Integrative and functional medicine business and organization leaders often struggle from the weight of managing day-to-day operations, which allows neither adequate time nor sufficient resources for the strategic business development and execution efforts required to ensure long-term success.
Functional medicine should never be considered indistinguishable; widely accessible? Yes. Indistinguishable? No. I am deeply concerned that certain functional medicine enterprises are in danger of becoming a commodity.
Given that testimonials significantly influence a prospective customer or patient’s proclivity for your brand, it is incumbent upon you to play an active role in what is said, and where it appears.
Whether you are launching or looking to grow a new practice, service, or other type of integrative health enterprise, you can make significant progress toward reshaping your brand or business strategy by prudently following FON’s method on your own.
Unless, through other means, you’ve created powerful word-of-mouth referrals to keep you booked for months in advance, you need a well-oiled sales pipeline—a funnel—that collects leads and converts prospects to customers.
If you’re operating a small integrative or functional medicine clinic offering a substantial menu of services, you may inadvertently be undermining your capacity for meaningful engagement with existing and prospective clients (aka patients).
There’s no single magic silver bullet approach for growing integrative health and medicine practices today. It requires comprehensive strategy featuring a range of digital and non-digital communication tactics, of which growing a list for email marketing is incredibly important.
Frankly, your customers (aka patients) and prospective clients couldn’t care less about you, your ambitions and why your services or products are special. They’re focused on themselves, their own problems and how you might be able to help them. This has always been the reality.
In contrast to interruptive forms of advertising, content development allows integrative healthcare providers the opportunity to create thoughtfully crafted stories. Done right and targeted, storytelling engages. It has the profound power to connect on an emotional level.
The Rise of Integrative Health & Medicine
By Glenn Sabin and Taylor Walsh
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