A multi Hospital System here in Pennsylvania recently polled 816 patients asking; “How did you find our specialists?” The results were not surprising to us.

84% responded “My primary care doctor sent me here.”

12% responded “Friends and family suggested this doctor to me”

4% responded “Media”, meaning TV, Radio, print ads, etc

These are unbiased results that should act as a guide for any practice considering marketing. Put your marketing investment dollars into the same three quadrants in the same percentages to gain your most effective return on investment dollars.

1. Market to your referring physician community directly with a practice-rep or regular correspondence of some type, ie newsletters, networking, brand materials, etc.
2. Patient to patient referrals are highly effective. Be sure to include a “Send to” button on all your electronic newsletters and correspondence to past patients. Have your staff make an on-going effort to collect emails addresses for all patients so that you may use this cost effective medium to keep your practice “on top of mind” with past patients who may refer friends and family.
3. Most practices cannot justify the cost versus return of media advertising such as TV and radio. Print advertising does have some value in building your brand name recognition as long as it is repeated in the same venue on a consistent basis.

Focus your marketing efforts in these three proven area’s for the greatest return on your marketing dollars today!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 1:30 pm and is filed under All Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.