1. Mayo Friedlis MD
Capitol Spine and Pain Centers
AAOM 0412

2. What is Orthopedic Medicine
 What it’s not:
 Your specialty (PM&R, Anesthesia, Osteopathic)
 What it is:
 IT’S PAIN!

3. WHAT IS MARKETING?
 The process of getting and keeping the right kind of
customers
 In other words:
 doing what attracts the right patients
 Not doing what drives them away

4. How to Market your Practice
 Analysis
 Strategy
 Audience
 Tools
 Advertising
 Public relations

5. How to Market Part 1: Analysis
 Understand your practice
 Understand yourself
 Strengths- alone and as compared to your competition
 What do you offer?
 Why are you unique?
 What are your opportunities for growth?
 What resources do you have?
 What are you willing to invest in time and resources?

6. These can be some of your
strengths:
 Be good at what you do
 Be nice
 Be visible
 Be available
 Be different—look for the unique selling proposition
 Sell what you have:
 Young doctor—recent training
 Old doctor—experience
 Sex appeal
 Great training
 Ethnicity
 Personal interests
 Your staff
 Your location or building
 Your reputation
 Your connections
 If you aren't different, get different!

7. Analysis cont.
 Position your practice against your best competitors'
weaknesses.
 Create a mission statement to guide your marketing
efforts—get all your team members pulling in the
same direction.

8. Understanding your practice
 Weaknesses (introspection)
 Physical plant/Espre décor
 Everything counts approach
 Customer service
 Get patient/referral source feedback. What are the common
complaints?
 Communication
 Are you good at getting your messages out?
 What are you unhappy about in your practice?

9. Are you ready to market?
 Can you accept an increase in volume?
 Do you have a practice worth marketing?
 How does it look
 How does it run
 What does it offer
 Are you happy with the name? Logo? Signage?
 Is your customer service up to speed?
 Are you getting new patients but not keeping them
 Internal vs. external marketing

10. Internal marketing-Everything counts
 Done by Disney with great success
 Looks at the practice through naive eyes
 Looks at the practice through ONLY the eyes of the
patient
 Done every day by a different staff member using a
checklist
 Looks at structure, organization, customer service,
aesthetics, sights, sounds, smells
 You must be willing to fix what is wrong

11. Marketing Plan Part 2: The Strategy
 Develop e a message
 Brief-2-3 paragraphs
 Clear
 Consistent across all your media
 Highlight your strengths, avoid trashing your
competition
 Consider this is an opportunity to educate patients and
referral sources on appropriate pain treatments

12. Marketing Strategy, cont.
 Define your target audience
 Patients
 Doctors
 Industry
 Measure you current status
 # of patients per month
 Revenue by procedure
 Set goals for growth
 What is your goal? Eg,10-15% more new patients
 How will you know that you are there-how will success be
measured
 Set up the data collection before you begin

13. Getting your message out
 How to deliver this message
 Depends on your audience
 Doctors
 Your report
 Brochure
 grand rounds
 face to face with lunch or dinner
 Cold calling
 Direct mail
 Hospital newsletters
 Your own newsletter

14. Getting your message out
 Patients
 Website
 Newsletter
 Print material
 Brochure
 Industry
 Brochure
 Newsletter
 Lectures
 Send in lunch

15. Consider alternative providers to
market alternative treatments
 These providers and their patients will be more
receptive to your approach than the average doctor
 Their patients are already paying out of pocket for
care
 Examples:
 Chiropractors
 Rolfers
 Massage therapists
 Accupunturists
 Energy workers

16. What are the tools
 Print Materials-basic
 Brochure
 Bio sheet
 Pictures
 Patient information sheets
 Practice philosophy/mission
 Diagnosis sheets
 Procedure sheets
 Patient testimonial reprints

21. More Tools
 Face to face meetings
 Cold calling
 Grand Rounds
 Lectures
 Direct Mail

22. CME Program
 Target primary care, chiropractors (they control the
patients)
 Educate them about pain so they can make better
decisions for their patients
 Reduces reflex “send to the surgeon” behaviors
 Positions you as the authority on pain issues
 Opportunity for you and the referring docs to interact
on a personal level

23. More Tools
 Website
 Newsletter
 Lunches/dinners
 Your report
 To referring physicians
 To patients (The Mayo clinic does!)

24. Web sites
 Why you need one
 How do you start
 What's it cost?
 Where do you find content?
 Patient stories
 Pictures/colors
 Animations helpful
 Ease of navigation
 Call to action

25. http://brandevolve.com

30. PRP/Prolo/Interventional Pain
Animation Videos
 For practices wishing to license these animations for
their site, they can go to:
www.swarm.md
 http://www.swarm.md/patient-
education/viewmedica-for-web.html
 888-GO-SWARM (888 467-9276 )

31. Newsletters
 Don’t start one unless you can continue
 Begin quarterly
 Recycle your patient information sheets, articles, and
testimonials
 Key to community events, national issues, seasonal
issues
 Email distribution
 Start collecting now

32. Direct Mail
 Basic format
 Peer reviewed article or your own research
 Cover letter
 Has to connect you to the article
 2-3 paragraphs max
 2 case studies (with positive outcomes!)
 Bio and contact info/cards
 Target your audience properly
 Must look very professionally done

33. Stumbling Blocks
 Can’t write
 Hire a medical writer
 Can’t design a brochure or other graphic materials
 Hire a graphic artist
 Too daunting a task
 Start with just one project
 No time
 Maybe you are busy enough?
 If not hire it out to a professional or pt. time AA

34. Level 2 Marketing- Advertising
 Are you ready for the investment? How much?
 Must be professional looking
 Target audience will determine placement
 Lay medical newspapers are best for patients
 Trade journals for businesses/workers comp
 Each community has it own resources
 Hit and miss despite good planning
 Need to be prepared for a trial investment
 Shows the importance of data collection

35. Advertising
 Print media (magazines, newspapers)
 useful for most situations
 try for article plus the ad
 needs a long term commitment
 Radio
 much more expensive
 needs to be unique and targeted in message
 try a couple of months and review results
 TV
 local cable channels probably the most affordable
 Internet

36. Level 3 Marketing-Public Relations
 What is it?
 Gets your message out to the public
 Exposes you to the public
 Uses topics of public interest and news items that don’t
require direct payment
 Exposure is placed in 3rd party outlets providing
legitimacy to you that advertising cant

37. Public Relations examples
 Speaking at a conference
 Being interviewed by news media about something
that you do (this is arranged)
 Being identified as the expert on something
 Being part of an event that is newsworthy
 Having an article that you wrote or written about you
published as news

38. How to measure success
 Need to know where the patients come from
 Referral doctor
 Family/friend/coworker
 which ad or article
 Website
 Lecture
 newscast
 Hard copy vs. electronic
 Importance of asking the right questions
 E.g. “Who sent you here” vs. “How did you first hear
about our practice”
 Even with the best data, it’s still not exact

39. Good Luck!