The goal of any company is growth, whether that means opening satellite locations, bringing in product experts, adding service lines, or improving revenue (it’s almost always improved revenue, at the least). You can’t get there without pushing limits and opening your eyes to new opportunities.
But, sometimes companies get wrapped up with all the day-to-day “stuff” that’s required to keep a business afloat, they don’t have the time, money, or resources to venture into new areas of expansion—or at least they don’t believe they have the needed man/womanpower.
That’s when companies need to get creative. Are you being too limiting in your target audience? Might your buyer personas be a bit too narrow? What is it about your product or service that could resonate with an outlying group?
A Physical Therapy Example
We’ve done a lot of work in the healthcare space, and last year we had the chance to play around with the specialty areas of physical therapy and physical rehabilitation. A common associative thought when you hear about this industry is either:
a) someone got hurt or had surgery and now requires help getting back to “normal,” orb) an aging individual needs assistance staying mobile or regaining mobility after a fall
“Are you being too limiting in your target audience?”
Those are true statements. We all know someone who has had a knee replacement, hip replacement, etc. and actually gets a prescription to attend PT/rehab sessions. It’s usually Baby Boomers or older who are undergoing these procedures, which makes sense from a reactionary perspective.
But what about populations who aren’t quite there yet?
Why Proactive PT Works
Through our research, we learned that there is great room for growth in the PT/rehab industry from a proactive stance. We identified five “non-critical” audience groups—which I’ll expand upon next week—who fit into this strategy, but we approached it from a physician perspective.
By encouraging both physicians and patients to look at PT from a proactive POV, rather than a reactive one, you’re creating a path to acquisition. Your marketing efforts will start to form a fluid “communication ecosystem” of physician engagement and patient education, each feeding off each other to bring business through your doors… aka growth.
“It’s how you implement this strategy that determines how well it will work.”
That’s the idea, but it’s how you implement this strategy that determines how well it will work. Ensuring you’re staying on budget, testing campaigns, using the right channels—these are all the nuts and bolts that make marketing to any audience (expansion or not) successful.
More of the Same… Or Different?
We honed in on the PT/rehab space with this approach, because of the lucrative opportunities the proactive audience presents. But, it’s an approach that can be implemented in other industries or specialties as well.
In the end, it comes down to this: Are you happy with doing more of the same, or are you open to looking towards something different? Doing more of the same might retain your audience’s patronage, but looking for expansion opportunities--even in the most unexpected areas--grooms room for growth and profitability.
