Three words to live by when marketing your healthcare business – Know, Like and Trust

Three words to live by when marketing your healthcare business – Know, Like and Trust

Sports Injury Fix member and ambassador Dave James is a coach, mentor, speaker and podiatrist.Using coaching and mentoring he works with healthcare business owners to make a healthy business out of health, advising them on the video, social media, authenticity and story telling of their content.

Here Dave explains about the use of words in marketing.

Business is full of phrases and sayings that get thrown around. And for this blog I want to start to unpick one of them.

 Know - Like - Trust.

It’s one of those phrases that rolls off the tongue and the three-word combo seems to work well.

 A bit like “Let it go”, or “Grace Under Pressure” and possibly “Time Heals Everything”.

You get the picture. A trio of powerful words. Know, like and trust is almost cheesy in it’s simplicity, but it is a phrase that I come back to time and time again when discussing marketing with my clients.

Why?

Well, it works. When you approach your marketing from this perspective, it becomes a key process in your marketing arsenal. You can ask key questions to gauge where you are in that process.

So why does it work?

Well, in business we primarily deal with people. People with feelings, thoughts, worries, fears and the usual range and complexity of human emotions. People that want a solution to their problem and are searching for someone who can provide that for them. Someone they can trust.

We naturally assume that as “healthcare professionals” that trust is already a given.

“Well I have my [insert qualification here] and therefore I am trustworthy”.

“I’m registered with [insert membership body here] therefore I am trustworthy”.

Sorry Susan, but it doesn’t work like that.

Place two clinicians of equal skill next to each other, and the one who is known will win out every time. Because that’s how our brains work. We are drawn towards people that we know, like and trust. People who we believe can help us, even if we have never met them before. And this is so powerful that people will be drawn to clinicians who may not be the best for them but have done the legwork to get known and have mastered the marketing behind it.

Before the internet, know, like and trust was either done via word of mouth or based on the size of advert in the Yellow Pages.

With social media, this changes everything. Now, people go online and search for someone or something that can help them at any time of the day or night, wearing whatever they choose to wear.

Google calls this the “Zero moment of truth” - the first point that a potential patient finds you and comes across your brand. Chances are this will be online, and if you are not showing up on your social media, then you are missing out.

To help these people to find you and begin to know you better, you have access to so many things:

Blog posts.

Videos.

Facebook updates and posts.

YouTube.

And so much more…

The more touch points and the greater frequency the better. Sharing your story, the story of those you serve and adding value, you will always remain in their mind.

Sounds simple, right?

Over time that builds some serious “know” into your business and as the know grows, people see you more often and they will decide whether they like you (or not). And that decision lies squarely with them and we have pretty much zero control over it.

As humans we like people who are like us, whether that be in activities, beliefs and values. If they don’t like you then they seek out other clinicians. While that may be frustrating, it saves an awful lot of time trying to convince someone you are worth their time and saves a consultation with someone who is likely a poor fit for you and your clinic. And may well end up with poor outcomes too.

So what about the trust? How do you get someone to trust you before they’ve even seen you?

Well there are three areas to consider here.

The first is showing your results. Showing how you have actually helped people. Capturing testimonials and getting those people to articulate and describe exactly how you have helped. This is more difficult when you are starting up and you can share the stories of others in your industry.

The second is always keeping your promises and doing what you say you are going to do consistently.

The third is being honest when things don’t go as well. Being completely transparent about what happened and what you did afterwards.

Let’s give you an example of how know, like and trust could work from the perspective of my industry – podiatry.

A patient has a painful toe and a “consultation” with Dr Google brings up a myriad of potential diagnoses. Using some deductive reasoning and checking out a few pictures in the search results, they think they have an ingrowing toenail. The next step is finding someone who can solve their problem so they search for someone locally to help them.

Two results appear for local podiatrists. One is a standard listing with a link to a website, which lists the usual prices and services they offer. The website talks about the qualifications the podiatrist has along with their registrations and insurance. There’s a phone number to call to make an appointment. Okay, that’s a good start, but what about result two? Well that is completely different.

The search results bring up a video from the podiatrist who talks about ingrowing toenails, what they are and what options there are to treat. They also link to a blog where they discuss their own surgery and how the experience was for them. You then visit their website and there is a picture of the podiatrist that matches the person in the video. The website shows a set of testimonials from patients, all of which are happy with the treatment. There’s a link to an online booking service and you can book an assessment straightaway.

Which podiatrist would you visit? For many of you that may sound like a lot of work, but imagine if you were to approach your marketing in that way, with a complete focus on maximising Know, Like and Trust. How would that change your practice? How would that improve your business? Being consistent in this approach reaps rewards and the more you do it, the more it feeds into the cycle and the greater the benefit to your business.

And then you talk about it. A lot.

To find out more about Dave and how to work with him: www.davethecoach.co.uk hello@davethecoach.co.uk

 Or download his content creation Ebook here