Let’s face it, for the majority of physicians marketing was not a part of our medical education. It is unfortunate that business skills in general were a non-existent part of our curriculum. Because of this lack of this skill set, physicians often find themselves lost when it comes to development of a coherent, professional and cost effective marketing strategy. We don’t pretend to be marketing experts but we certainly have marketing experience, from grass roots marketing to national campaigns. We have done radio, TV, billboard, email, cold-calling and print marketing. We have displayed and spoken at national conventions. We have written articles for magazines. Over the years we have hired some of the “best” in the business and have been sorely disappointed on our return on investment. We have had very inexpensive successful marketing campaigns and have had campaigns that cost too much and yielded too little. In short we have level of experience, and would like to share some of what has been successful for us with you.
There is really no one size fits all marketing plan. The best analogy is siege warfare against a castle. The object is to get your message in any way possible. This may mean knocking at the gate directly by trying to set up a meeting. It may mean lobbing your message over the wall with an email campaign. Or it may mean digging under the wall using newsletters. The point is that there are multiple avenues of attack and we recommend using as many as you can in order to be effective. Before you attack you need to ensure that your weapons are sharp and your strategy sound.
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Free Mini Marketing Series
Part I: Getting Started, Introduction, and Website Development
The first place everyone should start with is a good website. Over the years we have run the gamut on websites, from free simple do it yourself one and two page websites, to professional ones costing $9000. We have learned the hard way that cost does not equal quality or effectiveness.
One of the most important components of a website is the wording. A basic website should introduce your practice, tell people what services you offer, tell them who you are, where you are and how to contact you. It should also include why they should pick your practice over another offering similar services. One of our biggest mistakes was trying to cram every bit of information about our practice into four or five pages. It was just too much and no one ever read through it all. Instead of cramming more information into one website directed to all our clients we have developed separate websites devoted to specific aspects of our business.
For instance if you decide to develop your occupational medicine practice and start driving traffic to your general family practice website and the first thing they see is a 6 page family practice website that mentions occupational medicine on just one page, they may view you as “just” a family practice that does occupational medicine on the side. If you direct traffic to a website devoted entirely to occupational medicine, you have instant credibility as an occupational medicine professional, and they will assume you are knowledgeable in your field. Which would you choose? It is better to have a separate website with a look and feel that is devoted just to occupational medicine
Once you have designed and developed your website, everything else that you put out should have the same look and feel. From brochures to business cards, the themes are the same and the wording is similar across all our promotional material. You can use your own pictures, or purchase them off the internet from a website like www.istock.com. But once we use pictures for our website we also use them in our printed materials. While the primary goal of all your marketing activities is to generate sales, the secondary goal is to drive traffic to your website. You will want to ensure that your pictures and text convey a sense of competence and professionalism. This can be difficult for some physicians. You will need to know key words and phrases that your client is looking for in order to earn their business.
One of the questions we often get is in regard to search engine optimization. Obviously if someone is searching for a service that you offer you want them to find you. To some degree this will happen naturally as you drive traffic to your website through co-promotion but if you are not patient enough to wait for this there are several options that may speed the process. One is that you can pay for placement using a service like Google Adwords. We have found this useful at times for specific marketing of specific services in specific regions. A second option is to pay a company to help with search engine optimization. This can be expensive but may be worth investigating in certain cases.
There are a few basics that you should consider thoughtfully before you start spending money on a marketing campaign. The first is what is it that you are trying to sell? Is it a specific service within your practice or is it your practice as a whole? Second; who is your audience? Is it the general public or a more specific group such as a human resource or safety manager? Do you know what your audience wants to hear? Third; what is the message that you want to get across to the target audience? Fourth; how are you going to present your message? Keep in mind that your strategy may change as you develop a better understanding of what works for you and your particular market.
GETTING STARTED
WEBSITE
MARKETING INTRODUCTION
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Stay tuned for Part II: Brochures, Business Cards, Email Marketing and Social Media
