4 Private Practice Marketing Tips to Help You Blaze Your Own Trail

Medicine is not an easy path. It means long hours, excessive amounts of stress, and taking huge risks. Because of these risks and stresses, it also means you take pride in running your independent private practice.

Physician employment trends show that many doctors are choosing to avoid the additional stress of private practice management by joining a corporate healthcare provider network. While this is fine for some doctors, it’s not in the cards for you.

Why? Because you want to have your own name hanging on your medical practice. You worked hard to get where you are today, and you should be able to find individual success the way you envision it.

Here are some private practice marketing tips to help you grab personal success by the horns.

4 Tips for Marketing Your Medical Practice

1.  Identify Your Ideal Patient

Who are they? A family who buys their own health insurance? A young professional on a company insurance plan? A retiree with government coverage?

How do you reach them? Different demographics may be more open to certain communication and practice styles. While young professionals may not see you as frequently for medical ailments, they may be interested in other health and wellness services, medical education, and events.

How do you keep them? Use your ideal patient’s preferred communication style to stay on their radar. Producing online content, sending scheduling reminders, encouraging reviews, and following up with patients are all ways to facilitate interaction and future business.

Understanding your target patients helps you focus your energy on services, content, and communication methods that are most likely to translate to revenue for your medical practice.

2.  Work Smarter, Not Harder

While you can’t be awake 24/7, you have a tool at your disposal that's always on call. Your website and online profiles are how your patients interact with you throughout the day and night. If you can offer basic scheduling, paperwork, and other services online, your practice becomes infinitely more attractive for the new medical decision-makers: millennials.

Related: How to Increase Patient Volumes by Marketing to Millennials

Doctors now offer online patient portals and virtual appointments to make healthcare more convenient and accessible for patients.

Your website is also an invaluable marketing tool for your medical practice. Make sure your site is optimized with current SEO & digital marketing best practices to reach potential patients even while you sleep.

3.  Use Technology to Your Advantage

Wait times are always a major concern for patients. The Internet and smart technology provide easy shortcuts to reduce the time spent away from home or work. 

Gather info online - Make it easy for your patients to fill out and submit forms online so you’re both ready when they come in.

Communication platforms - Allow for appointment reminders, cancellations, and rescheduling on multiple media.

Mobile queue - This is huge for patients. Mobile queue services allow them to see where they sit in line and send a notification when it’s their turn. Patients can do some more work, grab a snack, or run a quick errand while they wait.

Offering the following services means you can use them in marketing & promotional materials on all platforms. Additionally, supporting online and mobile accessibility expands your opportunities to reach current and potential patients.

4.  Get Your Name Out There

Name recognition (aka brand recognition) has a huge impact on the success of any kind of business. It's no different for a private practice marketing plan. Name recognition means you’re top of mind when patients need medical services AND when they refer others to a doctor. Personal recommendations are the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal. So, make sure people know your name.

Related: 9 Tips on How to Select a Name for Your Medical Practice

Name Recognition Online

• Google My Business listings
• Optimized website
• Active social media profiles
• Consistent blogging

Name Recognition Offline

• Community events
• Chamber of Commerce
• Partnerships, collaboration, referrals
• Relationships with patients
• Big, easy-to-read signs

Successful Private Practice Marketing

Modern private practice marketing requires knowledge of digital tools and online channels as well as traditional offline marketing avenues. A comprehensive practice marketing plan requires more than the four tips above, but they can give your existing marketing strategy a boost.

Not sure where to start, or what to do next? Check out our medical practice marketing services and request a consultation to learn about opportunities for your practice.