Branding Your Practice: Principles of effective Branding Your - - PDF document

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Branding Your Practice: Principles of effective marketing Branding Your Practice: Principles of effective marketing

Russell H. Samson MD, FACS, RVT Clinical professor of Surgery (Vascular) Florida State University Medical School .Senior Surgeon, Sarasota Vascular Specialists

My Disclosures

• I am the senior partner in Sarasota Vascular Specialists
• This slide contains our practice logo
• I designed the branding for our practice
• My partners refuse to pay me for my efforts @%#@$*$*^

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Previous Perception to Marketing

• Many physicians felt it was

taboo for a profession like medicine

• Inappropriate and

unprofessional

• Used Car Salesman

Want to by a cheap fempop?

You may be the best Surgeon BUT!

• If no one knows who you are
• No one will use you
• You do need to market

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Principles of Effective Marketing

• Discovery
• Strategy
• Solutions
• Implementation
• Review

Discovery

• Who is your competition?
• Why are they successful?
• What messages are they conveying?
• What are the competition’s weaknesses?

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Discovery

• What are the strengths and

weakness of your practice?

• What differentiates your practice?
• What is unique about your practice?
• What is unique about your staff?
• Why do patients come to you?

Discovery

• What are you marketing?
• The practice as a whole?
• Individuals within the practice?
• Specific aspects of the practice?

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Discovery

• Knowing these answers will help you define how you

want to position yourself and your practice

• i.e. define your Brand

Branding & Logos

AMA (American Marketing Association) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them

intended to differentiate a seller from other sellers”

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Branding

• Develop a logo, a graphic image and a name
• Use this on all materials that come from the practice
• Essential to establish a corporate image
• How you want your personnel to be seen
• Uniforms
• Attitudes
• Phone calls

Strategies for Branding

• Internal
• External

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The Name

• Is Surgery a four letter word?
• Sarasota Vascular Specialists
• Mention the Neighborhood, City,

State, Country?

• Are you a Center? An Institute?

The American Institute for Vascular Diseases But you are just newly minted surgeon

just out of fellowship

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The Logo

• Incorporate both veins and

arteries?

• Easily differentiates you and

your practice

• Clearly represents your identity

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The Tag Line

• A brief statement of what you do or who you are

that can be added to your logo

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The Practice “Corporate” Image

• Your Building
• Your Office
• Your waiting room
• Your Staff
• Your Phone
• You!

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INTERNAL MARKETING

• Brochures
• Websites
• Presentation Folders
• Stationery Systems
• On-Hold Audio Brochures
• Ref Physician Newsletters
• Email news letters
• Promotional Posters
• Product Packaging
• Staff Training
• Lectures
• Patient Portal

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EXTERNAL ADVERTISING

• Newspaper & Magazine Ads
• Free-Standing Inserts
• Social Media: Facebook & Twitter
• Radio & TV spots
• Infomercials
• Billboards
• Promotions
• Custom Procedure Videos

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EXTERNAL ADVERTISING

• Direct-Mail Postcards
• Yellow Page Ads
• Val-Pak Coupons
• External Signage
• Practice Liaison Training
• Public Relations
• YouTube Videos

Doctors read the newspaper and watch TV too!

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Implementation

• Do it yourself or hire a professional
• Agency
• In-house
• Stay involved –
• A simple “hands off” approach to marketing and advertising will almost

never result in success

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That’s what they remember