How To Market A Practice: Test, consult, diagnose, treat, follow-up

Think of a marketing program as if it were a patient. With patients you take a history, gather information, ask question, run tests, consult with colleagues, make a diagnosis and then proceed to treatment and subsequent follow-ups to achieve healthy outcomes.

The same approach works when planning a marketing program for any practice of any size or specialty. For history look at current marketing initiatives from other practices and within the profession itself. Review what other physicians in your specialty are doing and the level of competition they pose for similar services. Ask yourself how you might best promote your practice and its services in today’s new competitive medical reality. Is your specialty effected by seasonal changes, like allergy and immunology, or does your service remain constant, like surgery. Are your services in or out of the insurance loop? Do they apply to a specific gender or age group, or not? Will you target patients locally or attract from a larger geographic region? Once these types of questions are answered you will have an accurate marketing diagnosis and be better equipped to move forward with treatment; the actual creation and placement of ad materials in the marketplace. Next comes the follow-up. Measure results and change what’s indicated to achieve the best outcomes possible.