1. Focus on relief of symptoms, not physician qualifications. Instead of focusing marketing efforts on explaining why you are qualified to perform a surgery, zero in on the relief of symptoms patients will experience if they undergo the appropriate treatment. “Humans want to know what’s in it for us,” says Dan Weinbach, executive vice president of The Weinbach Group, a healthcare marketing firm based in Miami, Fla. “In order to capture someone’s attention and keep them interested, focus on what the patient needs first and foremost.” Patients want to feel better, and advertising positive outcomes is the best way to attract their attention.
2. Include patient scenarios in marketing material. Patients come to orthopedic surgeons because they are in pain, and fear goes hand-in-hand with pain, says Karen Rocks, principle consultant and owner of Sparkfire Marketing. Providing patients with scenarios of cases where other patients with similar conditions recovered and had good outcomes helps ease their nerves. “You have to reinforce that you’re trustworthy,” says Ms. Rocks. “Scenarios help patients see how the physician can help them, whether through surgery or another type of treatment.”
3. Target patients in your subspecialty. Decide what you want to accomplish through social media and how you are going to get there. For example, orthopedic surgeons who are currently practicing general orthopedics and would like to be more subspecialized can attract more of their subspecialty through communication techniques such as social media. “Put the message out there targeting the appropriate patient about why someone would be better off by coming to you,” says John Luginbill, CEO of The Heavyweights, a marketing company.
4. Use the Internet to reach patients at home. Many baby boomers regularly use the Internet and orthopedic surgeons can use this space to their advantage. Thomas Vangsness, MD, chief of sports medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at USC and the LAC/USC Medical Center, has created YouTube videos of different shoulder and posturing exercises and uploaded them onto his website for patients to use at home. “I tell my patients to go to my website and follow the different exercises for knee and shoulder issues,” he says. “For many patients, the videos are a lot better than giving them little sheets of paper with exercise descriptions and pictures. They can actually see how to do their exercises.”
Related Articles on Orthopedic Practice Marketing:
4 Tactics for Direct-to-Patient Marketing of Orthopedic Practices
4 Best Business Techniques for Online Orthopedic Practice Marketing
6 Ways Orthopedic Practices Can Boost Word-of-Mouth Marketing
