Senior Director of E-Business at Laser Spine Institute Michael Patino discussed key trends in marketing ambulatory surgery centers to drive patient volume at the Becker’s 21st Annual Ambulatory Surgery Center Conference in Chicago on Oct. 24.
He discussed the target marketing approach and branding marketing approach for ASCs. Target marketing identifies where potential patients are and markets to them. Brand marketing casts a wider net with the goal of making people believe “you are the only one who could fix their problems,” said Mr. Patino.
The key strategies for ASC marketing include:
- Paid media
- Website
- Search engine optimization
- Search engine marketing
- Remarketing
- Public relations
- Events and sponsorships
- Social media
- Patient advocacy
- Print and promotional items
“Focus on healthcare publications and look where your patient is,” said Mr. Patino. “Define who your patients are and where they are. Consider whether you want to be local or national and reach a large audience.”
Advertisements can create brand awareness and call on people to do something immediately, like make an appointment, to drive patient volume. Include in the messaging what people can expect from your center. When working in online forums, pay attention to key words and making sure your website is first to come up when people are searching for specialty care.
“People are blindly searching key words and picking from the top [items] on the search engine list,” said Mr. Patino. “You want to be there. You might have 100,000 followers on social media, and that’s great, but if they aren’t committed to you its not helping. Social media is great for brand awareness and customer service and you can use it to direct people back to your website. Social media has to be integrated with all channels for the biggest impact.”
Mr. Patino also discussed how to track and measure marketing efforts. Ask patients about how they found you and what made them actually schedule an appointment. Often they’ll still answer word-of-mouth, but the idea can be planted with other marketing forms.
“If you don’t know what your marketing is doing, you will never increase your revenues,” said Mr. Patino. “If you aren’t tracking that, you could waste money on something that isn’t very profitable for the ASC. See which publications are relaying the most calls.”