The BEST Healthcare Practice Building Advice I Can Give

Meet Dr. Kelley

I’m going to break a cardinal rule of online content marketing today. What rule is that, you ask? I’m going to share – in my very first blog – the single best piece of small business marketing advice I could give to a healthcare professional. I’m not going to make you pay for it. I’m not even going to make you wait for it. Are you ready? Here it is: The absolute best piece of relationship marketing advice I can give to a healthcare professional looking to grow their practice is to connect with your community. Sound simple enough? Let me explain. Best Practice Blue

Chances are, if you’ve found your way to my website, you’re a healthcare professional who’s looking to build their practice. Perhaps you’re about to graduate or are new in practice. Maybe you’ve been in practice for years but continue to struggle. Or, perhaps you’ve had a successful practice but you’re getting bored with your same old marketing events. No matter which category describes you, connecting with your community can help to ramp up and reinvigorate your practice. But what does connecting with your community mean?

The best way to build a successful private healthcare practice is to become involved in the local community, build genuine relationships, and leverage those relationships to the benefit of all involved. In other words, connect with your community, and allow those community connections to help you build the practice and life of your dreams.

Community building is a key component of success. The health and well-being of your community should be in the forefront every day, which means that you need to connect with them on all levels: physically (through office hours), emotionally (by caring for their needs) and intellectually as they are not just patients but friends too. Connecting with those who support my healthcare practice has been one invaluable resource I’ve used to grow my business!

Dr. Kelley 5k Community Event

When I was new in practice, I had lots of time on my hands. I decided to give back to my community by hosting free health workshops for the local Fire Department. I donated thousands of hours to participate in ride-alongs, to create and deliver the workshops, and to create and sponsor 5 K runs to benefit specific Fire Fighters. The 9 workshops became part of a “curriculum” which all First Responders had to go through and covered physical health, nutrition, and stress management. I created a lasting relationship with this Fire Department focused on their needs. But guess what? Over time, as they got to know and trust me, when they required the services of a chiropractor, many of them turned to me.

Dr. Kelley Pendleton Connecting with her Community

Dr. Kelley Mulhern Connecting with her Community

Connecting with your community doesn’t need to take a lot of time, nor does it need to cost you a lot of money. Find a cause or a population you’re passionate about and figure out a way you can make a meaningful difference for them. Remember – it’s not about you…it’s about your community. But if you take care of them, they’ll take care of you! How can you connect with your community?

Marketing Among the Madness

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

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!

Up for Review

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

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Even if you haven’t intentionally created an on-line presence, you may still have an on-line presence. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you and your practice are up for review.

Buyer Beware

If you’re thinking of trying a new restaurant or hair salon, do you hop onto a site like Yelp to find out what others had to say about them? Many of us do, and increasingly, patients are doing the same before choosing a practitioner. A lot of patients are doing this, and as much of 85% of patients let these reviews influence their decision.

Consumers have a lot of sites to choose from for reviews including, Vitals, ZocDoc, Healthgrades, and even Yelp.

On-Line Word of Mouth

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Many practitioners rely on “word of mouth” for new patients. On-line reviews are “word of mouth” shouted through a megaphone! That can be good, and it can be bad. Good reviews can bring in lots of new patients, and bad reviews can slow the flow to a trickle.

We all know some people simply aren’t happy no matter what we do. And whatever you might think of being reviewed on these rating sites, you can’t ignore the impact on-line reviews can have on your practice.

Welcome the Feedback

It can be daunting, but dive in and read your reviews. Many unhappy patients won’t complain in person; they just don’t come back. To use the restaurant analogy again; think of the last meal you had that you didn’t like. Did you say anything at the time or did you just decide you wouldn’t return?

Because review sites give people a non-confrontational outlet, they’ll use them to complain. Try to stay objective and don’t take negative reviews personally. As hard as it may be to read negative reviews, you can use that information to improve your practice and your ratings. Remember, it can be frustrating because the things you think make a good practitioner may not be what patients are judging you on.

For example, you’re up for review on things like how well you listen, how long the wait after arriving on-time for an appointment is, and how well the staff interacts with patients. Patient reviews are less focused on things like the effectiveness of your treatment and their overall health outcome.

How to Handle Bad Reviews

If you get a bad review, do not comment back to the patient on the review site. You might think the response is measured, apologetic, or resolves the problem, but you don’t know how the reviewer will react. It can escalate the situation for everyone to see.

Ideally, you should reach out privately to the patient and ask how you can resolve the issues that prompted the bad review. Hopefully, your good will gesture will prompt the patient to delete or at least to amend the review, although you shouldn’t ask them to do so.

If the review contains false information, most sites have a protocol in place that allows you to dispute and possibly remove it.

Get Good Reviews

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One of the best things you can do is to simply let positive reviews counter and overwhelm any bad ones. But you have to be proactive in getting good reviews. People are much more likely to complain about something they didn’t like than to praise something they did like.

So ask for reviews and tell your staff to do the same. You can be tactful about it. If a patient pays you or your office a compliment, ask them if they would kindly write a review saying the same thing. Make it easy for them. Make an instruction form for reviews and hand out copies to willing patients.

Make sure to include the web address of your preferred site. You might need reviews on ZocDoc, but the patient may not even know that site exists and was going to leave a review on Yelp instead. They can take the instructions home and type the information into your preferred review site, or fill it out in the office and give it to your staff to enter.

And remember, if a patient takes time out of their day to leave you a positive review, let them know how grateful you are. They have given you and a great gift and you want them to know you appreciate it!

Look at the Average

If most of your patients are happy, and your practice is thriving, don’t let bad reviews get you down. Consider how you look at reviews of other businesses yourself. You probably disregard the over-the-top glowing ones (figuring those were written by the owner’s mom) and do the same with the over-the-top bad ones because you figure it’s the competition attempting a little on-line sabotage.

On-line reviews are a powerful tool but don’t let them take up too much real estate in your head. Address the legitimate complaints and watch the good reviews pour in!

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!

External Marketing for Healthcare Practices [Easy Definition]

by Dr. Kelley Mulhern Leave a Comment

We examined the concept of internal marketing for healthcare practices in a previous blog. Let’s turn our attention now to the concept of external marketing for healthcare practices. Simply stated, [external marketing] for healthcare practices is any activity or event done outside 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.

What are some examples of external marketing for healthcare practices? Effective and attractive business cards and brochures you give to prospective patients at events…a healthcare talk or series of healthcare talks hosted off-site…providing services at an athletic event…sponsoring a 5K…and so on. (Remember, don’t get caught up in the labeling because it is possible for an item or activity to be used for internal and external marketing.)

When establishing your marketing calendar each year, start by scheduling one external and one internal marketing event or activity each month. You may be tempted to schedule more than one of each, but resist the temptation. Consequently, you may overwhelm yourself, your staff, or your available resources. Then when the event occurs, you’ll likely be exhausted and unable to project the best image of your practice. You can always add more activities and events to your calendar throughout the year as your resources and energy permit.

Once the events are scheduled you can begin the planning process. Create a system to organize all your event information and materials. Try a 3-ring binder or a digital folder structure, depending on your preference. This way, the next time you host the same (or similar) event, you don’t have to start from scratch! Establish reasonable goals for what you hope to accomplish with your marketing activity (i.e.: New patients, increased awareness, raise money for a charity, etc.). Determine how you’ll track the progress of those goals. Research, collaborate, delegate, and modify as needed.

Finally, with proper preparation, you can relax and enjoy the event when the day arrives. Afterwards, debrief with staff and volunteers. (If you can get feedback from participants that’s even better!) Discuss what went well, what could have gone better, and what to change for next time.

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