Marketing Your Radiology Practice

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Enhancing Your Imaging Image | December 2005: 2005 Readers’ Choice Awards | Medical Imaging

10/19/2007 06:13 PM

Issue: December 2005: 2005 Readers’ Choice Awards

Enhancing Your Imaging Image

Normal Version

by Wendy J. Meyeroff Looking for more patients at your imaging center? Want to attract a top radiologist to join your practice? Market yourself properly, and the opportunities will be yours.

It's amazing how much the attitude toward medical marketing has changed in the past 20 years. Initially, hospitals and manufacturers engaged in marketing, but the physicians themselves? Never. It was frowned upon by the American Medical Association (AMA of Chicago), the American College of Radiology (ACR of Reston, Va), and other professional organizations. But, for about a decade now, medical marketing has exploded. Whether you're an individual radiologist, group practice, imaging center, or hospital, there's at least one marketing tool to suit your needs and budget. They include postcards, letters, and other direct mail (DM) options; public relations; Web sites; advertising (from daily and weekly newspapers to banners on said Web sites)—the list goes on and on. What area of marketing is right for you? Whole books are dedicated to this topic, but we've pared them down to the best bets.

Structure Your Message Before you do any marketing, you must answer two questions. First, what exactly are you selling? The biggest mistake everyone makes—and that means everyone, even major ad agencies—is that they don't really figure out what they're selling. For those in radiology, the answer would seem simple: "We're selling radiology services." Wrong! Everyone with whom you're competing for business is selling radiology services. If that's the only message you have, you'll never stand out. "Lots of radiology groups market the benefits of their equipment, but not why they are the ones to do this for you," says Renee Miller, president of The Miller Group (Los Angeles), an advertising/promotion company. The message of what makes you stand out from the competition is what Steve Smith, VP of marketing for Practice Builders (Santa Ana, Calif), calls branding. "Are you the compassionate practice, the technology practice—what is it that makes you unique?" Smith asks. It's not an easy message to determine, he admits; in fact, he says that determining a brand can be "like trying to nail down Jell-O." Terri Langhans, president of the Healthcare Public Relations & Marketing Association of Southern California (HPRMA of Huntington Beach, Calif), helps clients find that message through four connection points. For example, let's say you're trying to garner referrals from http://www.medicalimagingmag.com/issues/articles/2005-12_03.asp?mode=print&

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