Very few doctors will admit that making lots of money lies in their marketing and public relations abilities since it conflicts with their professional ego. However, most doctors can agree on the fact that attracting new patients, return patients, and patients with more disposable income is the key to running a successful practice. In order to achieve these goals, you must have a medical marketing plan. A successful plan will prevent you from wasting money on unnecessary advertising and get the public and media exposure you need in a cost-effective manner. Particularly during these difficult economic times, it is increasingly important to expand your practice using precise marketing strategies.
The Importance of Visibility
Visibility is essential because it helps to make you an authority in your field. For example, if you are a dentist with visibility in your local area, the first person people will think of when they need to go to the dentist is you. In order to create a positive reputation for yourself and establish yourself as an authority, you have to become a beloved figure in your community. This means that people come to trust you on a personal level. You can have the latest and greatest tools and all the credentials but they won’t mean much if you don’t have visibility. Professional qualifications are overrated, in fact. In order to survive an economic crunch, you must use precise medical marketing and PR techniques.
Many medical practitioners mistakenly believe that they are not affected by economic slumps due to the simple fact that people always need to go to the doctor. However, the fact of the matter is that many people will put off the medical care they need as their discretionary income shrinks.
How to Become More Visible
Be much more visible than any other medical practitioner in your field in the local market. Public relations are far more effective than advertising so focus your efforts on that instead. When you get third party endorsements from the media and community, it boosts your credibility substantially. PR is great since it is cost-effective. As many doctors are forced to cut advertising costs during grim economic times, they can take advantage of smart PR methods to survive and thrive.
The goal should be to become a beloved figure in the local community. This gives you positive press and more word-of-mouth advertising. People come to trust you on a personal level. Your level of expertise matters little if you can manage to get yourself known by sending out the right message to the right people, at the right time.
Developing an Effective Marketing Mix
There is not one single medical marketing method that works all the time so you need to mix the strategies you use. Use a variety of long-term and short-term messages and avenues. The first place to start when developing your marketing plan is to define who your preferred patients are. You then have to make sure you send your marketing messages out to wherever they are so anytime they require medical services in your field, they think of you and not your competitor. Learn the demographic and needs of your preferred patients. You can’t be everything to everyone so make sure you only send your message out to your niche market.
Keep Current Patients
Rather than focusing fully on attracting new patients, you should focus your strategy on keeping current ones because it is cheaper. Your current patients will refer you to others they know and come back to you time and time again for treatments. You can stay in touch with your current patients that are individually-oriented. Develop a database with your patients’ contact information and use sophisticated software to personalize your marketing messages.
Use Long-Term and Short-Term Strategies
Long-term strategies include branding, search engine optimization, community outreach and public relations. Short-term strategies include gift certificates, direct mail, in-house events, and internet marketing. Long-term strategies build awareness of your brand and practice whereas short-term strategies boost revenue immediately while you build your reputation. Let’s take a look at some of the most important strategies.
Branding – Branding is your image and it is what patients see, hear or read about you. It constitutes the feeling that people get about you when they hear about your practice. Fine tune your marketing message to ensure that you’re building the reputation you intend to.
Community Outreach – Get involved in your community through attending fundraising events and joining local charities. When you give off the image of being caring and committed to your community, it is highly beneficial to your PR campaign.
Direct Mail – Promote a product or treatment with persuasive direct mail pieces sent out to both prospects and current patients.
In-House Events – Hold an event at your practice and invite patients, telling them to invite their friends and family. Educate them about some of the treatments you offer and promote your products/services.
Remember, your prospects may not become patients immediately. It could even take months for them to actually give you a call and set up an appointment. It takes different messages and avenues to connect with your target market so be sure your marketing strategy is constant so they know you are there to address their needs when the time comes.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Important Services in Medical Marketing
No matter how great of a doctor you are, you won’t be able to make much of a difference and find lots of new patients unless people can find you easily. This is where medical marketing comes in. Medical marketing involves building your brand, coming up with a strategic plan, and standing out from the crowd. Here are several important services that you may want to consider when planning your medical marketing campaign.
Branding
The key to success in marketing your medical practice is through establishing and building a brand. In order to develop your own brand as a doctor, you must deliver a healthcare experience that is unique. It can be helpful to consult a company that specializes in medical marketing in order to identify what your brand image will consist of. From there, you have to implement strategies that allow you to communicate and manage your brand’s message to prospects.
After you have established and defined your brand, you must position it. Positioning involves getting the right message out to your target market at the appropriate time. You must ensure that the message of your brand is properly communicated to patients and prospects.
Strategic Planning
Identify your goals and plot your path to success. You must craft measurable objectives and combine them with creative strategies in order to achieve your goals. It is ideal to create a marketing plan that is easy to update and reference. It is essential to use practical tools to measure your progress so you can avoid having to go through stacks of papers that will probably just sit on your shelf most of the time anyway.
Media and Community Relations
Whether you are offering a new service/product/procedure or you have some other interesting news to share, using media outlets is a great way to get your name out there and garner some attention. You can target local and national media outlets in your medical marketing campaign in order to maximize your exposure and position yourself as an authority in your medical field.
Thanks to mass media, it is also possible to make a name for yourself in the local community. Community relations are incredibly important to medical practices because they position you as an authority in your field as well as a friend of the community, where most of your patients will be coming from. Getting involved in community relations can be a very cost-effective marketing strategy that enables you to build a very positive reputation for your practice.
Creative Advertising Campaigns
In order to attract attention and stand out from the crowd, it is essential to hire a professional marketing team to help you build an advertising campaign. Whether you want to reach your audience via print media, television, internet, or radio, it is essential to devise creative, enticing ads that maximize your advertising dollar. Powerful messages and compelling visuals are important. Hire a professional team that can help you craft an advertising campaign that increases your bottom line.
Addressing Your Patients’ Needs
Healthcare today revolves more and more around patient satisfaction. It is vital to provide your patients with the most pleasant experience possible in your practice. The four A’s of customer service in medicine are accommodation, access, availability, and accountability. Address these four areas and you are sure to provide a positive patient experience. You can use marketing audits, patient surveys, and organizational assessments to evaluate your progress and ensure that you are addressing your patients’ needs.
Communications
Some important aspects of building a well-connected and communicative practice are having an online presence, staying in touch with patients and prospects via mail, providing patients with brochures and education materials, and establishing a referral network. A referral network consists of other doctors who refer their patients to you for the procedures and expertise you provide. Have a medical marketing specialist assist you in building your referral network.
Stay connected to your patients and referral sources by sending out newsletters. Newsletters give you an opportunity to keep everyone in your network informed about what’s new at your practice. You can also send out direct mail letters and post cards to prospects or current patients to advertise new procedures or increase awareness about the services you already provide.
A medical practice without a website in this day and age is a lot less likely to be found by new patients. Most of your patients are probably tech-savvy so you have to build an attractive website that features cutting-edge design and compelling copy in order to increase clientele. Whether you need to revamp your old website or build a new one from scratch, hire a marketing company with experience designing and writing websites for medical practices to assist you.
Creating brochures and patient education materials is a good idea because it strengthens the relationship between you and your patients. Ensure that any brochures and education materials you create reflect your brand image and communicate your message. Most importantly, make sure that any materials you create meet your patients’ needs and provide them with ultimate value.
Branding
The key to success in marketing your medical practice is through establishing and building a brand. In order to develop your own brand as a doctor, you must deliver a healthcare experience that is unique. It can be helpful to consult a company that specializes in medical marketing in order to identify what your brand image will consist of. From there, you have to implement strategies that allow you to communicate and manage your brand’s message to prospects.
After you have established and defined your brand, you must position it. Positioning involves getting the right message out to your target market at the appropriate time. You must ensure that the message of your brand is properly communicated to patients and prospects.
Strategic Planning
Identify your goals and plot your path to success. You must craft measurable objectives and combine them with creative strategies in order to achieve your goals. It is ideal to create a marketing plan that is easy to update and reference. It is essential to use practical tools to measure your progress so you can avoid having to go through stacks of papers that will probably just sit on your shelf most of the time anyway.
Media and Community Relations
Whether you are offering a new service/product/procedure or you have some other interesting news to share, using media outlets is a great way to get your name out there and garner some attention. You can target local and national media outlets in your medical marketing campaign in order to maximize your exposure and position yourself as an authority in your medical field.
Thanks to mass media, it is also possible to make a name for yourself in the local community. Community relations are incredibly important to medical practices because they position you as an authority in your field as well as a friend of the community, where most of your patients will be coming from. Getting involved in community relations can be a very cost-effective marketing strategy that enables you to build a very positive reputation for your practice.
Creative Advertising Campaigns
In order to attract attention and stand out from the crowd, it is essential to hire a professional marketing team to help you build an advertising campaign. Whether you want to reach your audience via print media, television, internet, or radio, it is essential to devise creative, enticing ads that maximize your advertising dollar. Powerful messages and compelling visuals are important. Hire a professional team that can help you craft an advertising campaign that increases your bottom line.
Addressing Your Patients’ Needs
Healthcare today revolves more and more around patient satisfaction. It is vital to provide your patients with the most pleasant experience possible in your practice. The four A’s of customer service in medicine are accommodation, access, availability, and accountability. Address these four areas and you are sure to provide a positive patient experience. You can use marketing audits, patient surveys, and organizational assessments to evaluate your progress and ensure that you are addressing your patients’ needs.
Communications
Some important aspects of building a well-connected and communicative practice are having an online presence, staying in touch with patients and prospects via mail, providing patients with brochures and education materials, and establishing a referral network. A referral network consists of other doctors who refer their patients to you for the procedures and expertise you provide. Have a medical marketing specialist assist you in building your referral network.
Stay connected to your patients and referral sources by sending out newsletters. Newsletters give you an opportunity to keep everyone in your network informed about what’s new at your practice. You can also send out direct mail letters and post cards to prospects or current patients to advertise new procedures or increase awareness about the services you already provide.
A medical practice without a website in this day and age is a lot less likely to be found by new patients. Most of your patients are probably tech-savvy so you have to build an attractive website that features cutting-edge design and compelling copy in order to increase clientele. Whether you need to revamp your old website or build a new one from scratch, hire a marketing company with experience designing and writing websites for medical practices to assist you.
Creating brochures and patient education materials is a good idea because it strengthens the relationship between you and your patients. Ensure that any brochures and education materials you create reflect your brand image and communicate your message. Most importantly, make sure that any materials you create meet your patients’ needs and provide them with ultimate value.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Medical Marketing 101 – How to Get More Patients and Increase Profits
Perhaps you became a doctor because you love to help people or because you have a passion for medicine. No matter what brought you to become a doctor, you have to face the fact that patients equal profits. Many doctors are reluctant about marketing their practice but it is essential if you want to grow your practice and attract new patients.
Many doctors mistakenly believe that if you are busy as a doctor, it is because you are a good at what you do. That may be the case sometimes but the majority of doctors who maintain busy schedules also have an effective marketing plan. There is a stigma attached to medical marketing but if you want to stay busy and avoid the dreaded famines that follow feasts, you need to get more patients through marketing your practice.
Why All Doctors Should Market
All doctors should market and promote their practice because no matter how great of a doctor you are, no one will know you exist unless you promote yourself. Contrary to popular belief, medical marketing is not always about having a huge advertising budget and placing expensive ads. There are several low-cost methods of marketing that doctors can use to match their practice with their patients’ needs.
Medical Marketing Basics
Many times doctors forge personal connections with their patients and thus attract new patients based on word-of-mouth. Current patients are an important resource when it comes to marketing your practice. Your patients already have trust in you so you can ask them for referrals, follow up with them, and encourage them to spread the word about your practice. Ensuring that you give each and every one of your patients a great experience is important if you want to cultivate strong relationships with them and increase patient loyalty.
Many doctors feel uncomfortable about asking their patients for referrals but it is necessary if you want to increase your clientele. Patients often tend to think that a doctor is too busy to take new patients and doesn’t really think of referring their doctor to friends and family in most instances. In order to encourage people to make referrals, take the time to provide them with the best service possible. Treat them as individuals, not numbers. Smile at them, make the billing process easier for them, and do whatever you can to make them have a great experience in your practice. This type of medical marketing is known as “internal marketing.” Essentially, every time a patient comes into contact with your practice, you are marketing.
Points in Your Practice to Review
In order to determine in which areas your practice needs work when it comes to marketing, here are some points to review.
Find Your Identity – How would you describe your practice in five adjectives? What kinds of services does your practice offer? How does your practice stand out from the pack? Answer these questions and then meet with your staff to ensure that you are living up to your proposed identity. If you want to come across as a friendly practice, you need to be sure that your staff members are smiley and friendly with patients.
Improve Your Workspace – Take a look at your practice as if you were a patient. Is it easy to navigate? Is the atmosphere pleasant? Does it take long to get in and out? Make sure the experience of being in your practice is as pleasant as possible and work on areas that need improvement.
Live Up to Your Price Tag – How much do you charge for your services in comparison to other doctors in the local area? Make sure your prices are appropriate for the services you offer and the market you are targeting. Don’t go too high or too low.
Market Consistently – Whether you rely solely on internal marketing or you are doing external marketing in addition, make sure your marketing efforts are consistent and professional. Even a little effort can make a huge difference down the line, whether you are ready to embrace traditional marketing methods or not.
Good Promotion, Good Product
The key to success in medical marketing is consistently providing quality medical service and promoting it well by sending out leaflets and brochures to potential patients and follow-up notes welcoming new patients to the practice. Brochures and leaflets can describe the treatments you offer to educate potential patients and inform them of the services you provide. You can also provide current patients with information packets detailing the treatments and procedures they are undergoing to improve the level of customer service you provide. To give your practice an efficient and organized image, have your staff call patients for appointment reminders. Another good way to promote your practice and build your reputation as a caring, compassionate doctor is through getting involved in community events.
Volunteering and attending community events can also lead to positive media coverage.If you are a doctor and want to stay ahead of your game, you need to start planning your medical marketing strategy now. As the market becomes increasingly competitive, it is more important than ever to boost your marketing strategy so you can stand out from the crowd.
Many doctors mistakenly believe that if you are busy as a doctor, it is because you are a good at what you do. That may be the case sometimes but the majority of doctors who maintain busy schedules also have an effective marketing plan. There is a stigma attached to medical marketing but if you want to stay busy and avoid the dreaded famines that follow feasts, you need to get more patients through marketing your practice.
Why All Doctors Should Market
All doctors should market and promote their practice because no matter how great of a doctor you are, no one will know you exist unless you promote yourself. Contrary to popular belief, medical marketing is not always about having a huge advertising budget and placing expensive ads. There are several low-cost methods of marketing that doctors can use to match their practice with their patients’ needs.
Medical Marketing Basics
Many times doctors forge personal connections with their patients and thus attract new patients based on word-of-mouth. Current patients are an important resource when it comes to marketing your practice. Your patients already have trust in you so you can ask them for referrals, follow up with them, and encourage them to spread the word about your practice. Ensuring that you give each and every one of your patients a great experience is important if you want to cultivate strong relationships with them and increase patient loyalty.
Many doctors feel uncomfortable about asking their patients for referrals but it is necessary if you want to increase your clientele. Patients often tend to think that a doctor is too busy to take new patients and doesn’t really think of referring their doctor to friends and family in most instances. In order to encourage people to make referrals, take the time to provide them with the best service possible. Treat them as individuals, not numbers. Smile at them, make the billing process easier for them, and do whatever you can to make them have a great experience in your practice. This type of medical marketing is known as “internal marketing.” Essentially, every time a patient comes into contact with your practice, you are marketing.
Points in Your Practice to Review
In order to determine in which areas your practice needs work when it comes to marketing, here are some points to review.
Find Your Identity – How would you describe your practice in five adjectives? What kinds of services does your practice offer? How does your practice stand out from the pack? Answer these questions and then meet with your staff to ensure that you are living up to your proposed identity. If you want to come across as a friendly practice, you need to be sure that your staff members are smiley and friendly with patients.
Improve Your Workspace – Take a look at your practice as if you were a patient. Is it easy to navigate? Is the atmosphere pleasant? Does it take long to get in and out? Make sure the experience of being in your practice is as pleasant as possible and work on areas that need improvement.
Live Up to Your Price Tag – How much do you charge for your services in comparison to other doctors in the local area? Make sure your prices are appropriate for the services you offer and the market you are targeting. Don’t go too high or too low.
Market Consistently – Whether you rely solely on internal marketing or you are doing external marketing in addition, make sure your marketing efforts are consistent and professional. Even a little effort can make a huge difference down the line, whether you are ready to embrace traditional marketing methods or not.
Good Promotion, Good Product
The key to success in medical marketing is consistently providing quality medical service and promoting it well by sending out leaflets and brochures to potential patients and follow-up notes welcoming new patients to the practice. Brochures and leaflets can describe the treatments you offer to educate potential patients and inform them of the services you provide. You can also provide current patients with information packets detailing the treatments and procedures they are undergoing to improve the level of customer service you provide. To give your practice an efficient and organized image, have your staff call patients for appointment reminders. Another good way to promote your practice and build your reputation as a caring, compassionate doctor is through getting involved in community events.
Volunteering and attending community events can also lead to positive media coverage.If you are a doctor and want to stay ahead of your game, you need to start planning your medical marketing strategy now. As the market becomes increasingly competitive, it is more important than ever to boost your marketing strategy so you can stand out from the crowd.
Monday, July 13, 2009
How to Expand Your Online Presence through Online Medical Marketing
Marketing your medical practice is no longer just about putting an ad in the phone book or local newspaper. The internet has become an incredibly important marketing tool in medicine because it allows you to reach your target audience easily. However, competition is fierce in online medical marketing so having a great website alone is not sufficient in attracting a steady flow of new clients to your practice.
Google indexes over a trillion pages of content so the chances of your patients finding your practice’s website via search engines is slim to none. Having an effective, appealing website to share your contact information as well as more information about your practice is a great start. But unless you take the necessary action to optimize your website and apply online medical marketing strategies, your website will sink into oblivion.
How to Make Your Website Stand Out
The first step you must take in order to boost your online presence is to optimize your website for the search engines. Search engine optimization involves on-site and off-site strategies. By optimizing your website through search marketing, you will be able to attract a steady flow of traffic from the search engines. Ideally you would target search terms for your geographical area. The goal is to have it so that your website comes up on the top page of search results when people are searching for the medical services you offer.
The next step you must take is to spread good information about your practice around the internet and build a strong online reputation. The best way to do this is through encouraging satisfied patients to write positive reviews detailing their experiences at your practice and then posting them on your website. You should also create separate websites that feature positive reviews of your practice. Most potential patients are craving to read firsthand reviews from past patients to get a better idea of what to expect at your practice. Don’t encourage your patients to write reviews on sites like Citysearch or Yelp because by doing so, you are bound to receive the occasional negative review on those sites and taint your reputation.
Tips for Using Attraction Marketing
Another way you can attract attention to your website and build awareness of your practice online is through attraction marketing techniques. Attraction marketing involves the use of websites, blogs, and social media websites to build awareness of your “brand” as a medical practitioner. Doctors obviously have very busy schedules so it’s best to outsource this work to an experienced marketing company. Writing blogs and website content that establishes you as an authority in your medical field can be helpful in building trust with potential clients and spreading your name around the web.
Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter are an effective way to network with current customers and potential clients. For example, on Twitter, you can share information about the latest happenings in your practice and post tweets that include links to relevant articles. When people search for your name on the internet and come across these tweets and blog posts you have written, you become an expert in their eyes and they come to trust you more.
Doctors who have their own websites featuring Q&A about their medical field and other advice tend to do very well because people look up to them as experts in their field. Giving away free information is a very effective way to build authority and boost your online presence because as they say, “teaching sells.” People feel more eager to become the patients of a doctor whom they trust. You can build that trust by syndicating articles about your medical field, answering frequently asked questions, and networking with your patients online.
One of your goals should be to dominate the top ten search engine results for your name with your blogs, social media profiles, and websites. That way when people search for your name, they will only find positive reviews and information about your business. If you do occasionally find a negative review in the search results for your name, don’t retaliate. Simply work hard to market the content on your websites and blogs. You can also hire someone to participate in relevant forums to talk favorably about your practice. As long as you remain persistent, the negative reviews will eventually get bumped off the first page of search results.
Build your online presence strategically for the best results. The most effective way to manage your medical marketing campaign is with the assistance of an online marketing company that has a proven track record in this field. The more widespread your online presence is the better. If you have blogs, social media profiles, forum posting accounts, and review sites all pointing back to your main website, it will help you achieve a higher search engine ranking as well as attract a steady flow of traffic from a variety of sources.
Google indexes over a trillion pages of content so the chances of your patients finding your practice’s website via search engines is slim to none. Having an effective, appealing website to share your contact information as well as more information about your practice is a great start. But unless you take the necessary action to optimize your website and apply online medical marketing strategies, your website will sink into oblivion.
How to Make Your Website Stand Out
The first step you must take in order to boost your online presence is to optimize your website for the search engines. Search engine optimization involves on-site and off-site strategies. By optimizing your website through search marketing, you will be able to attract a steady flow of traffic from the search engines. Ideally you would target search terms for your geographical area. The goal is to have it so that your website comes up on the top page of search results when people are searching for the medical services you offer.
The next step you must take is to spread good information about your practice around the internet and build a strong online reputation. The best way to do this is through encouraging satisfied patients to write positive reviews detailing their experiences at your practice and then posting them on your website. You should also create separate websites that feature positive reviews of your practice. Most potential patients are craving to read firsthand reviews from past patients to get a better idea of what to expect at your practice. Don’t encourage your patients to write reviews on sites like Citysearch or Yelp because by doing so, you are bound to receive the occasional negative review on those sites and taint your reputation.
Tips for Using Attraction Marketing
Another way you can attract attention to your website and build awareness of your practice online is through attraction marketing techniques. Attraction marketing involves the use of websites, blogs, and social media websites to build awareness of your “brand” as a medical practitioner. Doctors obviously have very busy schedules so it’s best to outsource this work to an experienced marketing company. Writing blogs and website content that establishes you as an authority in your medical field can be helpful in building trust with potential clients and spreading your name around the web.
Social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter are an effective way to network with current customers and potential clients. For example, on Twitter, you can share information about the latest happenings in your practice and post tweets that include links to relevant articles. When people search for your name on the internet and come across these tweets and blog posts you have written, you become an expert in their eyes and they come to trust you more.
Doctors who have their own websites featuring Q&A about their medical field and other advice tend to do very well because people look up to them as experts in their field. Giving away free information is a very effective way to build authority and boost your online presence because as they say, “teaching sells.” People feel more eager to become the patients of a doctor whom they trust. You can build that trust by syndicating articles about your medical field, answering frequently asked questions, and networking with your patients online.
One of your goals should be to dominate the top ten search engine results for your name with your blogs, social media profiles, and websites. That way when people search for your name, they will only find positive reviews and information about your business. If you do occasionally find a negative review in the search results for your name, don’t retaliate. Simply work hard to market the content on your websites and blogs. You can also hire someone to participate in relevant forums to talk favorably about your practice. As long as you remain persistent, the negative reviews will eventually get bumped off the first page of search results.
Build your online presence strategically for the best results. The most effective way to manage your medical marketing campaign is with the assistance of an online marketing company that has a proven track record in this field. The more widespread your online presence is the better. If you have blogs, social media profiles, forum posting accounts, and review sites all pointing back to your main website, it will help you achieve a higher search engine ranking as well as attract a steady flow of traffic from a variety of sources.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Medical Marketing: A Powerful Way to Promote Your Practice
Contrary to popular belief, doctors are not exempt from the necessity of advertising and marketing. Doctors these days have a lot of competition and more and more medical professionals are recognizing the need for medical marketing in order to stay ahead. It’s an area that not a lot of practices are familiar with but actively promoting your business can really boost the number of patients coming in.
Back when each area only had one doctor, marketing just wasn’t necessary. Now, however, it’s not uncommon to find three to four doctors, even in the smallest towns, competing for the same patients. By increasing the visibility of your practice, you will find that no matter where you are located, competition won’t be a big issue and you will have a steady stream of new patients coming in. for more
Why Promotion is Valuable
Gone are the days when word of mouth was the chosen method of finding a doctor to suit the patient’s needs. As a medical practitioner, you must actively bring in client leads on a regular basis to keep your business running smoothly. It’s normal for your patient base to be in a state of flux – some patients may only come in once a year or less while others who schedule appointments on a regular basis may leave the area or choose another practitioner. While no one wants to lose a loyal patient, the only way to keep the appointment book full is to continue to bring in new ones.
For those medical practices looking to expand, it’s necessary to find enough clients to make it worthwhile to bring another doctor on board and medical marketing is the ideal way to do this. Good publicity and making your practice easy to find will lead to new patients flocking to your door.
Another benefit of attracting more clients is increasing the mix of patient types. Nearly every practice has some wealthier patients, while others have only patients with company insurance. Patients from a wider range of economic backgrounds means more money earned – something that is always advantageous because it enables the practice to continue treating those with less money.
How to Market Your Practice
There are a number of ways to get your practice in front of potential clients, but perhaps the best method is the Internet. When patients are fed up with their current GP or have just moved to the area, the vast majority turn to online research to help them choose a professional to see. If you aren’t online and visible, then your chances of being found by these potential patients are virtually nil.
With a number of websites and directories available to list your medical practice, it’s important to choose the right ones. Spend your advertising dollars on campaigns that will give you results. That means looking for directories that allow you to keep your listing in front of patients over a long-term period and that also provide space for vital information such as which insurance companies are accepted, as well as basic contact info.
Of course, there are other methods of increasing public visibility of your practice, though the Internet offers the lowest cost with the highest return. Other options include the following:
Television: While it can be expensive, a television spot on a local channel can really boost public awareness of your practice in particular. Ads aren’t the only way to go, however – providing news or an interview to the local news channel or morning show can also be a great way to get some publicity.
Print: The more traditional method of medical practice marketing is through print media, but you have a lot of options in this area. Many newspapers these days are online so when you place an ad, it usually appears both in the print version and the online version, giving you more bang for the buck. The Yellow Pages are another print medium that every doctor should use, as well as any local directories such as phones, service booklets or Welcome Wagon listings. Even in this digital era, there are quite a few opportunities to have your listing in print just as long as you know where to look.
Interacting: This is an area that many practices no longer engage in, but if you have the time, it’s a great trust builder. Simply connecting to the people in your community, whether or not they are patients can be invaluable. While there are a number of ways to do this, just getting out and meeting people is an excellent method of reaching the community. When people feel that they know you, they will be more likely to trust you with their health.
Medical marketing is valuable and necessary for doctors who want to continue growing and improving their business. Whether through online promotion, print media or another means, it’s important to continue bringing in new patients on a regular basis to keep your practice earning.
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