A marketing plan is an essential document that will direct you through the process of developing the most effective marketing strategy for your medical practice. The template is designed to fit the needs of all medical offices. The following categories are included in the sample plan: I-Learning & growth, II Customer/patient retention, III Operations and Financial, IV Increasing sales, V Enhanced branding, VI Improved physician education, and VII Overall business success. There are several additional categories that may be useful to your practice based on the information provided above.
The first section of a medical practice marketing plan covers the clinic objectives. This will include the demographic data for your practice, the type of medical professional you are seeking to recruit, and the procedures necessary to attract those patients. This section should also include information regarding the type of medical practice marketing plan you plan to use. For example, if you intend to utilize a multi-tiered marketing approach, you will need to provide statistics on the number of new patients that join your practice each year.
The second category of items in the medical practice marketing plan sample includes the specific medical practice marketing strategies you will employ. This would include the type of advertisement or public information campaigns you plan to use, the amount of time and financial resources expended, and the targeted demographic of patients you seek to serve. It is important to note that this section should be completed after your overall mission statement has been determined. In other words, it is not a part of your primary strategy. However, it is an important factor in determining the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
The third category of items in your medical practice marketing plan typically pertains to patient acquisition. In addition to identifying your primary marketing message, you must also identify your target market. Although healthcare marketing strategies tend to be broad in nature, identifying your target market can be more specific. For example, you may want to attract only new adult patients or only pediatric patients, and so on.
Next, you must identify what type of advertising is most likely to attract your target market. You can either offer a free medical review or a free newsletter or teleseminar series. If you have a website, you can take advantage of search engine optimization to help boost your page ranking. This can make it a lot easier to find patients who are looking for a physician in your area.
Finally, you will need to determine how you will measure the success of your advertising efforts. One way to do this is to establish a target number of patients over a certain period of time. Typically, this is based on your overall revenue projections and the number of office visits by new patients during that time frame. Also consider ways to track the success of your medical practices marketing so that your targets can be met easily. Some of these include offering prizes for patient retention or even cash incentives for referrals.
Finally, to keep your patients happy, you need to engage them. The easiest way to do this is to schedule social media posts during the open times when most doctors are available. This also makes it easy to keep your patients informed about any specials or services they may need while out of town. Remember that engaging your patients is an integral part of your marketing strategy. By staying active through social media, you will retain them as repeat visitors and potential customers.
Now that you have a clear understanding of how medical practice marketing strategies work, it is time to put it to use. Developing an online presence is not enough anymore. You must continuously communicate with your patients in an informative, non-judgmental, and friendly manner. If you follow through with your goals, your patients will come back for more, while giving you more referrals and new patients.