Today, we are delving into a topic where doctors often make mistakes: choosing a healthcare marketing agency.
Often you have been bombarded with dozens of advertisements. Naturally, you would like to turn to someone competent to give your business an edge, but you don’t know what to fish for. So here I am, ready to answer one of the most important questions: choosing a healthcare marketing agency?
Follow me carefully because I will help you clarify and contact a truly specialized agency and not the first one who passes by. I will tell you what to ask, who to listen to, how to trust, and when to move on.
Start with the right questions to choose a healthcare marketing agency
To select a healthcare marketing agency, the first thing to do is start with the right questions. What does it mean? Before contacting an agency, you should have a specific objective in mind. The goals can vary based on your experience and can be numerous, your presence or not online, and other factors that we see immediately.
So here are all the questions you should ask yourself before venturing into any search for a healthcare marketing agency:
- «I already have many patients. Should I do healthcare marketing anyway? » If your name is already known and you already have a queue of patients outside your office, you may think this is okay and leave it. However, in reality, competition in the private medical sector is increasing more and more, as demonstrated by the opening of polyclinics and macro-clinics that are popping up like mushrooms. So, even if your pressing need isn’t to attract more patients, you should work on your image and authority, creating a relationship that binds you tightly to your patients. Building a solid image online and offline with the help of a specialized healthcare marketing agency such as medical Marketing is essential for your profession to continue to grow. But not only…
Let’s say you already have an average 10-day waiting list. I would say that you are at a good point. In this case, you should ask yourself: are they the kind of patients I want? Are they actually on target with me? Would I rather not follow any of them anymore? Healthcare marketing does this, too, refining and improving your patient list.
- «I had a bad experience with makeshift marketing agencies. Is it okay to try again? »If you have already chosen to do health marketing, it has been a disaster. Perhaps you would like to disappear from Facebook, delete reviews, and no longer have that site that you paid a lot of money for, and that doesn’t bring you any results.
But think about it, because online, like it or not, you will continue to be there. Patients will continue to search for you and want more information before contacting you. It’s illogical to step back and lock yourself in an ivory tower just because the previous agency did its job wrong.
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- «I’m not on Facebook or Instagram, and I don’t have a website. Where should I start? »Don’t worry. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos also started from scratch. If you are invisible on the web, the first thing to do is choose a health marketing agency that offers acomprehensive marketing strategy. It makes no sense to ask for a website without social networks or open a Facebook page without advertising campaigns. You risk throwing money into useless tools and beautiful shop windows with no function than acquiring patients. Therefore, contact only those who offer you a complete path,
- «I am a doctor just starting without a big budget. Can I still do healthcare marketing? »You have to! While a young doctor with a little budget is disadvantaged because he has to build a reputation and a name entirely for himself, in terms of familiarity with technology and some advertising concepts, he is certainly more advantaged than a doctor with many years of work behind him. Competition risks crushing the young doctor, especially if he has a little budget to invest.
The first thing to do? Don’t let the months pass without doing anything with other patients. Some healthcare marketing actions cost less!
- «Marketing has always seemed suitable for selling mattresses and pots. Is it not so? »Unfortunately, in Italy, compared to countries such as the United States or Northern Europe, marketing is“ugly, dirty and bad“ still applies. It is seen as something unethical because it is thought that it serves to dupe customers and patients into buying something they don’t need. In actuality, this is not true, nor is it the case. It especially concerns healthcare marketing.
In your specific sector, marketing works. Otherwise, there would be no doctors, medical centers, or dental clinics that invest hundreds of thousands of euros a year and have a continuous line of patients outside the door. In addition to working, it is also ethical because it connects you with the potential patient thanks to information and not exclusively promotional content.
Therefore, you should start with these questions to understand how to choose a healthcare marketing agency. But they are not enough. When you have first contact with an agency, you do not know how it is structured or how much assistance it can provide you. So here we come to a sixth question that deserves a separate paragraph:
Choose a large or small healthcare marketing agency?
After a first contact or consultation with a healthcare marketing agency, we stated that we had no idea who was on the opposite side of the desk. Maybe you just had a chat with a marketing consultant who told you what you would need and what his team is willing to do.
Also, remember that a poorly structured agency, which already follows many doctors or an agency that, in addition to you, takes care of communication for restaurants, dealerships, bars, and so on, is a risk. You might end up on the back burner, but you might also have a type of communication that isn’t right for your profession.
The answer is not just one
The answer to the question “How to choose a healthcare marketing agency?” is not one.
A very low price probably means poor care of the work being done. Perceiving little one is inclined to do only the minimum necessary.
Suppose those who deal with social networks also have to make the website, write the texts and create paid advertisements. Still, my advice is to immediately be wary of those who do everything with few resources and improvise. You need a specialized team, just like Medical Marketing!
Ask for evidence
You are determined to do healthcare marketing, but all the marketing agencies you find on the internet seem to be populated by gurus who, with a magic wand, can multiply patients and money, even if it were the “multiplication of loaves and fish.
Ask for concreteness and the numbers that matter
While no promises are better than false promises, ask what results from you could achieve when making your healthcare marketing agency.
When you contact a healthcare marketing agency, you do not increase your number of “likes” on the Facebook page. Instead, you attract new patients or build content after content and an authoritative image to prove negative reviews.
Choosing a healthcare marketing agency: the conclusions
To conclude, here are the fundamental factors on which you should base your choice:
- Goals to be achieved in the medium and long term. What are the goals you want to accomplish within a year? Why could a healthcare marketing agency help you? Ask yourself these questions carefully to not rely on the first generic marketing agency inexperienced people run.
- Don’t trust the rock bottom prices. Anyone who promises you a full job for a few hundred euros is incompetent or bad faith. No strategy works and requires such a small investment.
- Do not listen to the agency’s words but to the terms of the doctors who chose that agency. Everyone can speak well of themselves, but not everyone can proudly share the comments of satisfied customers.
- No to vanity metrics, yes to feasible strategies focused on patient acquisition. Don’t choose the healthcare marketing agency that promises you likes and shares on Facebook.
Where can you start from
To choose a healthcare marketing agency, you should also understand healthcare marketing, what it can give you, and its laws. So here I have prepared a course for you that will provide you with all the basic information to approach this complex and fascinating world. The system is called Marketing for Doctors.
visit here for more info