Defining, designing and consistently communicating your brand can provide significant value to your orthopedic practice and set you apart from your competitors. Bill Champion, marketing strategist and founder of Orthopaedic Marketing Group, says, "It's not so much about marketing your practice, but building preference for your group in the minds of the market."
Starting with the fundamentals, your "brand" is how the market (patients, referral sources, media, etc.) thinks of you and establishes the practice's reputation in the market. What's communicated about your practice can shape the volume of patients that seek your services, impact your patient mix and differentiate you from your competitors. As Mr. Champion shares in the approaches below, successful practices understand that branding involves every possible touch-point, viewpoint and interaction the market has with their practice. From a patient's initial call to their last postoperative appointment, there are several practice interactions that may help, or hinder, your brand.
The first step in properly branding your practice is selecting a position to own in the mind of the market. Mr. Champion says, “There are two primary guidelines for a well-defined brand position; it is meaningful to your market and it is different from your competitors." Once you have defined your brand position, use the following four approaches to reinforce your practice brand and entrench your market position—Actions, Service, Relationships and Communications.
1. Actions. "When we speak of 'Actions,' we are not speaking of orthopedic surgery," says Mr. Champion. "We are talking about the efforts you or your practice make beyond the delivery of care that are differentiating you from your competitor and satisfying your market's needs." Participating as a team physician or involvement in patient-centered educational events are examples of "Actions" that can produce new patient volumes and a better patient mix.
2. Service. As the largest referral source in most successful practices, patients are the least clinically qualified to make a referral; however, patients intimately understand how they were treated and will rate their overall service experience with your brand, eventually sharing that rating with their circle of friends. To achieve a positive rating, make each patient's experience more than standard "quality-care" from the beginning to end.
3. Relationships. Embrace an enjoyable working relationship with fellow practice physicians, staff, referring physicians and vendors to grow more consistent patient volumes. Mr. Champion says, "Being relationship-oriented and understanding how you work with others beyond patients will reduce the need for additional promotional resources while generating consistent results."
4. Communications. Solid actions, good service and enjoyable relationships inherently require good communications to assist your marketing efforts in making you the right choice. Make sure you help your market choose you by effectively communicating your brand's position to the market. Mr. Champion says, "In our experience, the primary mistake practices make in their communications is not being market centric. Most practices tell the market what they do, when instead your practice should communicate what your market wants to hear."
Since founding Orthopaedic Marketing Group in 1989, Bill Champion has provided orthopedic practices with competitive market advantages through strategic marketing solutions supported by specialized research and experience.
Learn more about Orthopaedic Marketing Group.
Read other coverage on orthopedic practice marketing:
- 4 Tactics for Direct-to-Patient Marketing of Orthopedics
- 6 Ways Orthopedic Practices Can Boost Word-of-Mouth Marketing
- 6 Ways for Orthopedic Surgeons to Effectively Utilize Social Media
Starting with the fundamentals, your "brand" is how the market (patients, referral sources, media, etc.) thinks of you and establishes the practice's reputation in the market. What's communicated about your practice can shape the volume of patients that seek your services, impact your patient mix and differentiate you from your competitors. As Mr. Champion shares in the approaches below, successful practices understand that branding involves every possible touch-point, viewpoint and interaction the market has with their practice. From a patient's initial call to their last postoperative appointment, there are several practice interactions that may help, or hinder, your brand.
Positioning
The first step in properly branding your practice is selecting a position to own in the mind of the market. Mr. Champion says, “There are two primary guidelines for a well-defined brand position; it is meaningful to your market and it is different from your competitors." Once you have defined your brand position, use the following four approaches to reinforce your practice brand and entrench your market position—Actions, Service, Relationships and Communications.
1. Actions. "When we speak of 'Actions,' we are not speaking of orthopedic surgery," says Mr. Champion. "We are talking about the efforts you or your practice make beyond the delivery of care that are differentiating you from your competitor and satisfying your market's needs." Participating as a team physician or involvement in patient-centered educational events are examples of "Actions" that can produce new patient volumes and a better patient mix.
2. Service. As the largest referral source in most successful practices, patients are the least clinically qualified to make a referral; however, patients intimately understand how they were treated and will rate their overall service experience with your brand, eventually sharing that rating with their circle of friends. To achieve a positive rating, make each patient's experience more than standard "quality-care" from the beginning to end.
3. Relationships. Embrace an enjoyable working relationship with fellow practice physicians, staff, referring physicians and vendors to grow more consistent patient volumes. Mr. Champion says, "Being relationship-oriented and understanding how you work with others beyond patients will reduce the need for additional promotional resources while generating consistent results."
4. Communications. Solid actions, good service and enjoyable relationships inherently require good communications to assist your marketing efforts in making you the right choice. Make sure you help your market choose you by effectively communicating your brand's position to the market. Mr. Champion says, "In our experience, the primary mistake practices make in their communications is not being market centric. Most practices tell the market what they do, when instead your practice should communicate what your market wants to hear."
Since founding Orthopaedic Marketing Group in 1989, Bill Champion has provided orthopedic practices with competitive market advantages through strategic marketing solutions supported by specialized research and experience.
Learn more about Orthopaedic Marketing Group.
Read other coverage on orthopedic practice marketing:
- 4 Tactics for Direct-to-Patient Marketing of Orthopedics
- 6 Ways Orthopedic Practices Can Boost Word-of-Mouth Marketing
- 6 Ways for Orthopedic Surgeons to Effectively Utilize Social Media