One of the most important steps a physician can take to maintain and grow a successful practice is investing in marketing. Physicians who need help in the marketing department can turn to programs such as our JumpStart Marketing Program to help determine what marketing activities would yield the greatest ROI for their practice.

Here are three primary reasons why medical practices should invest in marketing activities:

  • Stay ahead of the competition. You need to find a unique way to stand out and differentiate your services from your local competitors. What makes your services unique? Highlighting those unique aspects of a practice can help bring in new patients and keep existing ones coming back year after year.
  • Each year your client base shrinks. Physicians will unavoidably lose patients each year due to a variety of factors and it is important to have an influx of new clientele to fill these spots. Of course, this does not meant that physicians should ignore the patients they already work with. Marketing to existing patients is an easy and effective way to maintain your business. It is significantly easier to keep the customers you already have than to attract new customers to your practice. Continuing to cater to both new and existing patients will ensure that you retain the majority of your clients while simultaneously acquiring new ones.
  • Actively manage your online reputation. Even if you, as a physician, don’t read what patients are writing online, your current and prospective patients are reading those online reviews and making decisions on whether or not to book an appointment with you. Eighty percent of prospective patients now research physicians online and fifty-one percent make an appointment within a week after researching.

In today’s digitally dominant world, your web reputation can determine whether or not those patients join your practice. If a patient has not met the medical professional, they will rely primarily on the information they can garner from their online image. This can include, but should not be limited to, reviews on doctor review websites such as ZocDoc and HealthGrades. Rather than relying solely on what others say online, a physician can launch their own digital page to market their strengths to the public. A digital marketing campaign is one of the most effective steps a physician can take to attract new clients to their practice.

Scott PR can manage marketing activities on your behalf, should physicians not want these activities to take place in-house. The JumpStart Marketing Program, for example, can be greatly beneficial to physicians who want to focus their own personal efforts on customer service rather than marketing strategies. With this program, healthcare PR experts diagnose how your practice currently operates, prescribe steps to take for improvement, and implement the appropriate treatment.  Scott PR is also able to gather positive reviews online and create original content such as a blog in order to facilitate a positive digital reputation.

In order to grow and maintain any medical practice, it is crucial that physicians pay attention to how they are marketing themselves. Current and perspective patients alike respond positively to physicians who market themselves as professional and competent medical experts, and doing so effectively can translate into a growth in business.

As a medical practice, what are your business goals for this year? Do you find that online reviews are negatively affecting your reputation?

If you’re in healthcare, insurance, technology or other professional services industries, and need help with a PR, marketing or social media campaign, contact Scott Public Relations.

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