Factors to Consider

 

Marketing a medical practice is unlike marketing other professional services. For the most part, this is because of the nature of healthcare. Here are some important considerations:

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• People consider healthcare to be more essential than any other professional service.

• Most people do not want to spend money out of pocket for healthcare services and believe healthcare is a right rather than a privilege.

• People generally do not respond well to aggressive medical practice advertising.

• Most advertising by medical practices is ineffective because the content is weak.

• The third-party payor system is pretty much unique to healthcare. 

• Physicians generally do not look favorably upon aggressive advertising by other physicians.

• When creating advertising for a medical practice, especially specialists who rely heavily on referrals from primary care or other physicians, it is critical to ensure potential referring physicians will at least feel indifferent about a practice's advertising or better yet, be impressed by it.

• Consumers have difficulty evaluating the quality of care provided by physicians and tend to base their appraisals, especially with primary care providers and medical specialists, on bedside manner and customer service.

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Marc Aronson, our marketing strategist, served several years as a hospital marketing director and as a vice president of marketing. Among his responsibilities included medical staff relations. As a hospital executive or marketing consultant, he has worked with physicians who practice in nearly every specialty. Mr. Aronson not only understands how to separate a medical practice from its competitors so it captures more patients, he is adept at creating content that is received favorably by all stakeholders and target markets.