Marketing Q&A

I was a Marketing and Communications Manager at a not-for-profit once and I did a lot of thumb-twiddling and call-answering. But when it got busy around event time, I was working 12 hour days. So it all depends on what your strategy is and whether you need a dedicated team or not.

You can build a good marketing team without having the team be on site all the time. I don't think a business will need video production five days a week. Having them come in for strategy and tactical sessions every so often makes sense. Marketing professionals are used to collaborating with many different companies at once - it might seem counter-intuitive to non-marketing people, but it's common for me to work with a certain video production company and their competitor all in the same day on different projects. It's the nature of the industry.

There are various ways you can market your business.

One of the most used ways is to promote it online, digital marketing - the most advance way of marketing. Nowadays businesses do need online presence too to expand their business.

As you know, the healthcare industry is constantly changing and evolving, so it's important to stay nimble and map out your objectives. I'm in healthcare marketing for oral surgeons and dentists and here are a few marketing and PR strategies I implement that have been successful in increasing brand awareness and ultimately increasing new patients. 

1. Create videos featuring your physicians. 
YouTube is the second most popular social media platform behind Facebook and is the second largest search engine behind Google. Video content not only can help market your practice and help you stand out from competitors, but it can also boost your SEO. Now more than ever it's important to stay human, and videos help establish a comfortable doctor-patient relationship that can help attract new patients and retain ones you already have. 

2. Give back to the community. 
Retargeting past and current patients to promote services and procedures is an all too often overlooked healthcare marketing tactic. For example, offer a promotion, reward program, or even a free service. One of my dental clients offers free teeth cleanings for children during February which is National Children's Dental Health Month. This is a great way to earn press, get new patients in your practice, and boost patient loyalty.

3. Social media 
Instagram is a visual platform that offers an excellent opportunity to connect with your audience in a new way. If you’re a physician in aesthetics or cosmetics, Instagram can be a fantastic tool to generate new patients. Utilizing Instagram to share before and after’s and successful aesthetic results can be great exposure for your practice and show off your advanced capabilities as a doctor. Facebook provides a two-way communication channel and is an extremely targeted tool. You're able to interact with your audience and give a "voice" to your practice. It's also a fantastic advertising platform. 

Hope this helps!