Medical marketing? That’s right I’m talking about the marketing of physician practices and hospitals. It was less than 30 years ago that it was illegal for physicians to market — that’s not the case today. Marketing can often carry with it a stigma of unethical and unprofessional in the medical profession. Those are two of the biggest reasons physicians find it hard to bring themselves to market. It’s ok, I understand, change is not always easy — but at times it is necessary.

You may not be ready to market your practice or perhaps you are one of the physicians that find it unnecessary to do so. If there is one thing you can take away from reading this post I hope it’s this — Unless you have the luxury of hand-picking your patients — you should be marketing. Why? The physician down the street is.

Physicians are finally understanding that over 80% of people are going to the internet to find their physicians; especially when it comes to elective or speciality physicians.Now, let me see if I can help — if you are like 60% of physicians you have selected someone within your medical practice to handle the marketing for you. They are probably your practice administrator, office manager or practice manager. Am I correct? You’ve handed over to them the tasks of creating, developing and following through on marketing initiatives for your practice. In all honesty — you’ve just overwhelmed them. They won’t tell you that, but I will. How do I know? I talk to them everyday.

They don’t know what they are suppose to do, what works, what doesn’t or how to save you money when it comes to marketing. It’s not there fault and it’s not yours — it’s just the way it is. Now, how can I help? That’s the easy part — sign them up for my complimentary Practice Profit teleseminar that will provide them with an overview of medical marketing.

Don’t worry I promise not to try to sell them something, but they will walk away with a glimpse into marketing do’s and don’ts and they will bring to your practice 3 things they can begin to implement in your practice tomorrow. What do you have to lose? Come on, they need help and you know it and that seminar will not only give them a few freebies — but it will also see if there are other ways that we can help to make that designated person your marketing superstar within your practice.

Our space is limited so you’ll want to sign up today — oh and we do believe in not taking away your staff during those busy practice hours so the seminar is being held at 7:00 pm CST.

The internet has become a trusted resource for medical information and research.  A recent study showed that 80% of web users go online to find health-related information including a physician.  

What are those searching looking for?

Great question.  They are searching for professional consultations, information about health conditions, local medical practices and information regarding medication and healthcare products.

The National Institute of Health did a recent study that showed that between 2003 and 2005 there was an increase of 7% of people searching for healthcare and medical information. 

In the past doctors have fought the stigma regarding advertising and whether or not it’s ethical and a professional practice.  Many physicians are now realizing that in order to gain the trust and confidence of potential patients they must have an online presence.   People are simply going online first to find that physician they click with.

This both good news and bad news for the medical field. The good news is if they are finding you you have probably begun to see an influx of internet leads that are converting into long-term patients.  The bad news is that if they are not finding you — they are finding the physician in your area that does have an online presence and they are going to them instead.

It’s not enough to have a website, you must market that website.  It’s important to utilize search engine optimization, so that you are being found by those seeking your speciality.   Your website must also create a level of trust in order to help them in feeling comfortable to take the next step and make that phone call to setup an initial appointment.   

If you are not seeing leads from your website, I hate to tell you but there is something wrong.  Every physician should be gaining inquiries and leads through there website.  The problem could be in a number of areas including:

• Your website is not in the search engine results.
• Your website does not create the comfort level to encourage them to move to the next step.
• Your website does not contain the information a potential patient might be looking for. 

I am so confident in the services that we offer at ThePracticePros — a medical marketing and consulting agency that I am personally willing to offer you a no-cost consultation to provide you with a critique on your current web presence and offer you tips and suggestions on how you could improve it and turn it into a lead generator for your medical practice.  Contact me and let me know you saw the offer here. 

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.