Marketing is a key tool in the establishment of your healthcare facility, practice, or service as a trusted community resource.  Building relationships, delivering a clear, concise, and important message, and commitment to delivering quality care all play a role.  Quality relationships are key for successful outcomes and can be a clear delineator between your organization and your competition.  Strategic relationships aligned with the core values of delivering high quality healthcare, using best practices, and delivering patient-centered care should serve as the basis for a winning organization.  In healthcare, relationships with patients are integral, as are those with colleagues, competitors, and other providers within the continuum of care.  

To understand how to prioritize marketing and outreach efforts it is critical to understand where your patients come from and what is important to them.  

• • Collaborate with insurance companies:  aligning with health plans can give you additional exposure and access to potential customers.  Meet the sales representative from each of the plans you accept, not only are they a great relationship, but they can be a referral source that works synergistically. 
  • Easy and available appointments:  healthcare consumers want to know that their providers will be available if they are needed.  Make sure that schedulers are attentive and if you have an online scheduling platform make sure that it is easy to use.  Easy online access can often be a key delineator amongst providers!
  • Location, location, location:  patients want to use healthcare providers and receive services in locations either near their home or workplace.  Have flexible office hours to accommodate shift workers or people who work multiple jobs.
  • Reputation of the provider and/or service organization:  patients care about reviews and reputation.  Referrals from other providers, family, friends, and trusted advisors play a role in choice of hospital, home health, and provider
  • Accomplishments and qualifications of the provider and/or health service:  awards, credentials, experience, expertise, and accessibility all play a role in standing out as an extraordinary service provider.  Proudly share accomplishments, community activities, and other acknowledgements to accentuate perception and quality of care.
  • Be likeable:  patients and consumers want to feel validated and comfortable during health-related interactions.  Create an environment that is personable and warm, maintain eye contact with the patient, and remain focused during the appointment.  This helps with patient retention, team connectedness, and patient outcomes. 
  • Good communication:  patient-centered care requires effective communication that makes each patient comfortable.  Communication should be adapted to ensure that each patient understands what is happening and what the expectations are for each respective situation.

With clear understanding of the customer base, marketing and outreach efforts can be established to identify methods that can serve as differentiators from other providers.  

Establish your organization as an expert in healthcare (or your area of expertise)

• • Create relevant, meaningful culturally competent educational information for patients and other healthcare professionals
  • Recognize and implement the rollout of educational materials in a variety of methods:
    • Email content
    • Place content on website
    • Create printed materials
    • Create video content
  • Position your organization as the leading local expert in your field or specialty
    • Present audience-specific seminars
      • Patient
      • Caregiver
      • Healthcare professionals
      • Administration
      • Vendors
      • Community members
    • Create content to educate and inform referral sources
      • Continuing education for healthcare professionals
      • Virtual programming for specific audiences
      • Support (or lead) health expos

Develop meaningful website that is consistently monitored and updated

• • A website is a powerful tool for digital marketing that can utilized for business management, patient recruitment, patient retention, brand visibility and growth
    • Must be kept up to date
    • Easy to navigate
    • Visually appealing
    • Strong brand presentation
    • Adaptable to various screen sizes (should be mobile friendly)
  • Develop a social media presence to drive traffic to the website
    • Ask patients and users for reviews
    • Establish a presence on multiple social media platforms
    • Respond to comments in a prompt manner
    • Follow up on comments and encourage feedback and interaction
    • Recognize that consistent communication applies to social media
    • Use survey tools to gain insight from users on social media to expediently address any issues – be responsive

Integrate SEO to generate referrals and identify referral sources

SEO (search engine optimization) is an essential element of healthcare marketing.  Working with an SEO vendor, identify target keywords, link building, and locally focused SEO, designed to promote your website and social media capabilities.