helping you connect with your clients

Welcome to The Healthcare Marketing Connection! This week we are taking a look at some inexpensive ways to get your name out there and to create awareness for your practice. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to generate revenues. Oftentimes the grassroots efforts are the most effective of all!

To your success!

Kelly

10 cheap ways to create awareness for your healthcare practice

Creating awareness for your healthcare practice, especially with little or no budget, can be a daunting task. New competitors, a lack of prior marketing, a poor reputation in the past and lack of funds are all reasons why your practice may be experiencing a decline in patients or a lack of growth.

While a difficult task for any business, creating awareness for a healthcare practice can be especially daunting because there is so much competition out there. Here are a few inexpensive ways to let people know you're out there and what you stand for.

1. Write articles or provide tips to local homeowners' associations.
   
   
2. Provide educational information for small businesses in the community by contributing to your local chamber of commerce. Think workplace safety, workman's comp, etc.
   
   
3. Publish articles or inexpensive advertorials in your local community paper.
   
   
4. Partner with realtors in the area and target new families moving into the community. Make sure they know where you are, help them find a local PCP, etc. Be a source for referrals. This can be as easy as creating a hand-out they give to new families when they buy a house.
   
   
5. Similar to how you partner with realtors to introduce yourself to new families in the area, you can also joint venture with apartment complexes and building management companies. Both residential and commercial management companies provide welcome packets for new tenants. Why not include some information about your practice and how to find you? And the great thing about this approach is that once it's done, you don't have to worry about doing it again. It's an easy system to put in place for ongoing marketing.
   
   
6. In addition to the welcome packets, you can publish "health tips" articles in building association newsletters, too. Both residential and commercial complexes usually publish a newsletter for their tenants and are always looking for ways to add value to the publication. They're always looking for content. Help them out!
   
   
7. Work with your local newspaper to add a "health" section to the newspaper's Web site. Make sure the paper knows you're available for interviews or questions on any healthcare related topics that come up. You can also post a calendar of events, etc.
   
   
8. Offer free or low-cost seminars to educate the public. Participating physicians may conduct these.
   
   
9. Can you do a joint venture with someone in the community? Be creative. For example, maybe the local kids' sports team. You can be the official sponsor and provide free tips in their newsletter or have staff people at the games for parents to ask questions.
   
   
10. Remember, people like free things. What can you give away for free? A free report or free consultation? A free blood pressure check? Give this free thing away in all your communication pieces.

(c) 2008, A Marketing Connection

Want to use this article in your ezine or web site? No problem! Just let me know at info@AMarketingConnection.com. I'll send you a short bio to include at the end of the article.

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Coaching for Practice Marketing -- Get started today for just $1

Marketing and Copywriting expert Kelly Robbins, MA, and Acupuncturist and business coach Kevin Doherty, L.Ac, authors of Practice Evolution: The Ultimate Holistic Health Practice Success Kit, have designed a one-of-a-kind coaching program delivered in manageable chunks to your email box each week.

In the Practice Evolution E-Coaching Marketing Program you’ll receive one one practice building tip or technique that is inexpensive, easy to implement, and is guaranteed to attract healthcare clients to your practice delivered via email each week.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn to do in the Practice Evolution E-Coaching System:

• Get out of survival mode
• Stop confusion about how to get new clients in the door
• Learn to create multiple price points in your services so you have options for everyone
• How to add thousands of dollars a month in additional income
• Spend less time on marketing
• How to bring back patients that quit coming
• Easy ways to get referrals
• How to work with other practitioners in other modalities and double your client base
• Prevent burn-out
• Have more time to treat patients
• Use your patients as your sales team
• What you control in your business and what you don’t
• Hiring a support staff
• How to attract patients without spending any money on advertising
• How to triple the amount each client spends
• And more!!

All we ask from you is that you commit to one hour each week for 52 weeks. Make the commitment to yourself and to the success of your practice to spend a minimum of one hour each week on your marketing.

Work at your own pace.
Implement and master one business building concept at a time
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Register now: www.practiceevolutionecoaching.com

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If you have any other great resources you'd like me to share with everyone, let me know and I'll check it out. Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com

Boulder Writers Alliance (BWA) - September 23rd - I'm speaking on "Tips for Freelancing Success" at the BWA Expo: www.BWA.org.

If you have any other great resources you'd like me to share with everyone, let me know and I'll check it out. Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com

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Disclaimer: A Marketing Connection, Inc. does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any of the recommendations or advertisements, or the quality of any products, information, or other materials displayed, purchased, or obtained by you as a result of an offer in connection with any ad in The Healthcare Marketing Connection. We recommend, as always, that you do your own due diligence before purchasing any product.

To learn more about healthcare copywriting and marketing, visit my Web site at www.AMarketingConnection.com/article_archives.shtml. There are tons of fr ee articles on a variety of helpful topics.