After years of being exposed to over 5,000 advertising/marketing messages every single day of our lives, we have become far less receptive to traditional media and marketing messages. That’s because traditional media such as newspaper ads, TV and radio commercials, direct mail and outbound telemarketing all intrude upon our lives. Today’s consumer is looking for creative ways to stop the intrusions and lower the noise level.
We use caller ID to block telemarketers. We use spam filters to reduce or eliminate unsolicited email messages. We use TIVO to eliminate TV commercials. We subscribe to commercial-free radio and cable TV. We don’t read as many newspapers and magazines. And our fingers are no longer doing the walking through the Yellow Pages in most markets. The recent financial crisis has accelerated these trends by forcing many health practices to seek more efficient, more valuable ways to reach out to their patients, colleagues and professional referrers.
The latest low-cost, long-term practice-building strategies – search engine optimization (SEO), social media networking and online content such as blogs – have helped many small businesses, including healthcare practices, to compete more effectively with large, established concerns. By allowing you to appear higher in organic search results, you can attract more interested prospects to your website… and your practice.
Social networks such as Facebook®, YouTube®, Twitter®, LinkedIn®, Yelp® and Google+® are part of the hottest trend in online communications today. Social media, which is the umbrella term for these networks, blogs and other means of sharing information with an audience, has become much more than simply a platform for social interaction. It has evolved at light speed into a communication medium for business and professional interaction, as well.
Whereas traditional marketing communication is designed to help you find patients and referral sources, online communication is designed to help patients and referral sources find you. Instead of pushing your content to prospects,
whether they want it or not, you attract interested prospects to your content. With the right content and a wellconceived social media strategy, your practice can become a magnet for interested, highly qualified patients and referral sources. Social media strategies, when combined with SEO and credible content, have three distinct advantages over traditional methods of communicating with your patients, referrers and prospects:
Qualified Prospects – TV, radio, print and direct mail are designed to reach large numbers of people, without addressing their individual needs and wants. Typically, only a small percentage of the target audience needs or wants your services, but you pay to reach them all. Social media, on the other hand, attracts only those prospects interested in your services or content. Prospects qualify themselves through the processes of search engines and social media networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. Prospects also tend to be of higher quality.
Lower Costs – Content creation, SEO and social media incur little cost except human labor. Someone has to write your blog articles, optimize your website for search engines and provide content for your social media outreach efforts. Once your content is created, there is little cost to maintain it. Results cost less, too. One recent study claimed that it costs 60% less to obtain a qualified lead online than with traditional methods.
Long-Term Benefits – Once your content is created, promoted and optimized, the impact of the initial effort grows over time. Your return on investment – referrals – increases through the trust, credibility and relationships you build online, even though your actual dollar investment dramatically decreases.
Today, with the meteoric rise of social media and consumer review sites such as Yelp, it is increasingly important for healthcare practitioners to build and manage their online reputations. That’s because more and more patients are reviewing their own personal experiences with health practices online, and more patient prospects are reading those reviews before they make appointments. Too many negative reviews can seriously impact your patient acquisition and retention efforts. Your goal is to build a positive reputation for yourself and your practice. The big question is how. What steps should you follow?
Set Goals – Keep them simple in the beginning. What are the health issues and topics you care most about?
How do you want to represent yourself and your practice online? What is your professional brand? Do you want to be an
influencer in your community? Do you want to enhance your reputation with colleagues, speak at more conferences or
contribute to more journals? Do you want more of certain types of patients or cases?
Start a Blog – Think of a blog as a personal website. Unlike a website, a blog is easy to set up and maintain
yourself. You can create original content or you can simply post information you find elsewhere that may be useful for
your target audience. Your content may be patient-oriented or peer-oriented around your areas of expertise. Posterous
and Tumblr are two blog sites that are extremely easy to set up and manage. As of 2010, 70% of Internet users were
reading blogs and more than 120,000 of those blogs were healthcare-related. Done correctly, blogs can provide your
practice with an opportunity to share your expertise and knowledge with a much larger audience. Other blogging tips:
Although these tips are very important to remember when blogging, also note that these are also important rules to
follow with all social media efforts.
Befriend Facebook – With over 500 million members, Facebook is the 800-pound gorilla of social media sites. Though it is used primarily for personal interactions and connections, Facebook can also benefit professional users. Hospitals and physicians can use it to reach patients and create user groups based around health-oriented issues and topics. It helps you engage with your patient base, promote your practice and build your presence on the Internet. Readers can navigate your page to learn more about your subspecialty and access basic contact information for your practice. Your “likes” can read your educational posts, view pictures or videos of your practice or visit your blog or website. Facebook is viral marketing at its best. When someone “likes” your page, all of their connections will see it, too. This can direct even more traffic to your practice. Facebook offers incredible flexibility and many ways to connect with your target audience.
Get LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a great platform for keeping in touch with colleagues, connecting with industry insiders and generating new leads and referrals for your practice. It emphasizes knowledge and leadership, letting you separate yourself from your competition. You create a profile, engage with a targeted network of people and showcase your knowledge within your field. You can also start a group with a group page, or participate in LinkedIn Answers.
Watch YouTube – Showcase your expertise, share your knowledge and market your practice to existing and future patients with video. YouTube lets viewers watch videos about your practice. Your YouTube channel can help extend your brand by letting you customize your colors, look and feel to complement the look and feel of your practice’s website or marketing materials. You can add links to your practice website and relevant information to your channel. Your videos can serve many purposes but should generally give viewers a look at your practice with a level of personalization that cannot be matched by plain text or other forms of messaging. Web videos let you demonstrate your expertise and establish you as a credible source to your viewers.
Twitter Away – Twitter is unique from other forms of social media in that it’s designed for brief, to-the-point communication. Also known as “micro-blogging,” Twitter limits posts to 140 characters or less. This allows users to send and receive very quick, concise, messages to a limitless number of “followers.” Since Twitter pages also provide similar brief descriptions in your profile and allow only a snapshot of what you do, your updates become the reason for people to follow your stream. Twitter allows you to post announcements or special offers, highlight your specialty or share your professional knowledge and insights. It’s also perfect for sharing links to other content you may have created that doesn’t fit Twitter’s 140-character limit – blogs, podcasts or webinars.
Yelp – In today’s economy, consumer ratings and word-of-mouth referrals have a great impact on whether a potential patient decides to visit your practice. Earn glowing reviews and recommendations that will bring more patients to your door. Boost patient appointments with a custom Yelp account. We’ll create and update your account with the proper graphics and information.
Google+ – Do you want to strengthen your presence in Google search results? Get closer to your current and new patients? Expand your audience of patients and referral sources? We’ll set up and verify your Google+ page and help optimize your web presence. We’ll create custom branded graphics and SEO-rich content to populate your page and strengthen your presence in Google search results?
These six networks and your blog will give you a great start in social media networking and the greatest return for your time investment. To learn more about the many ways we can help you strategize and dramatically boost your exposure to patients and professional referral sources online, call Practice Builders at 800.679.1262.
"I've worked with Practice Builders for more than 15 years now, coming to them with great worry about the success of my clinic and trusting them to help grow my business. With their strategic growth plan, marketing materials and digital marketing/social media support, I was able to grow, increasing referrals, revenue and staff, but found myself with limited free time as a result. With continued efforts on their end and mine, I now have two full-time therapists on my team. I am now able to enjoy my practice more, as well as to have the freedom to be away from the clinics when I want to have a day off or go on an extended vacation..."
— Travis Cox, PT
"Practice Builders helped take our practice to the next level! With their expert guidance, we've now grown so much that we've had to add two new physicians. Our image is improved, our staff is well trained, and we finally have an organized marketing program!"
— Nilesh Mehta, MD
"We were impressed by the attention given to our practice during the workshop. Our marketing consultant developed a strategic plan that revealed our practice's weaknesses and opportunities, showing us solid paths toward improvements. If you're thinking of working with Practice Builders,I highly encourage you to do so. You'll realize that marketing your practice need not be overwhelming – with a solid plan and the support of the team at Practice Builders."
— Drs. Ramin Tabibzadeh, DDS and Elisa Mello, DDS
"I am very pleased with Practice Builders. I am finding that the messaging on my website and social media are bringing me patients who are confident in our abilities and more comfortable with our recommendations. We are also seeing growth from the internal marketing strategies, branding and training in the form of patient referrals."
— Stephen Ozanne, MD
"We contacted Practice Builders as our competition had increased while revenue was steadily decreasing. Since becoming a Practice Builders client, we now have higher referrals, higher revenue, and improved morale and productivity. After completing our new branding, our Practice Builders trainer helped turn our practice around, showing our personnel that "change" is actually a good thing!"
— John Michalski, MD
"I hired Practice Builders to enhance my online presence and they have done a terrific job with revamping my old website and getting just the right look for our practice. Their social media package has been really cutting edge, with facebook, twitter, linked-in and others all working to get us new patients. I always recommend Practice Builders to anyone who asks."
— Michael Margolis, DDS, Phd
"Practice Builders has shown me that believing and investing in myself and using proper marketing practices has resulted in a better ROI than any other investment I could thave made. I believe it's the best investment you can make for your future and the health of your practice."
— Joseph DiFazio, DMD
"Before Practice Builders, I had an ineffective Internet presence and was experiencing a huge decrease in new patients.... With Practice Builders' assistance, I am thrilled to report that my new patient numbers have increased by 50%, with gross production up 20% this year alone. Thanks to their trainer's guidance, my team is fully committed to the practice's success. I am enjoying dentistry again..."
— James M. Austin, DDS, PS
"I had launched a new practice model, requiring branding and unique marketing materials that would differentiate us in the market. We were introduced to Practice Builders to assist and just a few months later, I am extremely pleased with the end result of the branding, stationary, business cards, brochures and inserts, as well as the website they created. Everyone at Practice Builders was professional, insightful, creative and able to incorporate my specific needs and direction for the project."
— Edward S. Goldberg, MD
"Practice Builders does just what the name implies the size of our practice has increased dramatically. Our new physicain has a full schedule, our customer service has improved and we have fewer patient complaints."
— Bret C. Lewis, MD and E.J. Aspuru, MD
"Practice Builders created a professional consistent image for my practice that reflected its unique character and helped increase practice growth 16.1% the first year I used their material and advice. And since that time, we've now doubled our revenues!"
— Grace Kerr, DMD
"Having been through other dental consulting programs, what I appreciated most about Practice Builders is they took the time to learn about our practice's strengths, and essentially our "personality". By utilizing our attributes, we were able to market our practice in a genuine way. By being comfortable in our approach, we were all the more effective. We learned how to work smarter, not harder and how to tap into an unused resource to promote our practice – our happy, satisfied patients. We are also now better utilizing the internet and social media to build our practice in a professional and positive manner."
— Kim Glick, DDS
"With a goal to increase our business and train our staff to deliver excellent customer service, we're so pleased we chose Practice Builders. Just a few months after meeting them, we now have a well trained staff, professional literature and a website we are proud of, but also importantly, we have a plan in place that is moving our practice to the next level!"
— Donald A. Girard, MD, FACOG
"When I first met with my Practice Builders consultant, I was hesitant about the dollars required to launch my full plan. 3 years later, I can say that it indeed was worth the investment. In fact, we continue to have such confidence that we've maintained our relationship with the team into our 4th year now. If you need a one-stop shop for your marketing campaign with high-quality and excellent creative ideas, you definitely need to use Practice Builders."
— Michael N. Fahmy, PT, OMPT
"We had a very successful practice, with a goal to continue to grow. After working with Practice Builders, we implemented the strategic marketing plan and almost doubled our practice! The Practice Builders relationship has provided us a strategic approach to market our practice to referring doctors and has been a tremendous success for us!"
— H. Jay Wisnicki, MD
"PB helped me to brand my practice in the two areas of surgery that I enjoy the most - anti-reflux and bariatric surgery. Using my website and the marketing techniques provided, I have expanded my market over a larger area."
— Clifford Black, MD
"We highly recommend Practice Builders. When we met them, our referrals were declining and our staff was not functioning as a team. We knew we needed to expand our referral base and had heard that Practice Builders was a great resource for this. Our workshop experience was terrific and our agency experience was excellent. The end result? Beautiful and professionally branded markteting materials, a cohesive staff who now improves our patient experience daily, a 30% increase in referrals and finally, staff and physicians who are happier and more satisfied with their working environment."
— Lee Stenzler, MD
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