Many doctor practices treat marketing as a side-hustle. This post examines the reasons why doing that is a mistake, and how you might do it differently.
Here’s the thing about doctors: They’re smart and they work hard helping patients. So at the end of long, hard day saving sight or delivering babies, the last thing you want to do is sit down and think about marketing.
Why Marketing as a Side-Hustle for Doctors Won’t Work.
Sadly, that’s how most doctor practices run. Or they assign another person in the practice to do marketing and it amounts to a similar scenario. And if you think about it, that may be worse because the person doesn’t own the business.
Maybe you think, “Doctors don’t need marketing, they’re doctors.” Yes, they do.
Current and potential patients have access to so much information right now that if you’re not delivering a simple and clear message about your practice, you’ll lose.
Maybe not today. But it’s the slow drip of an aging patient demographic in your practice, and fewer new patients, that kill practice enterprise value.
What if You Changed From Marketing as a Side-Hustle for Doctors to a Marketing Machine?
Ok. Maybe “Machine” is a little strong. And do you really need a machine? What about starting with some simple ideas and a few processes to get you started? Hey, that’s the ticket!
How Might You Begin Shifting From Marketing as a Side-Hustle?
If you’re a reader of my work at all, you’ll expect a book recommendation here. Yay, here it is!
Begin with this book by Donald Miller called “Business Made Simple: 60 Days to Master Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Execution, Management, Personal Productivity, and More.” (Affiliate Link). And if you want to supercharge your efforts, read another book by Donald Miller called “StoryBrand.”
These books will help you clarify your message and win with a good story featuring your business as the Guide. If you’re curious about what I mean by this, I wrote about it here and how I became a StoryBrand Certified Guide.
Try these three steps first to stop seeing marketing as a side-hustle and more as a lever for growth:
- Read one of the books I mentioned above and decide you are going to commit to marketing.
- Pick one internal marketing project you want to tackle.
- Execute. Measure. Adjust.
In Conclusion
Marketing as a side-hustle is exhausting and usually doesn’t work. When you educate yourself in the basics of marketing, decide you’re going to do it, and execute, you will see results. And it’s those results that make all of the work worthwhile and have you wanting to learn more soon.
Finally, if you want an easy way to get started, maybe I can help. If you’d like a free pdf that I put together about how to make your customers and prospects feel special, fill out the form below. Or, if you’d like to schedule a time to discuss something you’re working on, email me at Joel@makemarketingeasy.com.
Good luck and good marketing and selling!