Marketing | 7 micro-guides | Read time: 2 minutes
Now that you have a deeper understanding of how to use various communications channels to your greatest advantage, it’s time to hatch a solid marketing plan.
To develop a marketing plan, you have to ask yourself these three questions:
Based on the answers to these questions, you can then develop a plan of action to start communicating with your patients. The best way to tackle marketing is through a multi-channel approach so that key messages get in front of prospective and existing patients several times.
Let’s say you’re reaching out to patients whom you haven’t seen in office for more than 18 months. Your planning process might look something like this:
Whom do I want to reach? Patients who haven’t scheduled an appointment in more than 18 months.
What do I want to tell them? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure—scheduling an annual well visit is the best way to catch any potential issues early, which can improve outcomes.
How will I reach them? Segmented email campaign, direct mail piece, phone call/text message.
Of course, the plan you develop depends on the message you’re sending and the patients you’re sending the message to. For example, if you want to let people in your community know about an upcoming free health-screening event, your plan might look more like this:
Whom do I want to reach? Members of the community at large.
What do I want to tell them? A free health screening event is a great way to get an accurate snapshot of your current health and pinpoint any potential issues before they impact your life.
How will I reach them? Social media posts, direct mail piece, mass email campaign.
As you get more experienced with developing plans for marketing to your patients in various circumstances, thinking through these three questions will get easier, and you’ll have a better idea of which channels work best for different types of patient marketing.
Building and fostering strong relationships with your patients hinges on positive experiences and good communication. When patients have a good first experience with your practice, they are more likely to want to stick with you as their healthcare provider. Patients want to feel heard. They want their questions to be answered. They want things to be as easy as possible. They want to be treated with respect, kindness and compassion.
You have the power to make all of this happen. You know you can change your patient interactions from transactions into relationships. You have the ability to motivate, educate and help patients live their healthiest, happiest lives.