Online Branding and Marketing a Vascular Surgery Practice


Introduction

Marketing has shifted from being frowned upon and avoided, to being acceptable for building and maintaining a vascular surgery practice, to now becoming an essential. Increasing competition amongst vascular surgeons as well as physicians in other specialties, patient consumerism, growth of elective/ambulatory procedures, and presence of business entrepreneurs in healthcare services are all factors that necessitate marketing. Vascular surgery practices largely rely on patient referrals from other physicians; therefore, marketing creates awareness of the vascular surgeon’s expertise and commitment not only for the patients but also for the referring physicians.

Branding is an important component of marketing and is defined based on the notion of a label or a symbol. By creating a logo or catchphrase, a vascular surgery practice can build its own branding identity. The relationship between the consumer (i.e., patient) and the provider (i.e., physician), the value added for the patient, and the exchange (i.e., cost and benefit) between the physician and the patient are the three main constructs of branding.

In the recent decade, social media has revolutionized the practice of medical marketing by creating a network connecting patients, physicians and other health systems. Moreover, social media presence of the vascular surgery field is increasing. Thus, online branding and marketing through social media is a necessary part of developing, growing, and maintaining a vascular surgery practice.

This chapter outlines guidelines for marketing a vascular practice, with emphasis on social media marketing, how to conduct a market analysis, methods to attract referring physicians/hospitals and how to assess referral patterns within the practice community, development and use of educational tools in marketing, strategies in modern advertising using social media and web presence, ways to deal with negative feedback and the pitfalls of social media, and how to implement online marketing to strengthen a vascular surgery practice. By understanding these principles, vascular surgeons can effectively expand and maintain their practice while establishing their expertise to the patients and the referring physicians.

Marketing A Vascular Practice

Marketing is any promotional activity aimed at promoting an idea, organization or service. This requires understanding the needs and wants of the patients (i.e., customers) and tailoring your practice’s service to meet those needs. To set up an effective marketing plan for a vascular practice, the practice needs to identify groups of patients who share common wants or needs and develop positioning statements that will demonstrate what your practice will offer to each of your target groups. You must also identify and market yourself and your practice’s unique strengths and niche (i.e., dialysis access, wound care/limb salvage, noninvasive vascular laboratory, varicose veins) that only you and your practice can fill. Vascular practices can incorporate the traditional marketing mix of the 4Ps that businesses use as part of their marketing plan: product, price, promotion, and place.

  • Product refers to the actual service being provided. In vascular surgery, this could mean endovascular services, noninvasive vascular studies, vein services, etc.

  • Price is the list price of the services including any discounts.

  • Promotion is the advertising, promotions, sales force, and public relations used to reach a defined target market. For example, direct marketing to potential patients can be used to distribute information about the vascular practice.

  • Place describes the locations at which your service is available to the patients.

Next, the practice must outline specific campaign objectives, marketing activities, timeline, and budget. It is important to perform a marketing analysis in order to set goals that can be evaluated for improvement with time and must be realistic and attainable. First, you must assess the population of potential patients, the competition, and referrers. When developing your marketing plan, you should analyze the competitors nearby (i.e., competing vascular surgeons, interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, general surgeons, neurosurgeons, etc.) as well as which procedures they are performing and where (i.e., operating rooms, interventional radiology suites, cardiac cath labs). You need to assess the current market area and explore whether there are new areas to be explored. In addition, you should investigate whether the patients are staying locally for the services or travelling elsewhere and if there are patients with vascular diseases that are not being treated. All of this information will guide you in attracting potential patients and keeping existing patients to maintain and build your practice efficiently. Your marketing goals can be achieved via both internal and external marketing.

Internal Marketing

Internal marketing is when the practice advertises itself by providing positive patient experiences. It is the most effective type of marketing and at no cost. When the providers and staff within the practice afford extra care and effort, patients in turn recognize the enhanced level of care and return for follow-up care or new issues. Furthermore, the satisfied patients will promote the practice by positive word of mouth to their relatives and friends. Simple ways to internally market the practice and positively enhance your patients’ experiences are to document special events, hobbies/interests or birthdays and mention them at office visits, provide a 2-minute call on the way home from the office to follow-up with the patients, and leave the patients with the impression that you and your practice are grateful in the trust they have put in you.

The effort placed by the staff within the practice is equally as important in internal marketing as the staff are a representation of you and your practice. Patients will often interact with the office staff as they schedule their appointments and settle billing issues. Selecting staff that share your values, including them in strategic decisions to enhance patient care and experiences within the practice, setting tangible goals to gauge success, and rewarding positive outcomes is critical to the success of the practice.

External Marketing

External marketing is advertisements, promotions, public relations and other forms of communications, such as social media, which will be discussed later in the chapter. Patient requests can be the deciding factor of the referrals by primary care and specialists to your practice. Educating potential patients about less familiar topics in vascular diseases and surgery may be useful. The SVS website provides patient education fliers on various vascular diseases, interventions, and surgeries, that may be downloaded in the offices and handed to patients or accessed by patients on the website itself. Vascular practices can use their websites and social media sites to provide links to these fliers, which are available in both English and Spanish.

Educational marketing can also be achieved within the practice. For example, within the waiting area, the fliers mentioned above can be available for the patients to read while waiting to be seen by the providers. Short educational segments can also be presented on television screens in the waiting area of the vascular practice. These activities show that the practice is interested in engaging with the patients and providing them with readily accessible resources.

Generating positive public relations is another way to market your vascular practice. Sponsoring free lectures and/or workshops on various vascular interventions to nurses, medical spas, and salons or providing free screenings at a retirement home are ways to develop good relationships with potential patients. In addition, your practice can also participate in community outreach such as health fairs to target more potential patients.

Marketing to Referrers and Assessing Referral Patterns

When marketing a vascular practice, it is essential to remember referrers as part of your target audience. This includes hospitals and referring physicians. Referrers are looking for vascular specialists who are able to provide the best care for their patients, good communication about their patients, and easy scheduling access for their patients. In order to attract referrers, you must first target the referring physicians. This can be achieved by lunches/dinners offering continuing medical education (CME), with phone calls or by distributing referral fliers/business cards, online websites or social media advertising, or providing hospital in-service presentations or grand rounds. Another option is to take stipended vascular calls at a local hospital to increase your profile within the community. Outlined in Box 203.1 are easy ways to build relationships with the referrers. ,

BOX 203.1
Relationship-Building Tools with Referrers

  • Provide easy contact with your practice and to set up an appointment for one of their patients.

  • Provide the expected communication by the referrers after assessing and treating their patients. (Some referrers will want summaries while others will want details)

  • Follow up with the referrers.

  • Maintain communication with the referrers and the referred patients. (Provide updates through the practice website or social media sites)

  • Maintain professionalism and be courteous to all employees when providing service at an institution outside of your practice. (Interns, residents, and fellows are future referrers. Employees will often seek medical attention from providers they know and are comfortable with)

  • Maintain a database of the referrers. (Provide special treatment to the top referrers)

  • Be active in professional organizations – create more awareness about your practice and your expertise.

  • Create business cards with your credentials and practice information along with a customized referral brochure accessible from the SVS website to distribute to hospitals, referring physicians and employers. (The referral brochures can be emailed to referring physicians or hospitals to be distributed)

  • Periodically survey the referring physicians and improve your service based on the feedback.

Once referrers are established within your practice, it is important to assess the referral patterns within your practice and community in order to retain and bring in more referrers to maintain and continuously grow your practice.

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