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Developing A Marketing Plan As A New Practitioner
Going from a resident or fellow to a new practitioner is an exciting transition in the life of every podiatrist. Making decisions like where and how to practice can be challenging and enormous opportunities. These choices mark a fork in the road, and the direction chosen starts you down your career path within the profession. So early on, it’s essential to take time and reflect on your vision for your practice. When you’re deliberate about the specific type of care you want to provide and how you will define success, it’s easier to measure progress towards your professional objectives.
Marketing helps your local community become aware of your foot and ankle expertise and the care you want to provide. It also shows them how to receive this care from you. By putting out into the world who you are and the care you want to deliver, you’ll naturally attract more right-fit patients. While this may seem a rather logical way to proceed, it’s easier said than done. When starting a practice, the stress and amount of things one must do can feel overwhelming. With a long list of essential tasks and responsibilities, the default can be an ad hoc, fear of missing out (FOMO)-based approach to marketing. There’s also no shortage of advertisers, technology platforms, and marketing agencies that pitch their wares via cold calls or flooding your email inbox.
Instead of worrying about other local clinics or jumping into do-it-yourself marketing activities, take a step back to reflect. This article aims to help you determine your objectives, identify local opportunities, and develop a plan so that you can take the steps necessary to build your ideal practice.
Develop A Practice Mission And Direction
Through school and training, others create a system of incentives and objectives for us to become podiatric physicians. But once we finish residency or fellowship, we have the freedom to practice as we choose (within the scope of the profession and local laws). Now that it’s up to you, how will you define success? I get it; right now, you’re probably just happy to be out of residency and getting started in practice. But what do you love about the profession, and what drives you to get out of bed every morning? If you could treat a specific condition or patient demographic all day, every day, what/who would that be?
By answering these questions, you can better chart a course toward professional satisfaction and success. Most do not have this all figured out right away. Maybe you got into podiatry because you loved sports medicine or want to help patients with diabetes live healthier, active lives. It’s okay to take the first six-to-12 months to get up to speed and better understand what brings you professional satisfaction. Besides noting the clinical and surgical activities you enjoy the most, don’t forget about other professional areas. Are there areas outside of patient care that you enjoy, like conducting clinical research, conference speaking, or taking part in hospital governance?
Survey And Identify Local Opportunities
Now that you better understand how you want to spend your time in practice, you can determine to what extent that’s possible in your current reality. Review your clinic location and the revenue generated by the care you currently perform. For example, if you’re most interested in developing a practice with a strong sports medicine focus, is that possible in your area? How big is the potential pool of patients that would benefit from those services? How many others provide a similar type of care? What is the insurance, HMO, or self-pay reality of that location?
Practicing in a small community or poor reimbursement rates for specific types of care are not insurmountable barriers. But by surveying the current reality, you’re better able to develop and execute a plan to systematically build a practice that brings you professional satisfaction within your current reality.
Weighing The Influence Of Time Versus Money
Now that you know the type of care you want to provide and have surveyed the market where you’re practicing, you can start developing a marketing plan. But with so many options and opportunities available, where should you begin? And, with no formal marketing background, how do you know the most cost-effective ways to generate actual results?
The best place to start is to take inventory of your time versus money. If you’re starting a practice from zero and have more time than money, you can become the engine that powers your practice’s growth. If you buy or join a practice where you’re booked solid, making investments and outsourcing your marketing can help attract more of your ideal patients.
In reality, and in my experience, it will probably be a combination of both. The following sections will provide some guidance and ideas on getting started.
More Time than Money: Build Your Reputation
Having more time than money allows you to split your time between treating patients and getting out of your office to interact with your community. The more prospective patients and potential referral partners see you displaying your expertise, the more your professional reputation will grow.
For example, if you wish to treat runners, you could:
• volunteer in the medical tent at the local marathon;
• start or join a sports medicine journal club with local providers; or
• give monthly talks at local running shoe stores
These actions send a clear message to a specific group of people about your expertise and who you can help. I’m sure you can imagine taking similar measures to attract different types of care or patients.
Staying connected and communicating with your co-residents, podiatry school classmates, and attendings is also underrated. No one does it alone; having the opportunity to bounce ideas off people you trust or learn from their successes and mistakes is extremely valuable when getting started.
On the digital side of things, you can use your time to learn how to promote your practice online, create a brochure website for your clinic or hire a low-cost resource to do so. As online visibility gains importance on attracting referrals, I find claiming your Google Business Profile and developing a system to gather Google and other online reviews is vital to the health and reputation of your practice.
More Money than Time: Accelerate Visibility
When first getting started in practice, your clinic and the care you provide must be visible. But if you are running out of hours in the day and don’t have the time to do this face-to-face, then accelerating your visibility with a hybrid real-world and digital approach makes sense. By following the steps laid out earlier in this article, you’ll be able to articulate your vision for your practice to gain awareness in front of the patients you want to treat.
Partnering with a marketing expert is one way to accelerate your visibility. By doing so, your practice can gain more awareness, better measure efforts, and double down on things that benefit your clinic. Instead of trying to keep up with the rapidly changing world of marketing, you can focus on providing excellent care for your patients. This collaboration may include helping identify local events, organizations, and youth sports team sponsorships to gain visibility in your area. By supporting local causes, you’re gaining awareness amongst prospective patients and showing them that you’re invested in your community.
As patients increasingly Google symptoms and potential fixes for their foot and ankle problems, being visible online is more important than ever before. But if your website, Google ads, and social media accounts don’t speak to your ideal patient, they will likely scroll by and ignore you. From a marketing perspective, what does that mean? Instead of a basic website, it means building a functional website that saves your staff time so they can focus on providing an excellent in-clinic experience. Implementing a website with online bill pay and clinic forms can positively impact your practice’s reputation and bottom line. And while any technically savvy podiatrist can learn how to set up a Google Ads account, this is not a “set it and forget it” system. But your time is likely better spent treating a couple of extra ingrown toenails each day than learning how to optimize your keywords strategy or ad copy.
Concluding Thoughts
While it can be tempting as a new practitioner to jump into marketing methods and start doing “all the things,” I find that’s not the best approach. When you begin by taking a step back, you’re better able to identify the intersection of the work you enjoy within the profession and the opportunities in your local area. With that knowledge, you’re able to craft an original, unique message with your online and offline marketing that benefits your patients and practice.
Dr. McDannald is the Founder and Director of Podiatry Growth, providing online strategy and services for podiatry clinics.