Your Guide to Setting Up, Maintaining, and Growing Your Imaging Center’s Radiology Facebook Page
While most businesses now have a facebook page, radiology Facebook pages for imaging centers are less common than others. Even in the Medical industry, Facebook is a powerful tool for any practice.
In this article, we will discuss the “who, what, when, where and why” of using Facebook to promote awareness of and engagement with your imaging center.
Looking to increase your patient reviews on Facebook and Google?
Getting Started: How to Market Your Imaging Center on Facebook
Radiology social media outreach is complex due to the nature of their business. However, Facebook is the most popular social media site worldwide. Its position in the market means it has the broadest reach across all demographics. It also provides some of the most powerful user tracking tools available to marketers.
With a Facebook page, your imaging center can reach any demographic and also collect valuable data on real users to inform all your marketing initiatives, including market segmentation strategy. These things and more make Facebook the best place to start your radiology social media presence.
What to do With Your Diagnostics Facebook Page
1. Who? Market to referring doctors and patients in the same place at the same time.
Traditionally, the marketing approach for most imaging centers has focused on referring doctors while excluding patients. This made the most sense from a numbers-to-dollars perspective in the past, but that was before the rise of social media. On your radiology Facebook page, your practice can market to both groups at once.
For targeting patients, your posts should center on the human element of your practice, demonstrating an intimate level of care in your organization and the patient benefits you offer. According to Ragan’s Health Care Communication News, referring physicians spend 60% of their time on social media reading, sharing, and discussing healthcare news. So, focus your physician-targeted posts on sharing both your expertise and what’s going on in the world of diagnostics. The best approach is an all-inclusive one in which you post content frequently in a well-mapped flow of how and when to target all your market segments and their overlapping interests.
2. What: Broadcast all your cool technology (machines and images) for an easy eyeball magnet.
You’ve probably heard the term “eyeball economy,” which refers to the effect social media, SEO, and the science of web traffic have had on businesses and how they find new customers. Essentially, if you can get the eyeballs, the dollars will follow. So, lean on your strengths.
Radiology imaging centers have some of today’s coolest and most expensive machines that the public have personal access too. Broadcasting information about the impressive tech in your center(s), and sharing the images, GIFs, and videos these machines produce, are two great ways to get and keep eyeballs on your diagnostics facebook page. Whether this is a fMRI of the brain, contrast-enhanced images of the body, or cardiac imaging of a pulsating heart muscle, use the tech at your disposal to your advantage!
3. When: Frequently.
While your radiology Facebook page is not a personal one and you should avoid over-sharing, your imaging practice should post to its Facebook page at least once a week and not more than once per day. Ideally, you will set a schedule and queue up unique content for publishing at the same time on the same day each week, then fill in the days between with interesting and relevant “shares,” or repurposed content. Creating that much original content is a lot of work, so make sure you have a dedicated resource to allocate to your diagnostics center social media presence.
You can use an auto-posting system like Buffer to queue up your posts for set-it-and-forget-it simplicity.
4. Where: Cross-promote your content everywhere.
Because of its broad reach, Facebook should serve as the center for your content cross-promotion across all outreach channels. Link back to your practice’s main site as much as possible, and once you are an imaging center Facebook expert, branch out into other channels and begin driving traffic there as well. The goal is to whip up a cyclone-esque flow of traffic between all your social media outreach channels, your website, and all your followers.
Bear in mind that learning web traffic science and digital marketing is required to create a strong feedback loop that will make all your effort worthwhile. Either dedicate the time required and stick with it until your investment pays off, or reach out to an expert for help.
5. Why: All these reasons, and then some.
Your Facebook page can teach you more about what patients and referring doctors want. With special tools just for marketers, your imaging practice can track the online behavior of those “Like” your page.
A Facebook page gives you a chance to make lasting, human connections with referring doctors and their patients. Just as much as we are in an eyeball economy, we are also living in a relationship-based economy. Engaging with patients, referring doctors, and prospects in a personal way will draw them in and keep them close.
Facebook is good for search engine optimization (SEO).A Facebook page is a great tool for your radiology social media strategy to increase the visibility of your website and your branded content. While creating a strong flow of traffic requires a well-planned engagement funnel, any level of cross-promotion is helpful.
Your competition may already have a Facebook page.This point speaks for itself. Unfortunately, “everybody’s doing it” does apply to this scenario.
Creating an engaged, active following for your diagnostics Facebook page is a lofty, albeit important, goal. In conjunction with an active and relevant blog on your practice’s website, this is the first step to digital marketing for your radiology practice in the social media realm. Once your practice achieves this, you can move on to image-based social platforms like Instagram, which has an increasingly broad reach across many demographics.
Looking for more ways to keep your patients and referring providers engaged?
Your Guide to Setting Up, Maintaining, and Growing Your Imaging Center’s Radiology Facebook Page
While most businesses now have a facebook page, radiology Facebook pages for imaging centers are less common than others. Even in the Medical industry, Facebook is a powerful tool for any practice.
In this article, we will discuss the “who, what, when, where and why” of using Facebook to promote awareness of and engagement with your imaging center.
Looking to increase your patient reviews on Facebook and Google?
Getting Started: How to Market Your Imaging Center on Facebook
Radiology social media outreach is complex due to the nature of their business. However, Facebook is the most popular social media site worldwide. Its position in the market means it has the broadest reach across all demographics. It also provides some of the most powerful user tracking tools available to marketers.
With a Facebook page, your imaging center can reach any demographic and also collect valuable data on real users to inform all your marketing initiatives, including market segmentation strategy. These things and more make Facebook the best place to start your radiology social media presence.
What to do With Your Diagnostics Facebook Page
1. Who? Market to referring doctors and patients in the same place at the same time.
Traditionally, the marketing approach for most imaging centers has focused on referring doctors while excluding patients. This made the most sense from a numbers-to-dollars perspective in the past, but that was before the rise of social media. On your radiology Facebook page, your practice can market to both groups at once.
For targeting patients, your posts should center on the human element of your practice, demonstrating an intimate level of care in your organization and the patient benefits you offer. According to Ragan’s Health Care Communication News, referring physicians spend 60% of their time on social media reading, sharing, and discussing healthcare news. So, focus your physician-targeted posts on sharing both your expertise and what’s going on in the world of diagnostics. The best approach is an all-inclusive one in which you post content frequently in a well-mapped flow of how and when to target all your market segments and their overlapping interests.
2. What: Broadcast all your cool technology (machines and images) for an easy eyeball magnet.
You’ve probably heard the term “eyeball economy,” which refers to the effect social media, SEO, and the science of web traffic have had on businesses and how they find new customers. Essentially, if you can get the eyeballs, the dollars will follow. So, lean on your strengths.
Radiology imaging centers have some of today’s coolest and most expensive machines that the public have personal access too. Broadcasting information about the impressive tech in your center(s), and sharing the images, GIFs, and videos these machines produce, are two great ways to get and keep eyeballs on your diagnostics facebook page. Whether this is a fMRI of the brain, contrast-enhanced images of the body, or cardiac imaging of a pulsating heart muscle, use the tech at your disposal to your advantage!
3. When: Frequently.
While your radiology Facebook page is not a personal one and you should avoid over-sharing, your imaging practice should post to its Facebook page at least once a week and not more than once per day. Ideally, you will set a schedule and queue up unique content for publishing at the same time on the same day each week, then fill in the days between with interesting and relevant “shares,” or repurposed content. Creating that much original content is a lot of work, so make sure you have a dedicated resource to allocate to your diagnostics center social media presence.
You can use an auto-posting system like Buffer to queue up your posts for set-it-and-forget-it simplicity.
4. Where: Cross-promote your content everywhere.
Because of its broad reach, Facebook should serve as the center for your content cross-promotion across all outreach channels. Link back to your practice’s main site as much as possible, and once you are an imaging center Facebook expert, branch out into other channels and begin driving traffic there as well. The goal is to whip up a cyclone-esque flow of traffic between all your social media outreach channels, your website, and all your followers.
Bear in mind that learning web traffic science and digital marketing is required to create a strong feedback loop that will make all your effort worthwhile. Either dedicate the time required and stick with it until your investment pays off, or reach out to an expert for help.
5. Why: All these reasons, and then some.
Your Facebook page can teach you more about what patients and referring doctors want. With special tools just for marketers, your imaging practice can track the online behavior of those “Like” your page.
A Facebook page gives you a chance to make lasting, human connections with referring doctors and their patients. Just as much as we are in an eyeball economy, we are also living in a relationship-based economy. Engaging with patients, referring doctors, and prospects in a personal way will draw them in and keep them close.
Facebook is good for search engine optimization (SEO).A Facebook page is a great tool for your radiology social media strategy to increase the visibility of your website and your branded content. While creating a strong flow of traffic requires a well-planned engagement funnel, any level of cross-promotion is helpful.
Your competition may already have a Facebook page.This point speaks for itself. Unfortunately, “everybody’s doing it” does apply to this scenario.
Creating an engaged, active following for your diagnostics Facebook page is a lofty, albeit important, goal. In conjunction with an active and relevant blog on your practice’s website, this is the first step to digital marketing for your radiology practice in the social media realm. Once your practice achieves this, you can move on to image-based social platforms like Instagram, which has an increasingly broad reach across many demographics.
Looking for more ways to keep your patients and referring providers engaged?
Understanding the law and what is allowed and Marketing your Diagnostic Center, you will attract new patients, grow your practice, and get the attention of referring physicians. Lack of understanding, and you could face steep fines or possible jail time.
So, where’s the line and what can you do to grow your patient base?
Marketing is easy when your online reputation is top notch.
5-star reviews build trust with patients and referring providers. So long as your reviews are from real, unbiased patients, growing your online reviews is always a safe and effective marketing strategy.
The Laws You Need to Consider When Marketing your Diagnostic Center:
When marketing your practice, there are multiple legal restrictions which dictate what is lawful and what is not. There are two areas which are especially relevant.
First, you will need to be aware of anti-kickback laws. This is a federal law which prevents you from offering money or gifts to entice patients into your clinic. This is a felony. If charged and convicted, you could go to jail. Second, you will need to be aware of the Stark law. This law prevents you from offering incentives, money or gifts to providers in return for funneling patients to your center. This is a civil code, thus, if convicted you will not face jail time. You will, however, enjoy a substantial fine. An important fact to know and understand about this law, you do not need to show intent to be in violation. You can be in violation without knowing and still be ordered to pay a fine.
Here are some instances which illustrate what you should and should not do to market your practice or clinic:
Situation #1: Playing the Social Media Tagging Game with your Radiology and Diagnostic Center
A radiology or diagnostic center partners with a local business to promote awareness for breast cancer screening. Marketing brochures are placed within the business instructing participants to post a selfie with the brochure and tag your practice for a chance to win a small prize.
Allowed?: Probably good to go. This situation is about breast health awareness and not specifically bribing patients to come in to your clinic.
Situation #2: MRI Merch for your Radiology and Diagnostic Center
To promote a new MRI machine, a clinic offers branded marketing merchandise to the first 25 referring physicians for a certain period of time.
Allowed?: Nope.
This is a violation of the Stark law. You cannot offer an incentive to referring providers only. You won’t face jail time, but you could face a large fine.
Situation #3: Lunch & Learn at your Radiology and Diagnostic Center
A center offers free lunch to local physicians while providing an educational seminar on new relevant technology.
Allowed?: Should Be Fine.
Education does not run against the Stark law, just make sure that education is, in fact, the focus. If you prefer to be extra cautious, keep an accurate accounting of the cost per guest attending the event to report on your non-monetary compensation spreadsheet.
Situation #4: The Holiday Gift Basket Bash for your Radiology and Diagnostic Center
Your office is one of many within a hospital marketing to referring physicians. You want to send them a nice holiday fruit basket to make sure they remember you.
Allowed?: Hmm, You Better Watch Out
The amount of non-monetary gifts you can give to a provider is calculated by entity and not by department. Thus, if radiologists, orthopedists, cardiologists, hospital administration, or any other department are also sending baskets, you could be in violation of the Stark law. You should try to see who is giving what and an idea of cost.
Situation #5: Your Radiology and Diagnostic Center in Full Color
You just got a bunch of 5-star reviews and some extra budget for marketing, so you put out an ad proclaiming your practice as the best in the region.
Allowed?: Maybe Not – Be Careful.
Something to always keep in mind when advertising your radiology or diagnostic center is truth-in-advertising laws. Are you really the best around? Did you conduct a verifiable survey?
If you cannot prove your claim, you could be in violation. You will also need to take into consideration the models in your advertisement. If they are current or former patients you must have a signed release granting permission, otherwise, you could be faced with a HIPAA violation.
Situation #6: Fancy Dinner and 15 Min. Talk About Radiology & Diagnostics Centers
A center invites referring providers to an expensive dinner at an upscale restaurant. To check off the educational portion of the evening, a fifteen-minute lecture on the latest in the radiology and diagnostic field is discussed. The rest of the evening is spent enjoying wine, spirits, and delicious gourmet cuisine.
Allowed?: It’s a no-no.
This is the reason the Stark law exists. They are written to keep large, expensive gifts from being given to entice referring providers to send patients your way. Fancy dinners with all the trimmings qualify as large gifts. This is also a situation where you may, in fact, have to attribute the entire cost of food to each guest rather than noting a per person amount.
Situation #7: Extra, Extra: Get Your CME Right Here … at this Radiology and Diagnostic Center
A radiology and diagnostic center would like to offer CME to area providers.
Allowed?: Maybe.
If the referring provider would normally be paying for this CME, you will need to charge a fee. If you decide against charging, the cost will need to be recorded on your non-monetary compensation spreadsheet.
Situation #8: Diagnostic & Radiology Center Mixer
A practice manager at the office of a provider requests that a diagnostic and radiology center bring in lunch for everyone to enjoy together. This is also a great way to break the ice and network.
Allowed?: Don’t do it.
No individual at any referring physician office may request a gift of any kind, which includes food.
Situation #9: Diagnostics Coupons and Special Deals on Exams?
Can a radiology or diagnostic center offer a promotion through a coupon service such as Groupon?
Allowed?: Maybe, but be careful.
So long as the promotion excludes Medicare patients, you should be clear to proceed. If the discount includes Medicare patients and Medicare pays for the service provided, this is defined as a kickback. Not to mention, Groupon received a cut, which is like a commission for sending patients. These are not allowed.
Situation #10: Let’s Party! With Your Favorite Providers
Can a radiology and diagnostic center throw an appreciation party for referring providers?
Allowed?: Record Keeping is the Name of the Game
The Stark law provides a predetermined amount that may be spent each year on non-monetary compensation. This can be food, pens, stress balls, etc. Use a spreadsheet to keep a record of how much is spent per year per physician.
These situations are just a sampling of scenarios which radiology and diagnostics centers can face at any time. Knowledge and understanding of current laws and norms are of the highest importance when operating a successful practice. Whether you are in the radiology and diagnostic industry or another field, be sure to realize and put into practice all guidelines and laws governing your practice today.
Looking for a little help growing your diagnostic center?
Understanding the law and what is allowed and Marketing your Diagnostic Center, you will attract new patients, grow your practice, and get the attention of referring physicians. Lack of understanding, and you could face steep fines or possible jail time.
So, where’s the line and what can you do to grow your patient base?
Marketing is easy when your online reputation is top notch.
5-star reviews build trust with patients and referring providers. So long as your reviews are from real, unbiased patients, growing your online reviews is always a safe and effective marketing strategy.
The Laws You Need to Consider When Marketing your Diagnostic Center:
When marketing your practice, there are multiple legal restrictions which dictate what is lawful and what is not. There are two areas which are especially relevant.
First, you will need to be aware of anti-kickback laws. This is a federal law which prevents you from offering money or gifts to entice patients into your clinic. This is a felony. If charged and convicted, you could go to jail. Second, you will need to be aware of the Stark law. This law prevents you from offering incentives, money or gifts to providers in return for funneling patients to your center. This is a civil code, thus, if convicted you will not face jail time. You will, however, enjoy a substantial fine. An important fact to know and understand about this law, you do not need to show intent to be in violation. You can be in violation without knowing and still be ordered to pay a fine.
Here are some instances which illustrate what you should and should not do to market your practice or clinic:
Situation #1: Playing the Social Media Tagging Game with your Radiology and Diagnostic Center
A radiology or diagnostic center partners with a local business to promote awareness for breast cancer screening. Marketing brochures are placed within the business instructing participants to post a selfie with the brochure and tag your practice for a chance to win a small prize.
Allowed?: Probably good to go. This situation is about breast health awareness and not specifically bribing patients to come in to your clinic.
Situation #2: MRI Merch for your Radiology and Diagnostic Center
To promote a new MRI machine, a clinic offers branded marketing merchandise to the first 25 referring physicians for a certain period of time.
Allowed?: Nope.
This is a violation of the Stark law. You cannot offer an incentive to referring providers only. You won’t face jail time, but you could face a large fine.
Situation #3: Lunch & Learn at your Radiology and Diagnostic Center
A center offers free lunch to local physicians while providing an educational seminar on new relevant technology.
Allowed?: Should Be Fine.
Education does not run against the Stark law, just make sure that education is, in fact, the focus. If you prefer to be extra cautious, keep an accurate accounting of the cost per guest attending the event to report on your non-monetary compensation spreadsheet.
Situation #4: The Holiday Gift Basket Bash for your Radiology and Diagnostic Center
Your office is one of many within a hospital marketing to referring physicians. You want to send them a nice holiday fruit basket to make sure they remember you.
Allowed?: Hmm, You Better Watch Out
The amount of non-monetary gifts you can give to a provider is calculated by entity and not by department. Thus, if radiologists, orthopedists, cardiologists, hospital administration, or any other department are also sending baskets, you could be in violation of the Stark law. You should try to see who is giving what and an idea of cost.
Situation #5: Your Radiology and Diagnostic Center in Full Color
You just got a bunch of 5-star reviews and some extra budget for marketing, so you put out an ad proclaiming your practice as the best in the region.
Allowed?: Maybe Not – Be Careful.
Something to always keep in mind when advertising your radiology or diagnostic center is truth-in-advertising laws. Are you really the best around? Did you conduct a verifiable survey?
If you cannot prove your claim, you could be in violation. You will also need to take into consideration the models in your advertisement. If they are current or former patients you must have a signed release granting permission, otherwise, you could be faced with a HIPAA violation.
Situation #6: Fancy Dinner and 15 Min. Talk About Radiology & Diagnostics Centers
A center invites referring providers to an expensive dinner at an upscale restaurant. To check off the educational portion of the evening, a fifteen-minute lecture on the latest in the radiology and diagnostic field is discussed. The rest of the evening is spent enjoying wine, spirits, and delicious gourmet cuisine.
Allowed?: It’s a no-no.
This is the reason the Stark law exists. They are written to keep large, expensive gifts from being given to entice referring providers to send patients your way. Fancy dinners with all the trimmings qualify as large gifts. This is also a situation where you may, in fact, have to attribute the entire cost of food to each guest rather than noting a per person amount.
Situation #7: Extra, Extra: Get Your CME Right Here … at this Radiology and Diagnostic Center
A radiology and diagnostic center would like to offer CME to area providers.
Allowed?: Maybe.
If the referring provider would normally be paying for this CME, you will need to charge a fee. If you decide against charging, the cost will need to be recorded on your non-monetary compensation spreadsheet.
Situation #8: Diagnostic & Radiology Center Mixer
A practice manager at the office of a provider requests that a diagnostic and radiology center bring in lunch for everyone to enjoy together. This is also a great way to break the ice and network.
Allowed?: Don’t do it.
No individual at any referring physician office may request a gift of any kind, which includes food.
Situation #9: Diagnostics Coupons and Special Deals on Exams?
Can a radiology or diagnostic center offer a promotion through a coupon service such as Groupon?
Allowed?: Maybe, but be careful.
So long as the promotion excludes Medicare patients, you should be clear to proceed. If the discount includes Medicare patients and Medicare pays for the service provided, this is defined as a kickback. Not to mention, Groupon received a cut, which is like a commission for sending patients. These are not allowed.
Situation #10: Let’s Party! With Your Favorite Providers
Can a radiology and diagnostic center throw an appreciation party for referring providers?
Allowed?: Record Keeping is the Name of the Game
The Stark law provides a predetermined amount that may be spent each year on non-monetary compensation. This can be food, pens, stress balls, etc. Use a spreadsheet to keep a record of how much is spent per year per physician.
These situations are just a sampling of scenarios which radiology and diagnostics centers can face at any time. Knowledge and understanding of current laws and norms are of the highest importance when operating a successful practice. Whether you are in the radiology and diagnostic industry or another field, be sure to realize and put into practice all guidelines and laws governing your practice today.
Looking for a little help growing your diagnostic center?
Effective Email Marketing to Doctors Starts With a Solid Radiology Marketing Plan
Promoting a diagnostic imaging center using email marketing to doctors can be a great way to increase patient referrals and build partnerships with referring physicians. That is if it’s done right.
Like virtually everyone else in the working world, physicians open emails and check social media during their workday too. It can be a means of brief distraction or a need to research something specific for a patient. So how can your emails be the ones they open so you are opened up to get more referring physicians?
The fact is, 55% of people don’t read their emails regularly, but that doesn’t mean your emails need to be of those that instantly get dumped in the digital trash.
You can break out of that group by:
Determining the best time of day to send
Personalizing your emails based on physician specialization
Educating the physicians AND the front office about topics that matter to them
Most importantly, your main focus should be providing valuable content to the medical provider that sets you apart from your competition
Looking to improve your imaging center’s marketing to referring providers?
Doing some research is the first step, and should not be overlooked. Let’s start by asking …
How many medical providers open emails anyway?
You’ll want to have a clear benchmark for how many medical providers open emails in order to set goals and see where you can make effective changes to your email marketing tactics as you go. Well, there’s a metric for everything and email open rates are no different. Here’s the formula:
Open Rate = # emails opened / (the number of emails sent – # emails that bounced)
Take a look at the medical industry’s average open rate are in the chart below.
Industry
Open
Click
Soft Bounce
Hard Bounce
Abuse
Unsub
Medical, Dental, and Healthcare
22.43%
2.42%
0.72%
0.72%
0.03%
0.30%
That means less than a quarter of emails are opened in the healthcare industry. That isn’t as bad as it might sound. It is just the industry norm.
Now, let’s talk about how to increase your open rate to get more referring physicians
The timing of your email matters
When you choose to send your emails can mean the difference between your imaging center getting more referring physicians, and the “Delete” button.
What day is best?
This can be tricky as schedules vary among medical providers. Having said that, knowing the day and time of an email impacts the likelihood of it being opened is valuable information that can be tracked and analyzed.
Like many of us, potential referring physicians are generally busiest on Mondays and Fridays, so the chances they’ll be opening emails is much lower.
If they are a Monday thru Friday practice, then Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are your best days to send.
If the practice is open on weekends, then Saturday and Sunday may be an effective time to reach out.
Avoiding sending emails on the most exhausting work days of a targeted practice is essential to improving your open rate. That may be as simple as a conversation your sales rep has with the front desk receptionist.
What time is best?
While the specific days are important, the time of day is almost as impactful.
The good news is you don’t have to guess, at least not for long. Start off by testing these broad guidelines with a sample set of emails. Then analyze the data to find the day and time that had the highest open rate. Most email marketing systems have reports built in just for this purpose. Additionally, you may want to send out an A/B or Split Testemail to compare day or time. Once you have the data, you can find the sweet spot.
Personalize Your Emails to Doctors by Creating Segments
When sending emails to doctors it’s important to remember that not all doctors are the same. Consider the specific interests and business practices of each recipient. One of the fastest ways to get people to delete your email is to send everyone the same content. So segmenting is key!
Are you trying to reach an orthopedics office, a neurologist, or any other specialist? A brilliant and simple way to get more referring doctors is by sending them content that is useful and valuable to what they specialize in. One study found that email open rates increasedby almost 15% from segmenting alone.
Partnerships with medical providers occur because of the level of trust you have built together. Even though your email funnel may be a part of your radiology marketing plan, your aim should always be to provide value to those you reach out to. Gaining patient referrals takes more than marketing to physicians in the traditional way.
Plan out which emails should go to orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, ENTs, primary care physicians, and even the front office managers. And yes, they should all be different.
By segmenting your emails to a more specific target audience, you can drive down unsubscribe rates, build trust between the medical providers, and increase medical provider referrals.
Like in any relationship, you need to take the time to get to know someone
When setting up your email marketing to doctors, do your research. Maybe you know a medical office that is struggling in a specific area. Perhaps you have the expertise to help them out with the emails you provide. When you care enough to find out what their pain points are and what topics are directly applicable to what they are doing you can save them time, money, and improving their practice. If you can do that, you’ll certainly be on their good side which makes it much easier to approach doctors for referrals.
Make sure your valuable content is actually getting to them!
When marketing to doctors online it’s certainly imperative that your message has the opportunity to be seen. You put in the time to do this email thing right. It would be a shame if all of your hard work never got to your recipient’s inbox, or worse, never even got to their spam folder.
Why wouldn’t your emails end up in the inbox?
When you send out emails through a third party system like MailChimp or Constant Contact, your message has to pass more checkpoints to get to its destination. Spam filters are finicky and email delivery is complicated. But all you need to know is that if you’re worried your emails aren’t getting to people, your first step should be to setup Custom Domain Authentication which means altering your DNS records.
If you’ve already done that, and your recipients are still not getting your emails, it could be an issue on the receiving side. For new prospects, your email address may not be whitelisted in their system. What’s more, many providers may not know how to whitelist your email address.
This is not something that is done automatically and the front desk receptionist will be your best point of contact. Two ways this can be accomplished are by adding instructions to your Thank You page or by adding a pop-up feature from the email in which they can whitelist instantly. The pop-up feature is going to be your simplest and most realistic way of getting this done.
Give the medical provider a heads up on the content coming in
The physician’s office is more likely to welcome your “Welcome” email if it is well crafted. The email should be personal, actionable, practical, but also concise. If they are new to your campaign, pay them a visit in person and provide a quick explanation of what information is included in the emails. If they know what to expect, they’ll be less likely to delete and more likely to send your imaging center new patient referrals.
Let them know:
How often they can expect to receive emails from you
How your emails are going to be helpful to them
How they can help you understand their needs (and therefore send the most relevant emails)
Email Marketing to Doctors Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
Remember, email is a fantastic option to get more referring doctors – if you can get them to open! Determine the optimal time to send, segment your emails to make them more personable. Always make sure you’re providing value in your messages. Follow these tips in your email marketing to doctors and you will find building relationships with physicians is easy.
Looking to boost your 5-star reviews to get the attention of patients and providers?
Effective Email Marketing to Doctors Starts With a Solid Radiology Marketing Plan
Promoting a diagnostic imaging center using email marketing to doctors can be a great way to increase patient referrals and build partnerships with referring physicians. That is if it’s done right.
Like virtually everyone else in the working world, physicians open emails and check social media during their workday too. It can be a means of brief distraction or a need to research something specific for a patient. So how can your emails be the ones they open so you are opened up to get more referring physicians?
The fact is, 55% of people don’t read their emails regularly, but that doesn’t mean your emails need to be of those that instantly get dumped in the digital trash.
You can break out of that group by:
Determining the best time of day to send
Personalizing your emails based on physician specialization
Educating the physicians AND the front office about topics that matter to them
Most importantly, your main focus should be providing valuable content to the medical provider that sets you apart from your competition
Looking to improve your imaging center’s marketing to referring providers?
Doing some research is the first step, and should not be overlooked. Let’s start by asking …
How many medical providers open emails anyway?
You’ll want to have a clear benchmark for how many medical providers open emails in order to set goals and see where you can make effective changes to your email marketing tactics as you go. Well, there’s a metric for everything and email open rates are no different. Here’s the formula:
Open Rate = # emails opened / (the number of emails sent – # emails that bounced)
Take a look at the medical industry’s average open rate are in the chart below.
Industry
Open
Click
Soft Bounce
Hard Bounce
Abuse
Unsub
Medical, Dental, and Healthcare
22.43%
2.42%
0.72%
0.72%
0.03%
0.30%
That means less than a quarter of emails are opened in the healthcare industry. That isn’t as bad as it might sound. It is just the industry norm.
Now, let’s talk about how to increase your open rate to get more referring physicians
The timing of your email matters
When you choose to send your emails can mean the difference between your imaging center getting more referring physicians, and the “Delete” button.
What day is best?
This can be tricky as schedules vary among medical providers. Having said that, knowing the day and time of an email impacts the likelihood of it being opened is valuable information that can be tracked and analyzed.
Like many of us, potential referring physicians are generally busiest on Mondays and Fridays, so the chances they’ll be opening emails is much lower.
If they are a Monday thru Friday practice, then Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are your best days to send.
If the practice is open on weekends, then Saturday and Sunday may be an effective time to reach out.
Avoiding sending emails on the most exhausting work days of a targeted practice is essential to improving your open rate. That may be as simple as a conversation your sales rep has with the front desk receptionist.
What time is best?
While the specific days are important, the time of day is almost as impactful.
The good news is you don’t have to guess, at least not for long. Start off by testing these broad guidelines with a sample set of emails. Then analyze the data to find the day and time that had the highest open rate. Most email marketing systems have reports built in just for this purpose. Additionally, you may want to send out an A/B or Split Testemail to compare day or time. Once you have the data, you can find the sweet spot.
Personalize Your Emails to Doctors by Creating Segments
When sending emails to doctors it’s important to remember that not all doctors are the same. Consider the specific interests and business practices of each recipient. One of the fastest ways to get people to delete your email is to send everyone the same content. So segmenting is key!
Are you trying to reach an orthopedics office, a neurologist, or any other specialist? A brilliant and simple way to get more referring doctors is by sending them content that is useful and valuable to what they specialize in. One study found that email open rates increasedby almost 15% from segmenting alone.
Partnerships with medical providers occur because of the level of trust you have built together. Even though your email funnel may be a part of your radiology marketing plan, your aim should always be to provide value to those you reach out to. Gaining patient referrals takes more than marketing to physicians in the traditional way.
Plan out which emails should go to orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, ENTs, primary care physicians, and even the front office managers. And yes, they should all be different.
By segmenting your emails to a more specific target audience, you can drive down unsubscribe rates, build trust between the medical providers, and increase medical provider referrals.
Like in any relationship, you need to take the time to get to know someone
When setting up your email marketing to doctors, do your research. Maybe you know a medical office that is struggling in a specific area. Perhaps you have the expertise to help them out with the emails you provide. When you care enough to find out what their pain points are and what topics are directly applicable to what they are doing you can save them time, money, and improving their practice. If you can do that, you’ll certainly be on their good side which makes it much easier to approach doctors for referrals.
Make sure your valuable content is actually getting to them!
When marketing to doctors online it’s certainly imperative that your message has the opportunity to be seen. You put in the time to do this email thing right. It would be a shame if all of your hard work never got to your recipient’s inbox, or worse, never even got to their spam folder.
Why wouldn’t your emails end up in the inbox?
When you send out emails through a third party system like MailChimp or Constant Contact, your message has to pass more checkpoints to get to its destination. Spam filters are finicky and email delivery is complicated. But all you need to know is that if you’re worried your emails aren’t getting to people, your first step should be to setup Custom Domain Authentication which means altering your DNS records.
If you’ve already done that, and your recipients are still not getting your emails, it could be an issue on the receiving side. For new prospects, your email address may not be whitelisted in their system. What’s more, many providers may not know how to whitelist your email address.
This is not something that is done automatically and the front desk receptionist will be your best point of contact. Two ways this can be accomplished are by adding instructions to your Thank You page or by adding a pop-up feature from the email in which they can whitelist instantly. The pop-up feature is going to be your simplest and most realistic way of getting this done.
Give the medical provider a heads up on the content coming in
The physician’s office is more likely to welcome your “Welcome” email if it is well crafted. The email should be personal, actionable, practical, but also concise. If they are new to your campaign, pay them a visit in person and provide a quick explanation of what information is included in the emails. If they know what to expect, they’ll be less likely to delete and more likely to send your imaging center new patient referrals.
Let them know:
How often they can expect to receive emails from you
How your emails are going to be helpful to them
How they can help you understand their needs (and therefore send the most relevant emails)
Email Marketing to Doctors Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
Remember, email is a fantastic option to get more referring doctors – if you can get them to open! Determine the optimal time to send, segment your emails to make them more personable. Always make sure you’re providing value in your messages. Follow these tips in your email marketing to doctors and you will find building relationships with physicians is easy.
Looking to boost your 5-star reviews to get the attention of patients and providers?
If you’re in the business of diagnostic imaging marketing, you have a lot of tools at your disposal. From patient outreach to physician referrals, using your resources effectively is key.
In today’s world, online is the place to focus your diagnostic imaging marketing efforts. As of 2016, over 76% of Americans were searching the web. With the internet becoming easier to use each day, that trend shows no signs of stopping.
Important note: Always be mindful to abide by Stark law and anti-kickback laws that prohibit giving incentives like gifts or money to patients or referring physicians.
Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to gain traction without legal repercussions.
Looking to grow your patient base without any extra marketing effort?
Building your online reviews will attract patients and referring providers alike so you can grow your imaging center without jumping through hoops.
These steps will lead to success in your medical imaging marketing
Website: Make it specific to you diagnostics imaging center
Your website should be a cornerstone of your medical imaging marketing plan so it’s imperative that it has at least the basics:
Works on all browsers and devices
Is designed for users to easily find what they are looking for
Clearly represents your services
Because your website is the foundation of your business, you’ll want to make it as helpful to your visitors as possible. Here are some areas of development to consider:
Read more tips on setting up a website specific to diagnostic imaging marketing
Pro tip: Even if your website looks great, user experience testing can help identify pain points for your website visitors so you can address areas of difficulty.
2. Google Places: A crucial step in digital marketing for an imaging center
This one is high on the list because it’s so important. People don’t typically think of Google Places when planning digital marketing for an imaging center, but this is definitely worth paying attention to. People being unable to easily find your facility on Google Maps, means missed appointments, lower patient satisfaction.
What’s more, you want to be the first thing that pops up when someone in your area types in “MRI” or a similar term into Google Maps. You don’t have to compete with the whole world, like you might on a traditional Google search, just with your local area.
The good news is it’s not hard to set up. Just follow these steps:
Keep your information up to date (hours of operation, contact information, etc.)
Set up keywords that people would search to find you
Choose your keywords carefully. Like in any of your other diagnostic imaging marketing strategies, keywords should be terms real people would type into a search, so put yourself in the patient’s shoes for this one.
3. Facebook: Building a business page for your imaging center
Odds are your business either has or has considered a social media account or two. This is one of those medical imaging marketing ideas that is worth investing time in. If you don’t have a Facebook page you can set one up using this guide.
If you already have a Facebook page make sure it’s effective by having:
A clearly branded profile picture and cover photo
A call-to-action (CTA) button
A regular posting schedule
Someone to respond to comments and messages on a regular basis
Up to date “About” information
Read more tips on building a Facebook page for your imaging facility that will propel your medical imaging marketing efforts
Here’s an example of a page well done:
If you’re already a Facebook pro, here are some more advanced options to be sure you’re getting the most out of your medical imaging marketing ideas:
Use targeted Facebook ads to promote your page
Measure your success using an analytics tool
Use a social media management tool like Buffer to schedule relevant articles to post
4. A Blog: Creating content for your diagnostic imaging marketing
Building and maintaining a blog is crucial for multiple aspects of marketing your imaging services. It’s how people browsing the web for related topics will find you as a trusted resource. It also gives people coming to your website educational information.
The articles you write for your blog can be used in your email marketing and your social media posts. Finally, your blog can help your SEO so your website ranks higher in Google searches.
Determining a blog strategy is the first step. Here are some things to keep in mind:
Determine how much time you can devote to your blog in order to decide on a posting schedule. Whether it’s once a week or once a month, regularity is key.
Decide who you are writing for. Will this week’s article be written for the college athlete or stay at home mom? Each article should have a clear audience.
Write actionable content. Don’t write a bunch of fluff. Give your readers clear and helpful information that they can really do something with.
Quality trumps quantity.Always.
5. Automated and segmented emails
Building an email list is a no-brainer, but it’s easier said than done. Keep things organized by creating groups or segments in your list so you can send out personalized emails to your subscribers.
Any diagnostics imaging email strategy will benefit from automated emails. Consider grouping subscribers by:
Physicians
Patients
Newsletter subscribers
Your automated emails will also benefit from:
Having multiple ways to subscribe (eg. Facebook, Blog, or in-office)
Keeping track of where people signed up
Sending emails on a regular schedule
6. Lead Magnets
You know those pop-ups that offer ultimate guides, or a 3 part lesson? Those are lead magnets and you want them. Putting lead magnets on your blog gets people onto your email list and provides them with valuable information.
Here’s an example:
For a diagnostic facility that might go something like this:
Example:
You write a blog article about “What to expect during an MRI”
You create a PDF checklist that tells “Everything you need to know to prepare for an MRI exam”
You put a lead magnet on your article that pops up or is shown in a sidebar asking readers to enter their email to receive the free checklist
There are lots of tools to use for this. We like Sumo.
7. SEO
A good radiology marketing strategy needs more than just a website and a blog. If you are not showing up until page 47 of a Google search, none of that matters. SEO means finding your keywords and optimizing your site to showcase them.
This is the tried and true process we recommend:
Brainstorm keywords that you think people would search for when finding you
Use Google Adwords Keyword Plannerto see which of those keywords are being searched the most and how difficult it is to rank for each one
Pick out your best keywords. These are the ones that are relevant to you, have the highest search volume, and have the lowest competition
Use those keywords in the text on your website and blog
Repeat these steps for each page and article on your site
Don’t have much time? Keep reading, PPC could be your better bet.
8. PPC
Pay per click ads can be a great use of the dollars in your radiology marketing budget especially if you have a bit of extra cash, but not a lot of time.
Not sure what PPC ads look like? Here are some examples:
To have paid ads on Google like these you will need to set up a Google Adwords account
This is just the beginning of what you can do. Over time you will get to know these techniques and tools better so you can tailor your strategy to your imaging facility.
If you need more help with laying the groundwork for your radiology marketing plan, or if you want a hand implementing your current strategy we are here to help.
Looking for a better way to market your imaging center to patients and referring providers?
We specialize in radiology and diagnostics marketing and nothing else. We are here for you when you need us!
If you’re in the business of diagnostic imaging marketing, you have a lot of tools at your disposal. From patient outreach to physician referrals, using your resources effectively is key.
In today’s world, online is the place to focus your diagnostic imaging marketing efforts. As of 2016, over 76% of Americans were searching the web. With the internet becoming easier to use each day, that trend shows no signs of stopping.
Important note: Always be mindful to abide by Stark law and anti-kickback laws that prohibit giving incentives like gifts or money to patients or referring physicians.
Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to gain traction without legal repercussions.
Looking to grow your patient base without any extra marketing effort?
Building your online reviews will attract patients and referring providers alike so you can grow your imaging center without jumping through hoops.
These steps will lead to success in your medical imaging marketing
Website: Make it specific to you diagnostics imaging center
Your website should be a cornerstone of your medical imaging marketing plan so it’s imperative that it has at least the basics:
Works on all browsers and devices
Is designed for users to easily find what they are looking for
Clearly represents your services
Because your website is the foundation of your business, you’ll want to make it as helpful to your visitors as possible. Here are some areas of development to consider:
Read more tips on setting up a website specific to diagnostic imaging marketing
Pro tip: Even if your website looks great, user experience testing can help identify pain points for your website visitors so you can address areas of difficulty.
2. Google Places: A crucial step in digital marketing for an imaging center
This one is high on the list because it’s so important. People don’t typically think of Google Places when planning digital marketing for an imaging center, but this is definitely worth paying attention to. People being unable to easily find your facility on Google Maps, means missed appointments, lower patient satisfaction.
What’s more, you want to be the first thing that pops up when someone in your area types in “MRI” or a similar term into Google Maps. You don’t have to compete with the whole world, like you might on a traditional Google search, just with your local area.
The good news is it’s not hard to set up. Just follow these steps:
Keep your information up to date (hours of operation, contact information, etc.)
Set up keywords that people would search to find you
Choose your keywords carefully. Like in any of your other diagnostic imaging marketing strategies, keywords should be terms real people would type into a search, so put yourself in the patient’s shoes for this one.
3. Facebook: Building a business page for your imaging center
Odds are your business either has or has considered a social media account or two. This is one of those medical imaging marketing ideas that is worth investing time in. If you don’t have a Facebook page you can set one up using this guide.
If you already have a Facebook page make sure it’s effective by having:
A clearly branded profile picture and cover photo
A call-to-action (CTA) button
A regular posting schedule
Someone to respond to comments and messages on a regular basis
Up to date “About” information
Read more tips on building a Facebook page for your imaging facility that will propel your medical imaging marketing efforts
Here’s an example of a page well done:
If you’re already a Facebook pro, here are some more advanced options to be sure you’re getting the most out of your medical imaging marketing ideas:
Use targeted Facebook ads to promote your page
Measure your success using an analytics tool
Use a social media management tool like Buffer to schedule relevant articles to post
4. A Blog: Creating content for your diagnostic imaging marketing
Building and maintaining a blog is crucial for multiple aspects of marketing your imaging services. It’s how people browsing the web for related topics will find you as a trusted resource. It also gives people coming to your website educational information.
The articles you write for your blog can be used in your email marketing and your social media posts. Finally, your blog can help your SEO so your website ranks higher in Google searches.
Determining a blog strategy is the first step. Here are some things to keep in mind:
Determine how much time you can devote to your blog in order to decide on a posting schedule. Whether it’s once a week or once a month, regularity is key.
Decide who you are writing for. Will this week’s article be written for the college athlete or stay at home mom? Each article should have a clear audience.
Write actionable content. Don’t write a bunch of fluff. Give your readers clear and helpful information that they can really do something with.
Quality trumps quantity.Always.
5. Automated and segmented emails
Building an email list is a no-brainer, but it’s easier said than done. Keep things organized by creating groups or segments in your list so you can send out personalized emails to your subscribers.
Any diagnostics imaging email strategy will benefit from automated emails. Consider grouping subscribers by:
Physicians
Patients
Newsletter subscribers
Your automated emails will also benefit from:
Having multiple ways to subscribe (eg. Facebook, Blog, or in-office)
Keeping track of where people signed up
Sending emails on a regular schedule
6. Lead Magnets
You know those pop-ups that offer ultimate guides, or a 3 part lesson? Those are lead magnets and you want them. Putting lead magnets on your blog gets people onto your email list and provides them with valuable information.
Here’s an example:
For a diagnostic facility that might go something like this:
Example:
You write a blog article about “What to expect during an MRI”
You create a PDF checklist that tells “Everything you need to know to prepare for an MRI exam”
You put a lead magnet on your article that pops up or is shown in a sidebar asking readers to enter their email to receive the free checklist
There are lots of tools to use for this. We like Sumo.
7. SEO
A good radiology marketing strategy needs more than just a website and a blog. If you are not showing up until page 47 of a Google search, none of that matters. SEO means finding your keywords and optimizing your site to showcase them.
This is the tried and true process we recommend:
Brainstorm keywords that you think people would search for when finding you
Use Google Adwords Keyword Plannerto see which of those keywords are being searched the most and how difficult it is to rank for each one
Pick out your best keywords. These are the ones that are relevant to you, have the highest search volume, and have the lowest competition
Use those keywords in the text on your website and blog
Repeat these steps for each page and article on your site
Don’t have much time? Keep reading, PPC could be your better bet.
8. PPC
Pay per click ads can be a great use of the dollars in your radiology marketing budget especially if you have a bit of extra cash, but not a lot of time.
Not sure what PPC ads look like? Here are some examples:
To have paid ads on Google like these you will need to set up a Google Adwords account
This is just the beginning of what you can do. Over time you will get to know these techniques and tools better so you can tailor your strategy to your imaging facility.
If you need more help with laying the groundwork for your radiology marketing plan, or if you want a hand implementing your current strategy we are here to help.
Looking for a better way to market your imaging center to patients and referring providers?
Diagnostic Imaging Marketing Strategies & How to Make Them Work for Your Practice
The healthcare scene is constantly changing, and diagnostic imaging is no different. To put your business ahead of other local facilities, you need to be in front of your referring providers, patients, and employers in ways that your competitors aren’t.
Did you know? Healthcare is second only to hotels and restaurants as the industry with the most read online reviews.
One of the fastest and most effective ways to market an imaging center is to have excellent reviews and community trust and that means being proactive about your reputation. Even with 10 or 20 good reviews, your average star rating could plummet with just a couple of unhappy patients.
With these simple strategies, your diagnostic imaging center can rise above the competition and automate a lot of that work!
1. Get Ranked on Google to Grow Your Radiology Marketing
From a digital perspective, one of the MOST important things for your diagnostics center’s online marketing is to be ranked on Google Places when people search for you or for diagnostic imaging in your area. Remember, patients, providers, and employers don’t think about the technical terminology the same way you do. Make sure to help them by using layman’s terms on your website so you rank for what they are searching for. For more information on how to set up your Google Places for a diagnostic imaging center take a look at this article.
If you want to know if you are showing up properly, just go to Google and search for the following terms:
MRI exam
CT exam
Cat Scan
Ultrasound
MRI in my area
Best MRI near me
At the top of the page, you should see a map of local companies providing imaging services. Getting to the top of this list can be the difference between success and failure. Remember, Google is going to show what is most RELEVANT, so make sure you have the right content on your site to get to the top.
If you’re not at the top, make sure to click the ‘More Places’ link at the bottom and see if you’re on the full list. There are a lot of resources online to show you how to reach the top of this list.
Contact us if you’re interested in getting to the top of Google Places and growing your referrals!
2. Keep Your Radiology Marketing Focus Local
Make the biggest impact on your medical imaging marketing by focusing on what you can impact the most. We all know that diagnostic centers support their regions. By tracking exactly what zip codes people are coming from, you can tailor your marketing efforts for maximum effectiveness.
The big question we so often hear is, “How do I do that?”
Sponsor after-school events for the top school or schools in the area.
Run Facebook ads to the businesses in the specified locations.
There are tons of ways to target the right people once you know who they are. If you’re interested in learning about new ways to do this, some of our other blog articles go into specifics.
Grow Your Diagnostic Imaging Referrals
I know what you’re probably thinking, “Of course I should grow my referrals! That’s why I’m here reading your article!” So let’s get right into it! Here are a few of the many methods of growing your imaging center’s referrals:
3. Consistent Diagnostics Patient Outreach
The easiest way to get new sales is to sell to existing customers. So why are you letting your customers go to another diagnostics facility? Keeping in front of customers is simple. Sign up for an email marketing tool such as MailChimp or Drip.co, put together an automated set of emails that go out to new customers or patients starting a week after their visit and STAY IN FRONT OF THEM!
4. Educate Your Patients
A lot of people won’t come back for another exam because they won’t need one. But their friends will. So send them important information about their health, interesting articles about what is going on with the amazing technology involved in diagnostic imaging, as well as specials and coupons to be shared with friends, and you could be looking at a pretty substantial ROI pretty fast.
Another simple tactic is to send a canned email out to each new patient with a link to a video about their exam. Use videos that other diagnostics facilities have done that are not in your region. No one is going to notice a logo from a company in California if you are in Georgia. But if they have great videos, your patients, and your company should benefit.
5. Make the Rounds
One of the very best and most important things you can do to promote your diagnostics center and grow your referrals is to make the rounds to your referring providers.
Maintaining and improving relationships with referring providers is probably the number one way to keep your diagnostics center growing. While you’re out saying hello, make sure you remember the Stark Laws and know what you can and can’t do!
If you’re nervous about giving something physical to a provider or their office at all, how about just something intangible, like knowledge? Education such as emails, links to Youtube videos, and emailed PDFs. to help providers learn how to grow their practices is never illegal as far as we know.
6. Stay in front of your diagnostics customers
Another simple way to improve your diagnostics marketing is to stay in front of your diagnostics customers with some simple modern technology. If customers have opted in and agree to receive educational emails from you, then you can send out:
Surveys – find out what you did right and wrong, but also use these to stay in front of patients!
Educational Emails – Instead of talking about radiology and promoting your diagnostic marketing, how about going into your customer’s day to day lives? Education on how to avoid injuries could be more helpful than learning how to scan for injuries that they have.
Let your patients refer one another – There are no laws against patients referring one another, and there are a ton of ways to do that. Just reach out to patients online or in person and ask if they know anyone that needs help.
7. Stay relevant by showing your personality
Your business isn’t made up of robots. The people at your diagnostics center or centers are loving, kind, good people that want to help. So many companies do group lunches, the Thanksgiving pie making contest (Julie won last year, but I was in a close second), learning events, and training.
Showing your customer base that you are real people creates a story and personality. The easiest way to show everyone is through social media, and particularly through Facebook and Instagram.
Adding to Facebook is super simple. Just create a business page on Facebook, log in, and start adding posts. Some things that you may want to show the world:
Customer testimonials as text and pictures or as videos.
Employee of The Month
Office events or parties
Provider testimonials
A diagnostics center walkthrough, showing all the rooms with all the modalities. You can just do this on your iPhone or Android, it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time.
While you’re setting everything up, make sure to add to your Facebook page:
Address – it will automatically show a map to your location for your audience here.
Website Link
Hours – A lot of people look at Facebook first to check business hours
A picture of your facility – Showing the front of your facility as the main image can make it a lot easier for people to find you.
Links to other important information such as pricing, other locations, the patient and provider portals, pre-exam forms, etc.
8. Know your neighbors!
You have the greatest impact in your immediate area. The easiest way to start drawing in new patients and referring providers is to get out and knock on some doors or send direct mail to your neighborhood businesses and residents. Forming relationships with people is key to keeping your business running, and who better to start with than the business next door?
9. Majority of referrals comes from 20% of providers
If you haven’t already, know who the top 20% of referring providers are, and KEEP THEM HAPPY! We don’t have to tell you the best ways to do that. But is easy to forget who keeps the business running and treat someone sending you a lot of patients the same as someone sending in just a few per month or year.
Not everyone is the same, and some providers deserve more attention than others. So, how do you do that?
Know who they are – if you don’t already, you should be able to look into your RIS system and check the top providers right away.
Make a list of your top providers and post it up for your team to see.
At your team meetings go through this list and read off the list to everyone.
Make sure that if a provider on this list is having some difficulty, you can get them special treatment or a higher level person to handle their needs.
Consider a concierge-level service team just for these providers that calls regularly to check in with everyone, makes sure they are always ordering the right exams, and caters to their needs.
10. Don’t tell, ASK!
So often, marketing reps making calls on referring providers want to talk all about the facility, the new magnet they just installed, and what they can do for the providers’ offices. What these reps so often forget to do is ask the right questions then let the office manager or provider talk.
If you ask the right questions, they will tell you how you can meet their needs. Remember, the one thing that everyone wants to talk about is themselves. So, ask open-ended questions and let them talk!
Some questions to consider asking:
How is business going?
Any issues with getting your exams recently?
What can we do better?
How are things changing in your practice?
What are some of your biggest problems right now?
If they don’t feel like talking, that’s another story. But most people do.
11. Find your strengths, know your weaknesses
Some questions you may want to ask yourself and your team:
What advantages does your diagnostics center have over your competition?
What makes your team unique?
What are the major areas you can improve upon?
What are your biggest obstacles to growth now? In the future?
These are all part of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. Putting together a bi-yearly SWOT analysis for your diagnostic center marketing plan as well as for your company and team as a whole, then comparing it against the previous analysis can provide great insight into your team’s growth and failures.
Use These Techniques to become a Diagnostic Imaging Marketing Pro
In the face of lowering reimbursements, Stark Law, dropping industry profits, and an overall difficult business environment, reaching out to your providers, customers/patients, and local employers is absolutely key to success.
Now that you’ve got some marketing ideas on how to grow your diagnostics imaging marketing plan and business, we would love to know what you liked and didn’t like from our list.
What did we miss? Are there any tactics you want to share that have worked well for you? How about some advertising methods? Post what you’ve got in the discussion below.
Diagnostic Imaging Marketing Strategies & How to Make Them Work for Your Practice
The healthcare scene is constantly changing, and diagnostic imaging is no different. To put your business ahead of other local facilities, you need to be in front of your referring providers, patients, and employers in ways that your competitors aren’t.
Did you know? Healthcare is second only to hotels and restaurants as the industry with the most read online reviews.
One of the fastest and most effective ways to market an imaging center is to have excellent reviews and community trust and that means being proactive about your reputation. Even with 10 or 20 good reviews, your average star rating could plummet with just a couple of unhappy patients.
With these simple strategies, your diagnostic imaging center can rise above the competition and automate a lot of that work!
1. Get Ranked on Google to Grow Your Radiology Marketing
From a digital perspective, one of the MOST important things for your diagnostics center’s online marketing is to be ranked on Google Places when people search for you or for diagnostic imaging in your area. Remember, patients, providers, and employers don’t think about the technical terminology the same way you do. Make sure to help them by using layman’s terms on your website so you rank for what they are searching for. For more information on how to set up your Google Places for a diagnostic imaging center take a look at this article.
If you want to know if you are showing up properly, just go to Google and search for the following terms:
MRI exam
CT exam
Cat Scan
Ultrasound
MRI in my area
Best MRI near me
At the top of the page, you should see a map of local companies providing imaging services. Getting to the top of this list can be the difference between success and failure. Remember, Google is going to show what is most RELEVANT, so make sure you have the right content on your site to get to the top.
If you’re not at the top, make sure to click the ‘More Places’ link at the bottom and see if you’re on the full list. There are a lot of resources online to show you how to reach the top of this list.
Contact us if you’re interested in getting to the top of Google Places and growing your referrals!
2. Keep Your Radiology Marketing Focus Local
Make the biggest impact on your medical imaging marketing by focusing on what you can impact the most. We all know that diagnostic centers support their regions. By tracking exactly what zip codes people are coming from, you can tailor your marketing efforts for maximum effectiveness.
The big question we so often hear is, “How do I do that?”
Sponsor after-school events for the top school or schools in the area.
Run Facebook ads to the businesses in the specified locations.
There are tons of ways to target the right people once you know who they are. If you’re interested in learning about new ways to do this, some of our other blog articles go into specifics.
Grow Your Diagnostic Imaging Referrals
I know what you’re probably thinking, “Of course I should grow my referrals! That’s why I’m here reading your article!” So let’s get right into it! Here are a few of the many methods of growing your imaging center’s referrals:
3. Consistent Diagnostics Patient Outreach
The easiest way to get new sales is to sell to existing customers. So why are you letting your customers go to another diagnostics facility? Keeping in front of customers is simple. Sign up for an email marketing tool such as MailChimp or Drip.co, put together an automated set of emails that go out to new customers or patients starting a week after their visit and STAY IN FRONT OF THEM!
4. Educate Your Patients
A lot of people won’t come back for another exam because they won’t need one. But their friends will. So send them important information about their health, interesting articles about what is going on with the amazing technology involved in diagnostic imaging, as well as specials and coupons to be shared with friends, and you could be looking at a pretty substantial ROI pretty fast.
Another simple tactic is to send a canned email out to each new patient with a link to a video about their exam. Use videos that other diagnostics facilities have done that are not in your region. No one is going to notice a logo from a company in California if you are in Georgia. But if they have great videos, your patients, and your company should benefit.
5. Make the Rounds
One of the very best and most important things you can do to promote your diagnostics center and grow your referrals is to make the rounds to your referring providers.
Maintaining and improving relationships with referring providers is probably the number one way to keep your diagnostics center growing. While you’re out saying hello, make sure you remember the Stark Laws and know what you can and can’t do!
If you’re nervous about giving something physical to a provider or their office at all, how about just something intangible, like knowledge? Education such as emails, links to Youtube videos, and emailed PDFs. to help providers learn how to grow their practices is never illegal as far as we know.
6. Stay in front of your diagnostics customers
Another simple way to improve your diagnostics marketing is to stay in front of your diagnostics customers with some simple modern technology. If customers have opted in and agree to receive educational emails from you, then you can send out:
Surveys – find out what you did right and wrong, but also use these to stay in front of patients!
Educational Emails – Instead of talking about radiology and promoting your diagnostic marketing, how about going into your customer’s day to day lives? Education on how to avoid injuries could be more helpful than learning how to scan for injuries that they have.
Let your patients refer one another – There are no laws against patients referring one another, and there are a ton of ways to do that. Just reach out to patients online or in person and ask if they know anyone that needs help.
7. Stay relevant by showing your personality
Your business isn’t made up of robots. The people at your diagnostics center or centers are loving, kind, good people that want to help. So many companies do group lunches, the Thanksgiving pie making contest (Julie won last year, but I was in a close second), learning events, and training.
Showing your customer base that you are real people creates a story and personality. The easiest way to show everyone is through social media, and particularly through Facebook and Instagram.
Adding to Facebook is super simple. Just create a business page on Facebook, log in, and start adding posts. Some things that you may want to show the world:
Customer testimonials as text and pictures or as videos.
Employee of The Month
Office events or parties
Provider testimonials
A diagnostics center walkthrough, showing all the rooms with all the modalities. You can just do this on your iPhone or Android, it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time.
While you’re setting everything up, make sure to add to your Facebook page:
Address – it will automatically show a map to your location for your audience here.
Website Link
Hours – A lot of people look at Facebook first to check business hours
A picture of your facility – Showing the front of your facility as the main image can make it a lot easier for people to find you.
Links to other important information such as pricing, other locations, the patient and provider portals, pre-exam forms, etc.
8. Know your neighbors!
You have the greatest impact in your immediate area. The easiest way to start drawing in new patients and referring providers is to get out and knock on some doors or send direct mail to your neighborhood businesses and residents. Forming relationships with people is key to keeping your business running, and who better to start with than the business next door?
9. Majority of referrals comes from 20% of providers
If you haven’t already, know who the top 20% of referring providers are, and KEEP THEM HAPPY! We don’t have to tell you the best ways to do that. But is easy to forget who keeps the business running and treat someone sending you a lot of patients the same as someone sending in just a few per month or year.
Not everyone is the same, and some providers deserve more attention than others. So, how do you do that?
Know who they are – if you don’t already, you should be able to look into your RIS system and check the top providers right away.
Make a list of your top providers and post it up for your team to see.
At your team meetings go through this list and read off the list to everyone.
Make sure that if a provider on this list is having some difficulty, you can get them special treatment or a higher level person to handle their needs.
Consider a concierge-level service team just for these providers that calls regularly to check in with everyone, makes sure they are always ordering the right exams, and caters to their needs.
10. Don’t tell, ASK!
So often, marketing reps making calls on referring providers want to talk all about the facility, the new magnet they just installed, and what they can do for the providers’ offices. What these reps so often forget to do is ask the right questions then let the office manager or provider talk.
If you ask the right questions, they will tell you how you can meet their needs. Remember, the one thing that everyone wants to talk about is themselves. So, ask open-ended questions and let them talk!
Some questions to consider asking:
How is business going?
Any issues with getting your exams recently?
What can we do better?
How are things changing in your practice?
What are some of your biggest problems right now?
If they don’t feel like talking, that’s another story. But most people do.
11. Find your strengths, know your weaknesses
Some questions you may want to ask yourself and your team:
What advantages does your diagnostics center have over your competition?
What makes your team unique?
What are the major areas you can improve upon?
What are your biggest obstacles to growth now? In the future?
These are all part of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. Putting together a bi-yearly SWOT analysis for your diagnostic center marketing plan as well as for your company and team as a whole, then comparing it against the previous analysis can provide great insight into your team’s growth and failures.
Use These Techniques to become a Diagnostic Imaging Marketing Pro
In the face of lowering reimbursements, Stark Law, dropping industry profits, and an overall difficult business environment, reaching out to your providers, customers/patients, and local employers is absolutely key to success.
Now that you’ve got some marketing ideas on how to grow your diagnostics imaging marketing plan and business, we would love to know what you liked and didn’t like from our list.
What did we miss? Are there any tactics you want to share that have worked well for you? How about some advertising methods? Post what you’ve got in the discussion below.
For targeting patients, your posts should center on the human element of your practice, demonstrating an intimate level of care in your organization and the patient benefits you offer. According to Ragan’s Health Care Communication News, referring physicians spend 60% of their time on social media reading, sharing, and discussing healthcare news. So, focus your physician-targeted posts on sharing both your expertise and what’s going on in the world of diagnostics. The best approach is an all-inclusive one in which you post content frequently in a well-mapped flow of how and when to target all your market segments and their overlapping interests.
While your radiology Facebook page is not a personal one and you should avoid over-sharing, your imaging practice should post to its Facebook page at least once a week and not more than once per day. Ideally, you will set a schedule and queue up unique content for publishing at the same time on the same day each week, then fill in the days between with interesting and relevant “shares,” or repurposed content. Creating that much original content is a lot of work, so make sure you have a dedicated resource to allocate to your diagnostics center social media presence. 
Second, you will need to be aware of the Stark law. This law prevents you from offering incentives, money or gifts to providers in return for funneling patients to your center. This is a civil code, thus, if convicted you will not face jail time. You will, however, enjoy a substantial fine. An important fact to know and understand about this law, you do not need to show intent to be in violation. You can be in violation without knowing and still be ordered to pay a fine.
This is a violation of the Stark law. You cannot offer an incentive to referring providers only. You won’t face jail time, but you could face a large fine. 
If the referring provider would normally be paying for this CME, you will need to charge a fee. If you decide against charging, the cost will need to be recorded on your non-monetary compensation spreadsheet.
These situations are just a sampling of scenarios which radiology and diagnostics centers can face at any time. Knowledge and understanding of current laws and norms are of the highest importance when operating a successful practice. Whether you are in the radiology and diagnostic industry or another field, be sure to realize and put into practice all guidelines and laws governing your practice today.
