There are certain steps in medical practice marketing that virtually everybody does.

It’s wise to be attentive to your marketing.

Unfortunately, some common marketing practices are doing more harm than good.

You might be undermining your ability to find and keep patients simply by following accepted wisdom that other practitioners passed on to you. There’s also good news: Pivot your marketing approach and you have the potential to rocket past those who are set in their ways.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s going wrong in medical practice marketing:

1. Your Front Office Personnel Shouldn’t Be on Social Media

Everyone knows you “have to” be on social media, but only a fraction of practices get real value from it.

Planning, writing, and sharing high-impact online content is a full-time job. To truly impress patients (and win business from other local practices) you need to go above and beyond. Helpful, informative material that answers questions and solves problems forges a bond of trust.

Your office personnel may tweet now and then, but it’s nearly guaranteed you gain nothing from it.

Passively posting to social media 2-3 times a week barely makes a dent. Even if nearly all your patients follow you (which is a big if) less than 5% of them will actually see those messages. At the same time, your staff can lose focus on what’s really important in their roles.

Front office workers are often at their best when they’re doing follow-up calls, booking appointments, and greeting visitors with a smile. They’re a major, highly visible customer touch point. If they’re busy scrolling your practice’s feed when people need them, it’s not a good look.

2. Your Patient Management System Isn’t Doing Your Marketing

Patient management systems are terrific. They give you visibility into your patients’ history and future needs that would otherwise take hundreds of hours a year to work out. But, just like any other tool, there are jobs they’re not cut out for.

We know – the companies behind this software have been pushing the idea that it can do hands-free practice marketing. This is a neat way to justify rising fees, but it’s just not true. Marketing features in these suites are an afterthought at best. They can weaken your brand by looking canned and trite.

In the long run, a patient management system is just a database.

If you’re going to use an “all-in-one” tool for marketing, start with a proven marketing management suite. Ideally, hire a marketing agency to run it, so you get measurable value from your campaigns.

3. “Enough Business” Is Good – But It Never Lasts

Lots of businesses shift attention away from medical practice marketing when their schedule is full. You can only see so many patients in a day, but effective marketing doesn’t start or stop on a dime. When you pause all your marketing activities, you sabotage your schedule six months from now.

Attracting new business is a side effect of consistent, high-quality marketing. But that’s only half of the equation. The best marketing strengthens your relationships with your existing patients. That protects you from churn, keeps people coming back, and ensures you get a healthy pipeline of referral business.

4. You’ll Gain Patient Trust Faster with Support from a Marketing Agency

Patients and doctors agree: There’s not enough face time in medical treatment.

Trust is imperative in medical practice marketing, and it’s not just about keeping appointments. It also affects whether or not patients follow your guidance. Their health outcomes could hang in the balance.

Video storytelling is the next best thing to being there between patient encounters, but most medical practices aren’t using it. This is a missed opportunity. People not only pay more attention to video and remember its contents better, but they are also more likely to see you as a trusted advisor.

Even if you’ve never been on camera before, a good marketing agency provides the equipment, support, and training you need.

5. A Marketing Agency Means Consistent Results

When all is said and done, the value proposition is simple: Through a marketing agency, you get medical practice marketing that truly benefits you and your patients, while staying focused on what you do best.

Try to do it in-house and results will always be “hit or miss” – with more misses than hits. A marketing agency puts you in the driver’s seat by applying proven strategies known to help practices like yours reach their goals. It’s one step at a time, but you’re always going in the right direction.

For medical practice marketing that works, contact New York Ave.