David Peirce started his own clinic in 2006 and created a strong business brand – Pondera – with a particular focus on performing arts and clinical Pilates. Upon selling the Brisbane clinic and eventually separating himself from the business, David needed to renew his clinical list and build an income based on the fact that he was also a brand. As clients sought his personal expertise, irrespective of the location or banner on the front of the building, David saw the distinction between the practice and the practitioner.
Whilst pleased to let go of the responsibilities of owning and managing a clinic David was not ready to give up on practice, so he has continued treating patients; without the stressors of responsibility for other staff and a renewed ability to be able to focus on the clinical aspects of physiotherapy. Rather than becoming an ‘employee’ working under someone else’s brand he has decided to take control, and is working in two separate clinics under his own marketing banner – ‘David Peirce, Physiotherapist, is available for appointments at Ashgrove and Tarraginidi’.
The first step in David’s personal branding and marketing efforts was to build a personal professional website. A fan of the .physio domain name extension, David registered the domain name www.davidpeirce.physio. He said
“As an exact match of my brand (name and profession), the domain name is both informative and directional, in a remarkably punch way”.
David has created a logo for the website and highlighted his areas of expertise – dancers,musicians and analysis of long standing chronic conditions He has started writing blogs to produce up-to-date content for search engines to find, and through social media commentary on topics related to his niche he is building a network to drive traffic to his website.
At the website David clearly spells out where he is available to be seen on each day and how to make an appointment.
David expects this paradigm-flipping model, where practitioners actively promote themselves, to be the future of the profession. He said, “It is highly unlikely that any practitioner will work for the same employer their entire lives, so they need to take charge of their personal brand early on”. He continued, “And the great thing about a personal professional website is that it can grow and change whilst always being a signpost to where you work, wherever that may be. There should also be no concerns with having your own website while you work for an employer – as long as the clients are driven to your place of work it can only enhance your personal brand and drive business to your employer”.
As an experienced and confident clinician and business owner David has flipped the typical industry employee/employer marketing relationship on its head. David has recognized that he, himself, is the brand and he is using part of his funds generated to pay people to provide him with a location, equipment and administration.
His new employers or more appropriately, ‘service providers ‘, are delighted as David’s own marketing efforts run parallel to their own. David said, “Now there are two brands marketing to drive patients through the door”.
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