Advertising for Doctors: Is it Really that Important?

In my last post I made mention of a program we have been creating to assist in advertising for doctors. I received a few inquiries regarding why physicians should consider an online marketing program to compliment their traditional marketing efforts, so wanted to respond.

One of the most controversial posts that I have written was regarding online advertising and dentists. In that posts I suggest that dentist begin considering placing some of their marketing budget into advertising online. The reasons are simple. When was the last time you opened the yellow pages to find a service professional, be it medical or not? My assumption would be it’s been awhile.

The Internet is at our fingertips daily, it’s easy to look online to find services providers that we need including physicians. Online not only will we find their telephone number, but we are able to read about the doctor and make a decision on whether or not they are the type of provider we are looking for. A physicians website can draw us in or turn us off. It can confirm that we want to make an appointment or drive us to keep looking for a better fit. This is the reason we created the medical marketing and consulting agency - The Practice Pros. We wanted to be able to give the information to the potential patient in a way that they can understand. This assists the physician in growing their practice drawing in people who are attracted and feel comfortable with them and their practice.

We are not new to medical marketing. We have worked with several doctors and hospitals in the past. In this process we began to realize how important medical marketing services was to them, even if they didn’t quite understand the potential in the beginning they saw the value shortly after we began our work.

There are several medical advertising agencies available to physicians, but we felt with our experience in the medical industry and our marketing expertise could help physicians gain the patients they were looking for without having to spend a lot of time trying to find the right places to advertise - we do that for them.

Why should physicians market online?

• We are an instantaneous society - give us information now. We don’t just want your telephone number and a static yellow page ad - we want to know who you are and why we should chose you.

• Medical information is one of the top searched for topics online. We not only look for information regarding our symptoms but we look for doctors who can relate and help us. We want to know you before I walk into your practice.

• Marketing your practice online enables you to stay in front of potential patients without spending a lot of your time doings so - because we know it’s difficult to find the free time during the day to market your practice.

• Marketing your practice is no longer an option - it’s a necessity - I guarantee if you are not doing it there are other physicians in your area that are and they are attracting patients that could be coming to you. Can you risk that?

• Physician marketing no longer carries the stigma of unprofessionalism that it once did. Marketing is simply educating potential patients on why you are the physician for them. You still leave the decision in their hands, but you inform them of why you should be their choice.

If you are are a physician and you ready to explore a turn-key medical marketing solution, that is as effective as word-of-mouth and referral marketing contact me directly. I will let you know if we can help you by implementing our medical marketing expertise and services. I will also let you know if our program won’t work for you - I promise.