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.