Chris Barrow’s Blog

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In Maidstone today for the very last of my 12 marketing workshops with Practice Plan.

I’m going to take this opportunity to thank the PP field and head office team for the unconditional support since we began discussing the tour in 2008 and began the tour back in the summer.

I have already written about Practice Plan’s professionalism and team spirit, about the excellent branding and preparation for the workshops – and about the enormous fun we have had on the tour with open-minded audiences who have arrived with (thank goodness) a sense of humour.

We have inevitably created some legendary moments, including my standing on a table-top and unzipping my fly in front of a dentist from Hull (don’t ask) and my famous “El Cid” appearance in Scotland after a night of food poisoning and delirium!

By the way – we have had lots of laughs but also covered some extremely important and serious issues along the way.

Perhaps I’m tempting fate by writing this before the final gig but my impressions have been that

• there are still a majority of independent practices whose marketing is stuck in about 1998 and
• there is a willingness to learn and to change in the face of impending competition from the retail sector

At the end of each day we have asked for feedback on the “actions” that each team have agreed – the clear winners have been

• re-branding and
• effective web marketing

Even in the 6 months that we have been touring, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of new patient enquiries originated with a Google search and a web visit.

The web architects, designers and optimisers are in for a rich harvest.

As well as that, we have explored relationship marketing, networking, direct marketing and strategic alliances as elements of a co-ordinated marketing programme.

I remain as confident as ever that, with effective marketing strategies in place, the independent practitioner can look forward to a “best year yet” in 2010.

Now that the tour is coming to its conclusion, I’ll be talking with Practice Plan about how we can make sure that this workshop remains embedded in the psyche of the teams who attended – and doesn’t just end up back on the shelf or course binders.

We have a cunning plan……