Imagine for a moment that every one of your patients fell head over heels in love with your clinic.
Consider what that would do for your business.
- They would become your biggest referral partners.
- They would become brand ambassadors and talk about you to everybody.
- They would respond to your campaigns.
- They would do what you asked of them.
- They may even have a picture of you in their purse/wallet next to their kids.
It would make a dramatic difference to your clinic, right?
Well, call me Austin Powers – because in this article, I’m going to share how you can (ethically) make your patients fall in love with you in order to grow your reputation and build ambassadors in your community.
Now, don’t worry – I’m not going to advise that you do anything weird. Nor am I expecting you to wear some Union Jack styled briefs.
The Friendzone
If the goal is to make patients become raving fans and LOVE your clinic, then the objective is to transition patients from a strictly professional relationship (they pay you to deliver a service) to a personal relationship(where they know you, like you, and trust you).
I know this sounds strange, but stick with me.
For a moment, I want you to consider a relationship that started as a professional relationship — whether a colleague, a contractor, or a fellow business owner — and turned into a personal relationship where you would now consider them a friend.
Can you think of one?
Now, just think about how your relationship with that individual changed from being a very logic-driven relationship to being an emotion-driven relationship.
When they became your friend, you automatically cared more for them and had a different level of interest in them.
- You wanted to see them win.
- You would answer their phone calls.
- You would say nice things about them.
- You would look forward to seeing them.
- You would respond if they needed help.
- You cared.
Do you see what I’m getting at?
If you want your patients to be raving fans that want to see you win, answer your calls, say nice things about you, look forward to seeing you, respond when you need them, and care about your success …
… then you need to turn PROFESSIONAL relationships into PERSONAL relationships.
If you can achieve this, then you achieve all the benefits.
How To Close The Gap Between Professional And Personal
Once again, I want you to think about the FRIEND that you have that originally started as a professional relationship (whether a colleague, a member of staff, a manufacturer rep, or a fellow business owner).
Now what I want you to consider is what was the catalyst that changed the relationship from strictly professional to personal?
** thinking time **
It’s not a perfect science, is it?
It’s usually a mix of things.
But most commonly, it’s things such as:
- You share morals/beliefs with them.
- You believe you have things in common with them.
- You feel empathy for their family/life.
- You find them interesting/entertaining/fun.
If the above is true, then what we need to consider is what we could be doing today in order to start driving some of these situations/communications into your relationship with patients.
Essentially, what can you do to turn professional relationships into personal relationships?
Well, the answer is …
… there’s not one singular solution.
Building a relationship requires multiple touch points and time.
However, one of the most important marketing activities that you can do to accelerate the process of turning a professional relationship into a personal relationship is a monthly email newsletter.
Now, I know what you’re thinking … you do/have done email newsletters in the past, right?
But there’s a very important distinction to understand…
It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it.
What you want to implement is a personality-rich email newsletter that serves a purpose of wrapping its arms around your patients and pulling back the curtain behind your business.
Its job is not to share audiological information with your patients … it’s to showcase your personality, highlight what’s happening in your team’s life, and what’s happening in your clinic.
Remember, we discussed how a personal relationship is formed:
- Share morals/beliefs with them.
- Believe you have things in common with them.
- Feel empathy for their family/life.
- Find them interesting/entertaining/fun.
Your email newsletter’s purpose is to check off these boxes.
Want To Know HOW To Do This?
The way that we structure/produce our Inner Circle members’ email newsletters is a key part of the magic that allows them to grow incredible relationships with their patients.
But here’s the thing … it’s almost impossible to teach you in a simple article like this.
If you want to know how to do it and the exact formula to follow, then you may benefit from checking out our Workshop.
Lucy, our marketing strategist, recently produced an online course that shares a step-by-step breakdown of exactly how to create a powerful monthly email newsletter that grows relationships with patients in exchange for minimal time investment.
It includes:
- The key non-negotiable elements that need to be included in your newsletter
- How to create a consistent structure that your newsletter follows each month
- The process for writing your newsletter and delegating specific parts to your team
- How to professionally build your email newsletter by using a simple email marketing tool (with full step-by-step instructions)
- What gold standard looks like, and the checklist that you should review before scheduling
- Real-life examples of Inner Circle members’ email newsletters that you use for inspiration
It’s essentially a detailed walkthrough of how you can build powerful email newsletters into your clinic.
Best of all, it’s a pretty no-brainer investment of 100 bucks.
Note: It comes with a money-back guarantee if you’re anything other than delighted with the helpful information that is in the training course.
Pretty groovy, baby.
(Sorry, I held off for as long as I could)
