You are sitting on a gold mine! That medical chart is full of the stuff that most marketers dream about. Gender, Age, specific needs and desires. Most advertisers pay big money for an outside firm to tell them exactly who their target customer is, but you have it all in the chart or EMR. You just need to organize all that data and target more people just like the ones coming through your door. 

If you know your patients, there are many ways to target more people just like them.  Knowing the gender, age and geographical details will help you create messages and even imaging that will help to pull in more people who are more likely to move forward with your products or services.  It’s very important for people to be able to picture themselves having success, enjoying a lifestyle or making a big decision if the marketing message it targeted to them. 

How do you get to know your patients more deeply? 

If you want to know more, just ask! A very important question to ask in every patient packet is “what do you expect to gain from this procedure/today’s visit?”,  if you are not already asking this question it is important to start. The answer to this question plays an important part in creating a message for advertising and marketing messages. You do not have to spend millions on advertising when you can use information that is given to you by your patients.

If you know your patients, from the information provided by patients on medical charts, you can create campaigns, commercials, PPC ads or social media posts that will target the exact audiences and create messages that will address prospective patients’ needs and desires. 

Below is a basic list that can be used to create messages and content that will target the audiences just like the customers/patients that go to your practice: 

• Age
• Gender
• Marital status
• Employment status, employer and occupation
• Age of onset and exact diagnosed illnesses

If you are targeting them with ads, geography also helps:

• City
• Zipcode

Once a target audience has been decided, it is important to evaluate if the message that is being conveyed matches the audience’s mentality and is being posted on the most relevant media. Luckily, the different marketing platforms will let you run different marketing messages and creatives (ads) to really target prospects with a specific message. Some things that should be considered are:

• Has there been keyword or hashtag research done to create a message that will appear in front of the right audiences searching for information?
• Is this something that can be used for a social media post, as well as an ad? If you have tried creating ads on some platforms, you will understand the difficulty of getting approval on medical ads on some of the different social media platforms. 
• Which creative will you be using for the campaigns?  Have you selected imaging that will resonate with the targeted prospect, based on how well you know your patients?
• Can the message be written within the constraints/character limitations on some social media and ad platforms?

Make sure someone is keeping track of your analytics. You will want to know what is working best so that you can continue to deliver that message. If something isn’t getting the desired response, you will need to edit your messages or stop the campaign to focus on the content that is attracting people.  Social media platforms have insights and other audience information that will help you see if your message is getting views or actions (do you know your patients well enough that the ads or posts are working to attract new ones)

Social media platforms and search algorithms are constantly evolving and require a hands-on approach. If you need help with targeting new patients, creating a marketing strategy, pay per click campaign or social media management, MD Integrated Marketing can take over, so you have time to focus on your current patients.  We love helping practices and brands grow.