Medical practice owners play a dual role as an entrepreneur and a healthcare provider. This can create conflicting priorities and a tight schedule that makes it challenging to focus on the business aspect of the practice.
However, in a competitive market, it’s important to make an effort to stand out against the competition. Here are five marketing tips for medical practice owners, regardless of their specialty or services offered.
Have a Well-Designed Website
Having a website is a must in a competitive market, regardless of what industry you’re in. For medical professionals and private practice operators, it’s a convenient way to convey information to current patients, regarding services, facility information, and frequently asked questions.
People turn to the internet as their primary source of information today. If your practice isn’t listed, you won’t be found. Having a website can also be a great way to collect visitor data and streamline standard operating procedures, like scheduling.
For specialty services, like plastic surgery, having a website is especially important. According to the experts at Digital Logic, a website can be a powerful tool that helps patients make a decision about whether or not they’re going to commit to a procedure. Providing the information they need help to start to build trust and a rapport.
Develop a Brand
Medical practices, like other businesses, should have a strong brand strategy in place. This could be a personal brand, tied to the lead doctor, or a standalone brand that’s specific to the practice. Having a brand requires investing in visual components, like a logo and fonts, as well as less tangible aspects, like a voice and mission.
Having a brand builds trust with potential patients and also creates recognition. Whether this logo gets used on business cards and marketing materials for the practice or is showcased as the sponsor of a community event, it should resonate with the target audience.
Invest in Reputation Management
When someone is looking for a new doctor, whether a GP or a specialist, they put a lot of stock in word-of-mouth reviews and testimonials. Patients want to know that someone in a similar situation was handled with the care and attention they deserve. Fortunately for patients, there are a lot of different places on the web where a review can be submitted.
Medical practice owners should outsource to an assistant or use software that will help manage these reviews. This presents an opportunity to use positive reviews in a way that bolsters the practice while mitigating the negativity surrounding poor reviews. In many cases, a negative review is overshadowed by how well it’s responded to.
Make it Personal
Rather than using stock photos and canned social media content, take a personal approach to market your practice. Showcase the people who work there and create a human connection with patients and potential patients. Use staff photos on the website. Share a social media post celebrating professional accolades and personal accomplishments.
By bringing the focus back to the human side of the practice, you show patients that people are the priority over profits, all while making a strategic business decision.
Provide Helpful Information
Doctors, lawyers, and bankers all have a common challenge when operating a business: the requests for free advice. While giving free advice all the time isn’t a sustainable way to pay the bills, it has merit when done correctly.
Providing helpful information via digital or printed content can be a great way to generate leads and convert potential patients who might be on the fence about your services. A sports physiotherapist might do a weekly live video discussing common injuries or outlining an effective preventative exercise. A GP might have a weekly column with the local newspaper answering commonly asked questions.
The best way to market a medical practice is to promote authenticity and transparency. Blend modern marketing tactics with a human-centric business model and your medical practice will help you help others.
