Professional Development Archives

May 24 2023

Marketing Your Health-Related Practice

Ligon Support Advertising Tips, Community relations, Marketing, Professional Development, Social Media Marketing

Doctors, dentists, and other health care professionals spend years learning and passing intense exams to practice in their respective fields. Once the shingle has been hung, professional service providers face the challenge of attracting clients to their doors. All those years of medical education may not have included principles of business management or the value of professional marketing in driving business success.

For those starting out as independent practitioners who are looking for a fresh marketing approach, Ligon Marketing can offer you a few tips. We have worked with several types of professional medical practices, and have focused on both launching a private practice and expanding an established practice with new branding. We’ve assisted our clients in expanding clinic locations and patient volume, and we can do the same for you.

BRANDING

Do you have a logo or need one? A memorable and effective logo gives a strong visual impression of who you are. Establishing your brand is more than having a logo. It’s a process of reinforcing that image and concept of your business in all of your marketing materials.

WEBSITE

In today’s market, your website is not just a marketing machine but an expected part of doing business. Your website should meet several goals:

Attract new patients or referrals.
Provide needed information and forms to existing patients.
Serve as an educational resource related to your specialty, whether it’s dentistry, dermatology, or anything in between.
Host a patient portal for communicating electronically to your patients, in compliance with HIPAA.

Developing a website is more than buying a domain name and following a DIY template. (Many professions have industry-specific template providers, but keep in mind that a template site looks like every other template-based site. Bottom line – yours won’t stand out.) As a professional, you need a professional site, managed by someone who can keep it visible in the digital sphere. That requires strong visuals, useful and well-written copy, and frequent content updates for search engine optimization (SEO). Design matters. Potential consumers want to see photos of you and your team, as part of building a relationship. They want to hear “your voice” in the content. Must-haves are:

An attractive home page
An About Us page, with photos and bios
Contact information
Services provided

Your site should also be mobile-responsive, as today’s audience relies more and more on their smart phones. They should be able to find key information from your website quickly and easily on their phones.

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Facebook and Instagram have become required for most providers, as well. Your medical or dental practice’s visibility depends on active engagement, which is difficult for most busy practices to handle alone. These platforms drive potential patients to your website and ultimately, to your door. Ligon Marketing manages content posting and scheduling for most of our clients, and we can help you, too.

In addition, your staff members are probably active on social media. It’s vital for health-related professionals to have a strong policy for employees in their online activities as they relate to your business reputation. This policy should address HIPAA compliance, as well as professional behavior, while respecting the team’s free speech rights. We have experience with this, too.

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B) AND REFERRAL NETWORKS

Most professional practices depend on and benefit from strong referral relationships with other businesses, practices, and professionals. Don’t overlook the opportunity to engage in networking and relationship-building opportunities. Not in your comfort zone? Ligon Marketing can coach you and your team on easy-to-implement strategies to increase your professional visibility.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Being treated well is a top priority for patient retention. Do you have standards for answering the phone, responding to questions and concerns, and handling billing or insurance problems? Does your team value and show respect for your patients the way you do? Our owner, Cora Ligon, has led customer-service training for numerous organizations, both in her own management roles and as a consultant. She can help you customize and implement training and policies if your office has a need.

COLLATERAL MATERIALS

Signs, business cards, forms, brochures, referral cards, prescription forms, patient packets….the list can seem endless. All these materials fill vital roles in a professional health-related practice. Each one represents your brand, and there is value in presenting a consistent look (logo, colors, type fonts, etc.). A professional marketing agency will ensure that consistency.

At Ligon Marketing, we’re not just marketers; we’re problem solvers. Our goal is to build long-term relationships with our clients, through listening, creating, implementing, and providing top-notch customer service. We’ve successfully helped other health-related practices grow, and we can use that expertise for you. (Of course, we’ll never compete with like-practices within a market area!) Give us a call today to explore your options!

August 12 2019

Managing the Remote Workforce

Dani Professional Development

“When employers consider allowing remote work or hiring freelance contractors, they often have the fear that productivity may drop as a result,” according to a July 2018 article in HR Daily Advisor. “But more and more organizations are finding that is simply not the case. In fact, they’re finding that allowing employees to work remotely (and/or hiring freelancers) can improve productivity—both for the individual and for the organization.”

Is working remote, or “virtually,” a fairly recent phenomenon? Hardly. The number of employed U.S. residents who work from home has been steadily increasing for decades. A recent Gallop poll estimates the percentage of “from home” workers at around 43 percent of the US workforce. There are clear upsides to remote work policies, one being that implementing these policies saves the typical business around $11,000 per person, per year, according to a Global Workplace Analytics study; a national savings of $700 billion per year.

So, with success stories like this, why do employers even think twice about a virtual workforce? Well, this discussion has been going on for quite some time. In fact, the idea of “home-based work” has been working its way around (so to speak) the business world for quite some time; back to the Industrial Revolution. And, believe it or not, while the circumstances around remote employment have certainly changed over the last 150 years, the discussion around whether or not it’s a good idea, has not.

Here are just a few of the benefits that, according to the proverbial wisdom, ie HR experts, companies can potentially reap from employing virtual workers: they begin their day early, they are less likely to call out sick, and they can structure their time in a way that allows for optimal efficiency. Most people love working from home and, because they’re happy, they’re more motivated and more productive. Add to these perceived benefits the advancements in technology that enable remote workers to collaborate as if they were in the same office, and you have what seems to be a winning scenario.

But, is it?

Hate to burst your “let’s all go remote” bubble, but the fact is that human beings need interconnection. We crave interaction (most of us, anyway?!) and that craving is satisfied by a shared work environment. As an employer considering a remote workforce, this is a consideration that should weigh heavily in your decision. It’s critically important that you keep employees productive, engaged, and constantly aware of the fact that their contributions are valuable to your company’s success. As you can imagine, it’s easy for remote workers – even though they love their environment, set their own schedule, and more – to feel cut off from the average day-to-day business routine. In short, to feel frighteningly isolated. And this is where a virtual worker model can go south in a hurry.

This is the situation you now face. Despite all of the reasons to be happy, your remote workers are now suffering from a loss in energy and enthusiasm. What can you do to stem that tide and help keep them happy, engaged, and productive?

Make expectations clear

Setting clear expectations is an important motivator for remote workers. Remote employees are somewhat deprived of your company’s culture, and can lead to an unclear sense of the company’s objectives. If possible, conduct one-on-one meetings to ensure their awareness of the company’s objectives, and help them manage their time effectively. In short, a constant flow of communication will help your remote workers stay motivated, up-to-date, and remind them that you value their work.

Keep them feeling connected

Despite all of the technology around conferencing and collaboration, keeping remote employees energized is still a challenge. But one worth accepting and tackling. And, while it’s important to frequently communicate deadlines and expectations, there’s more to communication than work. Keep your remote employees connected on a personal level, as well. Facilitate their getting to know each other and build bonds. This feeling of shared goals, of being a member of a team, goes a long way in keeping them engaging, happy, and productive.

So, does a virtual workforce make sense for your business? Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. One thing you can be certain of; the benefits you can potentially derive from such a model do not come easily. They take work. But, if you’re willing to do it, you can be successful.