5 Marketing Myths That New Pracs Fall For
When you’re a freshly graduated health practitioner, you have so much to think about - especially if you’re starting your own business. And frankly, the universities & colleges don’t do the greatest job of teaching you how to do that! So it’s no surprise that marketing is unfamiliar territory for many.
But as a result, I see fresh graduates falling victim to the same marketing oopsies every time! There are 5 big ones that I want to share with you, so you can avoid them and get momentum quickly in your practice.
5 myths about marketing for
new practitioners
Don’t have a marketing background? I may as well give up now!
I don’t blame you for thinking this way, especially as you’ve just come out of some rigorous studies. But marketing is not like health, where you need to be qualified to be safe & successful.
Many people are shocked when I tell them I have zero formal qualifications in marketing or social media. All I have is my degree in nutrition and a certificate in fitness (at this point in time, anyway!) But that has not stopped me from marketing myself and helping other pracs to market successfully.
It’s not just about the formal studies. A lot of what you bring to the table when it comes to marketing yourself comes from experience, soft skills, and even your understanding of your ideal client’s struggles.
All you need to do is tap into these tools, and you can attract amazing people to work with you!
If I talk about every aspect of health I can think of, I’ll fill my books quicker!
New pracs have so much juicy information in their head, and it’s all fresh. So it’s natural to want to share everything with everyone. Some pracs see this as a case of ‘if I share lots of different topics, surely one will resonate with someone and they’ll work with me!’
But it’s often the opposite. As humans, we would much rather work with someone who has a deep understanding of our specific concerns.
So if you’re talking about sports nutrition, pregnancy, PCOS, autoimmune disease and men’s health all in the one week? There’s a good chance no one will really see you as the go-to.
But on the other hand, if you talk about one core symptom, system, health concern or group of health concerns for 3 months straight? People will start to view you as the expert in that area - and will refer friends or share with people they know with those issues.
I’ll just hang up my (virtual) shingle and people will come find me
There was once a time when a health practitioner could set up a clinic, put a sandwich board out the front of the building, and let people come to them.
Sorry to tell you, but it is no longer that time!
No matter what form of presence you choose for your business - offline, online or a combo - you can’t just sit back and wait for people to find you. People will go for the easiest, most obvious option for their problems. And if they don’t know you exist, that means they will look elsewhere OR continue to struggle with their health issues because they don’t know help is available.
You need to go out and tell people that you exist! Otherwise, it will take a very long time for you to build up your clinic and help as many people as you dream of.
I only need to market myself until I hit my goal client number
This is more common in pracs who have been in business for 3, 6 or 12 months. They get to that ideal client number in a given week or month, and then go ‘I did it! Now I can stop marketing myself and just focus on being a practitioner.’
Guess what happens the next week or month?
Clients drop off. Sometimes it’s because they’ve improved. Sometimes it’s a reschedule to the next month because they’re sick or they have a holiday booked. And there’s always a chance that there have been clients who aren’t a great fit.
But all of a sudden, you’ve gone from your dream booking rate to a rather bare-looking schedule. Panic sets in, so you get to marketing again.
This turns into an ongoing rollercoaster of clients and bookings. It’s not great for your nervous system or adrenals.
And on top of that, because you’re marketing intermittently from a desperate space, you’re not doing as much to build Know Like Trust over time. So it takes more effort to get people in the door.
Marketing doesn't stop when your books fill up. I’ve worked with dozens of successful practitioners on their marketing, and even when their waitlist hits 6-8 weeks, they are STILL showing up. They know that it’s part of their business success so why would they stop it? Consistency pays off.
People can figure out how to work with me - I don’t need to tell them how I can help!
Think that people are going to find out how to work with you? Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but only a very tiny percentage of people will do this. Most people need you to tell them how to work with you before they will take action.
This is particularly important once you start offering other services or even products. Just because you put an ebook up on your website doesn’t mean that people realise it’s there! You need to tell them it’s there.
And guess what? You need to keep sharing it down the track because new audiences show up, people might have missed it the first time round, or it might be more relevant to them now.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve put out a new course or even run a round of the 5 Day Master Your Marketing Challenge and someone has come to me saying they missed all of the emails, posts, stories about it.
Now keep in mind - this doesn’t mean you have to be pushy, salesy or sleazy when you tell people about how to work with you. The mindset that completely overhauled my relationship with sales is looking at my services and products as an offer (more on that here).
Have you fallen victim to these marketing myths?
Not to fear! I’m here to help with the 5-Day Master Your Marketing Challenge.
Over 300 praccies just like you have taken the challenge So if you want to learn how to market yourself in a way that is:
Unique to you (just like a treatment plan for a client!)
Genuine with no sleazy manipulative sales tactics in sight
Effective for building your client base
Burnout-proof
