Is your current surgery advertising stagnant? Not converting at the numbers you’d like? This list of 10 ideas for growing your practice will help with that.
- Mix it up. Don’t just advertise on one form of media: radio, TV, web, etc. The best practices use a combination of some form put together. Direct response radio coupled with web marketing is a great way to build a client base.
- Tie it together. Present similar messages on all forms of your advertising. Invite patients to visit your website and blog in your radio or TV commercial.
- Hire someone. Unless you have a full time marketer on staff, you probably need professional help. Make sure the marketing agency you hire is familiar with the surgery field. Make them read this list of 10 ideas for growing your practice and see if it lines up with their marketing strategies. If it doesn’t, then don’t work with them.
- Be entertaining. Walt Disney said: “I would rather entertain people and hope they learned something than teach people something and hope they were entertained.” This isn’t true for every form of advertising in every field, as there are some people that just want info and don’t want to be bothered. But take old Walt’s advice. More people will tune in more often if they find you equally informative and entertaining. Our aim was to do just that with this list of 10 ideas for growing your practice.
- Be present. Be active on your online patient community, participate and contribute – few people want to frequent an empty doctor’s office.
- Be competitive. Find out what your competitor surgeons are charging. And then try to match or beat that price. But make people aware that quality surgery doesn’t come cheap, and you can’t put a price tag on your health.
- Be transparent. Patients want to be able to trust you, and want to know your background as a surgeon. If your track record is impeccable, great. If not, be honest. The last thing you want is a patient to find that sensitive information out on his or her own.
- Be friendly. This step might sound obvious, but you’d probably be surprised. Giving off a stale vibe in your advertising is not an effective way of growing your surgery practice.
- Be trustworthy. Outline your credentials; showcase your surgeon experience. Do anything you can to build trust with your patients. After all, they are putting their lives in your hands.
- Pay it forward. Build equity for your practice by contributing to your online patient community before asking for anything in return. (like getting them to call your for a consultation) And never take out more than you put in. This is basically the “golden rule” of web-based medical practice marketing, and should boost your online karma.
This list of 10 ideas for growing your practice gives you a great start, but there are many other resources available to you if you still need help with your surgery advertising. See what the most successful surgeons do with their advertising, and then follow your own path.
