Importance of Marketing Your Healthcare Practice in a Slow Economy
A majority of the time, healthcare practices believe they are safe and sound when the economy declines. The belief is that there will always be people who become ill and will need healthcare. Just as other consumers in this decline, healthcare patients are feeling the sting. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, roughly 47 million Americans under the age of 65 were without insurance in 2008. Those Americans that do have health insurance are facing coverage cutbacks, rising co-pay fees and other out of pocket expenses.
As a result, healthcare practices are seeing a considerable decline in revenue. According to the MGMA’s Cost Survey (a 2009 report based on 2008 Data for Single-Specialty Practices), “between 2006 and 2008, the number of procedures dropped 9.9% and the number of patients dropped 11.3%.”
In today’s economy, healthcare practices are looking for ways to cut costs. During a recession, marketing is usually the pink elephant in the room drawing immediate attention for budget cuts. Practices in the past have learned that cutting marketing budgets in a recession could be a big mistake. By eliminating marketing efforts, practices may lose current patients, new patients, and even referrals. Patients that rely on appointment reminders in the mail or by phone may question the practices standing if these simple marketing tasks cease. Potential new patients may not even know your practice exists if you stop advertising or abandon your website. Referring colleagues may also stop sending referrals if they no longer receive marketing materials or feel they have lost communication with you.
Businesses with a solid grasp on marketing see slower economic times as a huge potential to expand within their market. Your competitors may be reducing staff, services, and marketing efforts making this the best time for your practice to fill the void where your competition is not present.
Below is a list of marketing practices important to your organization:
- One of the most important processes in marketing your healthcare practice is maintaining relationships with your current patients. Your current patients are a vital and priceless marketing tool. Your patients play an important role in recommending family and friends which will further help your bottom line.
- Developing and maintaining relationships with colleagues is very important. A good recommendation from another healthcare provider will only help your practice.
- If you do not already have a patient reminder system in place, you should implement one. Patient reminders can be as simple as a phone call, email or even a text message. Software can also be implemented to streamline this process alleviating your staff from doing so manually.
- Advertising your practice should be at the center spoke of your marketing efforts. Not all advertising efforts are suited for all budgets. There are however, numerous options depending on funds allocated to marketing.
- If your practice does not have a website, you should make it a top priority. The internet has become a standard method of finding information. If your practice cannot be found on the internet, you are losing money. A website will give your practice constant visibility as well as credibility amongst current and new patients as well as colleagues.
- Publish a newsletter or blog. Today on the internet it couldn’t be easier to setup your own newsletter or blog. There are numerous websites online that provide access to these utilities. Writing your own publication will give you credibility and assists with networking. A newsletter also addresses a key factor in marketing and that is consistency. If done right, a newsletter or blog consistently updated will provide patients and colleagues constant broadcasts regarding you and your practice.
- Email marketing is becoming very popular as more people are using email as a daily form of communication. Email marketing can be used for many purposes in your practice. It can be used to market new service offerings, specials, update practice news and announce events. Many healthcare practices are already collecting patient email addresses in their practice management software. These addresses can be exported from your practice management software and utilized in online email marketing applications to send mass marketing emails.
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