You’ve delved deep into your market research. You’ve built out your buyer personas to almost perfection. You know what makes them tick, what their problems are, and how you can solve them.
This is your audience… right?
It’s true, you can’t please—or serve—everyone, so you have to narrow your target audience to a manageable group of people. Yet, sometimes there are opportunities outside this target audience; opportunities that don’t require a great deal of additional time/money/resources to explore.
Think of it as expanding the bull’s-eye, ever so slightly.
What We Learned By Looking At PT/Rehab Organizations
In last week’s blog, I used the example of the physical therapy and physical rehabilitation space. We’ve had the fortune to dig into this healthcare specialty to see where expansion opportunities might lie.
There are many.
“Think of it as expanding the bull’s-eye, ever so slightly.”
Instead of focusing on PT/rehab from a reactive stance—that is, targeting the hurt and old—we opened up the possibilities of marketing to varying audiences who are aiming to preserve their health and mobility from a proactive perspective. We identified five specific groups within this “non-critical” audience.
Meet The Non-Critical Expansion Audience
1) Aging Athlete. With a long history of physical activity (jogging, basketball, tennis, etc.), these athletic enthusiasts do not want to give up their physical endeavors. They might get by with painkillers or ice treatments and ultimately “play through the pain.”
2) Weekend Warrior. Those who simply don’t have time to work out during the week tend to cram it all in on the weekend—raising the risk of injury, even if they’re considered “fit.”
3) Career Casualty. Certain careers are more damaging to joints and muscles than others. Anything that requires repetitive motion, long hours on one’s feet, or heavy lifting can cause both short- and long-term pain.
4) Weight Burdened. No one desires to be overweight, but many people struggle with weight loss. All those extra pounds put a lot of pressure on the knees and ankles, leading to advanced joint degradation. Also, these individuals often experience pain with exercise, perpetuating the problem.
5) Musculoskeletal Conscious. This savvy group is a prime candidate for proactive PT, because they recognize what the future—near or far—holds. It might be they’re “pre-habbing” for an upcoming surgery or fearful of inheriting their grandmother’s hunchback.
Why Stop At Patients? The Physician Angle
The other angle we discovered is that the physician audience represents yet another chance to expand upon PT/rehab services. A physician’s recommendation goes a long way—if it didn’t, “doctor’s orders” wouldn’t be a thing. They are a key player in connecting with your next generation of patients before they need you.
But, they’re also busy, busy, busy. To make this part of the expansion strategy work, it’s essential to develop highly-targeted, tactical communications across multiple channels—which, at the end of the day, should be your approach with any audience, expansion or not.
