Positioning Your Clinic

Positioning is about defining yourself in the market. For example, if I say an airline is “Better than Ryanair but not as good as British Airways” or that a supermarket is “kind of like Waitrose and M&S”, you immediately have an idea of what to expect from that business.

Positioning is done relative to others so we have to look at our competitors. Google your service in your area and see what comes up.

Look at these websites and try to identify the different ways clinics position themselves in the market. As you do you’ll start to be able to create “scales” from one extreme to another. For example, at one end of the scale a clinic might be very family-oriented, at the other end they may cater purely to professional athletes.

Your scales will depend on your industry but may include things like:

• Cheap – Expensive
• Generic – Bespoke
• Specialist – Generalist
• Fashionable & Cool – Get the job done
• Welcome all the family – Looking for a certain patient

For example with dentists, one might be mid-price, generic, generalist, welcome everyone and get the job done at a reasonable price. Another might be all about Instagram, high-price, exclusive, fashionable and looking to target people who value their Instagram reputation. There’s no right or wrong, it’s just about being clear on where in the market you’re positioned.

Once you’ve gone through this process, you should be able to describe your clinic in a way which will easily make sense to people, and can move on to putting all of your keywords, USPs and positioning information together to create your marketing messages.