Mastering the Art of Promoting Doctors Online
by Kevin P. Richardson, President, MedRocket, Inc.

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About the Author - Kevin Richardson is a healthcare marketing consultant, executive coach, and writer who provides fresh perspectives and expertise about online healthcare marketing. Sign up for his FREE "MedRocket Ezine" newsletter and discover how to profitably attract and serve healthcare consumers online. Subscribe at http://www.medrocket.com.

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Some physicians I've worked with have accepted the Internet as a marketing tool without reservation. They jumped right in.

Others have approached the prospect much more cautiously. Still others were barely willing even to get their feet wet.

Doctors are reluctant to market online for three reasons in my experience. They are concerned about their lack of marketing expertise, worried about the costs involved, and question the potential long-term value of online marketing.

Overcoming Resistance to Online Marketing

There are a number of things a physician can do to overcome or reduce reluctance to marketing on the Internet.

Marketing Expertise. First off, you’re going to have to find some degree of ongoing marketing support and expertise — more initially, and then less later on. If your local hospital can’t provide the necessary marketing expertise, then work with a marketing consultant — an experienced healthcare marketing professional.

If your practice doesn’t have a Web site, then there’s going to be an expense involved in site development. Most physicians realize that marketing expenditures are necessary for their practice to thrive.

Even simple Web sites can cost a few hundred to over a thousand dollars, which tends to give some docs the jitters.

Money. If money is an issue — and when isn’t it? — perhaps your hospital or managed care organization would be willing to provide seed money to get the development process started.

If the hospital is working with a number of physician practices, they can try and strike some deals for Web development to realize some economies of scale.

Value. As for long-term value, whenever you talk about marketing a medical practice online or off-line, the “marketing” doesn’t end with securing a new patient. The process continues in many forms throughout the lifetime of the doctor-patient relationship.

The Internet can not only help a physician to secure new patients, but can provide ongoing customer service, patient education, practice marketing, and relationship building for existing patients.

A Web site is a staff member available 24/7 that never tires of answering the same questions and never asks for a vacation.

32 Power Tactics and Marketing Pitfalls

I’ve put together a list of 32 power tactics and marketing pitfalls that you can use to improve the success of your online physician practice marketing efforts.

Since online marketing isn’t as simple and straightforward as all the hype might lead you to believe, I’ve included some pitfalls to keep in mind when planning your marketing programs. Some of these lessons — tactics and pitfalls — I’ve had to learn the hard way. Ouch.

Power Tactic Pitfall

Start with a written plan -- You really need to think through a plan for marketing your practice. Skipping this step is a prescription for failure and may also sully your credibility as the resident marketing guru.

An Easy URL -- Web sites with an easily remembered Web address or URL are crucial. If your office doesn’t have a domain name, you should pick out one that patients can remember easily, especially if they hear it on the radio. How on earth would you remember something like: "www.xyz.net/users/d/~drjones" if you heard it on the radio while driving?

Use the URL -- Place URL on all office stationery, business cards, appointment cards, patient education materials, giveaways, and marketing communications materials. It's a simple form of advertising to drive folks to the Web site.

A clunky Web site -- Even simple sites with a handful of pages need to be well designed, professional, and easy to navigate. The image the Web site presents can either strengthen the branding for the practice, or tear it down. Many docs have dabbled in Web design to create their own site. Some are excellent; others are a good start; and the rest, well... you know.

A healthcare marketing professional can give you an objective analysis of your site and how it can be made even better.

E-mail reminders -- Sending patients reminders by e-mail can be a powerful way to build doctor-patient relationships by letting patients know you’re thinking about them. Reminders come in all flavors: back to school messages, school physicals, annual exams, mammogram exams, flu shot reminders, hot weather or pollen count warnings, prenatal care visits, and many more. Include a call-to-action message.

Autoresponders -- Set up your mail server to automatically return prepared e-mail responses when a message is sent to a particular address. There are other ways to do this on the Web server through CGI scripts, as well, but the concept is the same. Use the computer’s power to distribute information, answer common questions, give office directions, send new patient information, and more. This provides quick customer service.

Dispensing medical advice via e-mail -- E-mail is a power tool for marketers. However some physicians and nurses can easily get caught up dispensing medical advice by e-mail without actually examining or speaking to the patient. Patient privacy cannot
be guaranteed through ordinary e-mail. However, patients really want to use email, so ask your consultant the best ways to communicate securely with patients over the Internet.

Audio greetings -- Record a personal greeting to welcome patients and prospective patients to the Web site. Be as animated as possible in the audio recording; a monotone delivery is deadly. Remember that this is not the same as dictating your patient notes. The recording should reflect your excellent bedside manner and ability to connect with patients.

Creative counts -- The creative skill used to design the Web site, write e-mail and Web copy, design brochures that are downloadable from the site, and any off-line materials is extremely important. They all reflect on the brand you are building for your practice. If you don’t have a marketing staff member with the necessary skills, then work with a professional.

Lack of marketing expertise -- Trying to handle all of your practice’s marketing responsibilities is a prescription to marketing failure. Physicians get busy doing what they do best — caring for patients — and their attention to marketing gradually wanes after the initial push. A marketing professional can create a marketing plan with a regular schedule of marketing activities, maintenance, and evaluation.

Direct mail postcards -- Postcards are an inexpensive secret marketing weapon. You can buy 500 full-color postcards for about $95 from companies like Modern Postcard. Feature your Web site and physician photo along with the site’s URL. You could also get more fancy if you have it professionally designed. The reverse of the card, usually printed in black, can be used for promotional copy. Direct mail works. Send it to all current patients and hand them out as promotional pieces.

Customer service sells -- Customer service is “Job One” for physician offices. Distinguish your practice from others through exemplary customer service and response. Set customer service guidelines for response time to phone calls, calling in prescriptions, responses to pages and other indicators of service. Staff need to meet or exceed these expectations. Superior customer service can be like money in the bank when it generates word of mouth promotion by patients.

Downloads -- Distribute forms and other paperwork via the Web site to allow patients to download and fill out in advance of their arrival. This saves time and lets new patients fill out the forms at their leisure. Other downloads include patient education brochures, health software, screensavers, pediatric growth charts, and health-oriented coloring pages for kids. The sky’s the limit.

Only give the Internet lip service -- Failure to integrate the Internet into the office “business” is a frequent malady that leads to online marketing failure. Once I set up a physician practice to have certain inquiries from the Web site print out on the practice’s fax machines. The doctor (and I) never trained the staff to expect this. The result: These mysterious faxes just piled up in a box and I had egg on my face. Train the staff on how the Web fits into the business side of the practice.

Fresh Information -- Offer free health information related to your practice’s specialty on the Web site and via e-mail autoresponder. Update the information frequently to keep visitors returning on a regular basis. Material comes from many sources. You might have to find someone to write the information for your practice. Work hard to keep the site fresh.

Insufficient staffing -- A medical practice’s Web site is a wonderful time-saver for staff. When working properly it can reduce the volume of less urgent telephone inquiries. However answering e-mail does take time and a staff member needs to be assigned to handle this and other related tasks.

Linking strategies -- Part of the online marketing plan should include activities to secure reciprocal links from the hospital site, from professional sites, (e.g. ACOG), managed care organizations, other physician Web sites with complementary but not competing specialties (e.g. Ob/Gyn and Pediatrics). The more external links pointing to the site, the greater the chance that prospective patients will find it. Link popularity also plays a role in how some search engines rank Web sites.

Meet the doctor -- Humanize your practice through biographical material on the Web site, photographs, audio greetings, and other interesting information. Include some of this information in practice announcement print ads along with an invitation to visit the doctor’s Web site for more information.

No Internet access in the physician office -- A big red flag. If the office staff has no Internet access in the office then how can they use it as a business, marketing, and customer service tool? Setting up an office for Internet access is something that your hospital’s Information Systems staff might be able to help with. Enlist their support; otherwise get outside help or have the office see if their existing computer support contract can help them set up for Internet access.

Online seminars -- Online seminars can take many forms. The most common is an audio seminar that covers a topic relating to the physician’s specialty. Perhaps it’s a seminar on Laser eye surgery, or minimally invasive knee surgery. A series of Web pages or a Web version of a PowerPoint presentation can support the audio seminar. Just go easy on the graphics so it downloads quickly. The beauty of these seminars is that they are on-demand. Include a call-to-action at the end of the seminar.

Get interactive -- Interactive patient education tools and experiences based in Shockwave or Javascript can increase the interest level of the practice Web site. Further, they also create a viral aspect to the site as visitors spread the word about the “cool tool” at Dr. Jones’ Web site.

Online service tools -- Besides patient education, interactive features are excellent choices to provide customer service for patients. Server-side programs can be created that enable prescription refill requests, appointment requests, online response forms, “please call me” request buttons, and many other features that make the site useful and encourage repeat visits.

Online marketing is not the silver bullet -- Online marketing is wonderful, but it should only be one facet of a successful practice marketing program. You’ll also want to consider print and broadcast advertising, direct mail, live seminars, meet the doctor receptions, and many other tactics. A comprehensive practice-marketing program will select the best tactic and marketing channel for the practice specialty and the community.

Physician Referral -- Register the Web site address with the hospital’s or managed care organization’s phone-based physician referral service and include it in any physician referral guide distributed to the community.

Practice newsletters -- Some physicians publish and mail a printed practice newsletter. You can repurpose this content for online delivery via e-mail or for updating the Web site with fresh content. I’ve had physicians stop mailing newsletters altogether in favor of using the online version exclusively.

Pull and Push -- It’s important to remember that the Web and E-mail work together in a “Pull and Push” fashion. The consumer is drawn or “pulled” to the physician’s Web site. Once at the site, make sure that there are features that request an e-mail address with some reason to “push” information back to the consumer’s inbox. The e-mail message in turn could pull the person back to the site, and
so forth.

As recommended By Dr. Jones -- Recommend reliable health resources to your patients. Place the list on the Web site and create a handout to distribute in the office. With more than 25,000 health-related sites on the Internet, there’s a lot of room for questionable health information. A physcian’s recommendation helps place the doctor back in the loop for where patients are seeking and receiving health information.

Register, Please -- Optimize your practice’s Web pages for search engines. Then take the time to register the site correctly with the search engines and directories or use one of the pay services to do it for you. Remember that you’ll need to periodically reregister with the search engines to rank as high as possible. The only exception might be AltaVista; they might put you at the bottom of the pile if you reregister your page. Like fine wine, your original listing in AltaVista will improve with age.

Respect consumer privacy -- Create a privacy policy for information gathered through the Web site and stick to it. HIPAA requires it. All office staff should be aware of the policy. A free privacy policy generator for health sites is available at the MedRocket Web site at http://www.medrocket.com/tools/privacy_gen.html

Sign here -- Create an official signature file for office emails that includes the office name, address, Web site address, telephone number, etc. Set up the e-mail programs to append this signature file to the end of any e-mail sent from the office. It provides valuable information to e-mail recipients and is good marketing.

Test and retest -- Be sure to test every aspect of your online marketing program before it goes live. Murphy’s Law rules. View Web pages with multiple browsers; read emails with different e-mail programs. Test the security of data that is stored on your server to make sure it is safe from prying eyes. Have your Information Systems professional or a consultant help if you’re not sure how to go about this.

Tie in with advertising -- Your online practice marketing program should be tied in with other forms of media and marketing activities for the greatest bang for your buck. Integrate your marketing. Any time you run a print ad or radio spot make sure to pitch the Web site address if it’s easily remembered (and it should be).

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