In my final prep for the Medical Practice Success Summit this week, I have been reviewing marketing materials and websites for Medical Practice clinics from across the country who will be joining us in Las Vegas. In doing so I have continually asked myself the question, “How does this marketing piece distinguish the Medical Practice from its competitors?” The easiest way to answer this question is by answering another question. “If I were to take someone else’s logo and replace it with the logo on this current piece of marketing collateral, would it make a…

Christmas is one of my very favorite times of year - not just on a personal level, but on a professional level as an Medical Practice marketer. There are so many fun and creative ways you can incorporate the holiday season into your marketing plans. 1. Deliver a Hot Cocoa Bar One of the members of my marketing team came up with a really creative idea this year. She delivered "Hot Cocoa Bars" to area businesses to promote our Medical Practice. The investment was minimal, but the smiles it brought made it much easier for her to be able to share information about our Medical Practice facilities…

Have you ever had a really good marketing idea, implemented it, and it went off super successfully? Then you tried to emulate it the following year – or perhaps in another market – and you didn’t have the same results? Congratulations! You haven’t failed at marketing, you’ve learned one of the cardinal sins of marketing. Strategies and tactics vary by market, time of year, and the audience you are talking to. The number one question I get whenever I speak at a conference on marketing is, “What is the one thing I should be doing right now to market my…

When done successfully, working a booth at a local event, health fair, business expo, or other type of trade show can be a great way to grow awareness of the services your Medical Practice provides to your community. But many Medical Practice marketers flop when it comes to successfully working their booth and maximizing the number of touch points available to reach potential patients both during and after the show. Unlike doing cold calls to try and drum up new business, where often times you’re met with resistance from the person you’ve just interrupted, people who attend local…

In Marketing 101 you learn there are two types of ways to classify a business. The first is commonly called B2B, which stands for business-to-business. When a business caters directly to consumers, it is called B2C, which stands for business-to-consumer. So what is your business? An Medical Practice may be both. While your primary services are B2C, if you also offer occupational medicine, you are also B2B. While it is good to understand the difference between the two from an operational perspective, from a marketing perspective, I think it is more important you get to know their less talked…

There are so many options in social media today that it can be overwhelming to decide where to start, how to keep going, and what new avenues you should explore in your Medical Practice marketing. Twitter is the fastest growing social media of 2013, but Pintrest, Instagram, and YouTube are also really growing. And even though it was announced this week that Facebook is losing on average of 6 million users in the United States each month, it is still the site most marketers deem their core platform for social media marketing In your social media marketing plan, Facebook is your launch pad for…

By: Tina Bell Each time I interview a new person for our marketing team, I always ask them this question, “When selling, is it more important to you to make someone happy, or is it more important to you to get their business?” If you haven’t done sales before, you may be surprised to learn this is not a trick question. I am specifically looking for one answer, “To get their business.” Yet after interviewing close to 100 marketers over the course of my career, I’ve only received the correct answer from one candidate – and he got the job! You may be…

Tomorrow we will open our seventh Medical Practice, and this go around I have been less hands-on than ever before, allowing my marketing team to take the reigns of opening this clinic. When we open our eighth location later this fall, I will be even less hands-on because each time we open a new clinic, we fine-tune and update our Policy and Procedures manual for how-to open a clinic. From checklists and timelines, to inventory lists and supply houses, every step of our opening procedures is spelled out. As the new chief brand officer, this was the first clinic opening since I started in 2006…

If your community is anything like the communities where we have Medical Practice clinics, you are not limited on the number of publication sales reps frequenting your business, leaving you voicemails, or filling up your inbox, all in hopes of getting you to spend your advertising dollars with them. With so many options, how do you know which publication to pick? Step 1: Look at Magazine Racks If the publication you’re looking at advertising in is a community magazine found free around town, make it a point to look at the magazine racks when you frequent different establishments where…

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Did you know it's estimated that more people watch the Super Bowl each year for the commercials than they do for the actual game? I was one of those people last year, at least through the first half. Then I decided I really didn’t need to watch the second half of the game, I would just see which commercials my friends on Facebook thought were the best. As I pondered that thought again this morning, something hit me. There are several lessons Medical Practice marketers can take away from Super Bowl commercials. 1. Timing Matters Your message has to be played at…