With all the different puzzle pieces now placed together, you can turn your attention to the main reason you began a Plan Management service: helping clients! And to do this, you obviously need to find and win clients to support.

In our last post, we’ll explore the different avenues you can use to market your business and find clients – and make it easy for them to find you.

Your key message

Now that you’ve identified your business’s attributes, you can develop your key message to market to participants. Whatever you choose, ensure that you keep it simple. For instance, your key message might be:

• personalised service
• fast provider payment
• technology first
• client-centric experience
• one-stop shop for participants.

This message will influence potential clients’ first impressions, so be patient and think about what matters most to them. Again, it’s important to test this with actual participants! Assumptions make for a foolhardy game.

Build your profile

With your key message determined, begin building your profile so that you can be easily found by participants – and then figure out which channels you’ll use to market your business.

First up, create a website and sell your key messages on it. Buy a domain (it looks professional!) and use that same format to set up appropriate email addresses. An @gmail address just doesn’t look as cool; trust us, participants notice these things.

Then, it’s time to make your business known! Set up LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts where appropriate, and backlink to your new website. Go forth into the social world and join relevant groups and follow/like other accounts (like the NDIS).

You can also build a profile on specialist NDIS marketplaces like Clickability, which participants use to find rated and reviewed services. You can customise your details to reflect where you offer your service and how people can access your services, and also gather reviews!

Government resources

Once you’ve built your profile, you need to ensure your details are up to date on the available Government-backed resources. It’s easy, simple, and helps build your presence where it counts most.

For instance, check your details are on the NDIS Provider Finder tool and also the NDIS Commission Provider register, which participants can use to complete easy searches and verify your details.

Networking

Unsurprisingly, networking plays an essential part in building your business, with referrals being a common way for participants to find and connect with services. It’s important to develop a good relationship with these types of referrers.

For example, locate your Local Area Coordinator (LAC), Early Childhood Partner and Support Coordinators in your chosen area. They are responsible for ensuring a participant’s plan is implemented correctly; get to know them, as they might refer participants to your service.

It’s also worthwhile finding local providers in your area, too. You’ll likely be paying their invoices. To find such providers, you can use the NDIS Find a Registered Provider page.

Marketing

After you’ve built your profile and developed good relationships amongst your network, you can then engage in different types of marketing. This might include traditional marketing or digital marketing, whichever you prefer.

If you’re interested in traditional marketing, it’s worth signing up for the various expos. Check out the Social Impact Institute’s list of expos for some of the big ones. You can even get a stall for the duration of the expo.

For expos and similar events, be sure to produce marketing collateral, including business cards and flyers. Adobe is industry standard for designing such collateral, but you can also use free graphic design tools like Canva. If you want someone else to do it, hire a freelancer on Upwork and they’ll do the job for you! For printing, Vistaprint is a good place to start.

But now more than ever, digital marketing is becoming an incredibly efficient way to market your business. Email should be your priority. Mailchimp and Vision6 are regularly used in the disability sector and give you a lot of flexibility when designing templates and creating email lists. Put a signup form to your email list on your website or get people to sign up when you’re at an expo and you’ll be able to email them updates and more.

And lastly, explore Facebook Ads and Google Ads to reach new audiences. On Facebook, you can create an audience of people with related interests and push ads to them for a price; on Google, you can pay to appear in people’s search results. Both are good options, with different benefits and results, so investigate to see which is better for you.

What’s next?

Deliver your quality service to participants! Your role is a vital one, giving participants a fighting chance to achieve their NDIS goals. Support them in handling the administrative burden of their NDIS Plan, so they can live the lives that they want to live, how they want to live them.

Learn the basics, master the technical, find your niche, and go find participants!

This series is co-written by Clickability and LanternPay. For more information on Clickability, or for more helpful guides just like this one, visit www.clickability.com.au. For more information on LanternPay and its claim payments platform, visit its website.

Getting Started in NDIS Plan Management: Know the guidelines

Getting Started in NDIS Plan Management: Learn the technical

Getting Started in NDIS Plan Management: Establish your business