A clinic's
first 30 days.

Most marketing plans start with getting more people in. For a clinic, more people looking at a site with a testimonial on the home page, or a pixel firing on the anxiety page, is just more exposure to a problem. So the first fortnight cleans up, and the second builds.

It's also a plan for a clinic that's busy seeing patients. Most tasks should take an hour or less, as a rough guide, and each goes to whoever is best placed to do it. Practitioners check their own registration details and wording. The front desk owns listings and review requests. The owner or practice manager signs off on privacy and tracking.

This one is for GPs, physios, chiros, psychologists and allied health. Dental and NDIS and aged care have hubs of their own, with their own rules.

Tick tasks off as you go. Ticks stay in this browser only, so you can come back to it during the month. The panel shows what's left for each role.

Search every practitioner on the Ahpra register. Note the registered name, profession and type of registration, because Ahpra warns that the registered name can differ from the name someone goes by. Then make the website, the Google profile and every booking directory use a version that clearly points to the same person.

Two title checks while you're there. A non-medical practitioner using 'Dr' needs the profession beside it, as in Ahpra's Dr McKenzie (chiropractor) example. And 'specialist' or 'specialises in' implies specialist registration, which most allied health practitioners don't hold.

Last, Google Maps. Practitioners can have their own Business Profiles if they're public-facing and can be contacted at the location during stated hours. Search Maps for each name, claim what exists and check it points to your clinic. There's more in SEO for clinics.

Ahpra's self-assessment tool works in three steps: read the guidance, find every ad you're responsible for, including social media, flyers and content others make for you, then review each one against its questions. Those cover claims about effectiveness, words like 'cure' and 'safe', prices, 'specialist', offers, testimonials and false urgency.

Do the website first, then Facebook and Instagram, then anything printed. Testimonials about symptoms, diagnosis, treatment or outcomes can't be used to advertise, and that includes a widget that pulls Google reviews onto the home page. Every offer needs its terms beside it. The advertising rules page has an offer builder for that.

If an agency or a staff member posts for you, ask to see the last month of posts and the next month's schedule. The self-assessment tool is clear that content others produce on your behalf is part of the check.

Most businesses with turnover of $3 million or less sit outside the Privacy Act. Clinics don't: it covers health service providers regardless of turnover. In NSW there's a second layer: the Health Records and Information Privacy Act, whose 15 Health Privacy Principles apply to private health service providers as well, overseen by the NSW Information and Privacy Commission. Victoria has its own Health Records Act, which covers private clinics with no small business exemption. So check that the privacy policy is current, covers the state law where you practise, and names the tracking and advertising tools the website uses.

Then list every tag on the site: Google tag, Meta pixel, booking widget, chat. The OAIC's tracking pixel guidance says to collect the minimum, consider running pixels on certain pages only, and avoid third-party pixels where a visit could reveal health information. For most clinics that means condition pages, the mental health section and the booking form.

Finally, set up one conversion that counts a completed booking, without the service or practitioner in it. That's the number you'll judge marketing by for the rest of the year. The Facebook ads page goes further on Meta.

Pick the condition your clinic sees most and write, or fix, one page about it: what it is, what a first visit involves, who sees it and what it costs, signed and dated by the practitioner. One good page does more than a dozen thin ones.

Then ask ChatGPT and Google the questions a new patient asks, like 'chiro open Saturday Erina' or 'psychologist bulk billing Newcastle', and note who's named. The AI search page has a practitioner check that goes with it.

Choose one moment to ask every patient for a Google review, such as the follow-up text, because Google's policy rules out asking only for positive reviews. And write down this month's numbers: new patients, where they came from, and how many days until the next free new-patient slot. Next month you'll have something to compare.