This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Measurable marketing strategies help practices to meet their objectives

Start by knowing the practice and market. End with quantifiable tactics and implement them right away.

Issue: June 2006

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

After completing a thorough market analysis, marketing-conscious orthopedic practices are ready to develop their marketing strategy.

While there is no one preferred way of doing that, experts recommend that every orthopedic practice develop at least one or more strategies.

“Identifying strategies and the action plan that goes forward is very important,” said Chris Ives, of Ives Services Inc., a Colorado-based firm that provides physician and hospital business development services.

“Each strategy should be linked to a more top-level objective for the practice,” Ives told Orthopedics Today. If the objective is to increase awareness of the group’s services, the strategy might be better communicating what those services are to patients during office visits and phone calls.

According to Bill Champion, president, Orthopaedic Marketing Group, “It’s really important that they get this objective right.”

Top objectives

Champion warned practices to not put the tactic in front of the strategy. He said he often hears orthopedists and their staff say, “We want to add patients” or “We need to purchase an MRI unit for upper extremity imaging.” Those are not strategies; they’re tactics, he explained.

“What they’re really saying is, ‘We want to increase disbursements to the physicians. We want to increase physician revenue.’” That’s an example of a top-level objective, not a strategy, Champion said.

Another common objective that is a little broader: To increase practice revenue and financial stability. “The other main one is increasing the quality of care and improving how care is delivered by your practice,” Ives added.

Do your homework

Ives and Champion agreed on the two essential components for developing appropriate strategies that help practices meet such objectives: knowing your practice and your market.

Knowing your practice means taking steps to carefully identify the practice’s mission, vision, core values and short- and long-term goals. [Visit ORTHOSuperSite.com, free with registration, to find Orthopedics Today stories on these and other marketing topics.] A good way to know your market involves performing a thorough analysis of types of patients and referral sources in your area, and identifying their needs.

The practice that has done its homework will have already taken both of these steps. And, if done correctly, the results will help the partners figure out what patients and referral sources in their area need. That sets the stage for developing an appropriate marketing strategy.

So, what does a marketing strategy look like?

A practice that wants to increase its revenues, for example, might choose from several strategies.

Let’s say XYZ Orthopedics, in an effort to increase its revenue, makes a concerted effort to attract/recruit more patients (ie, their objective). The partners choose to do that by increasing by 20 the number of referrals they get each month for the next six months (their strategy). In the end, they decide to work more closely with their referral sources and to learn how to better serve them.

Tactics or action items related to that strategy might include having someone meet with each of 11 current referrers to find out what they like/dislike about referring patients to the practice. That might involve bringing in lunch and providing a brief in-service on some of the common primary care orthopedic issues.

Another tactic: Identify physicians who have only ever referred a handful of patients and send them a letter thanking them for their past business. Remind them about the breadth of service offerings and insurance plans the office accepts. Or, better still, target them with a visit that revolves around your services that align with their interests, such as convenience, location and access, and give them a document that lists the insurance plans your practice accepts.

“A visit is probably worth 20 letters,” Champion said. Regardless of approach, track any increased referral rate against the tactics to measure whether the strategy worked.

Recruiting strategy

For some practices, physician recruitment has become a popular strategy, Champion said. These practices have identified their market’s needs and some have even carefully aligned their objectives with them.

Champion cited the example of a practice with a top-level objective to increase disbursement by 10% over the next five years. They looked at the competition, which does not have a foot and ankle specialist, and at the fact that about 20% of their patients are seen for foot and ankle problems. They found “they could easily achieve that objective and meet the market needs if they could get a foot and ankle doctor on staff,” he said.

Champion typically approves of a recruitment strategy like that because it “steers clear of the competition.” Plus, if the practice sent all its foot and ankle cases to its new foot and ankle doctor, it could add significantly to overall efficiency.

Strength in strategy

When a practice sets up a strategy it becomes less susceptible to unproductive, reactionary responses to an ever-changing business climate or to what competitors do. A good strategy becomes the foundation and purpose for each marketing project the practice takes on.

Take for example the objective to raise awareness of the practice. One related strategy might be to let patients know more about what the practice offers during office visits. The marketing project or tactic: Placing new signs in the waiting area containing text and graphics describing all the practice’s services. Or you could have the receptionist give patients a small brochure when they arrive.

But just handing out the brochures without linking back to that objective, and tracking the results, may be a waste of time and money.

One pitfall to avoid: wrongly camouflaging spending as marketing expense, Champion said. If you haven’t done your marketing homework, avoid spending $5000 on a new Website and then rationalizing the expenditure as part of the marketing strategy, unless it truly is.

Harry Beckwith, author of Selling the Invisible, warns those responsible for marketing to not get too wrapped up in coming up with the ideal or best marketing strategy. A good strategy will work just fine.

If it does not perform as expected, it can always be modified, according to Chris Houchens of Shotgun Concepts, Smiths Grove, Ky.

Most marketing experts support the idea of developing different marketing strategies for each of the practice’s customers, such as patients, hospitals and referral sources, as long as they are integrated.

The overall marketing plan needs to be consistent and constant, Houchens said. “Marketing must be ongoing to follow-through … with your brand promise.”

According to Champion, “A strategy that aligns the objective of the orthopedists with the needs of the market while considering the competitive environment is the key to the success on a practice, subspecialty or individual physician level. Considering the growth of consumer-driven health care, this is even more critical to a practice.”

For more information:

• Beckwith, Harry. Selling the invisible. Warner Books, New York. 1997.
• Champion B. Developing marketing strategy. Presented in an industry forum at the BONES Society 36th Annual Conference. June 5-8, 2005. New Orleans.
• Evidence-based marketing: Find what patients, referring doctors want. ORTHOSuperSite.com/view.asp?rID=5662
• Houchens, C. How to create a marketing plan for your health care organization. #BRK412. Presented at the Medical Group Management Association 2005 Annual Conference. Oct. 23-26, 2005. Nashville, Tenn.
• How to build a marketing plan that works from the ground up. ORTHOSuperSite.com/view.asp?rID=5237
• Setting core values, goals helps practices hit right targets. ORTHOSuperSite.com/view.asp?rID=5454