3 Vital Steps to Marketing Your Physician-owned Practice 

There is no shortage of commentary about the challenges facing today’s physician-owned practices. Since healthcare became a federal focus in recent years, we have seen significant changes, few of which are positively impacting the independent practitioner. Even so, according to the American Medical Association, more than half of physicians are still self-employed.

This article is not intended to recount the past changes or debate the likely future direction of healthcare – why? First, it would be fruitless since we’re in an election year that has oddsmakers confused; and second, independent physicians are seeking solutions now, right now, to help their practice.

Practice marketing is an often overlooked yet low-cost, low-time intensive solution that can make a difference. There are 3 vital steps for marketing your practice to better retain & acquire patients to grow your practice.

Establish an online presence

This should minimally entail a website and listing your practice in the free internet business directories. Maintaining an active online presence is key to driving more traffic to your site and to your practice. Read “How to use social media for your medical practice” for tips.

Websites are inexpensive to build with many websites offering easy-to-use DIY templates that can get your site up in a matter of hours. Below are some of the top rated websites:

Wix

Wordpress

Website Builder

Sitey

Web.com

Ehost

Sitebuilder
 

Registering your practice through online directories assures accessibility regardless of where your practice comes up in search rankings because the directories are usually on page 1 of Google search results. Here are 24 online directories that offer free registration.

Engage in social media

This can be performed a variety of different ways, depending on the level of effort you can put in. Below are several suggested outlets displayed by the general level of time commitment required to achieve results.

Low time commitment – Twitter

Medium time commitment – Facebook

High time commitment: Blog Posting

Connect directly with your patients

AKA Direct Marketing. If you do none of the above, this remains one of the best methods for developing relationships with your patients. This could involve a simple postcard mailer at holidays, a periodic email newsletter sharing current news about health, wellness, or just life stories of interest like when your staff volunteered or completed a 10K race. It could also involve a patient portal where patients can access their medical records plus interesting current events or light reading about your practice or industry-relevant news. Surveys are also a great way to show your patients you care, market your practice, and learn something that can help make it even better.

However you specifically decide to implement marketing, utilize these three areas to serve the purpose of showing your practice as a welcoming one, that your practice cares about your patients, and that you are “up to speed” with the digital times. It should not overwhelm you, but if reading this does, just shoot us an email and we’ll gladly help you out.