marketing - Dr. Kelley

Healthcare Marketing Goals -Set Your Annual Goals!

“What?” You might be asking.

“It’s time to set my annual healthcare marketing goals already?”

Yes! I know the year isn’t over yet and you’re still making progress on this year’s goals. But having the next year’s goals in place by the beginning of October gives you time to cement those goals in your subconscious.

I don’t typically recommend a specific way to create your goals…different ways work best for different people. You could produce S.M.A.R.T. goals as discussed by Tony Robbins. You could build D.U.M.B. goals as discussed by Brendon Burchard. (Seriously, check this out!) The important thing is that you find a goal-setting method that works for you and stick with it. I have a few tips to help you along the way:

Written. Your healthcare marketing goals must be in writing and kept in a convenient location you can refer to every day. To hold yourself accountable, purchase my $10 Workbook here-> Companion Workbook – a place to plan out your daily, weekly, monthly, and annual goals.

Concise. Be as specific as possible about what you want to achieve in the coming year.

Measurable. Your goals must be measurable in order for you to know when you’ve achieved them. You shouldn’t have to guess when a goal is accomplished. You should know with certainty…and celebrate!

Manageable. Don’t develop so many goals that it becomes overwhelming… If you have that many goals they are probably action steps, not goals.

Grounded. Your goals should be based on your values and purpose, and aligned with your mission, and vision. If a goal isn’t congruent with this foundation, rework it or ditch it altogether.

Regardless of the process you use to flesh out your goals, it can be helpful to break them out into major categories. (If you decide to have lots of subcategories, only list 1-2 goals for each one. Keep in mind you only want 10-15 goals for the entire year!) The ones I use are:

Professional – Includes any goals focused on your career. You may further break this down into categories such as financial, practice numbers, marketing, education, etc.

Personal – Non-work-related goals fall into this category, which can be further sub-divided if necessary. (i.e.: Mental, physical, emotional, creative, etc.)

Financial – Any goals you have regarding money, savings, investments, etc.

Adventure – Goals for fun and recreational activities are a must! Otherwise you run the risk of only focusing on work and getting burned out.

Connections – Who do you want to meet, work with, interview, mentor, etc. in the upcoming year?

Have you set your written healthcare marketing goals for this year? What works for you? Please share your thoughts and tips in the comments section to help others who may be struggling.

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.

Healthcare Marketing Mastermind Group

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

Mastermind groups have been around for several decades, but have you ever thought of creating or joining a healthcare marketing mastermind group? A mastermind is a group that meets on a regular basis (typically monthly or quarterly) to share challenges, successes, and ask for feedback. The participants can be from the same profession or from a variety of professions. For a healthcare marketing mastermind, I’d recommend working with practitioners from various healthcare disciplines.

In its simplest form, the mastermind meeting allows each participant to introduce themselves, share a win, and share a challenge. The group is then able to offer advice or feedback regarding the challenges. However, the meeting format can be changed to suit the needs of the people involved. For example, the content discussed can be very general, concerning anything to do with business. Or, the discussion content can be narrowed down to a specific area such as goals/goal-setting, practice marketing, leadership, or practice procedures.

Topics for discussion in a healthcare marketing mastermind group could include wins, challenges, collaborative opportunities to educate the local community, evaluation of prospective marketing events, evaluation of completed marketing efforts, development of marketing plans (marketing calendars, “Connections CalendarsTM”), and so on.

One key piece to the success of such a mastermind group is the intent of the people involved. Each person must approach the group in a spirit of helpfulness and cooperation. This is not about competition. It’s about helping each healthcare practice to showcase itself in the community. This enhances local health awareness and increases the potential success of everyone involved. It’s been said that “a rising tide raises all ships in the harbor.”

Think of the local market as a pie. Each slice of the pie represents a “market share.” The bigger your slice of pie, the more patients you have and the more successful your practice becomes. A healthcare marketing mastermind group could help all healthcare providers. As the community becomes more educated about health and their healthcare options, the metaphorical pie (and your slice) gets bigger. As you help your peers, you also help yourself!

If the term “mastermind” doesn’t appeal to you, try another such as “Healthcare Marketing Forum,” or have the members collaborate on a name during the first meeting. A new meeting type that is gaining in popularity is the “accountability group.” These groups may be smaller than a mastermind group and meet more frequently as their goal is to help hold each member accountable to reach their goals.

What do you think? Would you be interested in creating or joining a healthcare marketing mastermind group? How have masterminds worked for you in the past? Leave your comments in the section below and help us create our own virtual mastermind group!

Healthcare Marketing and Zonkies [Dare to be Different!]

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

Healthcare marketing and Zonkies? Seriously, what’s the connection? Healthcare providers often do the same, old, tired events and activities for their healthcare marketing. Certainly there’s a place for those things…they became “standard marketing” (or “workhorses”) because they were effective or provided useful information. We don’t want to throw them out completely…but consider enhancing them with some new, fresh, and interesting healthcare marketing activities where you dare to be different! (The zonkey!)

That’s right! Think outside of the box. Pretend there is no box! Be clever. Be unique with your marketing. Stand out from the crowd of healthcare providers clamoring for the public’s attention…

But how?

That’s a great question…

And I don’t have a specific answer for you.

Why not? Because your marketing should be as unique in your community as you are…and I don’t know you personally to be able to give you the perfect answer. Instead, look for general ideas. Then see what resonates with you…what looks like it would be fun…what your community needs…and tweak it to fit your situation. For example:

Develop a unique twist on an old standard. For instance, if 5Ks are a favorite stand-by, freshen them up by creating a new theme. Some fun runs that have been popular lately include zombie runs, color runs, and bubble runs.

Ramp up your professional use of social media. There are an infinite number of ways to creatively use social media and market your practice. There are even ways to systematize and automate it so it doesn’t suck time from your busy schedule. Refer back to my May 2015 Marketing Tip of the Month Newsletter for more on this topic of social media automation.

One newer social media tool to make a splash is “Periscope” by Twitter. Set up a free account, then dive in to real-time video experiences. Sure…there are people “scoping” strange things…but it can be very useful from a professional perspective. Imagine hosting a patient dinner or delivering a healthcare talk and having people drop in from all over the world! They can see and hear you…and interact with you via chat. Viewers can even send “hearts” (by tapping on their screen) to give you applause or to show their agreement. Or imagine a patient “scoping” their appointment with you…how else could you use it in your practice?

What fun and unique practice marketing activities have been successful for you in the past? Please share them in the comments section so we can continue the conversation!

6 Signs Your Healthcare Practice Marketing is Failing

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

Sometimes the harder we work, the less effective we are, and the same can be true for practice marketing. This blog will explore 6 signs your healthcare practice marketing is failing and what to do about them.

Sign #1: You find yourself working harder, yet producing fewer results. For example, you’re doing more marketing events, but have the same number of new patients each month. Like a hamster on its’ wheel, you can’t seem to make any marketing progress. Tip: Do less marketing with more focus, planning, and intention. Create a written Connections Calendar™. If you need help with this, my Ramp Up For Success Package! is perfect for you. Click here for details.

Sign #2: Your patients or staff can’t explain what you do. Part of marketing is explaining to people what you do and how it can help them. Your patients and staff may see results, but if they can’t explain the results (in general terms) then your marketing has failed in its educational component. Tip: Provide constant education to your patients and staff. Make sure your staff is completely comfortable explaining what you do in multiple ways.

Sign #3: Low conversion. You’re able to attract people to your healthcare talks, marketing events, and practice, but few of them make the transition to becoming a patient. This can be closely tied to sign #1. Tip: Carefully examine your “close.” How can you change it to make it more effective?

Sign #4: Few referrals. Related to sign #2, internal marketing is a never-ending process of communication and education to current patients and staff. Tip: Provide multiple opportunities for patients to learn more about the variety of people and conditions you can help through testimonials, articles, health talks, podcasts, etc. And don’t forget to ask for their referrals!

Sign #5: Burnout. We could have a chicken-and-egg conversation here, but I think we’d all agree when you’re marketing-marketing-marketing it can lead to exhaustion and burnout. (And when you’re burned out, your marketing becomes less effective…hence the chicken-and-egg…) Tip: Build relaxation time into your schedule. Systematize and streamline your marketing so it requires less effort.

Sign #6: Stagnation. It’s been said the only constant in life is change. If your healthcare practice marketing strategy isn’t growing and changing, it’s stagnating. And that’s unhealthy. Tip: Review your written Connections Calendar™. Are the activities and events the same ones you’ve been doing for years, or do you try to add new items each year? How can you freshen it up?

Have you seen your own practice in any of these 6 signs? What did you do about it? Please share your thoughts in the comments section – I look forward to seeing you there!

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!

Mid-Year Goal Check

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

Can you believe we’re halfway through the year! It’s time for a mid-year goal check so we can see how far we’ve come and how far we have to go before the end of the year.

Review Your Goals

Earlier, we discussed setting goals . Because summer is slower for many practices, now is the ideal time to track your progress. Look at each goal. Why was it important? If you don’t have a good answer for that question, you aren’t likely to stick to those goals. Reaching a goal requires sacrifice, and if the goal isn’t compelling, you aren’t going to be motivated to work towards it.

A lot can happen in six months; you may have to make adjustments to both your goals and your plans to reach them. There’s nothing wrong with that, running a business is dynamic, and you have to be willing to change what isn’t working. What seemed urgent in January might not be a priority now.

Be careful that you aren’t doubling down on a goal that isn’t helping your business. It’s easy to fall victim to sunk cost fallacy when making business decisions. Car repairs are a typical example of the sunk cost fallacy. You spent money to put in a new transmission and then the brakes go out. The cost of the transmission and brakes together add up to more than the car is worth. The ideal decision would be to eat the cost of the transmission, it’s money already spent that you can’t get back, and buy a new car. But because you just spent all that money, you decide to spend money on new brakes too. Admit a mistake and don’t throw good money after bad.

Use a Real Measure

Hard numbers don’t lie, so make sure you look at them when you measure progress. Did your marketing campaign grow your patient numbers? Did the EMR system you implemented save you the time and money you thought it would? If the numbers aren’t adding up, you need to reassess your goals so you can “right the ship” before the end of the year.

Prioritize

Now that you’ve reviewed your goals, you need to spend your energy in the right place. Is there a goal on your list that stands out? There should be! Focus your attention on the big goals, the ones that will grow your business. That might mean enhancing your web presence, spending more time on community outreach programs, or improving the training methods for your staff.

No Zero Days

“No zero days” means that every day, you have to do something towards a goal, it can be a small thing, but you can’t let a day pass without doing something. Getting started is often the hardest part for many people. They’re fine once they get going, but getting going can be hard. That’s why implementing a “no zero days” policy is so helpful to eliminate that kind of procrastination.

You want to communicate more often with your patients by sending out a monthly newsletter, but it never seems to happen. From now on, you’ll do something to reach that goal every day. Sit down and decide on a subject for your next letter. Got the subject? Great, you can quit for today. But you’re already in front of your computer, and you already know what you want to write about, so you might as well write the opener.

Now that you have the opener, you might as well write the first paragraph. And so on until, voila! You’ve written the entire newsletter!

Accountability

Did you know that people who write down their goals and share them with others are much more likely to meet those goals? It’s true! A study found that more than 70% of people who wrote down their goals and gave weekly updates to a friend on their progress, met those goals, compared to just 35% of people who didn’t do the same.

Get yourself an accountability partner and let them give you the push you need.

Goals Not Traditions

If you find yourself making the same goals year after year, they’ve stopped being goals and become traditions. Use the mid-year goal check to cross those goals off your list once and for all. There’s nothing as motivating as a clean slate. That’s what you want to take into 2025, a clean slate, so you have a place to write down your new goals.