January 2012 Practice Success eTip of the Month
Can Your Patients Fire You?
A Special Three-Part Series
Yes. Your patients have the right to choose their own healthcare provider. They approach their relationship with you as they would with anyone else. With their health on the line, patients find it necessary to select their providers critically. Based on extensive research, we found three main reasons why patients are leaving practices. With that, we’ve created a three-part series of effective solutions to prevent your practice from losing patients:
Part Two of Three: Are You Listening to Your Patients?
The second issue patients find most frustrating is not being heard. Patients want to feel like they are being listened to and not just being rushed through the visit. The key is listening. What’s important to the patient may not seem medically important, but by actively listening, you will make your patient feel like their concerns are being heard – and you might even learn the diagnosis.
Listening is the key for “patient-centered care” and will lead to better care. Research shows that patients of physicians who are good listeners have better clinical outcomes. When physicians lack communication skills, their ability to gather information is affected, they fail to connect with their patients and they conduct or order unnecessary tests and treatments because problems are not accurately identified. Research shows that the biggest factor for a patient deciding whether to remain with a practice is the physician-patient relationship. The most important factor is trust and that begins with good communication.
Here are some ways to better listen to your patients:
Let the patient finish talking. It is very important to create rapport from the very beginning. Let the patient talk without interrupting. By allowing the patient to finish talking, you are likely to learn valuable information that will benefit both parties and help your diagnosis.
Show that you are paying attention. Make eye contact and offer simple responses such as “Go on” and “I see.” These active listening techniques will show you are paying attention and indicate your willingness to continue listening.
Check with the patient. Once the patient has finished talking, recap and check for accuracy. This will show that you have been listening and place you and the patient on the same page. This will clear up any misunderstandings and will lead to a better clinical outcome.
Don’t just complete the visit. Don’t just end the visit after telling your patient the diagnosis. Deliver the diagnostic information and provide education. Get the patient’s opinion and involve them in the decision-making process.
Stay tuned for part three of “Can Your Patients Fire You? To receive additional solutions on how to achieve overall practice success, call us today at 800.679.1200 or visit us at www.PracticeBuilders.com.
Who is Practice Builders?
Practice Builders has been helping healthcare practices achieve growth and success through effective solutions since 1979. The largest think tank of its kind in North America, Practice Builders has consulted with more than 15,000 practices in nearly every area of healthcare.
December 2011 Practice Success eTip of the Month
Can Your Patients Fire You?
A Special Three-Part Series
Yes. Your patients have the right to choose their own healthcare provider. They approach their relationship with you as they would with anyone else. With their health on the line, patients find it necessary to select their providers critically. Based on extensive research, we found three main reasons why patients are leaving practices. With that, we’ve created a three-part series of effective solutions to prevent your practice from losing patients:
Part One of Three: Long wait times.
Overall, it was what patients find most frustrating. Patients don’t want show up on time, only to wait half an hour to be seen. They’d rather use that time to talk about their health concerns with their physician. The average time a patient spends waiting to see a healthcare provider is 22 minutes, and patient satisfaction drops significantly with each five minutes of waiting time.
Solutions to reduce your wait times:
Leave a few “catch-up” slots. Practices should plan to have about 70% of their schedules open for same-day appointments. Having too many appointments booked in advance can lead to no-shows. Patients scheduled too far out in advance tend to cancel their appointments due to unpredictable conflicts. Patients with same-day appointments, however, are more likely to show up on time.
Know your patients!
The unpredictability practices face can be resolved if practices know their patients well. Establishing a relationship with your patients is necessary. You want your patients to not only return but to refer – on how they were treated and what their overall experience was at your practice.Don’t say “waiting room” say, “reception area”.Being that patients hate to “wait,” referring to a “waiting room” as a “reception area” could be an easy quick fix.
If anything else, keep patients informed! Simply keeping waiting patients informed about delays and giving them the option to reschedule can also go a long way. If you know there’s going to be a delay, simply text, email or phone the patient so that they know you respect their time.
Stay tuned for parts two and three of “Can Your Patients Fire You? To receive additional solutions on how to achieve overall practice success, call us today at 800.679.1200 or visit us at www.PracticeBuilders.com.
Who is Practice Builders?
Practice Builders has been helping healthcare practices achieve growth and success through effective solutions since 1979. The largest think tank of its kind in North America, Practice Builders has consulted with more than 15,000 practices in nearly every area of healthcare.
November 2011 Practice Success eTip of the Month
Websites for Healthcare Professionals: Ways to land the right SEO service
Want to know more about website marketing for doctors? Read on and find out:
There is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and there is real SEO. You may not be aware that SEO has evolved into a true science in recent years. However, most SEO practitioners are still performing the old standard basic keyword, competitive and site structure analyses – and less of anything else.
Real high-tech SEO service providers believe in using the whole armamentarium of SEO strategies, from complete site analyses to on-page and off-page optimization, social media optimization in addition to complete reporting and analytics. To put it in other words, they use all the science behind SEO, and not just the easy parts.
For instance, on-page optimization calls for re-engineering all the pages of your website to make it more search engine friendly. It covers page-wise keyword allocation, navigational structuring, title tags, meta tags and lots more. Off-page optimization covers building proper incoming links to your site, in addition to search engine, directory as well as yellow pages submissions.
With real SEO, there is localization, social media optimization, online PR in addition to reporting and analytics overlooked by majority of service providers – a plethora of services that go well beyond ordinary SEO and really aid your site stand out.
The proof is in the outcomes.
With all-encompassing, state-of-the-art SEO, your site will be much easier to find in search engine listings. After all, the aim of true SEO is to get your website listed as high as it is likely, preferably on the first page of search results in important search engines.
Not only will you witness your real optimized site rise in these search engine listings, thorough reporting and analytics will also tell you what’s working right and what needs to be adjusted to boost your results. With real SEO, there is no guesswork.
Get to know how a real SEO program can boost your search engine rankings and get your website noticed.
Need more effective tips and strategies on how to acquire practice success? Call us at 800.679.1262 to get more information.
Who is Practice Builders?
Practice Builders has been helping healthcare practices achieve growth and success through effective solutions since 1979. The largest think tank of its kind in North America, Practice Builders has consulted with more than 15,000 practices in nearly every area of healthcare.
Marketing Tip of the Month – October 2011
Do You Know Your Target Audience?
Knowing who your marketing messages should be aimed at (and tailoring your messages accordingly) is going to be critical to your marketing success. For example:
A client recently asked us for an assessment of his self-created print ad. This ad for vision care showed a cute kid in eyeglasses who was about 8 years old. The ad had an even cuter headline that contained no benefit to the reader, no unique sales proposition (USP) and no differentiation for the practice. But the biggest problem with the ad was that it was aimed at only a very small segment (maybe 5%) of the client’s actual TA. And the client was spending over $100,000 just on advertising space!
Knowing your TA means knowing the age ranges of patients you want to treat. It means knowing whether they are primarily male or female and whether they are primarily blue and pink collar working people, white-collar executives or some blend of lower class, middle-class and upper-class individuals. It also means knowing how well educated they are – and understanding the demographics and psychographics most prevalent in your area. Most importantly, it means knowing their wants and needs.
You Are Not Your Target Audience
This is one of the hardest lessons to learn for most health practitioners. If you create marketing messages that suit your own personal taste, you are likely to fail at marketing. Unless your patients earn your income, live the way you live and have the same level of education you have, they will not likely share your personal tastes and preferences. And they will not likely have the same wants and needs in life.
Your best bet: partner with a professional marketing company who already understands the most effective ways to reach virtually any TA with the right messaging. At Practice Builders, we help physicians and other healthcare practitioners market more effectively every day. Ask us how we can help you today.
September Practice Success eTip of the Month
How Patients Research You Online
According to a December 2010 survey sponsored by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), 41 percent of patients have researched a doctor online. Of those:
- 67 percent used hospital websites
- 66 percent used doctor or practice websites
- 55 percent used medical association/medical board websites
- 34 percent used anonymous rating websites
- 14 percent used social networking websites
There were some clear and dramatic differences in online habits among age groups and between genders. As you might expect, people aged 18 to 64 are more likely (45 percent) to research a doctor online than those aged 65 and older (21 percent). And women are more likely (49 percent) than men (32 percent) to research a doctor online.
For more information about online and e-media healthcare marketing, call Practice Builders at 800.679.1262.
August Practice Success eTip of the Month
Four things you can do right now to avoid losing patients
Recent surveys reveal that 25% of patients leave medical practices every year for reasons that may be unknown to practitioners until complaints or poor reviews appear publicly on the Internet. Here are four ways you can avoid having this happen to you:
- Patient satisfaction surveys. Conduct quarterly satisfaction surveys either on your own or through a company that offers this service. Pay attention to the results. Correct any problems identified quickly. With health reform’s new Medicare stipulations, physician satisfaction scores will be linked to reimbursement by 2015. The time to craft a protocol and get your practice in line is now.
- Train your staff. Untrained, unprofessional staff can send your patients packing in a heartbeat. Engage with a company (like Practice Builders) that specializes in complete onsite healthcare staff training, and create a reward system for staff members who interact with patients. Remember: What gets measured – and rewarded – gets managed.
- Respect your patients’ time. Patients routinely cite long wait-times as reasons for leaving a practice. Help your front desk schedule the appropriate amount of time for each patient. If you are running late, develop a system for notifying patients in advance. Patients will feel more valued and forgive the occasional delay if they are respected in this manner.
- Connect with your patients. If you can truly listen to patients and let them know you are listening, you can connect on a deeper emotional level. Remember that most patients have not had the benefit of your medical training and will not understand clinical terminology. Speak to them in layterms. Understand that they may not present their biggest concern until you ask, “and what else is going on?” Remember to be a human being first and a doctor second in patient interactions.
July Practice Success eTip of the Month
Five things to avoid on your website
Now that over 90% of Internet users are looking for healthcare information on the Web, just having a website is not enough. To make your website work for you, avoid these five common design and development mistakes:
- The Slow-Opening Home Page – If it takes longer than 3 seconds to open, it's too slow by today's web standards. Avoid complex moving imagery and long content that forces the user to scroll to read it all.
- Too Much Text – We live in a bullet-point, 140-characters-or-less (Twitter) world in which people don't have the time and do not want to read too much. Use short, easy-to-read text messages and make sure there is more white space than text on every page of your website.
- Dated Graphics, Text Fonts or Styles – Avoid using clip-art or cheap graphics that make you look out-of-touch, outdated or unprofessional. The goal is to make your website look clean, contemporary and relevant.
- Too Much Happening – Avoid pop-ups, flashing banners and web videos that cannot be muted or paused by the user. Too much sound or motion can be annoying and distracting.
- Dull Colors – Color elicits all kinds of emotions. Use bright complementary colors that are pleasing to the eye so you can attract and retain your visitors.
Need more effective tips and strategies on how to acquire practice success?
Call us at 800.679.1262 to get more information.
Marketing Tip of the Month – June 2011
Make sure your website is true SEO compatible.
You may not know that SEO, or search engine optimization, has grown into a true science in recent years. Yet most SEO practitioners are still performing basic keyword, competitive and site structure analyses — and little else.
There's SEO and there's true SEO
Real SEO practitioners believe in using the whole armamentarium of SEO strategies, from complete site analyses to on-page and off-page optimization, social media optimization to complete reporting and analytics. In other words, they use all the science behind SEO, not just the easy parts.
The Proof is in the outcomes
With comprehensive, state-of-the-art SEO, your site will become easier to find in search engine listings. So it's easier for patients and referring physicians.
The goal of true SEO is get your website listed as high as possible in the first few pages (preferably the first page) of search results on major search engines. Not only should you see your site rise in search engine listings, you should see complete reporting and analytics from your SEO provider.s
You should know what's working and what needs to be adjusted to improve your results. Evidence-based SEO eliminates the guesswork.
You can call us at 800-679-1262 or email us at with any questions.
Marketing Tip of the Month – May 2011
Familiarity Breeds Credibility
People will buy much more, and more often, from you if they have heard your name before. In marketing, familiarity definitely breeds credibility, providing what the public has heard is positive. If potential patients/clients aren’t already familiar with you, put out the effort to connect yourself with things they are familiar with.
That means getting yourself out into your community and participating in events. Offer free health screenings or do free talks at local clubs, churches, schools, etc. If your town has a popular health spa, arrange to do cooperative marketing with the spa, make mutual referrals and hand out one another’s discount coupons or brochures.
And use credibility phrases in your marketing materials. They may sound a bit grandiose, but remember…if you don’t tell potential patients/clients how good your credentials and services are, they won’t know. So tell them, subtly, and every chance you get. It isn’t bragging—it’s marketing. And believe me, your competitors won’t be holding back.
The trick is to brag with class. Be subtle. Use professional marketing materials. Create an image of excellence and desirability.
Here are a few credibility-building phrases to add to your marketing campaign:
- 20 years’ experience
- Board-certified
- Specializing in…
- The doctor performs all procedures
- I deliver 95% of my patients’ babies
- 9 out of 10 doctors recommend…
- Preferred by surgeons everywhere
- The dentist other dentists prefer
- Pioneer of the (XYZ) procedure
It’s important to brag a little when you’re trying to sell a service. Most potential patients/clients prefer to deal with people they know—they want to know something about you before they buy. They will be disappointed if you don’t project an image of confidence, competence, compassion and pride.
Marketing Tip of the Month – April 2011
Look at Your Practice Through Your Patients’ Eyes
Has your practice experienced a decline in patient visits, new patients and new patient inquiries? Have you seen an increase in cancellations and no-shows? Would you like to know how some practitioners are reversing this trend? Here are four things they do to help ensure patient satisfaction and loyalty.
Keep Appointments – Nothing annoys patients more than waiting 30, 60, 90 minutes or more to see their doctor. From the patient’s perspective, having a health problem is inconvenient enough. Feeling that their own time and schedules are insignificant to the doctor, and being made to wait for their time with the doctor adds insult to injury. Physicians who run on time are likely to have more compliant, less disgruntled patients.
Build Relationships – If patients feel like you care about them, they are less likely to seek other practitioners. Build relationships by making eye contact, listening and providing thorough explanations of treatment options and expected benefits. This may seem like an obvious no-brainer, but get to know your patients by name. Use their name when you talk to them. Successful physicians know their patients well. They know their patients’ hobbies and interests and, often, they know their families, too.
Perform Regular Patient Satisfaction Surveys– Survey your patients at regular intervals to determine how satisfied they are with your services, personnel and practice. Let patients tell you how you might improve your care. Address negative feedback immediately and personally. Call or speak to the unhappy patient and try to resolve their complaints swiftly. They’ll tell their friends and relatives how you went out of your way to help them.
Speak Their Language – Talk to your patients, not at them. Explain their health problem and treatment options thoroughly in lay terms, not medical clinician lingo. Patients don’t think in clinical terms, and many are reluctant to ask questions. So try to think like a patient instead of like a clinician. Then speak their language when communicating your services and benefits.
Marketing Tip of the Month – March 2011
Patient retention starts with treating your patients well.
Healthcare practitioners understand the need to retain patients. But they often don’t understand or realize that their responsibility for patient retention doesn’t end with simply solving the patient’s health problem. And they are often surprised and left wondering why when the patient ends up with a competing practice.
Winning the competition for your patients’ continued loyalty.
These days, patients have many choices for their healthcare. This means you have competition — for their continued loyalty and patronage. Unfortunately, practitioners often don’t realize that how they care for patients is the most important factor in keeping their loyalty. (According to numerous studies, it’s also the most important factor in avoiding malpractice suits.)
More than ever before, today’s patients need to feel cared for and cared about. In addition to helping them overcome a health issue, you need to make them feel welcome in your practice, listened to and cared about. Here’s a brief list of ways you can do just that:
- Don’t make them wait to see you. Patients are busy, too. They don’t have time to sit in your “waiting room” for 30, 60, 90 minutes or more past their appointment time… especially if they have already had to wait weeks or months to get an appointment. In fact, stop calling your reception area the “waiting room.” No one likes waiting. Have the courtesy to inform patients when you are running late and give them the opportunity to reschedule. Strive to keep appointments on time by not overbooking. Help your patients feel respected.
- Spend some time with them. Make them feel comfortable enough to explain their symptoms and suspicions fully. Ask them about their lives and their families. Listen to what they have to say. Let them know that you hear them and that you understand what they are telling you. Help them feel important and valued.
- Make eye contact. Patients often complain that their doctors speak to them without even making eye contact. This makes them feel depersonalized and may lead them to believe that you are hiding something from them. They may even question your sincerity.
- Thank them. A simple “Thank you for being my patient” can go a long way toward making your patients feel valued, respected and appreciated.
The bottom line.
Patient retention for the most successful practices begins with showing patients that you care about them as whole people and individuals. This is the best way to keep them coming back and referring their family members and friends, too.
Marketing Tip of the Month – February 2011
Patient Education Starts with Informing Them Why You’re Their Best Choice
Healthcare practitioners understand the need to educate patients. Patients need to understand their diagnosis and its implications on their health and life. They need to know what to expect from their care. They need to be informed about their options and make choices with full knowledge and understanding. But healthcare providers often overlook the first rule of patient education: Patients need to know where you are, what you do and why you’re their best choice for it.
Winning the competition for prospective patients’ attention & trust.
These days, patients have a lot of choices for their care. This means you have competition — for their attention, their business and their loyalty. As with any competition, it’s not enough to just show up; you must compete and prevail. So, how do you win the competition for prospective patients?
You educate them about your practice and its value to them. And do it more effectively than your competitors.
Be smarter about how you educate your marketplace.
Educating the marketplace about you is a significant undertaking. But the simplest concept is that you have to do it smarter than anyone else. Here are some pointers to help you:
- You are not your audience. What appeals to you is not necessarily what appeals to your audience. Be sure to address and cater to their needs, not yours.
- Feature is not benefit. And process is not result. Don’t promote what you do. Promote why it matters to the patient and what it will do for them.
- You are not what patients want. The most common mistake is promoting the practice with the doctor’s photo and his or her name as the headline. But prospects don’t know you and they won’t decide to become your patient unless they know how you can help them.
- Use what works. Educating prospective patients about practices like yours has been done many times before. Use what works for others in your field… and improve upon it. Start with something that’s already been proven effective, then measure your results and adjust your messaging to make it even more effective.
- Watch what you say. Second-guess every word of your messaging. You might be communicating something more than you think. For example, “cutting-edge” sounds great until you realize that it reminds some people of scalpels and blood. Don’t let your message become a barrier.
The bottom line.
Patient education for the most successful practices begins with educating prospective patients. Educate them about the benefits your practice provides. If you don’t know how to do it better than your competitors, find someone who can help you.
Marketing Tip of the Month – January 2011
Why 9 Out of 10 Doctors Don’t Market And Why You Should
There are two reasons why physicians don’t market. One is that they already have the all the patients, case types, professional referrals and practice revenues they could ever want. Two is that they simply don’t understand what marketing is or why they need it. Most physicians fall into the second category. Unfortunately, in this economy, ignorance is anything but blissful…
Physicians are among the most intelligent, educated, trained, analytical people on the planet. But ask most of them what marketing is and they’ll say it’s “advertising.” They think marketing is “running an ad in the paper” or “putting up a website.” They think it’s an unnecessary expense.
The truth is that advertising is only a small subset of marketing. Other subsets include branding, demographics, socioeconomics, psychographics, pricing, packaging, public relations, research and sales. Healthcare marketing is all of those things – the combined commercial functions involved in transferring goods or services from a producer (you or your colleague) to a consumer (your patient, referrer, business entity, etc.) in the most cost-effective, efficient and ethical way.
Most doctors know as much about marketing as consumers know about gastrointestinal disease pathology – hardly enough to make any kind of informed decision. Yet, physicians who truly understand the power of good marketing invest in it regularly. They locate and hire proven marketing experts, instead of trying to do it themselves.
The others, the do-it-yourselfers, end up doing it badly because they don’t understand the real science behind it. They don’t know, for example, how to analyze and dissect their own target audience through demographic, socioeconomic and psychographic filters. So they create messages that are unappealing and even off-putting to patients.
For example, nearly every self-created practice brochure we’ve ever seen was full of cold, clinical facts about insurance claims, procedures, fee policies and HIPAA compliance – things that are important to you and your staff but which aren’t even remotely appealing to prospective patients who are trying to decide where their healthcare dollars are best spent. It’s like fishing without bait. Worse, it scares away the fish.
Another example is print advertising. Placing your name, logo and picture at the top of an ad, as most practitioners do, is the kiss of death for advertising effectiveness. Consumers want to know how you can benefit them. Your name, logo and picture offer no inherent benefit. Worse, they make consumers think that you only care about yourself. Why should they see you?
When the self-created brochures, print ads or websites fail to produce results, the physician tells everyone that “marketing” is a waste of time and money. And, for them, it is.
But, for those who understand it and get expert help to do it right, it can be a tremendous source of practice growth and revenue.
Marketing Tip of the Month – December 2010
Could This Be The End?
Along with the many responsibilities of running a business, you must have business. For this, you need customers — patients, in your case. This means more patients, or perhaps “better” patients. But as challenging as it always is, attracting business is even more urgent and difficult in today’s healthcare environment. With the current state of affairs, a passive approach — waiting, hoping, praying — could very likely spell the end for your practice.
Healthcare practices are in crisis.
The economy is in shambles. Reimbursements are down and shrinking further. Costs are up and going higher. The credit crunch has affected cash flow. Many practitioners are selling their practices to hospitals and becoming employees, which affects referrals. The result? Many doctors are delaying retirement, looking for a way out and — unfortunately — going under.
The good news: You can take control.
While you’re not responsible for this situation, you can — and must — do something. Want more patients? Want patients who are better-insured? Want more of a particular procedure or service? Need to reduce your mix of Medicare? You need to reach the right audience… and in the right way. If you don’t, those people may never hear of you, think of you as just one of the herd, choose another provider or simply do nothing. And you get nothing.
The way to get what you want and need is through marketing. But it must be done intelligently, effectively, professionally. And this involves a great deal more than simply running an ad.
The bottom line.
You are in business to succeed, which is now harder than ever. If you go unnoticed, you do so at the peril of your business, your financial well-being and perhaps even your plans for the future. Take action to ensure your practice’s survival and success.
Who is Practice Builders?
Practice Builders has been helping private healthcare practices achieve success through ethical, effective marketing since 1979. The largest think tank of its kind in North America, Practice Builders has consulted with more than 15,000 healthcare practices in nearly every medical specialty, including dental, hearing, speech and physical and occupational therapy.
Looking for practice success? Practice Builders can help. Call 800.679.1262 and get the right answers to your marketing questions today.
Marketing Tip of the Month – November 2010
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!
Your location may have more to do with how effectively you market your practice today than ever before. Though the Web is the number-one resource used by American consumers to gather health-related information, there are areas where people still rely on yellow pages, newspapers, magazines and radio.
Many newspapers and magazines are abandoning their printed editions in favor of Internet-based editions. And many “experts” have pronounced printed yellow pages and other printed media dead. But there are still places in America where print media meets consumer needs quite nicely. It all depends on where your practice lives.
If your practice is located in or near any major metropolitan area – New York, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco – or its suburbs, you have already seen the demise of certain print media such as yellow pages.
Populations in these areas are far more likely to access healthcare information online and far less likely to open the yellow pages directory, even if they are looking for a doctor or a dentist. After all, there’s so much more information available online, including actual patient reviews and ratings of medical and dental practices.
Yet there are many places, particularly in small-town America, where people don’t own or use computers and still rely on their printed yellow pages directories, local newspapers, TV and radio to get most of their health information. If your practice is located in a smaller community, you should be reaching out to patients and referral sources in a very different manner than your big-city counterparts. Your media costs, such as ad space, radio or TV time, are likely to be much lower, too.
Your location and how you market to patients and referral sources locally will be very different depending on the region and community where your practice is located. Yellow pages may still be an effective advertising and marketing vehicle in Russell, KS, but virtually useless in Riverside, CA. Before you contract with any media, you would be wise to check with a healthcare marketing expert to see what strategies work most effectively with the people in your area.
Who is Practice Builders?
Practice Builders has been helping private healthcare practices achieve success through ethical, effective marketing since 1979. The largest think tank of its kind in North America, Practice Builders has consulted with more than 15,000 healthcare practices in nearly every medical specialty, including dental, hearing, speech and physical and occupational therapy.
You can call us at 800-679-1262 or email us at with any questions.
Marketing Tip of the Month – October 2010
Focusing on Your Key Decision Makers
Boosts Your Practice's Profitability
So, who are these key decision makers who can help your practice prosper?
They're WOMEN!
Here are three supporting facts about how females will impact your practice's profitability over the next year (and into the future).
- Women influence 81% of all healthcare (buying) decisions.
- Women pay 79% of all health care bills.
- Women are three times more likely to refer new patients than men.
You can call us at 800-679-1262 or email us at with any questions.
Marketing Tip of the Month – September 2010
Referrals and Relationships
What this means is that these types of practices are dependent on relationships. And relationships need to be maintained. So this month's tip is as simple as it is important: Pick up the phone and call.
Growth- and success-minded practices are wise enough to develop and manage effective practice representation programs. As successful as such programs are for many referral-based practices, they are a complement to not a replacement for the direct contact between you and your referrer.
When a doctor sends you patients, there is trust inherent in the act. And that trust is placed in you, the individual healthcare professional. So you need to maintain, reaffirm and strengthen that trust by reminding the referrer of your appreciation and support.
While your practice representative does something similar (and vital), he or she is merely building and supporting the bridge between your practice and your referrer's practice. You must still walk across that bridge from time to time to shake the hand of the person who is entrusting you with his or her patients and contributing to your revenues.
Take a few minutes, call a referrer, say hi and ask how things are going. Start with those you know best and with whom you're most comfortable. And be sure to ask them how you can help them take better care of their patients.
You can call us at 800-679-1262 or email us at with any questions.
Marketing Tip of the Month – August 2010
Take advantage of nontraditional marketing media.
Identify the right strategies to reach your target audience
There may always be a need for printed materials such as practice capabilities brochures and patient information sheets. In some small, rural markets across America and in certain health specialties, there is still a place for Yellow Pages ads, too. There are still places in America where people don't own or use computers. But the greatest potential for new marketing opportunities today is on the Internet.Over 110 million Americans routinely search the Internet for all kinds of health information, services and support. To reach your share of this enormous audience, you need an effective Internet presence. Your first basic necessity is a well developed and designed functional website that communicates your unique brand, benefits and services to healthcare consumers. Your website should be easy to navigate, easy to use, easy on the eyes and sufficiently interactive to engage visitors.
Your second basic necessity is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Without good SEO, your website will languish in obscurity, unnoticed by the people you most want to reach. Invest in good SEO and your rewards will be worth every penny.
Beyond your basic online marketing necessities
Once you have an effective website and good SEO, you should consider tactics that will make your site "sticky" or hard to leave. Offer visitors some variety with an interactive e-brochure they can marvel at and download, an e-video (think YouTube) they can learn from or a blog they can add their own comments to. Add social networking links and more interactivity through FaceBook, YouTube and Twitter.Can't find expert healthcare online marketing help in you area? Maybe Practice Builders can help. Call 800.679.1262 and get the right answers to your marketing questions today.
Marketing Tip of the Month – July 2010
Get all the right answers to your marketing questions.
Separating marketing hype from marketing reality
You don't have time for marketing hype. You've just survived the worst recession since the Great Depression. Your world may be forever changed by healthcare reform. Despite your best intentions to spend your days practicing good medicine, you've realized that your practice is also a business.Like any other business, your existence relies on your continued profitability. And the overwhelming evidence from the past 30 years indicates that your profitability is more reliant on good reality-based marketing today than it's ever been before.
Success leads to profitability
Whether you want to increase your referrals, your patient mix, your revenue, or all of the above, your first step toward real, measurable success is to get sound marketing advice from someone who has a proven success record with thousands of healthcare practices. Someone who will tell you what strategies will be most effective for your specialty, your marketplace, your competitive profile and your demographics.Evidence-based marketing eliminates your guesswork. Can't find evidence-based marketing help in you area? Maybe Practice Builders can help. Call 800.679.1262 to find out how you can get the right answers to your marketing questions through our new Marketing Hotline today.
You can call us at 800-679-1262 or email us at with any questions.
Marketing Tip of the Month – June 2010
Make sure your website is true SEO compatible.
There's SEO and there's true SEO
Real SEO practitioners believe in using the whole armamentarium of SEO strategies, from complete site analyses to on-page and off-page optimization, social media optimization to complete reporting and analytics. In other words, they use all the science behind SEO, not just the easy parts.The Proof is in the outcomes
With comprehensive, state-of-the-art SEO, your site will become easier to find in search engine listings. So it's easier for patients and referring physicians.The goal of true SEO is get your website listed as high as possible in the first few pages (preferably the first page) of search results on major search engines. Not only should you see your site rise in search engine listings, you should see complete reporting and analytics from your SEO provider.
You should know what's working and what needs to be adjusted to improve your results. Evidence-based SEO eliminates the guesswork.
Can't find a reliable SEO service in your neighborhood? Maybe Practice Builders can help. Click here to learn about Practice Builders SEO services.
You can call us at 800-679-1262 or email us at with any questions.
Marketing Tip of the Month – May 2010
Market Online With Effective, Inexpensive Email
If you are like many of our physician clients, you've been thinking about e-media marketing strategies on the Internet. And with good reason. E-media is the hottest thing in marketing right now and it promises to continue its dramatic growth for years to come. And the easiest e-media tactic you can implement is the email blast.
All you need is a good email list and an interesting subject. You should already have all your patients' opted-in email addresses as well as those of your referral sources. You can buy opt-in lists from various list vendors. But it's best to start with your own list. And a subject the people on your list will see value in:
- News about your practice (new associate, new equipment/technology, new hours, etc.)
- News from your area specialization (orthopedic, sports, geriatric, neurologic)
- Community health alerts and advice
- Special offers or health information for patients
- Special information for professional referral sources
Marketing Tip of the Month – April 2010
Make Healthcare Reform Work for You
The recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) has experts predicting that up to 32 million previously uninsured new patients will be seeking an array of healthcare services between now and 2014.
In terms of Medicare payments alone, many doctors will receive 5-10% incentives for handling more Medicare cases. Primary care physicians, pediatricians, geriatricians and surgeons will qualify for various incentives in exchange for practicing in healthcare shortage areas and seeing a larger percentage of Medicare patients.
Medicare will reduce the GPCI adjustment for physician practice expenses in rural and low-cost areas. But physicians in 42 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands will benefit from new geographic payment adjustments.
To learn more about marketing your practice through these rapidly-changing times, talk to one of the marketing experts at Practice Builders. Call us at 800.679.1262.
Marketing Tip of the Month – March 2010
How to Help Your Patients Now
Many physicians have experienced record appointment cancellations and declining numbers of patients as more consumers put off both elective procedures and medically necessary care to focus on other necessities. To help combat these economic realities, some physicians are finding ways to help their patients continue to receive medically necessary care.
The first step is to educate your patients about the potentially costly consequences of them putting off or avoiding needed care. Now is a great time to explain, in plain language, how a minor medical problem, which can be corrected relatively inexpensively, can become a major medical problem, which can only be corrected at high, potentially devastating cost to the patient or patient’s family.
According to CNNhealth.com, well over 60% of all American bankruptcies occur due to medical bills. This year alone, more than 1.5 million Americans will go bankrupt, with nearly one million of those caused by medical bills. Further, the study says, 78% of those bankrupted by medical bills were covered by health insurance. But coverage gaps and uncovered health expenses capsized consumer finances, anyway.
The second step physicians are taking is more drastic. They are finding ways to cut healthcare costs to their patients through reduced fees and low-cost or no-cost services. By doing so, they are building good will and loyalty, plus sending a powerful message about their patients’ health being more important to them than money.
To learn more about helping your patients through these difficult and challenging times, talk to one of the marketing experts at Practice Builders. Call us at 800.679.1262.
Marketing Tip of the Month – February 2010
The average American consumer reads at a 5th-6th grade level. Yet most doctors and medical staff write to them at a 10th-12th grade level… and that’s just half of the communication problem.
The other half is that most healthcare professionals and marketers communicate to consumers using cold facts, logic and intellect. Unfortunately, the American consumer chooses products and services based on emotions and feelings. They may justify their decisions later with facts and logic, but virtually every buying decision, including the decision to choose a certain healthcare practice, is based on emotion.
This is not opinion. It is fact based on numerous market research studies.
American healthcare consumers are no different than consumers in general. Their primary concern is selfish. They only care about what’s in it for them. If you don’t tell them about the benefits they can receive from your care in language they understand, they will tune you out. Despite this fact, there is a prevailing sense among many physicians that healthcare consumers are somehow better educated, smarter and more sophisticated than consumers in general. They are not.
What makes healthcare consumers respond to a healthcare marketing message is the emotional connection they feel with the message. If they don’t feel that you really care about them, or that your message is written over their heads, they won’t respond.
To learn more about marketing effectively to healthcare consumers, talk to one of the marketing experts at Practice Builders. Call us at 800.679.1262.
Marketing Tip of the Month – January 2010
To Achieve Something You Have Never Had Before,
Try Doing Something You Have Never Done Before.
Every year you buy the same ad in the same school program or the same health directory. Every year you get nothing from that ad but a bit of good will in the community. But you keep doing it, hoping it will generate a new patient or two. Maybe even a referral.
Unfortunately, hope is not a very effective marketing strategy. Marketing effectively requires due diligence, planning and real strategy. But, if you are like many practitioners, you have precious little time to create a strategic marketing plan, much less test various strategies to see what works for your practice or review your results regularly.
So you keep doing what you have always done. And you keep getting what you have always gotten, even though you want (and need) more. That’s why over 15,000 healthcare practitioners representing virtually every medical and dental specialty and subspecialty have partnered with Practice Builders since 1979.
So, if you’re tired of getting what you’ve been getting, start 2010 by doing something different. Save yourself all that extra time and hassle and talk to one of the marketing experts at Practice Builders. Do something you have never done before.
Call us at 800.679.1262.
Marketing Tip of the Month – December 2009
Ask a Real Marketing Expert about Real Marketing Issues
Doctors often need good advice, too. Especially when it comes to marketing. Unfortunately, doctors don’t always know where to get good marketing advice. And it is sometimes difficult to identify individuals or companies with real marketing expertise. This is understandable given that so many purveyors of “marketing” services claim to have the expertise you need.
With your practice growth and success at stake, your prospective marketing partner should have a track record of proven successes with other medical practices. They should provide you with references of previous satisfied clients in your field and samples of the work they have done for other physicians. They should have a real understanding of your medical specialty or subspecialty, as well as an understanding of your marketplace.
Practice Builders has provided marketing services to physicians, physical therapists and dental professionals all over North America since 1979. We have helped over 15,000 healthcare practices representing virtually every medical specialty and subspecialty. And we have created thousands of success stories.
So, if you need answers to your marketing questions, save yourself time and talk to one of the real marketing experts at Practice Builders. Just call 800.679.1262.
Marketing Tip of the Month – November 2009
Familiarity Breeds Credibility
That means getting yourself out into your community and participating in events. Offer free health screenings or do free talks at local clubs, churches, schools, etc. If your town has a popular health spa, arrange to do cooperative marketing with the spa, make mutual referrals and hand out one another’s discount coupons or brochures.
And use credibility phrases in your marketing materials. They may sound a bit grandiose, but remember…if you don’t tell potential patients/clients how good your credentials and services are, they won’t know. So tell them, subtly, and every chance you get. It isn’t bragging—it’s marketing. And believe me, your competitors won’t be holding back.
The trick is to brag with class. Be subtle. Use professional marketing materials. Create an image of excellence and desirability.
Here are a few credibility-building phrases to add to your marketing campaign:
• 20 years’ experience
• Board-certified
• Specializing in…
• The doctor performs all procedures
• I deliver 95% of my patients’ babies
• 9 out of 10 doctors recommend…
• Preferred by surgeons everywhere
• The dentist other dentists prefer
• Pioneer of the (XYZ) procedure
It’s important to brag a little when you’re trying to sell a service. Most potential patients/clients prefer to deal with people they know—they want to know something about you before they buy. They will be disappointed if you don’t project an image of confidence, competence, compassion and pride.
Marketing Tip of the Month – October 2009
Can Your Target Audience Read?
Which means that nearly two-thirds of doctors don’t know that 22% of adult Americans are functionally illiterate and another 27.5% of adult Americans are only marginally literate. In other words, nearly half (49.5%) of all adult Americans are less than fully literate. Which makes your job even more challenging, particularly in how you communicate with your patients and with potential new patients.
Newspapers, which are generally written for fifth graders, have known this sad fact about American literacy for decades. So have the healthcare marketing experts at Practice Builders. In fact, we frequently send the text we write for our clients through the Flesch-Kincaid Readability formula (it’s built into Microsoft WORD) to ensure that we are in the 6th to 7th grade reading range on our patient-directed materials (slightly higher for referrer-directed materials).
What patients don’t understand can kill them
The clear message is that doctors and patients don’t speak or read at the same levels. Though the average American can’t read beyond the 7th grade level, most medical forms, instructions and other patient-directed materials are written to the 12th grade level. Such a disparity can be dangerous to the patient’s health. Patients with limited literacy tend to seek care later (if at all) and have a harder time following instructions. They are more likely to suffer from medication errors, and they have higher death rates from chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.
As marketers, physicians need to avoid high-level clinical language in their messages to patients, whether they are written or spoken. For example, don’t tell the patient he has had a myocardial infarction when “heart attack” is more easily understood. Use car or machine analogies to explain various body parts and conditions. For example, the human heart is like a “pump” and the kidneys are like “filters”.
For more advice about communicating effectively with your patients, talk to one of the experts at Practice Builders at 800.679.1262.
Marketing Tip of the Month – September 2009
Do You Know Your Target Audience?
A client recently asked us for an assessment of his self-created print ad. This ad for vision care showed a cute kid in eyeglasses who was about 8 years old. The ad had an even cuter headline that contained no benefit to the reader, no unique sales proposition (USP) and no differentiation for the practice. But the biggest problem with the ad was that it was aimed at only a very small segment (maybe 5%) of the client’s actual TA. And the client was spending over $100,000 just on advertising space!
Knowing your TA means knowing the age ranges of patients you want to treat. It means knowing whether they are primarily male or female and whether they are primarily blue and pink collar working people, white-collar executives or some blend of lower class, middle-class and upper-class individuals. It also means knowing how well educated they are – and understanding the demographics and psychographics most prevalent in your area. Most importantly, it means knowing their wants and needs.
You Are Not Your Target Audience
This is one of the hardest lessons to learn for most health practitioners. If you create marketing messages that suit your own personal taste, you are likely to fail at marketing. Unless your patients earn your income, live the way you live and have the same level of education you have, they will not likely share your personal tastes and preferences. And they will not likely have the same wants and needs in life.
Your best bet: partner with a professional marketing company who already understands the most effective ways to reach virtually any TA with the right messaging. At Practice Builders, we help physicians and other healthcare practitioners market more effectively every day. Ask us how we can help you today.
Marketing Tip of the Month – August 2009
The Three Most Important Words in Marketing
Test – Instead of putting all your marketing eggs in one basket, you need to try different strategies. By testing these strategies against one another, you’ll soon learn which are most effective for you. If you run print ads, for example, test different headlines, images and offers against each other.
Track – This is perhaps the single most important word in marketing. This is what you do to find out what’s really working for you. The ONLY way to track effectively is to ask every single caller or new prospect how they heard about your practice. Don’t stop there. Ask them what specifically prompted them to call. Was it a headline, an offer or a particular service? Keep probing until you find out. It’s not enough to have a vague idea about what’s working or not. You should know with certainty.
Adjust – Based on your tracking results, you can either make minor adjustments to strategies that give you unsatisfactory results, or eliminate them from your marketing mix entirely. Some strategies will work and some will not. The goal is to keep the ones that work best and dump the ones that don’t work even after you’ve made some adjustments to them.
Practice Builders helps physicians and other healthcare practitioners market their practices more effectively every day. Ask us how we can help you today: 800.679.1262.
Marketing Tip of the Month – July 2009
Look at Your Practice Through Your Patients’ Eyes
Keep Appointments – Nothing annoys patients more than waiting 30, 60, 90 minutes or more to see their doctor. From the patient’s perspective, having a health problem is inconvenient enough. Feeling that their own time and schedules are insignificant to the doctor, and being made to wait for their time with the doctor adds insult to injury. Physicians who run on time are likely to have more compliant, less disgruntled patients.
Practice Builders helps physicians and other healthcare practitioners improve their services and achieve success every day. Ask us how we can help you today.