Are You Making This Costly Marketing Mistake in Your Medical Practice?

As a former spouse of a physician, I have been an avid reader of The White Coat Investor for more than 12 years. While I have my MBA, many insights shared through the WCI articles I read were not taught in business school. This newsletter and the lessons I learned inspired me to share some essential marketing insights that will benefit you and your practice.

Most healthcare providers don't learn basic practice management and marketing principles during training. This lack of knowledge can cause a tremendous financial setback later in your career. Let's look at a few examples of how this can play out.

You might think, “I don't need to market my practice, because I am joining a hospital system,” or “I am joining a well-established practice, and they will take care of my marketing.” This may be the case. However, at a minimum, it's in your best interest to own your name online. Take the time now to future-proof your practice because you never know where life will take you.

Moving Practices Is Extremely Common

Changing practices throughout your career is extremely common. Research indicates that 40%-70% of healthcare providers across all specialties change jobs within five years of starting their first job. In fact, during the COVID-19 pandemic, career changes for healthcare providers hit an all-time high. A 2022 CHG Healthcare survey of more than 500 physicians found that 43% of physicians changed jobs.

The most common reasons providers change practices include:

• Work-life balance
• Financial
• New geographic location—out of state or across town
• Career advancement
• Dissatisfied with the current work environment

The Hard Truth About Moving Practices

While my ex-husband Will was in medical school, residency, and fellowship, I worked full-time for professional service firms, leading their marketing strategy and business development. Since his training required multiple cross-country moves and working remotely was not embraced then, I eventually quit my job, formed an LLC, and did contract work for my former employers.

Following fellowship, Will took a position at a hospital in a small town in Wisconsin. After practicing for five years, he joined a private practice in Colorado. We had always wanted to live in Colorado, so we took the opportunity, even though it involved a significant pay cut and required him to build a new practice from scratch. The move was stressful. We had four young children. The cost of living in Colorado was significantly higher than in Wisconsin, and the market was saturated for his specialty. While the new practice had someone dedicated to provider relations, she was spread thin with many providers to support. Will was pressed to build a new practice quickly with very little internal support and no referring providers.

As any seasoned marketer would do, I took him on as a client.

More information here:

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The Competition for Patients Is Online

Building a practice from scratch requires a strong online presence. In Wisconsin, Will had a booming practice and a loyal patient following. Unfortunately, when we moved, he lost all his hard-earned patient reviews. No one knew him in Colorado, so the first thing I did was establish his online presence. I created a website so Will could build a direct relationship with his patients through blog posts.

I wrote blog posts to educate patients on relevant topics such as the importance of bone health, how to get in shape for the ski season, and how to understand the cause of their shoulder pain. To connect with patients on a more personal level, I included posts about our family's medical mission to Honduras with One World Surgery and a patient donation challenge Will sponsored to support local foster youth. The purpose of the posts was to engage with current and prospective patients by offering interesting insights. During appointments, patients would often ask Will questions about the posts, making for engaging conversations and deeper patient connections. Another benefit of the blog posts was to improve his SEO when patients searched for his specialty online.

Equally important was Will's online presence on his practice's website. I linked his website to the practice's website. This way, he was listed on both websites, and it was easy for patients to find him whenever they searched for him online. I also set him up on multiple healthcare review platforms and social media sites. Taking these steps to build his name online proved exceptionally helpful when he moved practices again a few years later.

Offline Strategies Build Your Brand Locally

I worked with the group's provider relations coordinator to identify potential referring providers and coordinated in-person introductions. Will dedicated one day a month to referral outreach. I also ensured we recognized his top referrals for their support each year with an annual gift. To build his name in the community, I set up educational talks for him to give to various community groups, where he presented to potential patients. I also wrote and submitted articles to local publications about topics of interest to his ideal patients. After a solid year of hard work, Will had established a respectable patient base and reputation in the community, and with continued marketing support, his practice grew steadily from there.

I know this sounds like a lot of extra work when you already have a full-time job. However, the data shows that patients find and choose healthcare providers based on a strong online presence. Taking the time to own your brand online—regardless of whether you are part of a private practice or a hospital system—is a worthwhile endeavor.

A strategy I learned from reading WCI was to use our children as models in all of Will's marketing materials. We paid them for their services and invested their earnings in Roth IRAs.

What Happens When You Move Practices and Don't Own Your Online Presence?

Here's a real-life case study.

My brother is a well-respected surgical oncologist with a loyal patient base. In 2022, he took a new position at a hospital an hour away from his previous employer. Like many physicians, my brother did not own his brand online. He relied on his former employer, the local hospital, to manage his online presence. This proved to be a costly mistake.

When a patient called requesting an appointment with him after he moved practices, his former employer refused to give out his new contact information. When a patient would search for him online, his former employer marked his online business listings as “Permanently Closed” and removed him from the hospital website. These communication roadblocks made it extremely difficult for patients to find him, even though he was still practicing nearby.

While his move was close enough that his patients would have followed him for care, they unfortunately could not find where he went. Securing ownership of his online business profiles from his previous employer proved challenging. My brother had to rebuild his entire practice from scratch at the height of his career. Had he owned his online brand, he could have seamlessly communicated his transition to his patients and kept the majority of them.

Changing Practices Again – Applying Lessons Learned

Like many providers during the pandemic, Will became dissatisfied with his current work environment and chose to move practices again. This time, the move was local. Because I managed his online presence, it was easy to communicate the move to his patients. I updated Will's contact information on all his online listings, and he seamlessly shared the reason for his transition to patients through a blog post.

Additionally, Will kept all his incredible online patient reviews. He had accumulated more than 250 five-star patient reviews on multiple sites. He could retain his reviews because I managed those sites for him rather than his previous practice. Most importantly, when a patient called his old practice and was told Will had left— and the office had no forwarding information (which is the standard healthcare practice)—the patient could search online and find him. Owning his online presence made the move much less stressful because he could retain most of his patients and referral sources.

More information here:

Buying into (or Selling Part of) a Business

Ownership Has Its Privileges

The No. 1 Mistake Healthcare Providers Make Online

The No. 1 mistake healthcare providers make is not owning their online brand. Your name is your brand. You want to build and protect it so you can communicate seamlessly with your patients online.

By owning your brand and having a solid online presence, you can:

Safeguard All Your Patient Reviews

When you assume responsibility for managing your online presence on review platforms, you ensure the preservation of your patient reviews, regardless of professional movements. Conversely, if your employer controls your listings on these review websites, you risk losing years' worth of reviews when you relocate or switch practices. Even worse, they could terminate your business listing, making it challenging for your patients to locate you.

Seamlessly Communicate with Your Patients

With an online presence, it's easier to communicate with patients how to find you when you move practices. Typically, your employer will send a letter to your patients that you have left, but it will not necessarily provide forwarding contact information. But having your own website specific to you and your practice can build a powerful connection with your patients so they can easily find you online.

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Invest in Your Personal Brand to Future-Proof Your Practice

Doing all this extra work to build your practice when you already have a full-time job seeing and treating patients can sound daunting. You can decide to do it yourself or hire someone to help you. However, developing your personal brand online is an investment in you and your future. It's definitely worth making the effort.

Have you moved practices? If so, could your patients find you after the move? Did you retain your patient reviews? Would some of the lessons provided in this post have helped you?