When Should I Start Marketing My OT Services?
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[00:00:00] You're an occupational therapist and you're starting your OT business or you're an established OT business, but you want to introduce something new. A question that I often get is when should I start marketing my OT services or that new products? Well, my name is Wong. I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist and I own and run my therapy clinic, a brick and mortar and of course, hand therapy secrets, my online platform.
So I see this often. And like, You're ready to sell something and then you're like, who wants to buy it? Been there, done that. I am the same as you. But technically speaking, when should you get started? Right? When should you get started marketing your, your services? Marketing your programs? When should you start getting more eyeballs on it?
Right? So the quick and dirty answer is right now, today, yesterday, would have been even better. But let's just start today. Right. Let's just start today. [00:01:00] The issue is when you're ready to receive, you think that everyone should be giving to you. Right. And unfortunately that is the world in which we live in, which is like, we want things right now.
We want instant gratification. But that's just not how people purchase for the most part, unless you are really, really cheap and it's just like, and it's dispensable or, you know, that type of stuff. But even still, even that takes. You know, marketing of like months and years, even before you, you're in, you know, you're thinking about buying something if you think, and you look at, you know, bigger brands, such as, such as Yeti, right?
Like Yeti, they do the mics, they've been around for years. It's not like they just came, but they started showing off their product. You can look at Nike. It's years and years of brand building. It's years and years of someone knowing like, Hey, this is what [00:02:00] this product is for. This is what the mic is for.
And then for us as occupational therapists, We have been around for a while, but people don't know us in terms of our space, our clinic, our services, our products, that kind of stuff. So when, once you get started marketing, you really need to get started today. I think one of the biggest things that I tried to do when I first started was marketing, but I didn't do online marketing.
I actually went around and, you know, in my phone, I had a few doctors names, emails. Cell numbers. And before I got started, I reached out to them and I was like, Hey, listen, I'm going out on my own. This is where I'm going to be. This is what I'm going to do. You know, if you need anything, this, you know, this is how you contact me.
Like, it's that simple, really, you guys. We have to get over our fear and ourselves. for, you know, thinking that we're [00:03:00] bothering someone thinking that they don't want to hear from us or really it's just our fear of like getting started. It's like on one hand we want it, but on the other hand we're pulling back.
So it's always this tug of war. But yeah, the quick and dirty is get ready today. Start telling more and more people about it today. You can even start your marketing on your services and I mean it from a not buy from me, not book a call for me, not book a session for me, but just telling people about your services.
I didn't do that as well in my clinic cause I just. Let's be honest. I just didn't know, right? I didn't know how important marketing was on the big, grand scheme of things. I knew marketing on a teeny tiny level. And that was reaching out to the doctors. But you start where you are capable of starting.
And then you compound and learn. And hopefully, as you listen to more [00:04:00] videos, or you, or podcasts, or You know, buy into a program, you can move it along faster. So I didn't know anything by anything for like two years. And I just struggled during that time and I would market. But you know, the other key thing is like, you can start marketing, but you're not going to be really good at it because truth be told, you spent all your time learning how to be an occupational therapist and in your niche of what you're really good at.
So when you come out, you're going to have to do things that you're not really good at and that you have to know and own that you. suck because then from sucking, that's when you're going to start to get better. I started marketing my clinic and I started before I actually opened, I just started, you know, Facebook, Instagram, all that good stuff.
And I started putting out content and just. You know, getting random followers. But what I was starting to realize was that the information I was putting out was attracting other therapists, not potential patients. And so that's what I [00:05:00] mean by, you know, you're doing it, but if you're, if you're doing it wrong, then you're not going to get the right eyeballs.
You got eyeballs, but you don't get the right eyeballs. And that's not very helpful. So I started noticing I was attracting a lot more therapists than I was attracting people who wanted to. by my actual services that I could render and offer. Right. Now I started treating a few therapists here and there, but not like a huge amount.
And I'm not trying to like niche down to like only treating therapists by no means do I want to do that. But, but yeah, I started, you know, as soon as possible. And then when I started hand therapy secrets, like my online platform, I actually did a ton of marketing one year before I actually produced and Sold any products.
And the reason why I bring that up to you. Um, is that, you know, a lot of times when we're ready to sell something, we want the customer to be [00:06:00] ready to buy it. Now, there's a small, small percentage of people who are like, they're ready to go. Like when I started selling my orthosis class, my orthosis, my orthosis class, like an in person class, my first two classes sold out, like huge, right?
Huge. I put out a few things and it was getting sold. I couldn't believe how fast it was. But then over a period of time, You need new people come new eyeballs coming and looking and so the last One of the last ones I sold I didn't do enough marketing and I didn't sell out, you know So I think it's really important to not just look at what when you're starting right?
The question is When do I start? The answer is now. But the follow up question to it is how well, you know, how well am I doing and how well you're doing is really determined on you know, [00:07:00] how many people you're attracting and are you attracting the right people? Because if you're attracting the wrong people, then it's not very helpful for you.
You won't be able to sell your products. You won't be able to sell your services, right? So you have to look at what works for you and your business and what you're trying to do. And that's what I try to do. I mean, that's all I try to do. I just look at it and be okay, like, well, who's calling?
Why are they calling? What are they calling for? Because if I'm, if I'm specialized in treating hand and arm injuries and I get a ton of back stuff or a ton of feet stuff, I mean, it's just like, is that, is my marketing really good? No, if I am treating a bunch of hand and arm injuries and all I get are therapists asking about what to do, am I, am I crafting my message?
Am I crafting my marketing to attract the right people? No. Now, I'm not saying you're excluding them because [00:08:00] I, You know, for my clinic, I, I do market my OT services and I have therapists who watch me all the time. And I'm okay with that. They grab my, they grab my free guides, they get my emails, right? I write them all and they're grabbing them.
And I'm okay with that because that's just, that's just a, how do you call it? That's just business. That's just the cost of business. So it's not like I'm attracting one person and I'm not attracting another, but I can attract all those people. But who am I really, truly attracting that, that I can actually help who, who actually want my help.
Right. Who want my help? So even if you start today on some of your marketing, um, your marketing steps, tactics. strategies, you always have to go back and look and, you know, and say, you know, am I, is what, is [00:09:00] what I'm doing the best thing, right? The other question that I often get is, you know, as a follow up, it's like, if I, You know, when can I start?
And I'm like, you need to start now. So I had a couple of people in my masterclass. They're like, you know, and I was talking about this topic. I was talking about, you know, marketing your OT services and getting eyeballs and telling more people about you because you're going to find that you want to open your door to your clinic and you're not going to have anybody calling and you're not going to have any new patients.
And you're like, well, what happened? How come no one's calling me? What's because you didn't market your services. And so. I had a few people on there. It says, well, I'm, you know, I'm still currently working for my company, right? What should I, you know, can I start marketing? I'm like, of course, you just have to start marketing off of your personal page if that's what you want to do or start your new page, but not make any offers.
Right. You're just [00:10:00] sharing what you know, share what you know, share what you do. This is what I do. This is what I do with a broken finger. This is how I massage someone. This is how I treat X, Y, and Z. And then when you're ready and you've quit and you've started a new company, then you can, you know, you can then say, Hey, you know, call me book your services, you know, that type of thing.
So, you know, you can start at any time. You can start at any time to start marketing your services and not be worried about who's looking because if you're so caught up and worried about people looking at you and wanting, you know, seeing if to a certain extent there's a paranoia, then you're never going to start marketing your services and then you're never going to feel comfortable enough to quit because you're like toggling between You know, Oh, I'm still working for them.
I can't get [00:11:00] started. And so it's like one foot in the door, one foot out the door, but in no place in particular. Right. So just keep that in mind when you are ready to make money and you're like, why am I not making money yet? I'm ready now. Well, the people who were ready for you need you to talk to them a little bit longer, need you to share a little bit longer about what you do, how you do it and gain trust.
I can tell you that, I just got a phone call actually. Like literally an hour or so ago, this guy who has a particular shoulder problem, he's been to therapy. He's like, you live too far. You're too expensive. You don't take my insurance. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah. What am I going to do? You know? And I agreed to get on a call with him because he didn't want to come in and have a conversation.
So I'm like, I'm willing to have a phone call with you. But at the end of the day, like at the end of the day, I'm like, I [00:12:00] know I can help you. I know I can help you. I know that, based on what you have, I'm the best person out there to help you. Now, if you tried X, Y, and Z, they might have missed something.
Right. And I should be able, I'm going to tell you on the first visit, you know, if, if it's gone, And if I can't help you, I won't take you on as a client, you know, but if I can't help you, wouldn't it be worth it? Wouldn't it be worth it, right? So he called because of my marketing, my, my marketing strategies.
You know, he called because of that. And, you know, because I'm too expensive, because I'm too far away, because all these excuses. I'm like, I get patients who drive an hour away from me, willing to pay my prices. I'm not in network with them. But they, at some point determined. I'm worth it. And if you think I'm worth it, then you can come in as well.[00:13:00]
It's not uncommon. I have seen people come in, get great results. But all of that is from my marketing, you know, all the years I've been putting in for my marketing, not just because I did it today. It's because I've been practicing and practicing. I've gotten so much better. Right. And then the thing that I'm also going to, you know, it's through my marketing that I'm going to keep following up with.
I'm going to share with him things I know. And I was like, listen, you can watch my videos until you're ready to come in. You, I'm happy to refer you to another place if you want cheap in network and right next to your house, but you already tried cheap in network and next to your house and it didn't work for you.
Did it right? So at some point you have to decide. I'm not willing to live with this anymore. I'm willing to pay for your services walk. And I told them, I was like, at some point, if you don't get the help, then you can consider coming into, you know, and I'll help you. Now, if you want to just look at free stuff, go ahead and look at free [00:14:00] stuff.
It's going to help you to a certain point. But at some point, you're going to actually need me to come in and diagnose what's going on and create a plan for you. But if you don't want it, I'm not going to force you to do it, you know. So it's my marketing that's going to draw them in, but it's also my marketing that's going to keep talking to them.
And so if there's anywhere you can start as a new business, as an established business that's, that's offering new services, is like start your marketing today. started today. I have new services. Always new programs and courses inside hand therapy secrets. I have new services that I'm introducing in the clinic.
I am doing the exact same thing that I'm sharing with you. And if you want more In depth help, then I'm going to include the link below. I've got an OT corner business course that you can join at any time. You get lifetime access, you know, eight different modules. That's going to help you grow your [00:15:00] business in 2024 and beyond, right?
And beyond because you have lifetime access. We start live calls in March. So, and then we're going to keep doing live calls in certain, how do you call it increments of time. But for right now, you know, if you want my help, if you want more in depth help, then, check out the links below. But until then, I hope this video helps you.
If it generates more questions than answers, then leave me the comments below so I can create another video. Alright, until next time, peace out.
