Transcript
[INTERVIEW]
Happy New Year everyone! It’s 2021, can you even believe it? I think most of us probably can believe it and we are so happy that 2020 is way back there. However, we are still dealing with some of the lingering effects that are flowing through into the new year. So, that’s why I’ve been honing in, not only with all of you, but also in my practice and business about what I want/need to do differently in 2021, because nobody saw the curveball coming. I think we probably still have a few more curveballs this year left, but one of the things that we can do, it to make sure that our message reaches the right audience with the right words, terms, passion, and communication. That is also how you will identify your niche.
As healthcare practitioners, we decide that we are going to serve everyone, I’ve said that so many times. If you want a practitioner to help you with a certain problem, i.e. Hashimoto’s, headaches, constipation, or whatever it is, find one you feel confident in and who knows all about your situation.
Now, that’s on the clinical side, but what you and I need to know about our respective patient population is, what is it about that ideal perfect patient that makes them a good fit? If my niche is Hashimoto’s, then I need to know everything I can about patients who have Hashimoto’s because that allows me to create messaging in my marketing, the way that I communicate with them, and resources that I can give them that will help them to feel confident that I can help them.
It’s long been said in the marketing world that the person with the best product, or in our world, the person who is the best clinician may never win, but the person with the best messaging will always win. So, if you’re struggling to bring more patients in the door and you’re wanting more income for the work that you’re doing, but they’re either not getting there or they’re not staying when they do get there, that my friend, has to do with your messaging. The only way we can get your messaging right starting this new year is by understanding who that ideal patient is. What do they do? Who are they at their core?
So, for this episode, I’ve created a resource for you with 10+ questions about how to figure out who you serve, and I’m going to go over these with you. I talk about it all the time, and I did do an episode early on about how to identify your niche and figure out who you love to treat. Mine is pregnancy and fertility. I love working with babies, mamas, nursing, pregnancy, and all that. That’s what lights me up.
If you want to find some additional context, on that, you can. It’s called, “Identifying Your Niche.” Just go to rondanelson.com/4, and it’ll take you right to that episode. That one is more about you and figuring out what our niche is, but today, I’m going to give you 10 things that you must know about your ideal patient to create messaging that really serves, connects, and helps them know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you, my friend, are the one that can help them.
The first one you need to know is the age and the gender of your ideal patient. Why does that matter? It matters because if your niche is sports injuries for college athletes as compared to Hashimoto’s and menopausal women, you’re going to talk to them completely differently. Their life experience is different, the way that they think about the world, the way that they think about their health is different. You have to know their age and you want to know their gender.
For the Hashimoto’s patient, we’re probably going to have a pretty big spectrum because we’re seeing more and more Hashi’s patients show up at younger ages. But maybe you want to be the Hashimoto’s and menopause person, maybe that’s what lights you up. So your age range would be anywhere from 50 to 65 and your messaging will then be written appropriately for that 50 to 65 age category. Does that make sense?
The second thing you need to know is their stage of life. If you’re dealing with a menopausal woman with Hashimoto’s, but you love working with young moms, your messaging is going to be completely different between the two. Again, think about what your niche is. So, what stage of life are they in? Childbearing, kids are going off to college, high school, maybe they’re reentering the workforce, you want to know that about them because that’ll help you.
The third one is their relationship. Are you talking to people who are single or married? What is their relational status? Are they in a partner-type relationship? Does your ideal patient want to be or need to be single? What is their relationship status?
The next one we want to know is their occupation. What do they do for a living? Are they a professional? Not many people are working in offices anymore, but are they working for big companies? Are they stay-at-home moms? Are they self-employed? My ideal target audience is working with women, fertility, young children, and pregnancy so they’re often doing things at home. They may have a little online business or they’re looking for other ways to create revenue at home because they’re in that stage of life where they’re building their family. So, you want to what they do for a living and what does that look like?
Next, we have their hobbies and interests. What does that have to do with anything? Well, it has everything to do with it. When you know what their hobbies and interests are, it gives you clues about where they may be going online. If you decide to do any kind of AdWords or retargeting with Facebook or Instagram ads, you want to know, where they hang out. What do they love to know? Are they gardeners? Do they love cooking? Maybe they love parenting, maybe they are more into the community and they’re more locally active and participate in some kind of a restoration of a certain part of your city. You want to know what they do for fun. What are their hobbies, interests, and passions?
For instance, if your patient loves scrapbooking, you may want to host a scrapbooking event at your office and include some picture taking. Invite a photographer. Those are the things that you can do that speaks the language of your ideal patient and let them know that you get them.
Number six, aside from or in addition to their favorite hobbies and interests, we want to know what do they love to watch, listen to, and read. What are their favorite vlogs? What are their favorite podcasts? What do they watch when they go to the movies? Are they into sci-fi, romances, thrillers, or comedy? Again, this helps you create relevant messaging that allows you to connect with them.
If you know that your stay-at-home moms love Disney, include a comment or two about Disney when you write an ad or post on social media. Resonate with them. It creates the ability to connect, and that’s what we’re trying to do.
All right, the next one is super important. Where do they hang out on social media? Where are your people hanging out? Are they on Instagram? Facebook? Are they professional, so they’re more on LinkedIn? Are they on YouTube? So, do you need to be on YouTube? When you find out where your ideal perfect patient lives, where do they get their social experience from? What’s that platform look like? Then, you’ll know where you need to show up. That’s where you need to start posting. You don’t need to be everywhere, there’s no need for that. Keep it simple, find out where they hang out, and then guess what you’re going to do? Boom, you’re going to go right there and hang out with them.
We’ve got a couple more. Number seven and eight is, what is their primary problem and how is it affecting their lives? This one should be pretty easy for you to answer because it’s what you’ve decided that you want your niche to be. What’s the problem? We’ll use the example of the Hashimoto’s patient. Their primary problem may be weight gain, sleeplessness, and hair loss. They’re not loving the way they look, they don’t love their life. How that’s impacting them is that they may not feel comfortable being out with friends because of their weight or their hair.
How it impacts them is another place where you can start to have messaging or language that helps them identify. “Mary, when you are losing your hair, you may not feel real comfortable going out in public and we need to get that fixed. We need to help that hair grow back and here’s how we do that.” Something like that so that Mary knows you get it. She doesn’t like to go out because she looks thin-haired. No one wants that, especially us women. Write and communicate in a way that will reach her.
Number nine, what is their greatest source of stress? What’s the thing that keeps them up at night? Do they worry about their health? Are they worried about their children? Do they have financial concerns? Is it the impending mandatory vaccines that they’re worried about? What is their biggest stressor? Is it that they don’t know how to cook for their family? Well, my goodness, you can help with that. You can provide meal plans, you can give them ideas for food if that’s it. If it’s vaccines, you can provide them information on how they can best support and prepare their body for a vaccine and then what to do afterward. If it’s finance, you can talk to them about some financing that you have or a way that they can get more of the nutrients from their diet so they don’t have to use as many supplements when they come in and see you. There are lots of things you can do and recommendations you can give to help make them feel confident that you get them. That’s all we’re trying to do here.
The last thing we want to know is, what motivates them? Are they motivated by fear of being ill? Are they motivated because they don’t want to get cancer? Are they motivated because a spouse is pushing them into your office? We’ve all had those patients. We want to know what it is that’s driving them. Are they wanting a better life? Those are the patients we love to get because they’re the ones that say, “I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll do it, I’ll do it, I’ll do it. I’m all in, I want to have the best life and have the best health possible.” Sometimes that’s the motivator. Other people are just running from fear of having something bad happen. Every patient is going to be different, but you just want to have a good idea about your specific patient type. What is it that motivates them?
There you go, my friend. That was 10. We kind of flew through those bad boys really fast. This resource is linked in the show notes for this episode of The Clinical Entrepreneur Podcast. This is episode number 26, or you can go to rondanelson.com/26 and download it. If you are driving or riding or on the treadmill, you just remember 26, rondanelson.com/26.
In that resource, I also gave you an extra 10 questions you could be thinking about as you’re working through the ones we just talked about. These, I think, are the most important ones, but some other questions might be helpful for you to know, for instance, do they have a pet? How many children do they have? How long have they lived in the same town? So, there are just some other questions that help you kind of fill in the blanks or kind of complete the picture with your patients so that you have as much information as possible to be able to connect with them at a level where they feel comfortable with you.
If you don’t know or you’re just a little shy, you can always do a survey. That’s another great tool you can use that will help the patient be able to answer those questions and do it anonymously. One of my favorite survey tools is called JotForm and they have a free plan that you can get on, I’ll put the link in the show notes for you. Another one is Survey Monkey. I think there’s a fee with SurveyMonkey, but JotForm is free, at least it was the last time I checked.
Those are two resources you can do and you can just ask your questions in the survey and then send them the link to the survey. That way, if you’re not comfortable having that conversation with them, just ask them anonymously and they’ll give you the information. Sometimes people even share more information when they can do it privately and not have to have that face to face with you.
[CLOSING]
Alright, that’s it for this week. Are you feeling a little overwhelmed about growing and managing your business as you go into 2021? I know that I have had to rethink some things because what we thought was going to work in 2020, I don’t know if that’s going to work in 2021. So, if you don’t have a clear plan or strategy all laid out, I would be happy to help you. All you have to do is go to rondanelson.com/strategy to schedule a free 15-minute business strategy call with me. I want to help you feel super confident as you roll into the new year with some key action steps that will help you get traction as you move towards your goals.
It might be a financial goal, it could be a marketing goal, I hear that from practitioners a lot that that marketing is where they struggled. So, regardless of where you’re at, all you have to do is go to rondanelson.com/strategy, schedule that free call and I will help you get an action plan that will help you get results and get traction, moving into the next year. I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Clinical Entrepreneur Podcast. All right, my friend, take care. Have a great week.
[END]
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