Developing a Marketing Plan: Tips and Pearls for New Practitioners

Hi. I'm Dr. Jim McDannald, owner of Podiatric Growth. For this month's Podiatry Today, I've written an article about helping new practitioners develop a marketing plan. Going from a resident or fellow to new practitioner is an exciting transition in the life of every podiatrist.

Making decisions, like where and how to practice can be challenging and enormous opportunities. These choices mark a fork in the road and the direction chosen starts you down your career path within our profession. Early on, it's essential to take time and reflect on your vision for your practice.

When you're deliberate about the specific type of care you want to provide, it's easier for you to define success and measure the progress towards your professional objectives. There's basically five steps to go about developing this marketing plan.

The first is to determine a practice mission and direction. What kind of care do you want to provide and who would you like to provide it to? Is there a certain local area you want to practice? These are all important questions to ask yourself when looking at potential opportunities and also while building your practice.

The second step is to survey and identify local opportunities. Talking to local business owners, other local healthcare professionals will give you a general sense of what the medical opportunities are in your area. If you want to treat nothing but skiers, it probably makes the most sense to be in an area located close to the mountains.

Step three is weighing the influence of time versus money. When we first started getting into practice, we might have more time than money. Learning about different ways to market your practice, different types of advertising techniques, things like Google ads or building your web page, can be beneficial.

As time goes on, that time versus money aspect might change. When you have more time than money, you want to focus on building your reputation. Maybe it's local events, getting out to other doctors' offices. There's different ways to build your local reputation when you have more time than money.

When you have more money than time, you really want to find ways to accelerate your visibility. Like I mentioned previously, things like Google ads, a better website. There's ways online to increase that visibility in your local area so you can see more of the patients that you want to treat.

It can be tempting as a new practitioner to jump into the marketing methods and start doing all the things. I find that that's not the best approach. When you begin by taking a step back, you're able to identify the intersection of the work you love within the profession and the opportunities in your local area.

With that knowledge, you're able to craft an original unique message with your online and offline marketing that benefits your patients and your practice. For more information on this topic, be sure to read my article in Podiatry Today.