It’s Monday — that means it’s time to open up the mailbox and answer YOUR questions!
I’ve heard a critical piece of advice from some very high-level entrepreneurs a few times over recently…
I’ve wanted to write about it for a while.
But I haven’t had the right context.
That is, until I got the following email in my inbox from a BTMSinsiders member.
It’s the last thing I write about below — but don’t jump ahead because it’ll be most valuable if you read the context…
To have your question answered in an upcoming Mailbox Monday, email it to me at [email protected].
Today’s question…
—
Hey Roy,
I love reading your essays. They are awesome — Thank you.
I’m also working my way through the BTMSinsiders training…
I have a Q for your mailbox… I’m starting a new ‘niche’ venture. I’ve selected one target market. Physiotherapists (you call them Physical Therapists in the U.S.), specifically, practice owners.
I’m having trouble getting them to ‘connect’ or engage. I’m trying to ascertain their problems, issues, etc., they have running their practice. I’ve decided it’s time to run some FB Ads. The goals are:
— Build my list
— Try and gather some more info about my audience.
— Types of buyers
— Specific problems etc. (I have set up a Deep Dive Survey)
I also have a lead magnet, “A Simple System to Re-Book More Patients”…
Sub-head: Ensure Patients Visit More Often Increases Patient Care + Improves Patient Outcomes However, I’m not sure this is a strong enough hook for them to engage.
It’s a catch 22 —
How do you run ads to build your list and find out more about them if what you ‘assumed’ was a decent hook but isn’t…???
Should I run the ads to the survey – If so, I was thinking I could offer a discount on the discovery consultation (MVC Scorecard)?
I modified the Q’s slightly for my audience. There are some important metrics I need covered in the ‘conversion’ phase.
Feedback and thoughts appreciated.
Cheers!
Lawrence
—
The deeper question: how do you start a consulting business from scratch?
Sounds like Lawrence is in a new market. Maybe, a hot market full of opportunity.
But he’s struggling to get going. Struggling to get new potential clients to even pay attention to him.
And — as many entrepreneurs starting out a new business venture do — he’s trying a lot of things to find out what sticks…
I’m going to use the 3M model to tease out the different components:
— Market: He’s targeting physical therapy practice owners in Australia, or at least the best Facebook will give him based on that targeting.
— Media: He’s currently testing Facebook ads to get them to visit his website.
— Message: He’s offering “A simple system to re-book more patients.” But it also sounds like he’s got a few messages going on. Get them to opt-in. Get them to fill out a survey. Perhaps get them to do a discovery session in line with the model I gave for consultants in the Most Valuable Customer Strategy training.
I want to tease out all three of these individually, to look at opportunities to strike gold and really help Lawrence’s consulting business take off.
Getting the Market right…
First and foremost, Lawrence is doing this one thing VERY well.
Namely, he’s narrowed down and focused on a single target market.
This kind of market specialization has a whole pile of benefits. Not the least of which are that it makes your market much easier to find, and when you find them and say you specialize in helping businesses like theirs, it immediately answers the, “is this for people like me?” question in the affirmative.
And yet…
I have a big question about this…
Namely: How good is Facebook at putting your advertising in front of practice owners of physical therapy practices?
If the landing page isn’t converting, this is one of the first things that comes to mind.
How good is the targeting for this specific audience, through the Facebook platform?
I really don’t know. But a tiny test budget could be thrown at an ad campaign that had two big buttons on the landing page.
The question: “Do you currently own, run, or manage a physiotherapy practice in Australia?”
They click “Yes” and they’re redirected to the landing page speaking to owners/managers. They click “No” and some alternative and appropriate message is presented.
Alternatively, you could build that into the first step in a survey funnel.
You really want to know if you’re speaking to the right market. Because if you’re buying a lot of traffic but it turns out they aren’t who you thought they were, it’s very hard to make that work!
Secondly, I would strongly consider if the practice owner is really the right person to be speaking with. (See my final advice for more on this.)
Pick the right Media…
I alluded to this before.
But I’ll go deep here.
Is Facebook really the best place to be reaching growth-oriented physical therapy practice owners?
I don’t know if it is. At least not in the beginning.
First, the targeting has to be right. It might be, it might not be. I’m not sure. But it’s a pretty narrow target market. And I have reservations about being able to reach them based on my (admittedly limited) experience with Facebook targeting.
Second, you have to actually get their attention on there. I hate it when people say, “oh, that group is not on Facebook.” Because usually, they’re wrong. But the owner of a hands-on medical practice is probably a bit hard to reach through Facebook. Anything medical means big money, which probably makes targeting them expensive. And they probably have pretty full schedules, which might make it more difficult to get in front of them.
Is there an alternative media that could work better?
Is there a way you can guarantee you’re targeting the right people?
There might be. (Again, see my final advice.)
Deliver the Message they want to hear!
At first blush, I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally wrong with your message. In that, I believe you’re offering them something that would truly benefit their practice, if they were to take you up on it.
But, people don’t always buy what’s best for them — they buy what they want most.
And as much as we’d like to sell them on “get more money from your current customer file,” most business owners don’t respond well to that promise.
I’d test a few different messages. (And you can actually start by testing just the ad copy for engagement and clicks, and you’ll probably figure out what resonates well. Even better if you have a short article on your site and you can use a retargeting pixel to get in front of them later.)
— “How to book your practice full of physiotherapy patients using one Facebook secret.”
This could be about how Facebook doesn’t like to give businesses free advertising, and how they have to pay to get in front of potential clients. Then, you could offer them a free Facebook lead generation guide, or a webinar about how to set up a Facebook new patient funnel for physiotherapy practices. And from there, you pitch your discovery consultation.
— “Easiest source of new patients for $250k+ physiotherapy practices.”
This could be a sneak-up message. You present it as an opportunity to get new patients easily. But then you pivot and explain how the best source of new patients is old happy patients. That by simply reaching out again, you can get a few to come back easily.
This is a good start. Take it from there.
Think: what would your prospect be most interested in? What’s their ideal result? And if you could wave a magic wand and give it to them, what would that look like?
And then, what preconceived notions and beliefs do they have about getting that result?
A wild guess is that if they’re like most entrepreneurs and professional practice owners, they only think of new people coming through the door. And they don’t want to think about selling or marketing, they just want to be busy doing their thing.
So most promises that work will probably be something along the lines of “Get unlimited new patients without lifting a finger.”
All of that said, you don’t really know.
Which is why you might need to come at this from a different angle…
Doing things that don’t scale, to find out what does…
If I were you and I were completely new to this market, I wouldn’t build a Facebook funnel.
I’d try to get in front of them, in person. Or, next best, on a call.
Even if I could get ONE I’d probably have a better idea than if I had 10 surveys.
I’d look up their address. And I’d write them a letter. Deliver it via some kind of Priority Mail or courier service.
I’d be frank with them. You want to meet with them and interview them about their challenges and successes in marketing their practice and getting patients.
Tell them you won’t try to sell them anything.
That you’d like 20 minutes, and you’ll work around their schedule.
Then, ask them the Ask Method questions, such as what their biggest challenge is in filling their schedule in their practice. Ask them the magic wand question: if you could wave a magic wand and fix anything in their practice, what would they like to have fixed?
Do this with 1, 2, 3 practice owners, and you’ll learn a lot. Do it with 10 and you’ll know more about their desires than folks who’ve been in the field for a decade.
Running short on time, but here’s a couple other recommendations…
Alternately, you could consider putting together a report on physiotherapy practice marketing leaders. Reach out to a bunch of ideal clients, and tell them you’re considering including them as a leader in your report. That you’ll give them a free copy of the report, but you’d like to interview them as well. Ask them directly about some of their successes, and their best ways to fill their practices. Also, ask what they see as challenges for marketing their physiotherapy practice are.
Or — and this may or may not work in your field, with local patient privacy laws, but — consider if you could do a lead generation service. What if instead of trying to reach practice owners in the beginning, you tried to reach patients? Build a patient-getting funnel, and then approach doctors and ask, “Could you take 5 new patients a week?” Offer to turn on the flow, if they’re interested (and will pay). You’re likely to get a pretty receptive audience for that offer!
Hope this has stimulated some ideas!
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
