Download Marketing Strategy

Marketing and Physician
Communications
Shawndra Simpson, RN, MPA, HSA
Marketing – Overview
What is Marketing?
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Process of connecting the value of what you do
to someone else's needs or desires
Informing and influencing people through
effective communications
Marketing - Overview
What can Marketing do?
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Create an image
Boost an image
Develop a reputation
Build perceptions and attitudes
Strengthen bond with customers
Marketing – Overview
What do you want from Marketing?
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Get your center noticed.
Stand out in front of your competitors.
Recruit new physicians.
Change your mix of business.
Develop strategy for new book of business; new
niche.
Grow volume and revenue.
Marketing - Overview
Target and attract certain surgeons and/or specialties
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Develop a specific niche – Shape a message to
target these physicians and their needs.
Develop a Center of Excellence – Area of expertise
can position your facility as a COE.
Develop positive public relations strategy or focused
information around a particular procedure.
Develop a focused public relations strategy on an
individual specialty, featuring specific surgeons.
Marketing – Overview
 So where do you start?
Start with a Plan…
A Marketing Plan
Systematic plan for communication – not a
random list of activities.
A business document written for the purpose of
describing the current market position of a
business and its marketing strategy.
Marketing Plan
What is the purpose of a marketing plan?
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The purpose of a marketing plan is to clearly
show what steps will be undertaken to achieve
the center’s goals and objectives.
Marketing Plan
Main Principles of Marketing Plan
1.
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4.
Assess proven strategies and lessons learned from the
experience of others.
Shape marketing strategies into a plan.
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Branding strategies
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Internal marketing strategies
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External marketing strategies
Design effective implementation process.
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A conceptual plan and action plan to implement ideas
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The right process or systems in place to support and give
infrastructure for ongoing consistency
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Resources internally and externally to help achieve
ongoing marketing success
Devise effective process to track and evaluate results.
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Keep winning strategies; dump ineffective strategies
Marketing Plan
A good marketing plan includes:
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Smart Goals
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Specific
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Measurable
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Achievable
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Relevant
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Tangible
Budget appropriate to the level and specific type of
goals in your plan
Marketing strategies and tactics for your goals and
within your budget
Decisions and actions
Marketing Strategy vs Marketing Plan
 Marketing Strategy
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Your marketing strategy is an explanation of the
goals you need to achieve with your marketing
efforts.
It is shaped by your business goals.
Your business goals and your marketing strategy
should go hand in hand.
What?
Marketing Strategy vs Marketing Plan
 Marketing Plan
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Your marketing plan is how you are going to
achieve those marketing goals.
It is the application of your strategy; a roadmap
that will guide you from one point to another.
How?
** Define the what and determine the how**
Marketing Strategy vs Marketing Plan
Strategy is the thinking and planning is the doing.
Example:
Objective/goal: To expand the current market area
Marketing Strategy: Introduce the center to surgeons in
new market segments.
Marketing Plan: Develop a marketing campaign that
reaches out, identifies with and focuses on surgeons in
that specific segment.
Marketing Strategy vs Marketing Plan
Marketing Strategy→Marketing Plan→Implementation =
Success
Marketing Strategy → Marketing Plan
Main Principles of Marketing Plan
1.
2.
3.
4.
Assess proven strategies and lessons learned from the experience
of others.
Shape marketing strategies into a plan:
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Branding strategies
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Internal marketing strategies
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External marketing strategies
Design effective implementation process.
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A conceptual plan and action plan to implement ideas
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The right process or systems in place to support and give
infrastructure for ongoing consistency
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Resources internally and externally to help achieve ongoing
marketing success
Devise effective process to track evaluate results.

Keep winning strategies; dump ineffective strategies.
Marketing Strategy
What is branding?
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The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a “name,
term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended
to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers
and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”
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An effective brand is more than a logo, website, brochure or even
advertising.
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When you communicate what makes your center special or
unique, you’re setting expectations and making a promise, either
directly or as an implied promise that the physician and/or patient
is going to get the benefit of your unique value each and every
time they visit your center.
Marketing Strategy
What is branding? (continued)
Your
brand is the entire experience your physician and patient has
with you and your staff during your entire relationship or their time at
your center.
It
is the genuine personality of your center.
The
definition of branding, for our purposes, is the process of
delivering on your promise – consistently!
Marketing Strategy
 The objectives that a good brand will achieve
include:
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Delivers the message clearly
Confirms your credibility
Connects your target prospects emotionally
Motivates the customer
Creates user loyalty
Marketing Strategy - Branding
Examples of successful brands
 Starbucks...The core of Starbucks is less about
making a great cup of coffee than is it is about making a
great coffee experience. Starbucks brand is about a
community of people that share a common experience/
expectation.
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Nordstrom…Distinguishes itself by carrying quality,
high-end products. Nordstrom is successful due to its
secret of success: democratic luxury leader at a more
moderate income level than Neiman Marcus. A greater
number of households can afford Nordstrom.
Marketing Strategy - Branding
Developing your brand
 Positioning: defining your value-added difference or
edge:
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Your unique value proposition is the core of
positioning.
Differentiate your center in a way that is valuable to
your target physicians.
A perception regarding your center will positively
differentiate you. Remember, your center is your
product.
Make it easy to remember.
Marketing Strategy - Branding
Examples
 “The quicker picker upper” …Bounty
 “The cavity fighter” …Crest Toothpaste
 “The Headache Medicine” …Excedrin
 “Good to the last drop”
…Maxwell House Coffee
 “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”
 “Thrive”
…Kaiser
 “Be Heard” …John Muir Medical Center
…M&Ms
Marketing Strategy - Branding
Developing your brand
Four aspects of your center to consider when positioning:
1. Clinical Quality
2. Technology
3. Service
4. Value Added
Marketing Strategy - Branding
Customer
Service
Value
Added
→ Focus of physicians and
patients
→ Focus of healthcare providers
Technology
Quality
Marketing Strategy - Branding
 Defining your brand:
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Who are you trying to attract?
What is your desired target audience/market?
 Specialty group
 Single procedure
 Geographic area
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Shaping your brand value to cater to their interests, needs,
desires is critical.
 What does your target audience want?
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What is your unique value proposition?
 What do you offer? How do you offer it in terms of what makes
your center special to a physician, group of physicians or
patients?
 Extensive experience
 Specialized training or expertise
 Quality stats
 Latest technology
 Unique customer service
Marketing Strategy - Branding
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Good fit?
 Between what you do extremely well and what your
desired audience would value
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Questions your target audience will want answered
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What are you offering?
Why should I care? Or “what is in it for me”?
Why pick your center?
Why now?
Alignment
 From the inside of the center outward
 Believed by the owners and staff as much as you want
it embraced by your desired target audience
Marketing Strategy - Branding
 Brand concept:
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Define it in a way that allows you to communicate it
effectively to physicians and/or patients you want to
influence.
Raise awareness. Brand communication strategy
can take many forms. Communicate it verbally, in
marketing materials such as brochures, flyers, and
other center literature. Communicate through your
advertising and public relations.
Marketing Strategy
What is branding?
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The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a “name,
term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to
identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers
and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”

An effective brand is more than a logo, website, brochure or even
advertising.

When you communicate what makes your center special or
unique, you’re setting expectations and making a promise, either
directly or as an implied promise that the physician and/or patient
is going to get the benefit of your unique value each and every
time they visit your center.
Marketing Strategy
What is branding? (continued)
Your
brand is the entire experience your physician and patient has
with you and your staff during your entire relationship or their time at
your center.
It
is the genuine personality of your center.
The
definition of branding, for our purposes, is the process of
delivering on your promise – consistently!
Marketing Strategy - Branding
Helpful Hint:
Go around the room with your leadership and ask them
what the center stands for. Settle on one or two
brand pillars and build your brand around them.
Marketing - Logos
Logo – is it a brand?
A logo identifies a business or product via the use of a mark,
flag, symbol or signature. A logo does not sell or describe a
business.
Its primary purpose is to tie together all the different forms
of marketing and diverse communications and link them
with a common visual identity that is recognizable and
memorable.
When your surgeons and patients see your logo, they identify
the same great place, providing the same great care.
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
The process of walking the talk of your center every day,
in every physician and patient encounter, every visitor
encounter and every vendor encounter.
Everyone you communicate with and interact with is
your audience for internal marketing of your brand, your
center.
Internal marketing is building and maintaining the
systems that speak to our internal public.
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
Areas of focus:
Staff and Internal Marketing
Internal Marketing and Physician Partners
Marketing Strategy –Internal
Marketing
Staff and internal marketing
 Customer service is comprised of every encounter with
every person who represents your center.
 Every employee creates an impression that affects or
contributes to the customer experience.
Marketing Strategy –Internal
Marketing
Employees in your centers are:
 The service
 The organization in the customers’ eyes
 The brand …AND
 The marketers
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
Key to internal marketing:
COMMUNICATION
 Communication in every contact with customers
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Staff → Physician
Staff → Patients
Staff → Staff
Physician → Staff
Physician → Patients
Physician → Physician
Staff → Vendors
Physician → Vendors
Marketing Strategy –Internal
Marketing
 Communication skills
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Phone skills
Service recovery
Follow-up
Marketing Strategy –Internal
Marketing
 Phone skills
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Set the criteria for successful phone skills and
communication every time the phone is used.
Make it a high priority and critical on performance
evaluations.
Develop scripting to ensure your message is always
delivered.
Marketing Strategy –Internal
Marketing
 Phone Skills
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Front line staff are initial marketing agents for your
center – your public relations force.
Ensure staff knows and understands your marketing
campaign.
Schedulers’ marketing skills with physician office
staff can affect your reputation (and volume).
Lost opportunities cannot be brought back easily.
Marketing Strategy –Internal
Marketing
 Service Recovery
 Putting a smile on a customer’s face after you’ve made a
mistake or upset them in any way
 Taking responsive action to recover lost or dissatisfied
customers, to alter their negative perceptions, convert
them into satisfied customers, and ultimately maintain a
relationship with them.
 Apologize, take responsibility for the error or the
inconvenience.
 If appropriate, offer a coffee card for a local coffee shop,
or a voucher for the cafeteria.
 Teach employees to say “I’m sorry.”
 Send the customer away feeling heard and valued.
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
 Follow-up
 Post-op calls to patients
 Complaints from patients
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Teach staff to advise Administrator to allow follow-up prior to
patient discharge
Address in post-op call
Complaints from physicians
Compliments to staff members
Physician experience – Daily Evaluation Sheet
Scheduling problems
Equipment problems
Staffing problems
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
 Follow-up with Physicians
 Verbally as soon as possible
 E-mail or text
 Phone call to office or cell phone
 If equipment issue, have Material Manager send a
follow-up e-mail with solution management (copy to
Administrator).
 If issue with case or staffing, follow up with staff and
round back to physician.
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
 Physician Partners
Get to know your Physician Partners
Do your homework!
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Remember to walk the talk every day; market your brand
with every encounter!
Meet with your partners regularly.
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At your center
Outside of the facility
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
Know your partner base
 Relationship building – know their spouses’ and kids’ names,
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hobbies, education.
Get to know their staff – office manager, scheduler, nurse.
Get to know the practice – where are their referrals coming
from?
Where else are they working?
Current utilization trends at your facility
Cost profile, implant/equipment preferences
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
Partner discussions
 Tremendous source of knowledge – existing users, competitors,
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peers, specialty, opportunities, risks, etc.
Ask them for 10–20 minutes of their time.
Occasionally meet with them at their offices.
Take them to breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Update them on overall performance – cases, financial care of
your patient.
Do we have the supplies/equipment you need?
How can we improve?
Any issues from your staff – scheduling, growth etc.?
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
Partner discussions (continued)
 How can we earn additional volume from you?
 Who else would you recommend we talk to within the market
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who might be a good fit for “our” facility?
Would you be willing to make an introductory call or would
they be interested in joining a dinner?
What are you hearing about competitors, etc.?
This is the impact of additional cases per month.
We want you involved in the growth of “your” facility!!
Marketing Strategy – Internal
Marketing
Summary
 Internal marketing is the process of walking the talk of your
center every day in every physician, patient, visitor, and
vendor encounter.
 Everyone you communicate with and interact with is your
audience for internal marketing of your brand, your center.
 Physicians and patients expect good quality; it’s the
relationships and experiences at your center that they
remember.
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Getting your message out
Getting your brand recognized and remembered
Reach your targeted audience with your value
proposition
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
External marketing encompasses two general
areas:
 Advertising – comes in many forms
 Public relations or publicity
Key to external marketing: People evaluate
what they cannot see based on what they can
see.
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Who is your target audience?
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New surgeon
New partner
PCP
Surgeons with a specific procedure
Group of surgeons
Demographic area (surgeons in)
Office managers
Schedulers
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
What are you offering?
 What is your unique value proposition that they need?
 What is in it for them?
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Getting the message out through advertising
 Physicians
 Brochures
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Tag sheets
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Facility announcement
Specific specialty
New service being offered
Newsletter
Birthday card
Holiday card with picture of staff
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Facility information - branding
Remember your brand message
Holiday gift for partners
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Remember your brand and/or logo
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Getting the message out through advertising
 Primary Care Physicians
 Directory of your surgeons by specialty
 Newsletter
 Tag sheets – pertinent to their specialty
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Getting the message out through advertising
 Office staff – Gatekeepers
 Get your center’s name in front of staff daily
 Mouse pads - with scheduler’s direct line
 Candy jars – return to fill frequently
 Post-it notes – with center name and number
 Calendars – with center name and number; pictures of
staff and your center
 Flowers – return to fill vase
 Travel coffee mugs
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
 Patients and potential patients – get the word out.
 Belongings bags
 Eyeglass cases
 Post-op eye bags
 Magazine ads – cosmetic cases, new procedures
 Media announcements
 Billboards
 BART
 Shopping centers
Remember your branding and logos with any form of
advertisement.
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
 Offer something
 Open house with food or prizes
 Seminar with physician partner speaking on a current
topic
 Specialty open house with potential new surgeon
 Schedulers and office staff luncheon
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Other promotional tactics
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Direct mailers
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Set specific targets
Control the message
Mailing lists
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Primary target area: Look at your geography and
determine your catchment area. Usually 6-7 zip codes
comprise 75 – 85% of your physician base.
Target surgeons in area.
Target surgeons by specialty.
Target primary care physicians, internists,
pediatricians.
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Key in External Marketing
 Remember your branding – represent it on every piece
of marketing material.
 Know your target audience and what is the unique value
proposition you have for them.
 Educate your staff on your marketing campaign and all
materials going out.
 Finally – Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Marketing Strategy –External
Marketing
External Physician Recruitment
…always ongoing
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Benefits of External Knowledge
 Enhanced partner communication
 First-hand knowledge of market
 Creates a better strategic planning process
 More likely to see the opportunity to capture new
business (physician or service line)
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Physician Marketing
 Meet them in their environment.
 Prepare – know what their patterns are ahead of time.
 Provide information about the facility, specific to their
needs.
 Listen to their comments – are they obstacles or
opportunities?
 Be interested in them as people – build a relationship.
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Physician Marketing (continued)
 Show satisfaction results.
 Talk about survey results.
 Know what is unique about your facility compared to the
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competition.
ASK them to try the facility.
Invite them for a personal tour.
Have a partner call them.
Meet their staff – office manager, nurses.
Identify future partner opportunity
Follow up, follow up and follow up.
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
When they say “No”
 Always be professional.
 Let them know you would like to follow up periodically to
see if things have changed – Make sure you do it.
 Keep your name in front of them – Provide facility
updates.
 When the competitor alienates the doctor, they will
remember you asked for their business.
 Ask your physician partners for help in accessing the
targeted physician.
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Internet Marketing
 Also known as online marketing, web marketing,
webvertising or e-marketing
 Process of marketing goods or services through the
internet
 The Web
 Social media
 Cloud-based systems
 Mobile technology
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Website Essentials
Social Media
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Website Essentials
 Hire a professional
 Average cost $2,000 - $6,000
 Cost depends on complexity and capability
 Crucial features
 Great home page
 Great picture of your surgeons and staff
 Videos
 An easy link to connect with you
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Home page
First impression – either grabs or jabs your audience
Clean and uncluttered
Key information readily visible
Logo and branding will set a look and feel – use
throughout the website
 Content should meet your patients’ needs
 Links should be visible
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Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Patient information – must haves
 Location, contacts, and parking information
 Printable driving directions
 “Contact us” box (patients who use e-mail after hours)
 Patient forms – downloadable
 Educational materials – Basic pre- and post-op
instructions. Single specialty – all instructions
 Pictures and photo tours
 Video clips
 Physician profiles and links to practice websites
Marketing Strategy – Internet
Marketing
Social Media
 Embrace social media to optimize communications
 Effective
 Inexpensive
 Spans local and beyond
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
LinkedIn
Yelp
Google+
Pinterest
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
 Join Twitter and invite your surgeons, staff and
patients to connect with your center.
 Post to Facebook …create a YouTube library.
 Use Facebook to communicate your newsletter,
new procedures, etc.
 Share video clips on YouTube. Educate and
enhance your reputation and that of your
surgeons.
 Get “LinkedIn” and join a professional social
networking tool that allows you to connect with
colleagues, staff and surgeons.
Marketing Strategy – External
Marketing
 Yelp is free – whether you want it or not.
Enables people to find local surgeons and
surgery centers and browse reviews.
 Ask happy patients to post their reviews to
your center
 Google+ is a new social networking site.
“Circles” allows more control of what you share
and who you share with
 Advertise on Pinterest – a virtual pinboard, lets
you organize and share things you find on the
web.
Your Marketing Plan – Where to
begin?
1.
Complete a facility assessment: SWOT
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Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Your Marketing Plan – Where to
begin?
2.
Collect data and complete a market analysis.
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Competition – other providers, types of cases,
volume, profitability, market area
Area surgeons – where are they working, insurance
contacts
Payer challenges
Marketing campaigns currently in your market area
Know the gatekeepers – IPAs, payers, physicians,
receptionist, office managers, schedulers
Your Marketing Plan – Where to
begin?
3.
Establish a set of marketing goals and objectives.
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4.
Develop your marketing plan.
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5.
7.
Identify and prioritize the right combination of
marketing strategies and tactics to meet your goal
and objectives
Establish a marketing budget.
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6.
Usually designed for 1 year
Appropriate to the level of goals your setting
Incorporate your marketing plan and budget into your
business plan.
Communicate to your board, partners and staff, and
get their buy-in.
Your Marketing Plan – Where to
begin?
8.
Develop an action plan.
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Include timelines, deadlines and responsibilities
Target audiences, call lists and campaigns
Develop marketing materials needed to meet goals
and objectives
10. Implement according to timeline.
11. Maintenance
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Monitor, track and evaluate
Success
Successful Centers
 Willing to market their center
 Recognize their center is a business and reorganize as
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necessary
3 “Ps” – Personality, Positive attitude, Perseverance
Sales skills
Educated staff
“Doers” – get stuff done
Repeat, repeat, repeat
Follow up, follow up, follow up