Promote Like Promoters: Tips for Boldly Marketing Your Rehab Therapy Services

It’s easy to do things the way they’ve been done before. What’s not so easy is charting a new course and deciding to take a risk.

Marketing is an area where taking risks can be relatively safe (how often are you going to lose the farm by placing an ad that doesn’t pan out?), and the rewards of stumbling onto something new that really works can feel like discovering gold.

When marketing, I like to challenge myself by thinking like a promoter. Not a promoter of rehab therapy, per se, but more like an entertainment promoter whose career lives or dies by his or her ability to capture the attention of the masses.

What do promoters do to capture people’s attention, and how can you harness this for purposes of physical, occupational and/or speech therapy marketing? Here’s a glimpse:

Promoters Build Excitement

Blockbuster movies don’t advertise their services after hitting the big screen. They do so well in advance. By the time a movie is ready for you to see, you’ve likely been hearing about it for weeks through pre-release interviews, trailers and commercials.

The lesson: If you have something important to launch such as a new practice or program, do the same by building excitement before you actually launch.

Promoters Make Things Exclusive

If you’ve ever been to a popular concert, you know that your ability to get a ticket to the event can cause excitement, and perhaps a bit of nervousness, in and of itself. That’s because there are only so many tickets available, and if you don’t act fast, you might get nixed from the experience altogether.

The lesson: The concept of scarcity or exclusivity is an important one to promoters and one that lends itself well to rehab therapy services which only have limited slots available per day, classes per week, seats per workshop, and so on.

Promoters are Bold

As physical, occupational and speech therapists, we tend to be a reserved, humble group. It’s a great quality when it comes to focus and quality of care, but when it comes to promoting ourselves, it can work against us. In contrast, when a promoter wants to share something exciting, they generally don’t hold back. They squeeze themselves into a variety of conversations occurring on multiple channels, and they aren’t shy about telling their stories.

The lesson: Don’t be afraid to be loud, aggressive and bold when it comes to promoting your value. And don’t worry, this can be achieved professionally. Just be confident in your offering, and being bold (and professional) will come naturally.

Promoters in industries such as entertainment have a lot to teach us, and we’re wise to pay attention. Think like a promoter when it comes to your rehab therapy services, and see how your market responds.

The results may surprise you.