More than a decade in the making and refinement, MedMarketLink is a unique program that delivers the force of multiple professional disciplines to the growth of private medical practices. Through the merger of online education and promotion with public relations, the carefully formulated MML system has been proven to generate from $100,000 to $400,000 and higher in gross practice revenues per physician per year (wide variances due to different specialties and markets).
Here's why that's easier said than done: Why do people do what they do? Why do humans willingly pay $4 for a designer coffee and snub their noses at the $4-a-pound grocery-store brand?
Let's face it: people are funny. You can't really fully understand human behavior; you can only hope to influence it.
Fact is, people change their behavior very slowly and only in response to certain information and stimuli. To dominate the medical marketplace, you have to do more than practice good medicine. You have to practice good storytelling about your medicine. Much of the story can be told on the Internet.
But the story has to be a good one. Part one is finding the place to tell the story. Part two is the art of the telling.
Lots of people can do the first well. Very few excel at the latter.
The Power of Online Education
If thereʼs any question about where patients in the 21st century begin their health care journeys, consider:
- 141 million American adults are regular Internet users
- 80 percent (113 million) use the ʻNet for health research
- 8 million American adults search for health info daily
- Searching for health information online is as popular as paying bills, reading blogs, looking for a phone number/address online
- 66 percent of health seekers began their inquiry at a search engine
- 72 percent looked at two or more Web sites
- 64 percent said information from their most recent Web session had some or major impact on how their care for themselves or others
- 58 percent of those who said the ʻNet had an impact reported the Web info affected their decision on how to treat a condition
- 55 percent say the info changed their overall approach to their health or the health of someone for whom they offer care
The evidence is clear that a Web site for any specialty or sub-specialty medical practice is now the essential store front. But depending on a static Web site for marketing is using only half a brain. Thereʼs much more to the complex art and science of practice growth.
The Art of Persuasion
Lots of specialists in online medical marketing today – probably most – are from the Web and computer world; many do a fine job of making attractive Web sites and often also making them visible on search engines. At least at first.
Year after year, Vanguard Communicationsʼ MedMarketLink program has successfully built medical practice success on the foundation of ongoing patient education, news and storytelling.
First, we develop mini-WebMD sites for each practice, providing ample patient relevant health news and education in order to accomplish two goals:
- An online health library gives Internet search engines a larger, more visible target and thus better search rankings, ultimately drawing many more prospective patients into the practice store front.
- Rich health information gives visitors additional reasons to stay longer on the site, in turn nurturing the ever-important initial relationship between physicians and pro- spective patients.
PR: Making rock stars out of doc stars
It's one thing to be found on the Internet. It's another thing to be known and respected. This is especially true with doctors.
What is a doctor's most valuable asset? Trust. Patients don't really have the tools to objectively measure a physician's ability. They have to rely on what others say about that doctor. Experience has shown they most rely on what other patients and the press have to say.
Through the power of its medical public relations program, MedMarketLink moves doctors' reputations to the top of their class. Over the years, the MedMarketLink program has brought millions of dollars worth of publicity to its clients through positive news coverage on television, on the radio, in newspapers, in magazines, and on other Web sites.
Then, when a prospective patient finds a top-reputation doctor's Web site, it's all the better. That's where the real matchmaking begins.