“You have to shape what people think about you… and it has to be insanely specific.” -Derek Halpern, expert marketer, entrepreneur, and owner of the famous online marketing blog Social Triggers.
When I opened my first practice, my business name was “Firefly Acupuncture.” I didn’t know what that meant really, but it was catchy and evoked feelings in me of my childhood spending carefree, warm, humid summers in Georgia.
I practiced (and still do) in California, so fireflies really had nothing to do with anything most everyone here would be familiar with.
If I could have tied the name to a saying I was known for, or even a logo I was known for, I think I would have been better off. But I never did, and the name fell away. I just couldn’t relate it to anything that I actually did or stood for in my practice.
Now, four years later, my practice is my name and “acupuncture” after it. It makes more sense to me, and the description of my practice was free to be whatever it organically evolved into.
Not saying that “Firefly Acupuncture” doesn’t have a nice ring to it (because it does), but it most likely goes better with a pediatric acupuncture practice in the south.
I’ve learned the following techniques over time from various social psychologists and marketing experts, and I’m very pleased with the results. I feel like I market my practice to match exactly what I believe in and stand for, and organically mirrors the way in which I treat.
It also gives me a stronger vision to continually aspire to.
It’s essentially a tagline, but with a less-cheesy feel.
The following three steps are how I’ve learned to establish my own tagline and overall description of my practice (for my website, brochures, “elevator speeches,” and other articles/blog posts that quickly and easily show what I do and how I do it).
1. Look for common words and phrases amongst your reviews. Look to the reviews you have from established patients that absolutely love coming back to you. If you don’t have them yet, ask for them. Ask your patients (again, the ones who love you and always come back to you) to write you a review on yelp or in a personal email. If you don’t have patients yet, ask the ones who came to you as an intern.
I do recommend asking your patients to write you reviews on yelp though.. many prospective patients look at that site!
Then, notice the patterns!
You will start to see words that people continually write about you. It’s why they love you and come back to you, and it’s a summary of your strengths and passions as a practitioner.
When I first did this, I wrote down words that were common amongst my reviews, and I would make check marks next to the ones that repeated multiple times. Words like “professional,” “thorough,” “knowledgeable,” “caring,” “comforting,” and “prompt/on-time” were among the ones that were used multiple times.
Apparently this is why my patients kept coming to me, and I really would have never guessed. I was leaning more towards thinking I would see a lot of “clean,” (because I’m pretty OCD about keeping my clinic very clean) “friendly,” (I’m pretty friendly! I think.) and “relaxing” (my room is warm, lights are dim, music is soft, it’s all very relaxing to me).
However, these were not the main reasons my established patients liked my practice.
They said what they liked in their own reviews, clear as day, and easy for me to take and make a marketable tagline and description with!
2. Dull it down to what you want to be known for, and sum it up in a few words. Make it memorable and unique to you. What are you passionate about amongst these words, and what do you want to be known for? What are the common words/phrases that people use for you and your practice, and how can you turn that into a simple phrase to tell the world what you do and why/how you do it?
My tagline eventually evolved into “thoroughly and gently reclaiming your health,” and it will most likely evolve even more so later down the road, as my practice continues to define itself by growing organically.
My standard “elevator” speech incorporates more of these words, and is a bit longer version of this same idea.
3. Say your message, say your message, and keep saying your message.
I personally don’t connect to cheesiness when it has anything to do with me (but my mom does and my uncles do, and maybe you do too)!
I gotta be true to myself and what I’m naturally known for anyway.
My tagline message is clear and straightforward. It wouldn’t feel right to me to say it in emails to new patients or new business connections, but I do have it on my website and blog posts/articles.
You want to embed this in people’s minds, so they know exactly who you are, what you do, and how to describe you to their friends.
I’ve been a follower of Derek Halpern’s (the guy who said the quote at the beginning of this article) for about a year now, and I still didn’t know exactly how to describe him in one sentence when I was writing his quote on this blog post.
So I looked at his bio on his website.
Then I copied and pasted.
Easy.
And that’s exactly what he wants his followers to do anyway, by specifically shaping what people think about him in his own words.
Make it easy for people to know what you do when they think of you, and make it easy for people to describe to others exactly what you are known for.
Using these three steps, your tagline will come out to be something you are passionate about and good at anyway, and your whole practice will be one big circular abundant entity of integrity and wonderfulness (or whatever word you would use to describe it)!