Here are five steps for ambulatory surgery centers to grow market direct-to-patient marketing strategies from Nueterra's Senior Vice President, Global Marketing Aimee Mayhew. 1. Focus your efforts. ASCs serious about their direct-to-patient marketing campaigns should focus each effort on a specific patient population or demographic to achieve the best return. For example, ASCs performing orthopedics and sports medicine procedures can target youth athletes while colonoscopy centers can target the 50-plus crowd.
"A lot of ASCs are in a healthcare-saturated market and there are a lot of different options for care," says Mrs. Mayhew. "Presenting yourself as an ASC isn't enough to draw the business from the consumer's perspective, so we encourage the facilities to market to a certain group, such as mothers."
Decide what patient volume you want to increase, and determine whether your center can handle the enhanced capacity, before moving forward with a marketing campaign. "At our ASCs that have a lot of orthopedics, we campaign to mothers who might have children with sports-related injuries," says Mrs. Mayhew. "We have a presence on Mom Blogs to reach that specific audience."
2. Budget for several projects throughout the year. Depending on the depth of the campaign, Nueterra ASCs spend between $10,000 and $75,000 per year promoting their facilities. This includes charitable contributions, traditional marketing and advertising, web marketing and open houses, among others.
"There are a wide variety of tactics ASCs can encompass," says Mrs. Mayhew. Some surgery centers may not have enough room in their budget for a comprehensive marketing plan to patients, but you can utilize online sources or other less expensive options to market your services.
You can also write articles and serve as an expert contributor on healthcare issues to local media sources, which provide free exposure for your center.
3. Track your return on investment. It can be difficult to track where patients are coming from, especially when tracking mechanisms aren't automated. However, you can track the number of people viewing your web page online or include a special landing page for online ads to track the number of people who click through.
"We try to run our advertising with unique URLs so we can analyze how many people we are reaching with each ad," says Mrs. Mayhew. "We also utilize Google Voice with a specific call number to track for how many calls we receive from the campaign."
Additionally, part of intake at Nueterra facilities includes asking patients why they came to the center and tracking their train of referrals. "Their answer is often the referring physician," says Mrs. Mayhew. "So we'll ask the patient if they had heard about the facility before then, and keep asking questions. We base our strategic plan around patients' responses. At one of our facilities patients commented on the local newspaper ads as a source of knowledge and awareness. That resulted in an increased focus for our marketing efforts in that newspaper to reinforce the brand."
4. Highlight ASC strengths in the healthcare market. More patients, insurance companies and employers are looking for low cost, high quality care today than in the past. Healthcare reform encourages people to become more cost and quality conscious, which positions many ASCs as leaders in their communities.
"I believe that the ASC industry is in the best position in healthcare with the increased level of visibility consumers have to see cost and quality outcomes," says Mrs. Mayhew. "It's hard to beat ASCs. We are the cost- and quality-effective choice. From a consumer's perspective, I don't think you can get any better."
Patient satisfaction is another key metric ASCs can track and use in their marketing efforts to attract patients. "The ASC industry as a whole has high patient satisfaction," says Mrs. Mayhew. "With these metrics becoming more readily available, ASCs are in a good position to capitalize on the good things they are doing."
5. Engage in blogging and online conversations. More surgery centers are advertising and contributing to local blogs, or creating their own blogs to engage patients online. If a parenting blog talks about where to get great healthcare locally, your ASC can sponsor that post with a banner ad. Others might consider advertising on websites targeting senior citizens.
"A lot of word-of-mouth happens online," says Mrs. Mayhew. "People talk about who physicians are and which surgeons they like best. There is a whole conversation happening online that used to happen in person. People now use online as their first look for healthcare."
Surgeons and specialists can also write blogs about general health information and trends, without giving medical advice, and post them as educational material for the public.
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