my comments on how to approach it. Wish me happy trails and I’ll let you all know how this trip went and continue with these marketing ideas upon my return to Boulder in mid-January.

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This problem could happen to you any time in your career, but is most often something to “solve” when you are a younger, newer practitioner: how to deal with the competition down the street. Practitioners say to me, “We have more & more competitors popping up and grabbing our patients…and it’s hard to distinguish our clinic from the competition. What should we do?”
I suggest that you:

Write down a list of all the ways in which you believe that your clinic, services, and skills are different from everyone in a 10-mile radius. This may be difficult to know for sure, but take a look at everyone’s advertisements, cards, brochures, and websites and think about how you can distinguish your clinic from all the others.

a. Have you been in practice for many years?
b. Do you have an easy-access parking situation?
c. Are you on a bus, tram, or subway line?
d. Do you offer a specialty in your practice or a variety of related specialties through various practitioners in your clinic?
e. Do you have a brilliant bedside manner?
f. Do you have a children’s play area or a babysitting service?
g. Do you have great research files for your patients or access to research on your website? (Try the TCMInfoline at www.bluepoppy.com for tons of free research.)
h. Do you offer classes (free or otherwise) in subjects related to what you do (self-massage, qigong, cooking, or tai chi)?
i. Do you have separate sessions for patient dietary counseling or weight loss advice?
j. Do you give free initial consultations to pre-qualify patients who are really appropriate for your practice (don’t assume that you want everyone who walks in the door…I assure you that you don’t).
k. Do you offer free five-minute reflexology to your patients before their treatments to relax them so that their pulse does not reflect traffic stress?
l. Do you have a really easy to use website with an online appointment scheduler, downloadable patient history and insurance forms, and FAQ section, and lots of cool short articles about Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and anything else you do?
m. Do you bill insurance for every company that accepts bills from L.Ac. practitioners?
n. Do you have any fancy machines that distinguish your practice?
o. Do you offer MD standard physical exams once per week?
p. Do you yourself do a really thorough Western physical on each patient?
q. Does your office exude the mystique of the Exotic East; is it all stainless steel and very Western medical; or is it homey and welcoming?
r. Do you offer product lines that are different from anyone else? Are they better? Faster? Cheaper? More exclusive? More exotic? Not carried anywhere else?
s. Do you have heated treatment table pads? Special heat lamps?
t. Are your lighting fixtures on dimmer switches?
u. Do you have office hours at least one evening per week until 9 PM? How about on Sundays?
v. Do you offer free treatments for kids under 12 if their parents are your patients?
w. Do you have a once-per-month donation day where 10% off all proceeds go to a good cause?
x. Do you have a health-tip-of-the-month newsletter?
y. Do you offer patients a free treatment during the week of their birthday?
z. Most important, do you believe in the power of what you have learned and do you give every patient your full attention and best possible care, every time? Making each patient feel that they are the only person on the planet when they are with you is actually one of the best ways to distinguish your practice!

I’m sure I haven’t thought of everything. What else do you do, have, or offer that is different, better, more exclusive, more interesting, less expensive, more reliable, unavailable-anywhere-else-in-town, or easier-to-use than anyone else? Once you have made yourself a list of these, when you do public talks or write marketing copy for ads, brochures, website or Facebook pages, emphasize these differences in every way that seems appropriate to the occastion. Or, if you cannot think of anything or only a few things, write a list of how you’d like to distinguish yourself and what it would take to make that happen.

Finally, if you want your current patients to know every way in which your clinic is different from and better than all the others, make some small “Did You Know?” posters or flyers and post them in the bathroom stalls, the hallways, at the reception desk, in the waiting area, and even in the treatment rooms. Your patients may not know or understand all the things that you and this medicine can do for them, their friends and family. It’s up to you to educate them.

Hope you found an idea or two in my columns this year and I send everyone wishes for a healthy, prosperous, and rewarding 2010. See you in the New Year!