Utilize the 4 Ps of marketing to attract new patients to your practice

Marketing is the ship that guides the business, and in order to develop a plan that will direct your business, five critical elements should be examined—target markets, products/services, pricing, place, and promotion.

There is an old rule of thumb in marketing: 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. While this is an interesting rule, it is not one that creates a diverse referral base within a practice. The first step in developing a marketing strategy is to look at both the numbers and types of referrals to the practice, and then quantify the percentage of the total revenue represented by each type of business.

The driving force for most practices are patients, and capturing a large percentage of business from them is critical to the success of any practice. When examining the patient base in your practice, think about the demographics (including age, sex, race, and other variables) and psychographics—the reasons that patients come to your practice. You want to be able to profile patients carefully to have a good handle on which type is attracted to your practice.

Consumer product companies are extraordinarily adept at analyzing the demographics and psychographics of their customer base. For example, a new restaurant chain in Florida was evaluating whether to expand into the Tennessee area. They hired a market research firm to analyze the demographics and psychographics of people who eat out frequently. They found that in Florida, a much older segment of the population ate out frequently, and they ate at early hours and enjoyed early bird specials. In Tennessee, a younger population ate out frequently and at much later hours.

What did this analysis tell the restaurant chain? The target markets between the two areas were very different. In Florida, they needed menus in large type, more staff from 4 pm to 6 pm, and a menu that would appeal to the older population. Whereas in Tennessee, they needed a menu that appeals to the younger population, a full staff after 7 pm, and a new menu with creative dishes to keep their target market coming back.

Target Practice
Who are your target customers and what do they want? Practices definitely cater to different populations, yet few practitioners understand the psychographics that drive patients to their practice. A relatively easy way to access this information is to have your office staff analyze the demographic breakdowns in the practice. Have them compile the age, sex, race, zip code, and other pertinent demographics and then, analyze the populations being served.

Then determine why your patients come to your practice by simply asking them. This can be done by creating a questionnaire for patients to complete or by organizing a focus group of similar demographics.

When compiling psychographic categories, you will get a variety of answers as to why patients come to the practice. These specific answers need to be put into broad categories. For example, patients may tell you that they come because of the friendly staff, the practice is close to their home, or the practice will bill their insurance. The answers may or may not be different between different categories of demographics. For example, do you attain different answers from men than from women? Do you receive different answers from younger and older patients? Do the answers vary between those paying cash and those with insurance coverage?

There is both an art and a science to this process. The science part of the equation is asking enough people for a statistically significant answer. You will need to have answers from at least 30 to 50 people within a particular demographic category. This requires quite a bit of paperwork and staff to compile the answers. The art of this process is having an objective perspective of the data and understanding the results in order to implement a plan of action.

Here is how one practice put the information into action. The demographics of an existising practice in Southern California had a vast majority of patients who were older and primarily female. A psychographic analysis found that the two major reasons these patients came to the practice were because 1) they felt comfortable with the previous chiropractor, and 2) they liked having a weekly schedule of visits in their routine. An analysis of the younger patients showed that there was a distinct dissatisfaction with the speed at which patients were seen in the practice, and they primarily came to the practice because it was located next to their office building—two distinct target markets with two distinct needs.

Products and Services
You cannot build a product or a service to match your patients’ needs if you do not know them. The second step in building a successful marketing strategy is designing a service that meets their interests.

The major difference between a product and a service is that a product is designed by asking the customer about features and benefits. It is relatively easy because you can show the customer the design of the product or the actual product for a reaction. But how does this work for a service?

A service is a process. It begins with the point of entry and ends when the patient leaves the office. How is the process experience and how does it fit the needs of your target customer? Put yourself through the paces of your office. Enter as a new patient and see what it is like to contact every aspect of your practice. Is it efficient? Is it patient friendly? Now ask your customers what they think of the process. It may very well be time to make some changes in the process. These can be simple, such as making the waiting room more comfortable, or more complex, like offering various products to patients.

When looking at your process, be objective and listen to both staff and patients. Like the office in California, you may find distinct interests from different target markets, therefore, you should cater to patients differently.

Price
Pricing strategies vary between different types of practices and regions of the country. All practices need to have a list price for the services and products offered. Then the practice needs to have a discount for cash payments and consider instituting a difference between credit card and cash payments.

When the practice is targeting managed care organizations, pricing structures may vary. Often managed care organizations like to have a case rate or fixed amount of service provided to patients. When these types of pricing structures can be developed, they can differentiate one practice from another.

Pricing needs to be competitive but also reflect the particular value of the ser-vice provided. As part of the marketing analysis, take a look at your prices and pricing policies to ensure these continue to fit your business and patient base.

Place
The location of a practice is critical to its success. Are you located in a desirable place? Is it easy or difficult to get into your office? Are you close to your target market or far away?

Ask your patients how they typically get to your office and if they have any problems getting in and out. Take into account issues such as parking and stairs.

Next, take a look at the design of your facility. What image does it portray? Is your facility stuck in the 70s and attracting people comfortable with this era? The image of the practice is very important to customers, and while it may make you and your staff happy, it may be turning off some customers.

There are a number of solutions to changing your image such as: changing physical locations, adding new rooms, renovating current space, adding a new location, or redecorating the current space. The analysis of space needs to occur at least once a year. Assess your office(s) and determine whether it is an asset or a liability.

Promotion
The last element of the marketing strategy is promotion. There are a number of different promotional elements to use in promoting your practice. These include: direct selling to other doctors, direct selling to managed care organizations, direct mailings to consumers, yellow pages advertising, and public relations activities.

The first place to start is to evaluate how customers find you. Every practice should ask this question to all new patients, and the answers to this question should be analyzed monthly and tracked. As with any promotional activity, there is a return on investment with any promotional activity. For example, if you mailed 1,000 pieces to potential patients and received a 2% response that generated two office visits, it may not be worth the effort. If, on the other hand, you took a doctor to dinner twice and this generated 40 office visits, the effort paid for itself.

Marketing efforts are similar to planting seeds. For example, it may take five visits to a potential referring doctor to receive some business, or you can make 10 visits to a doctor and still not generate any business. Keep track of promotional efforts and determine which ones are successful. Remember, it is easy to spend money, but more difficult to get a return on the investment. Take a new look at your current method of promotion and the returns, and then determine whether it is time to make a change.

About the Author
Alison Cherney, MBA, is a contributing writer for Chiropractic Products.