Ok, private practice therapists, you can't ignore the mobile marketing revolution any longer. I predict that private practitioners who don't embrace mobile technology will have a difficulty building and maintaining a thriving in the coming years.
Look at these statistics about the astronomical growth of mobile usage predicted over the next few years.
- There will be nearly 1 mobile device per capita by the year 2015. That suggests that by 2015 there will be approximately 7.2 billion mobile devices.
- Global mobile data traffic will increase 26-fold between 2010 and 2015.
- There will be 788 million mobile-only Internet users by 2015. (source: Cisco.com)
Here are 4 ways to get your practice ready for the mobile revolution:
1) Visit your practice website on a variety of mobile devices
Have you visited your practice website on a variety or smartphones, iPad, etc. to see if your website is as effective on mobile devices as it is on a computer screen? With more and more people going "mobile only," make sure that your website translates well on smaller mobile screens.
2) List your practice on Google Places
According to Google, "97% of consumers search for local businesses online." If you haven't already, get your private practice listed on Google places where potential clients can easily find you on mobile devices. Also, search your specialty, city and state to see which private practitioners are already listed.
3) List your therapy practice on Yelp
If you're not familiar with Yelp, it's a popular service and mobile app that uses an individual's current location to find nearby businesses and services. Like Google Places, signing up for a Yelp listing is quick and easy, so there's no excuse not to have your practice listed there.
4) Get mobile marketing training
Check out this fantastic technology resource, Therapy Marketing Geeks, run by two therapists, Clinton Power and Jeff Fisher. They offer a training called Mobile Marketing For Therapists in addition to other great articles, tech recommendations, and webinars designed to help therapists embrace technology and use it to build a successful private practice.
So...is your practice ready for the mobile explosion? If not, I challenge you to do at least one of these four suggestions by the end of this week.
As healers, we genuinely like to do our work. Guiding clients through the therapy process and seeing them make progress is why we do what we do. But if you're in private practice, you know there's a lot going on in the back end and that it's crucial to run an efficient and organized business.