Marketing is an integral part of running a successful business. Making sure your plan is strategic is probably one of the most important aspects of positioning your medical practice for success.
It isn’t as simple as sitting down for an hour-long brainstorming session and coming up with a “plan.” Successful positioning has several factors to consider, and by taking time to develop a solid strategy, you are more likely to have impactful marketing that will grow your business.
Without strategizing your medical practice’s marketing, you are wasting valuable resources on marketing that might have little to no impact on your business. That said, it isn’t difficult to position your medical practice for success. Once you understand what is important to your ideal patient, you will be able to create a strategy to attract them to your practice.
Build Your Audience Profiles
One of the most important parts of building a brand is identifying your target audience profile. By positioning your marketing to a specific clientele, you can more efficiently focus your resources. If you haven’t done a deep dive into your target patient, it is an essential task before developing or re-strategizing your marketing.
The profile needs to be very specific. For example, you don’t want to target your marketing to your entire city, but ask instead who in the city is most likely to benefit from coming to your practice? Who are they? What do they care about?
Audience profiles are made up of two categories, demographic and psychographic.
- Demographic: incorporates age, race, gender, employment and education.
- Psychographic: factors like personality, hobbies and values.
It is okay to have multiple audience profiles, as long as they are specific. The key is to position your marketing to grab the attention of the target patients within a few seconds by understanding what is important to them and what your practice can offer to better their lives.
Read more about patient audience profiles here.
Review Current Marketing Assets
How well are your current marketing assets performing for your business? Looking at the specific audience profile will help you determine if your current tactics are what will grab patient’s attention and bring them into your practice.
Is your ideal patient most likely to watch tv, look at a specific type of magazine, spend a lot of time online? Making sure your marketing assets will attract your audience is essential. If what you are doing now isn’t working, don’t be afraid to mix it up. While it may cost money up front to make the change, the potential of bringing in more paying patients is worth it in most cases.
Develop A Strategy & Project Plan
Developing a strategy and project plan will help you create more effective marketing. This includes everything from branding and design, content strategy, and competitive analysis.
Positioning Through Branding & Design
Every task in positioning your marketing is going to rely back on the audience profiles you developed. When branding your business, it is essential to connect with people who are likely to benefit from visiting your practice. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Does your brand message resonate emotionally with your target audience?
- Are there storefront or signage opportunities that will attract your audience?
- What colors, fonts, and imagery are most attractive to your target demographic?
- Are your graphics easy to read and attractive?
- Does your messaging clearly show why your services benefit your ideal patients?
Making your brand identity and design one that will appeal to your target audience will help to grab their attention. Don’t be generic. Stand out from the crowd.
Competitive Advantage
A large part of positioning your medical practice is understanding what sets you apart from your competition. You want to position your messaging so prospective patients have a positive feeling about your brand and are left with the feeling that your brand is superior.
Remember, the most important aspect of having a competitive advantage is focusing on why your practice is different.
- What can your practice offer that your competitors don’t?
- Is there a need in the market you can fill that competitors are missing?
- Is your price better? If not, why is it worth it?
- What makes your practice unique?
- What value can you add that your competitors can’t?
Potential patients want you to make the decision easy for them, so developing a clear message that shows your competitive advantage will help position your practice for success.
Messaging
The message you want to send about your practice must be carefully crafted to position your business for success. This encompasses everything from content development, advertising copy, and avenues of communication.
- Advertising copy: Advertising copy needs to be tailored to your audience. It is essential to research keywords that will attract your ideal patient and incorporate it into your messaging.
- Content: Most consumers are active online, and developing an online presence can help position your practice for success. Make sure your message and keywords are distributed effectively through multiple platforms like social media and blogs.
- Communication: What method of communication is most effective to reach your target audience? Should you focus mainly on email? Maybe they are likely to be active on social media, in which case you should make sure your messaging is shared there. Finding the most effective method of communication is essential.
Map The Ideal Patient Experience
Positioning doesn’t stop with marketing outside of your practice. You want to ensure that your branding is living up to its reputation once patients come through your doors. The last thing you want to do is position your practice in one light through marketing, but fail to deliver on the promises.
The ideal patient experience can include everything to hiring and training the best staff to creating small personal touches that the patients will remember. Not only will this create a positive image during their visit, patients will be more likely to spread the word to friends and leave reviews, also a positive for your bottom line.
Making sure you position your medical practice for success through targeted audience, competitive advantages, and strategic messaging can leave a lasting impression for your patients and put your practice at an advantage in the marketplace.