Doctors, especially those who own and run their own practice, would benefit greatly from learning the ins and outs of marketing and social media. A doctor’s private practice is, after all, also a business. Medical agencies need to find ways to properly educate and have excellent platforms to grow an audience.
You don’t have to be one or the other; you can be both a doctor and an effective business owner. If you have your own private practice but don’t know where to begin marketing and promoting it, here are some tips to get you started.
Offer something new
If you are a general practitioner, consider adding other medical services in your practice, like dermatology or sports recovery. These medical services may seem niche. But if your practice is the only one offering them in your town or neighborhood, you have a monopoly on this specific market. Research the medical services needed in your community and find ways to be the practice that provides the best of these services.
Highlight close relationships
One thing that your private practice can offer that regular hospitals or clinics can’t is a hands-on approach to your clients. This is because you, as a physician, will have more time, opportunities, and resources. You can get to know your patients at a friendlier level compared with other types of medical agencies.
At the same time, consider building a reputation for being a doctor who truly cares about your patients and taking your time building networks and a sense of community. When you do so, you organically create a customer base that would naturally refer you to their friends and families looking for a doctor, too. When promoting a medical practice, word-of-mouth is one of the best ways to do it, if not the best way.
Leverage the Internet
There are so many technological tools at your disposal now that you can use to get the word out about your practice. This is especially true at a time like 2021 when most people spend most of their time online. Now is the time to use the most up-to-the-minute strategies for reaching an audience online, especially if your target audience is Generation Z and millennials. Here are some tips for effective social media marketing:
- Create a brand identity for your practice. If you don’t already have a logo, tagline, colors, design, tone of voice, and other visual elements for your practice, now is the time to develop it. Once you’ve established a clear brand identity for your practice, make sure you use it consistently across all platforms. This visual identity can help influence your practice’s interior design as well.
- Provide interesting and engaging content. As a doctor, you are uniquely positioned to provide health-related news and to fight misinformation, especially in the age of COVID-19 and vaccine debate.
- Create a simple but well-designed website. It’s a must if you want your audience to learn more about your practice, your schedule, and how they can set appointments. Your website will be the one-stop shop upon which they can have the answers to all their questions.
Modernize your day-to-day operations
Now that the Delta variant is sweeping across the nation (not to mention the world), patients might experience the same fears they first experienced last year, when not much was known about the virus and when we had to be extra careful to curb infections. Now more than ever, your practice needs to pivot in case your state calls for another lockdown, and you might have to make do with telemedicine. Here are some pointers for modernizing your practice so that it’s prepared to operate in any context:
- Find a platform that will allow your patients to set appointments online, and make sure you are always prepared to meet them through video calls.
- Digitize all of your patients’ pertinent information, like their insurance, contact numbers, and others.
- Make room for social distancing in your private practice. Consider investing in technologies that calculate foot traffic at all times so that you can avoid having too many people on the property at once.
We may be living in daunting times, but we also have many technological platforms and tools at our disposal. These pieces of equipment and devices can help us get the word out about our services. Doing so can help patients looking for a doctor they can talk to and trust. Don’t be afraid to explore modern options in your quest to grow and expand your practice during this pandemic. Doing so can make the path to success more manageable.
