Successful Marketing for the Medical Practice

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Successful Marketing for the Medical Practice

• Vickie Alleman

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Marketing Your Practice The Basics

• Marketing is a business function it is the only
  function that focuses exclusively on the customer
• Blend of art and science
• Puzzle pieces are same for all types of practices
• The picture created is individual to the practice
  and varies by location

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Medical Practice Challenges

• Lack of marketing focus My patients know me,
  Its not ethical only for dentists and
  chiropractors, Word of mouth has always worked
  for me
• Location is critical to todays consumer
• Consumer actively involved in decision making
• Competition Increasing numbers of doctors and
  aggressiveness in marketing

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Marketing involves decisions

• No matter how large the organization, financial
  and human resources are always limited
• Decisions must be strategic due to these limited
  resources
• Strategy How to get there from here
• The strategy should be focused on goals, short
  and long term
• Goals should be specific, practical,
  time-oriented and have personal accountability

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Planning and Goals

• Make it simple
• Develop Practice Goals
• Develop Personal Physician Goals for buy-in
• Focus on accomplishing 3 goals a year

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Goal Setting

• Effective goals share the following
  characteristics
• Measurable
• Time-oriented
• Personal Accountability
• Practical realistic
• Budgeted realistically

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Goal vs. Wishes

• Wishes
• Increase business this coming year
• Increase geographic outreach of practice

• Goals
• Increase new patient volume by 15 per week
• Increase patient volume by 30 per week by opening
  satellite clinic

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How to Communicate

• Decisions
• How to communicate
• Where to communicate
• Who is the Audience
• What do they want to know

• Focus groups
• Learn how your audience thinks and decides
• Takes the guesswork out of marketing

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Marketing Blueprint
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Marketing Model
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Marketing Model Explained

• The Marketing Model provides a structure for
  making sound marketing-driven decisions. The
  components in all decision-making are
• Awareness
• Interest
• Desire
• Action
• A buyer of services moves through these stages
  progressively. The time is takes to move through
  this process is dependent upon the type of
  decision, low-risk or high-risk.

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Results

• Tracking results is critical to success
• You wont know what youve done if you dont
  measure it
• Start now
• Track by month

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Know Your Customer

• Who are your customers both professional and
  public
• What are their ages? Are they predominantly male
  or female? What type of occupations do they hold?
  What level of education have they attained?
• Only by knowing this information, can you
  accurately market your services

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Positioning How to Stand Out in a Crowd

• Positioning The image in the customers mind
• You have a position, whether you have developed
  it consciously or not
• Use what your customers already think of you

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Positioning

• There is nothing new and different all
  technology edges fade out within 6 months
• Long term communication of a position create
  service longevity
• Quality does not equate into higher sales because
  quality is subjective
• Stay away from superlatives or guarantees in any
  advertising (Best, First, Greatest) because they
  are not provable under FTC regulation

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Marketing through Education

• Research shows what consumers want from
  healthcare marketing and it is education
• This breaks rules of advertising which say that
  less is better
• Visuals should have people they are more
  eye-catching than buildings or body parts

• Consumers want specific information to their
  condition
• Today, the Internet is a powerful tool and your
  customers will use it whether you like it or not
• They have questions as to how to evaluate the
  information and its source

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Change is the norm

• The customers need are constantly changing
• Your customers will see details that you miss
• Customers have many options for service
• Customers will rely on trusted sources to assist
  in decision-making

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Budgeting

• Establish priorities
• Make decisions
• Follow through
• 3 5 of collections for basic marketing budget
• 7 - 10 in a competitive market for expansion
  and growth

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HIPAA

• Marketing Definition under HIPAA regulations
• To make a communication about a product or
  service that encourages recipients of the
  communication to purchase or use the product or
  service

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HIPAA Exclusions

• The HIPAA Privacy Rule excludes from the
  definition of marketing communications made to
  describe a covered entitys health-related
  product or service that is provided by or
  included in a plan of benefits of the covered
  entity making the communication.
• Also, a provider is free to communicate with
  patients about his or her services.

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Recommendations for Marketing

• Receive written permission from all patients
  regarding the postal mailing or
• e-mailing of marketing information from your
  practice
• Always include a disclaimer on mailings which
  allow the individual to opt out of future
  correspondence

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Establish Your Plan

• Goals for next 12 months / 3 years
• Goals to include finance, operations, marketing,
  locations
• Focus on strategies to meet goals
• Establish a budget and personnel to carry it out
• Establish tracking systems if its not
  measured, it doesnt count