I was invited by my colleague Vrinda Haitti, to conduct a seminar for physical therapy students on “How to market your practice in the 21st century” at the University of Sciences in Philadelphia. Here are a few clips from the seminar, and the key point I covered.
The key point I covered was the importance of joining the local chamber of commerce and become an active member...
The local chamber of commerce is geared towards helping businesses promote themselves in the local community. Schedule a meeting with the chief of the local chamber, visit and introduce yourself. Offer to contribute articles and participate in chamber events like breakfast meetings. Provide ‘lunch and learn’ events once or twice a week for local businesses with 30 or more employees. Offer to conduct a ‘low back pain seminar’ or ‘how to exercise with diabetes’ seminar for the chapter. The chamber will promote this event to all businesses in the area. You can even ask for the names, mailing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of hundreds of local businesses (depending on the size of your chapter) and send out an email / regular mail campaign introducing yourself as a chapter member. Go the extra mile and offer to conduct a ‘mini-seminar’ for local businesses, if they can guarantee that 10 or more employees will be interested and confirmed for the event. Another physical therapy marketing step that works well is to volunteer to be an ‘ambassador’ for your chapter, which will allow you to welcome new businesses into the chapter by visiting them and providing an information kit.
