‘Fingerprinting’ Your Marketing Message

By Patricia Hospy, DC

Personal expression is an important concept. Just as you define yourself personally through your clothing, hairstyle, mannerisms, and other features, you can express your practice identity through similar methods.

And, for better or worse, both you and your business are sending messages about who you are. But you had better make sure they are the ones you intended.
Since your identity, image, and marketing message are core foundational concepts that should direct every aspect of practice operations, determining and driving them are essential to your success. Whatever features are chosen, the importance of defining your organization’s identity prior to embarking on marketing projects, composition, and printing of collateral materials, or purchasing advertising, cannot be overemphasized.

One of the greatest challenges in separating and defining one individual from another is eliminating the redundancy of common characteristics and finding those features that are unique to each person. By focusing on distinctive traits, personal or business identities can be clearly defined. The most effective expressions of identity are accurate and deliberate messages about the business or individual. But sometimes what we reveal is non-specific or inconsistent with who we really are.

We’ve all had the experience of meeting someone who dressed or behaved a certain way, gotten a first impression, and then eventually discovering that the opposite was true about that individual. These mixed messages create a mental “bait and switch” that can be confusing. If you think it’s important to have a consistent and appropriate personal expression in order to avoid mistaken perceptions, imagine what it means to your practice. Just as you would like to be accurately known for whom you are, and distinguished from other people, your business should have a clear identity that defines it from other practices in your community.

If your practice has gone through more transformations than a teenager has hairdos, you’re diluting your message and confusing your patients and potential patients. And if your practice identity has no truly defining characteristics, you’re missing the opportunity to connect with your audience and build a marketing message you can drive effectively.
If you don’t know what makes your practice different from others, or what you are selling and to whom, here are some tips for locking onto your own practice
identity:

• Formulate a practice ID. A practice’s identity consists of a composite of defining characteristics that can range from the obvious to the discreet. It is the “fingerprint” of the practice and how it is known in the community. Identity development at its finest can be a complex layering of practice identity features and image reinforcements carried out with a macro to micro strategy. Or, it can be as simple as determining the key words that define an individual practice, setting the tone for all that follows.

Practice identity can be built around an almost endless variety of features that include customer service standards, clinical competence, methods and techniques, philosophical or educational emphasis, technology and research, the needs of the target market, the style or intention of the practice and/or practitioner, various clinical specialties, and a multitude of other service delivery concepts and identifying characteristics.

The identity of a practice can even be strategically chosen to fill a known need, such as selecting a pediatric specialty emphasis in a predominantly family community. But regardless of specialty, the practice is often built around the personality and beliefs of the business owner. In this way, the practice is an extension of that individual and should communicate a consistent message that echoes those values and characteristics. The features that comprise business identity are frequently defined in organizational mission statements that are written to succinctly list the specific services the business provides, the population it serves, and its particular service or operational emphasis.

A frequent mistake doctors make is modeling their practices after others they admire, but that are operated by chiropractors with entirely different personalities, traits, skills, and values. Instead of just borrowing some useful concepts, they try to “clone” the practice and replicate its success. These efforts often fail, and can contribute to a perpetual series of practice recreations in search of the “right” way to define the business. By continually looking for external infusions of identity, doctors fail to connect with their own values and skills that are the genuine substance for powerful practice identities and marketing messages. But the overwhelming urge to start a business “in the middle,” and bypassing core practice start-up planning, leaves many chiropractors and other small business owners out on the road without a map.

Consider this scenario: If we assume that all chiropractors can provide services that offer a reasonable degree of efficacy, why don’t all patients just stop at the first door they come upon and get the job done? Why would they shop around or select one practice over another? The strengths that you describe as your own “selling points,” and why patients would choose your practice over others, are often the core identity features of your business. And many times, these features are rooted in your personal values and how they translate into the way you provide your services.

With these points in mind, you can see the error in driving someone else’s message or failing to know what’s important about your practice. Your business identity should be consistent with who you are in this profession, and how you see yourself expressing the practice of chiropractic.

• Define your message and keep it clear. Whether you are about to open your first practice, or you are well into your career, your business identity must first be clear in your own mind if others are to understand it. Once you know your direction, staying on course and consistently driving your message are your next challenges.
New practitioners should carefully plan the practice features they want to emphasize and how the practice should be known in the community well in advance of opening their doors. Additional considerations are selecting features that best relate to the doctor’s target market, or those that are most lacking within the chiropractic marketplace in their community. Strategic pre-planning can make the difference between a well-directed and successful launch that drives a clear marketing message about the practice, or an ill-defined effort with vague or confused marketing and advertising intentions.

The seasoned practitioner should be diligent about keeping the practice focused on the chosen identity and marketing message. And the need to redefine and reinforce identity concepts should always be considered. Both new and established practices must control the tendency of their operations, and identities, to spin out of control under the pressures of day-to-day business. And the often dissimilar habits and personalities of office staff can import features you weren’t intending.

Keeping your message on track requires continual monitoring of systems and operations to ensure that you are communicating your intended message. Be sure your employee manual defines the practice’s identity and intent, and the methods of operations that reinforce them. Your weekly staff meetings should continually address these topics and how to keep your message clear and well-understood.

• Reinforce and communicate your marketing message. Effectively driving your message requires passionate attention to detail and a big-picture view of practice and business management. The fabric of your business should be woven from the common thread of intention you have defined as your practice. And if you want your message to have punch, it must be communicated consistently and effectively at all levels of your business.

From your personal appearance and presence in the community, to your office decor, the message must be clear. Every aspect of practice operations should be evaluated for clarity and consistency of your practice identity and image. All marketing, advertising, web and other media exposures, and printed materials should clearly support and reinforce your practice identity.

For many DCs, the finer points of business planning and marketing often take a back seat to clinical interests and other, more seemingly urgent practice issues. But if you continually postpone core business planning, it's sure to have a negative impact on your practice somewhere down the road. And for some practices, the consequences manifest sooner rather than later and recovery may take longer than expected. Taking the time to plan, regroup, and/or redefine your direction can keep your practice on course and reduce many of the negative outcomes and expenses associated with insufficient planning or misdirected efforts.
When it comes to your identity, make sure everyone knows who you are, both personally and professionally.

Dr. Hospy is president of The Parian Company, a San Francisco Bay-area communication and marketing consulting firm that serves a broad range of businesses. Dr. Hospy has trained more than 1,200 new chiropractors on the essentials of promoting their practices affordably through a combination of marketing planning, community visibility, and a variety of advanced business development methods. Dr. Hospy can be reached at 650-557-0071, or through her company’s website at www.pariancompany.com