Targeting Your Best-Fit Patient

Don’t fool yourself: Unless you’re selling toilet paper in a pandemic, the services you offer are not for everyone. You must first understand the type of person who you WANT to serve and who is most likely to be searching for you (hopefully to become your new patient). This is the key to developing your target market and your Search Engine Optimization strategy. Clearly defining personas that describe your ideal patients will help you refine your offerings, determine your voice and tone, develop website content, and plan keywords for your SEO.

When Dr. Nikki Anderson opened a dental practice in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, called Artisan Dental, she located her practice specifically to cater to the needs to the young, socially conscious, tech-savvy, high-rise-dwelling residents of the area.

These tech professionals typically have generous healthcare benefits, disposable income, and care about their oral health—and their smiles.

And, by having that target audience in mind, Dr. Anderson was able to connect with them emotionally and socially by becoming a Certified B Corporation. That is, Artisan is a business that meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose and use business as a force for good.

This is something her young, professional prospects—her tribe—would admire and appreciate.

So have your best-fit client in mind and remember that you are not targeting every person within a specified radius or every prospect that comes in contact with your practice.