external marketing - Dr. Kelley

Marketing Among the Madness

Summer is over and everyone’s lives are hectic again. When you’re marketing among the madness, make sure your message doesn’t get lost. Vacation

Vacation is Over

Summers tend to be slow for a lot of practioners. We hope you used your slow summer season productively. But summer is over now and we need to make up for the downtime and ramp up business through smart marketing. However, during this time of year, when people head back to reality, your marketing has to compete with all the other things vying for the attention of potential patients.

Make Partnerships

The two main things taking the attention of your potential patients right now are school and work. So instead of competing with those two things; partner with them! If you’re a chiropractor, hit the schools! A big concern for parents is the heft of backpacks their kids carry. Some schools are doing away with lockers for safety reasons and that means kids have to haul around all their books.

Offer to do a talk on backpack safety on the first parent’s night of the year (usually within a few weeks of classes starting). The parents are already at the school, so you have an automatic audience!

Human resources departments are always looking for ways to improve employee health because it saves them money both in insurance premiums and productivity lost to sick days. What are some large employers in your area who could benefit from wellness talks? If you have an employer near you that has shift workers, offer to talk about how to get good sleep. The WHO has classified working nights as a probable carcinogen. There’s your opening pitch. Not only is poor sleep dangerous to a worker’s overall health, but it’s also dangerous on the job. Lack of sleep is responsible for 274,000 workplace accidents a year.

Hit the Field

School sports are another area getting into high gear as we go into fall. One of the most controversial aspects of kids playing sports is head injuries. In the not too distant future, we may see sports like football eliminated in many schools. Until then, there are still plenty of kids who play and you can teach parents and coaches how to keep them safe. Helmet

Of course, head injuries aren’t the only injuries student athletes suffer. There’s plenty of room to talk about other safety measures and even things like proper nutrition and hydration for young athletes.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…

Christmas is how the lyric finishes and while it seems to start earlier and earlier each year, there are still some holidays between now and then you can incorporate into your marketing. Halloween is a fun holiday to do a bit of marketing.

If you have a lot of children or families in your practice, have a contest during the week of Halloween for the best costume. Even if you just stay late and hand out candy at the office, this is a good will gesture for your community. Candy

For Thanksgiving and Christmas, you can hold a food or coat drive. Coat drives are especially effective because nearly everyone has a few in their closets they’d be happy to get rid of and see go to a good home. Make sure you have gift certificates for sale and that you let patients know they’re available. What’s better than the gift of health?

You can also hold an open house. Do this soon after Thanksgiving as people tend to get booked up with parties and events the closer we get to Christmas. A great way to get people to attend is to hold a raffle. Sell tickets for a small fee with the money going to a charity. The winner must be present at the time the names are drawn in order to claim the prize.

Use it or Lose it

HSA dollars that is. Many plans require that the money set aside in an HSA account be spent on qualifying medical expenses by the end of the calendar year or it’s lost. This is your patient’s hard earned money! Encourage them to make appointments before the end of the year, not only so you can help them devise health-related New Year’s Resolutions, but so they don’t lose that money too.

Health is a Priority

Health is a priority for most people, but life can get in the way. Devise your marketing strategies during this time of year to push those health priorities to the forefront. It will mean better health for your patients and a healthier practice for you!

For more information on building community connections, I encourage you to read my new book Community Connections! Relationship Marketing for Healthcare Professionals. If you want more valuable information about how to Connect with YOUR Community, you can find FREE healthcare practice marketing content, PowerPoint Presentation Jumpstart Kits, workbooks, blog articles, and my FREE “Practice Marketing Planner” Now!

Patient Education

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

Patient education can make or break your practice. No amount of marketing can make up for a lack of patient education.

What Do You Do?

It sounds like a ridiculous question, but ask the average person what an orthopedist does. Answers might range from “I don’t know” to, “Something to do with knees.” But what if you’re an orthopedist who specializes in shoulders? A potential patient with a shoulder problem might pass you by because they don’t know orthopedists do more than deal with knee injuries.

It’s up to you to educate patients on what you do…everything you do.

How Does That Help Me?

The most important part of patient education is to teach how what you do can help a patient. (Also, why is it important for the patient that they should take care of their health issue?) Sure, fixing knee pain takes care of the immediate problem, but what else happens when the knee is fixed? When the body is taken care of, walking and exercising are less painful, favorite hobbies can be resumed, and quality of life is improved.

Educate patients on the positive “side effects” of using your services to resolve their current health issues — and to prevent future health concerns.

Your Site is Your Chalkboard

In 2012, 72% of people used the internet to find health information, and you can bet that number is even higher now. This means that one of your first (and best!) opportunities for patient education is your website. You want all the nuts and bolts such as your hours and if you accept insurance. However, you want more meaningful forms of education available, too. Tell your potential patients what you can do to improve their lives.

This is where having a section of your site devoted to blogging can be useful. It’s a more personal way to connect with patients and tell them all the great things you can do for them and their health.

Videos are Worth a Million Words

While you have patients in your waiting room, you have a captive audience. Rather than fill that time with outdated copies of People Magazine, set up televisions to play patient education videos. Sure, a few people might read brochures or check their FaceBook while they wait, but others will allow their attention to be captured by something on TV. Leverage the time patients spend in your reception area by using it to educate them on your practice.

Train the Troops

Make sure your front desk staff knows how to properly educate patients on the telephone. This is especially important if you don’t accept insurance. If that is the first thing a prospective patient hears, they may say, “Thank you,” and hang up.

Do you file with insurance as a courtesy? Do you have low-cost monthly plans that make your practice affordable for those who don’t have insurance? These should be the first things your staff is trained to convey to prospective patients calling with insurance inquiries.

Patient Seminars

Seminar Holding patient seminars is a great way to share your knowledge, educate current patients, and engage with potential new patients in a relaxed, informal setting. You can demystify procedures that seem “scary” to some people, showcase services that current and future patients may be unaware you offer, and increase awareness of yourself and your practice within your community.

These seminars can be very inexpensive, especially if you have space to hold them in your office. You’ll want to advertise the event on all your social media outlets and perhaps take out some ads in local media. Patient word of mouth will likely be your best advertisement, so encourage patients to bring along a friend or family member.

Always Be Teaching

Every encounter – physical or virtual – you have with a patient or potential patient is an opportunity to educate, and that’s an opportunity to grow your business. Patient education is one of the most important aspects of any practice. Always be teaching!

For more information on building community connections, I encourage you to read my new book Community Connections! Relationship Marketing for Healthcare Professionals. If you want more valuable information about how to Connect with YOUR Community, you can find FREE healthcare practice marketing content, PowerPoint Presentation Jumpstart Kits, workbooks, blog articles, and my FREE “Practice Marketing Planner” Now!

Slow Summer Season

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

Summer is upon us, and that can mean a slow down in business for some. Let’s look at some ways to give your practice a boost during the slow summer season.

Step Up Your Projects

Now that things are quieter, you have time to devote to all those projects you neglected when things were hopping. And if you focus on the right ones, they can help drive business to your practice during the slow summer season.

Write some posts for your blog and social media sites, in fact, write a batch of them to drip out during your busy season when you’re short on time. Is there a class you could take to help improve some aspect of your practice? Public speaking, writing, nutrition? Sign up, just don’t think of it as summer school!

Have you wanted to write a book? With the many options available for self-publishing, it’s easier than ever to write a book or an e-book that can help get your name out there and help to establish you as an authority in your field.

Think of the Children

Summer means that school is out, and kids are home driving their parents nuts! Even if you don’t see children as patients, there are still some things you could do that would be fun for them and introduce their parents to your practice. Mint

If you’re a nutritionist or dietician, hold a gardening class to introduce kids and parents to growing their own herbs or vegetables. Chiropractors can hold a class to show parents and kids how to protect their spines while enjoying their favorite summer vacation activities.

If you’re a PCP, you could hold a summer first aid class. These are all ways to get kids out of the house (and their parent’s hair) for a few hours and drive new business to your practice. At worst, you’ll build some goodwill in your community.

Recall

Are you keeping a recall list? If not, you should be and now is a great time to use it. If you use scheduling software, you should be able to pull a report for patients that have not been in since X number of days, weeks, etc. Contact these disappearing patients and try to schedule them for an appointment.

Depending on how big the list is, you can send out postcards, automated e-mails, or make good old fashioned phone calls. It’s a low cost, low effort way to round up some AWOL patients.

Start a Referral Program

Let your current patients find new patients for you! Offer something for each new patient an existing patient refers. But make it worth their while. Don’t just give out things like pens with your name and logo printed on them. Give away things of value. (Be sure to check with your state rules and regulations regarding “gifts” to make sure you’re not inadvertently providing “kickbacks” to patients.) Something like a free supplement of their choice, an ice pack, or an add-on service such as a free 15-minutete chair massage or an aromatherapy treatment are great ways to thank patients for their referrals.

I’ve also had great success with a handwritten, heartfelt note thanking the patient for trusting me with their family member or friend. Always remember that a referral is a gift from a patient to a practitioner, so make sure they feel appreciated!

Hold a Fair

Not the kind that sells fried stuff on a stick…a health and wellness fair! Partner with a handful of other healthcare practitioners, rent an event space and put the word out. Are there any sports tournaments in your community? This is a great place to set up a health fair. Fair

Cut Back

This won’t drive business, but it will cut down expenses if a slow summer season is impacting you more than you’re comfortable with. Go back through your schedules for the summer months for the past few years and see when the slow times were. Mondays, Fridays, the first few days before and after holiday weekends?

It makes more sense to close during those slow times and see more patients on fewer days or for shorter hours. Consider how this will affect your staff before making any decisions. (Alternatively, beef up your marketing calendar to increase your office visits.)

Take a Break

If you’re not seriously impacted financially from a slow summer season, do what everyone else is doing; take a vacation! Most Americans don’t get or take enough. Taking a break from work is good for you, your practice, and your patients. There’s a reason the flight attendant tells you to put your oxygen mask on first. You can’t help others if you don’t take care of yourself. School’s out, enjoy the lazy days of Summer!

Junk Food Marketing

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

Junk food marketing works in the short term, but it’s not a sustainable way to grow your practice. Make sure you aren’t a junk food marketer! Hot dogs

Have you ever read ingredient labels while food shopping? Almost everything is filled with sugar, even savory foods like bread and tomato sauce are loaded with the stuff! Why? Because it’s a cheap, lazy way to make food palatable. Is it good for you? Certainly not, but it’s cheap and easy. The same thing holds true for practice marketing.

Junk Food Marketing

Cheap and easy and not good for you seems to be the way some practices approach marketing. Good marketing, like good cooking, takes time, and there are no shortcuts. So while you might initially tempt some people with cheap and easy “junk food” marketing, it’s not sustainable.

Have Something to Say

Regular engagement is important, but make sure you have something meaningful to say every time you communicate with your patients. Don’t send out a communication for every little holiday. Your patients won’t mind if you don’t Donut wish them a Happy National Donut Day (yes it’s real, it’s June 3!).

If you’re a veterinarian, though, your patients might get a giggle if you wish them a Happy National Puppy Day (also real, March 23!). But things like that are a special case and just meant to give your patients a little laugh. The other 99% of the time, you should have something informative and engaging to communicate whenever you reach out to your patients.

Make it Professional

All your marketing materials should look professional. It’s easy to take shortcuts like printing out brochures on a regular old office printer or to take your own photos for your website, but those are perfect examples of junk food marketing. Those kinds of things stand out to potential patients; it makes your business look cheap and unprofessional. Have your marketing materials professionally done.

Quality Over Quantity

There’s a fine line between marketing and spam. Even the best quality content will be ignored if it’s too much. You want to engage your audience and keep your practice on their radar, but people are bombarded 24/7 by information. It can be overwhelming. You don’t want your marketing content to be thought of as spam.

You Only Promote Services

It’s understandable that you want to use your marketing to promote your services, but make sure that isn’t the only thing you’re doing. People want to read information that’s helpful, funny, or interesting. Consider your demographics. Do you have a lot of athletes in your practice? Write a post or newsletter about ways athletes can avoid injury. Do you have a lot of families in your practice? Write a post about fun summer activities coming up in your area.

People don’t want to read constant self-promotion, they want to feel like you’re writing for them. You can feel free to add a few lines about your services at the end of a post, but it shouldn’t always be the entire focus of every post.

Set a Schedule and Stick to It

It’s frustrating when you find a blog you like and it’s not regularly updated. It seems unprofessional. If you worry that you can’t keep up a regular writing schedule, batch several articles and schedule them regularly. This not only helps to keep the readers engaged, but it also helps with SEO ranking too. Frequency matters, but it matters less than consistency.

Get in the Kitchen!

Don’t feed your patients and potential patients junk food marketing! Get in the kitchen and cook up something good for them. No one can live on a diet full of sugar forever, and your business can’t survive on a diet of junk food marketing.

Internal Marketing for Healthcare Practices [Easy Definition]

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

Chances are, when you graduated from your healthcare education institution, you didn’t have a strong background in marketing. If you had to define internal marketing for healthcare practices could you do it? For most providers, the answer is no, yet internal marketing is critical to the success of a practice. If you’re among the majority in this case, take a deep breath. I’m going to give you an easy definition you can use when developing your marketing strategy.

Simply stated, internal marketing for healthcare practices is any activity or event done within the walls of your office to promote your practice. The most effective marketing strategies utilize a combination of internal and external marketing for practice success. (We’ll address external marketing in a subsequent blog, so stay tuned!)

What are some examples of internal marketing for healthcare practices? Effective and attractive business cards and brochures you give to patients…patient newsletters…happy employees…a movie and discussion night …a healthcare talk or series of healthcare talks…a community corner…patient testimonials…and so on. (Yes, it is possible for an item or activity to be used for internal and external marketing. Don’t get caught up in the labeling!)

When establishing your marketing calendar for the upcoming year, a good rule of thumb is to schedule one internal marketing event or activity each month. You may be tempted to schedule more than one, but be careful you don’t overwhelm or exhaust yourself. You can always add more activities and events to your calendar later if you find you have the energy and resources.

Once the events are scheduled, plan them carefully with an attention to detail. Modify your plans as needed, and debrief after the event is over. Discuss what went well, what could have gone better, and what to change for next time. I recommend having a system to organize all of your event information and materials. A 3-ring binder or a digital folder structure both work well. This way, the next time you host the same (or similar) event, you don’t have to start from scratch!

I’d love to hear from you! What types of events and activities does your practice do for internal marketing? Share your most creative and successful ideas in the comments section below!