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What’s in Your Practice Marketing Toolkit?

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-14-2017 10:55 AM

  
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There are so many – maybe too many – priorities to manage each day. As a marketing expert, are you ever tempted to just give in to the request of an employed practice rather than engage in a conversation? It’s so hard to get ahead of it all on the practice marketing side.

We’ve had the best success when we can get consensus on the essential elements, the foundational items. Easier said than done, but here’s where we start. See if you agree.

  1. Begin with brand. Marketers generally need to do a little education about what brand is and is not, and to discuss brand standards. What I like about starting with this is that the marketer leads this conversation and shows that there is a body of knowledge associated with the marketing role. Our team is quick to take the next step here with message. It serves to unify the approach.

  2. Craft a plan. Marketers understand elements of the plan including targeting, budget, awareness, impact and marketing mix for the practice. Shared plan creation gets internal buy-in and lets the marketer lay out obligations and timelines for both parties. Proactive planning is helpful with today’s crazy pace.

  3. Differentiate. The best marketer, and their client, will not get the desired success if the practice fails to consider what the customer wants. The shared conversation about the practice, patient experience, specialty offerings, and payor considerations need to be called out before the advertising and promotional process is considered.

  4. Create potent marketing materials. Start with the basics, but make sure the content is fresh. How? Move away from the brag pieces to a reader-valued message. A simple practice brochure will come to life when the content reflects the interests of the patient. Along with a practice profile, produce biography cards of the provider team and create one-pagers that can have multiple uses, including waiting area reading. These can be on health topics, people of interest, changes in the practice, etc. Use the monthly one-pagers to replace a formal newsletter. And make sure the topics reflect what the patient wants to know and that it’s written in a warm, succinct story format. These tools, along with business cards, provide the basic print tools. More can be added later.

  5. Create a web presence. A clear, inviting and easy to navigate website is essential. Existing clients go to the website to find contact information. Prospective clients will find your website through search tools and, of course, your providers will take a peek to make sure they look good! Start with a site map that follows your brand, message and gets you started. With that defined, it’s easy to design the next phases of development as time, money and practice growth warrant expansion.

  6. Track and report. A simple database keeps you and the organization apprised of the actions and the outcomes. With your database you can also keep in touch with existing patients and those who have indicated an interest in learning more about the practice.

Once these elements are humming, there will be lots of opportunities to expand your digital footprint, add advertising campaigns, patient satisfaction surveys, custom print pieces, get the primary care doctors involved in community events, and work on physician relations for the specialists. Oh so much to do and so little time. What’s working for you to position your employed practice groups? Did I miss anything you always include in the launch?

By Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | Posted February 14, 2017
SHSMD Board Member
Principal
Barlow/McCarthy
kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com
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