Medical Marketing: Meeting the Needs of Your Patients

One of the basic tenets of marketing is to know your customer. By doing so, you should identify the needs of the customer, and, if you are able to provide a solution to his or her problem, you are likely to make a sale and build a relationship. 

In healthcare, our patients are the customers and we, too, must understand the needs of our patients if we are to build a successful practice. We must respond to meet their needs, or they'll find another practice that will.

We can do this in many ways. For example, we can provide convenient office hours (early, late, weekend) and transportation. We can integrate a patient portal with our EHR.

Our patients and potential patients are spending more and more time conducting independent research for their own health needs. Whether to find answers to their health questions or doctors to help them, they’re seeking solutions on the Internet.

“Baby Boomers” (ages 45-54) now spend equal amounts of time on the Internet and TV. Younger age groups spend most of their time online rather than in front of a television set.

A study by The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reveals 80 percent of Internet users are looking for answers to health-related questions as of 2011.

If we follow the marketing rule of “know your customer,” we should be the first to provide these solutions. Health professionals are the logical choice to be providers of health-related content on the Internet, for we are the experts.

Those physicians that understand this and participate by starting and maintaining a website full of rich and relevant content will have the most marketing success. Why not create a website of your own that reveals your expertise?

It’s been said “If you build it, they will come.”

Here’s to your success!

Learn more about Randall Wong and our other contributing bloggers here.