Why Make Time to Market A Practice

One common problem independent physician offices have today is the belief that they too busy to market the practice. There is the new EHR system.  Staffing and billing is a nightmare.  The senior partner is retiring.  Marketing?  You have to be kidding! 


These practices may have, at some time, created a marketing plan, but maybe not.  They may have believed a shingle, a business card and some old friends or colleagues would be enough to attract new patients.  They may have a fairly stable group of referrals for now.  They may have passed all business and marketing responsibilities to their office manager who feels that there isn't enough time for marketing activities on top of all the other minutia of running a practice today.  They are just plain, frantically, busy.
So what happens? Well often, doctors just stop marketing and focus their attention on patients and day to day issues. After all, they have all the patients they can handle.  Their med school buddies will keep referring to the clinic.  They have a good reputation in the community.  They don't have to market the practice anymore, right?                                


Wrong!                      

That may be true for a few weeks several years ago, but sooner or later those patients will die, move away or change insurance plans.  Those referring colleagues may have their practices bought by a health system that discourages them from sending your office patients.  The hospital may build a clinic across the way and have a large successful marketing and advertising plan.  If you've just stopped marketing your practice, the office may suddenly realize you don't have any new patients, and it may be too late to impact that trend.

Marketing may not seem like a necessity when you have plenty of folks in the waiting room and your are booked out for six weeks.  But without steady marketing efforts, you won't be able to attract new patients to keep your practice healthy, stable and competitive in today's health care market.

Keeping abreast of your practice's marketing efforts requires planning, so my next post will have a few suggestions for marketing your services even when the office is extremely busy.


Note:  The thoughts and opinions on Training Wheels are my own, unless otherwise referenced, and are to be food for thought.  If contemplating business changes, these blog posts are not a substitute for consulting your lawyer or accountant. I'll bet you already figured that out, didn't you?