Marketing ideas for medical practices: Use PR to your marketing advantage

 ‘Public relations’ (PR) is a marketing tool which includes methods and means by which an organization or individual (your practice or you) seeks to promote a favorable relationship with the public (your target audience of potential new patients and/or referral sources). PR methods and means may cover tactics like Press releases, news and feature stories, radio interviews, TV appearances and special events.

What are you doing that’s newsworthy?

Healthcare is one of the most sought-after topics in the US.  Hardly a TV news segment goes without some bit of health-related news being presented to the audience. These cover new treatments, new medical technologies and new ways of coping with various diseases. However they also present stories about doctors, dentists and physical therapists donating their time to worthy health causes in their communities or helping sick and needy people abroad. (for instance physicians without borders, etc).

Many practitioners provide to their communities. Many more do pro bono work here as well as abroad. And often the public never hears about the terrific humanitarian work being carried out by these hard-working individuals.

PR can be more cost-effective

Anyone with money to spend something to sell can run an advertisement. And that’s often the tactic you resort to when you want new patients for a particular treatment or procedure. There’s no doubt that advertising has its place in your marketing mix, however PR is often less expensive and more effective at building your credibility and gaining trust.

With public relation, you don’t pay for space or airtime as you would with a print ad or for that matter TV spot. A normal TV news segment for instance might be three-four minutes of airtime you don’t have to pay for. You can compare that to a typical 30-second TV commercial that may cost you thousands of dollars.

A simple PR, written and presented well, can generate much better results at a fraction of the cost of a print advertisement. If your story is chosen, there is a much better opportunity that it will be read and believed than any paid print ad.

To learn about what PR can do for your practice and other marketing ideas for medical practices, turn to various healthcare marketing agencies.

Why you should do medical practice marketing?

Marketing medical practice? Here are some factors why you need active marketing for your medical practice.

1.       To keep your practice growing if it levels off

2.       To stay profitable with income appropriate to your life style…it’s not easy to do since fees are tied down by law and by you know who.

3.       Able to hire top quality employees who are aware of your business talents…it indicates stability and long period of employment.

4.       Any business at present will fail if marketing in never involved…and medical practice is a true business.

5.       Early retirement from medical practice calls for more and faster income and loads of new patients right from the start to the end….and how to do that? Practice marketing.  

If the statistics are right about late retirement of physicians, 90 percent arrive at retirement with little money to show for all those years. A well funded retirement calls for constant practice marketing of your medical practice right up to your retirement.

It’s recommended that you prepare to start easy and go hard with your medical practice marketing projects. Start now to begin to effectively boost your patient load, your practice income and yes your personal value to your patients.  

When you can afford to invest a sizeable amount in the future, it is recommended that you turn to healthcare marketing agencies. They will not only help you with your marketing efforts but also help you in every possible way to bring in the money. In fact, it’s just the ticket for medical practice marketing. So get going!

Take your dental practice marketing to the next level with an e-brochure

Selling dental practice? You can take your dental practice marketing to the next level with this cutting edge tool called e-brochure. You can email it, post it as a link on your website and send it across to virtually anyone without special software or a special reader.

The new e-brochure is a standalone product that can be linked through a custom web button to your website (it opens in a new browser window). It includes fast loading, secure, rich-media combinations of imagery, text links and graphics, all in a user friendly, printable, easily-changeable multi-page format.  

1)      E-brochures are quick and easy to look at – they load and are viewable within six to ten seconds.

2)      E-mail your brochure quickly in an attractive format. Give it as a giveaway on CD or DVD-ROM or download it off your practice website.

3)      Reduce your expenses dramatically. You will save on printing costs and shipping expenses by sending digital brochures through e-mail or posting on website. Your existing brochure or web collateral can be turned into an electronic presentation minus the requirement for expensive design or set-up costs.

4)      Carry along your brochure, or website in your pocket! You don’t need paper too.

5)      You can make changes or add pages quite easily. Allows for continuous updates as your practice grows – keeping information current without any downtime. Amendment in images, links and content can be done quickly and cost-effectively.

6)      Your brochure is safe minus the requirement for special software. No special application required; just double-click the icon to launch the document. In addition, e-brochures can cover multimedia, video, interactive forms and lots more.

For more dental practice marketing tips, take the help of healthcare marketing agencies.

Attend a webinar to give more bones to your orthodontic marketing

Orthodontic treatment is the segment of dentistry that involves the straightening or moving of crooked or over crowded to make better the appearance and bite of the teeth.

Of all the specialties, orthodontists are among the specialties that was hardest hit by the recession and the current trend of delaying healthcare. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to boost the situation. Find out from a leading marketing expert who consulted over 1,000 practices and how they introduced new services and marketed them effectively to grow orthodontic practice and boost their bottom lines by attending a webinar.

Such a webinar is full of orthodontic marketing ideas. Based on real-life instances, in the webinar, you’ll learn ways to boost patient flow and referrals utilizing proven marketing techniques developed over a period of 30 years. During such an informative web conference, you will get to learn which are the new product lines that are working for orthodontists, how marketing can bring down your boost your bottom line, why the mishandling of phone shoppers is presently costing you a fortune, and how to dramatically enhance your results, how to boost your referrals with minimum investment and maximum professionalism, and much more.

In addition to all this, you can even discuss your specific orthodontic marketing challenges with the experts during the Question and Answer session at the end of the conference.

Who all should attend such a webinar? Any orthodontist who wants to build their practices and grow revenue by adding in-demand services and marketing their practices efficiently can go for this webinar.

How to find out the tight marketing budget for your practice?

One of the oft-asked questions from healthcare practitioners is “How do I figure out the right marketing budget for my practice?” The answer depends on what type of practice you have, your location, your sub-specialty, annual revenues and your revenue target. Normally, the greater your revenue goal, the more money you should give to marketing.

For instance, if your present revenues are around $500,000 a year, and you want to grow by another $100,000 (20 percent growth), your marketing allocation should be about $50,000 the first year. That figure assumes an ROI of at least 2:1, or $2 earned for every $1 invested. Healthcare marketing agencies normally aim for a 3:1 ROI, and we have occasionally seen ROIs as high as 50:1. Of course, your ROI will depend largely on the strategy or tactic being measured and other variables like practice type, location and specialty.

Always begin with your annual revenues and revenue goals

Your marketing budget should always be tied to your gross revenue and added revenue goal. Here are some more instances of typical marketing allocations based on desired revenue growth goals.

To Increase By This Amount:	Invest Approximately This Amount:
$100,000	$30-50,000
$250,000	$100-125,000
$500,000	$200-250,000

You can also find out your marketing budget based on a percentage of your present revenue. Most businesses invest 5-10 percent of their revenues back into marketing, with 7 percent being a typical average. The same is the case with many healthcare practices.

Your practice type and location are also key considerations.

Your practice type is a vital component in determining your marketing budget. There are many clients who are plastic surgeons. They regularly invest 20 percent or more of their revenues back into marketing. Orthodontists who often have larger cases, also tend to invest 10-25 percent or more into their orthodontist marketing.

To a lesser extent, your practice location will also have an impact on your investment. If you’re in a major metropolitan area like New York, Chicago, Dallas or Los Angeles, your media budget (for print advertising, radio, TV or outdoor) will be more. And if you are in a more rural area, your media costs will be lower. In both case, you can adjust your investment up or down by as much as 20 percent.

You should remember that marketing is not an expense. It is an investment. Turn to healthcare marketing agencies to learn more about budgeting your marketing program.