Healthcare Public Relations: Why Every Doctor Needs a Personal Brand

April 7, 2018 by

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healthcare public relations firm

 

Why Public Relations Is Vital For Your Medical Practice

Public Relations is not taught in medical school, and yet it is a vital component of running a thriving practice.

Read The Ultimate Physician’s Guide to Public Relations to learn:

  • How to brand yourself as a medical expert
  • Why content marketing is critical for medical practices
  • 5 ways doctors can use social media marketing to promote their practice
  • How doctors can leverage a healthcare public relations firm to increase exposure and attract new patients

PERSONAL BRANDING FOR DOCTORS AND PHYSICIANS

Why is it critical for doctors to establish a personal brand? 

In today’s environment, the competition in the medical field is fiercely competitive. It is not enough to create a physician website, place some medical directory listings on Google and hope that potential patients will magically find your medical practice.

If you want to establish trust with patients before they ever step foot in your office, building a personal brand is a great way to do that.

Your practice is booming and your time is finite. You can only see a limited number of patients and your waiting list is a year long. You love practicing medicine but you dream of helping more people. You see other doctors on TV and wonder, why them and not me?

You want to reach a larger audience beyond the patient base you see every day and that is why PR and media relations is so powerful for doctors.

Most doctors dream of reaching a larger audience or publishing a book. They know they need the tools of conventional media to reach these objectives but they aren’t sure how to make it happen.

What they don’t realize until it is too late is that public relations and building your personal brand is a critical component of reaching your larger medical marketing goals.

  • Want to write a book?
    • A publisher wants to see a high follower count on social media.
  • Want to be invited for speaking engagements?
    • Conference organizers want to see robust content.
  • Want to get published in a medical trade journal?
    • The outlet wants to see your other thought leadership content before taking a chance on a new author.

In the back of your mind, you know PR can help you achieve your dreams beyond just practicing medicine so you can help more people and turn their health around.

PR is the conduit that connects your intrinsic motivation with the critical steps to make this happen. Public relations can help you to treat more patients at scale.

How personal branding benefits Doctors 

There are numerous benefits for doctors who invest time and resources in building a personal brand.

For starters, healthcare branding and content marketing lead to a direct increase in more qualified prospective patients before they ever come in for their first appointment. It also maintains a relationship with existing patients and opens up a two-way dialogue in-between office visits.

Plus, it cuts down on incoming call volume of potential patients asking the same questions over and over again—another perk of content marketing for doctors.

Benefits of personal branding for medical professionals include: 

  • Increased notoriety in your field
  • Carving out a niche you are most known for (which will increase referrals and new cases)
  • Educating a larger pool of people beyond your patient base (which leads to more media opportunities)

HOW TO POSITION YOURSELF AS A MEDICAL EXPERT

Here is the good news. You already are a medical expert. The tough part is over!

Now, the fun part begins: learning how to position yourself as a medical expert to members of the media.

How to Build Your Personal Brand as a Physician (a 3-step process) 

At Ruby Media Group, our 3-step public relations process is: Package, pitch, promote.

Step 1: Package yourself as a medical expert. Put together a well-crafted bio and headshot with your medical credentials.

Step 2: Pitch. Pitch your expertise as a medical expert on trending news stories. Let the media know your talking points on different health outbreaks. Be sure to include your opinion with talking points.

Step 3: After you have secured press placements, make sure to promote the news coverage on social media. Build your personal brand on social media by keeping track of all of your media placements so you can easily share them with members of the media, and with patients.

Key Takeaway: What do all successful doctors know about branding themselves? They know that frequency and volume are the most important component of a healthcare PR strategy. You cannot do one medical podcast and expect to develop a personal brand overnight. The key is to do many interviews over the course of your entire medical career in different media formats to continue building your brand as a medical expert in the media.

MEDICAL DOCTOR PUBLIC RELATIONS

What is medical practice public relations and healthcare PR?

Medical Practice Public Relations is the practice of keeping a doctor in the news. Whether it is commenting on current trending health items (ex. the opioid crisis) or getting quoted in trade publications, medical PR keeps your practice visible.

Another added benefit, and perhaps the most overlooked benefit of medical practice public relations, is the link juice you receive from high-quality media outlets every time you are quoted.

All of these backlinks help build your authority over time with Google. So really, you can either hire a top PR firm, or an SEO firm- or both- but there is no avoiding that the work needs to be done for a medical practice to stay visible. Word of mouth marketing is simply not going to cut it if you want new patients to find you online.

What is the goal of a medical public relations campaign for a Doctor?

Medical PR is a highly effective way to promote your practice or brand to potential patients and referring physicians. It helps build awareness and increase sales. The goal of medical PR is to get the word out about your practice, procedures, and services.

Medical PR encompasses community relations, corporate social responsibility, events, speaking opportunities, speaking on podcasts, TV and so much more. 

Medical PR is a great way to reach a new audience and strengthen your relationship with your existing patient base. 

Doctors can leverage digital marketing platforms to dispel misinformation, add critical insight to health stories in the news and reach a wider audience.

Why do you need medical PR?

Medical PR is important because:

  • Your patients trust their doctor’s advice. When you’re in front of patients, they want to know that you have their best interests at heart. They expect you to be honest and transparent. But when you are not in front of a patient, they also want to know that you have their best interest at heart, too, by publishing content that can lead to increased trust in your practice. When you provide information to help patients make better medical decisions, they appreciate it because it leads to a more informed consumer base.
  • Patients want to share news about you. If you don’t give them a reason to talk about you, they won’t. You must create a compelling story that makes them want to share your accolades with their network. Patients like sharing that their doctor is the best in the area!
  • Patients are smart consumers. They understand how marketing works and are being bombarded with marketing messages daily from other doctors trying to get their attention. If you aren’t reaching out to them with constant publicity and content, they will find someone else who will.

Why should a doctor hire a New York public relations firm for their medical practice? Can’t they just do it themselves? 

Public Relations builds trust and when deciding what physician to see, trust is one of the top factors.  People want to see a waiting office (or a website) filled with “As Seen In” plaques of media outlets you have been featured in from third-party sources. Subconsciously, this makes them feel more comfortable with you and builds trust.

If you want your medical practice to rank on page one of search engine results, public relations is the best way to achieve that goal.

Digital PR builds up your digital authority, trust, and authenticity factor in the eyes of Google.

Google prioritizes trusted sites, and the best way to build trust is through a strategic PR campaign. It is not enough for you to say you are the best doctor. You now need to be referenced by other media sites as the top doctor.

What are the top reasons a Physician in New York City should Hire a PR Firm?

A healthcare PR firm can help you:

  • Learn how to speak in sound bites
  • Get quoted in national media
  • Become a national phenomenon in your specialty
  • Create a personal brand that turns you into a physician star
  • Submit awards and nominations on your behalf to help you get more “Top Doctors” plaques on your wall

So, what do people in healthcare PR do and how can they help your practice?

Healthcare PR specialists pitch medical experts to the media. They bridge the gap between large healthcare issues and offering up subject matter expertise who can condense these complex medical issues into sound bites that people without a medical degree can understand.

What are some critical elements of a public relations campaign for a doctor?

Getting quoted in digital outlets, feature articles on your practice in regional publications, radio appearances on trending news topics, award submission/ nominations for top doctor categories, pitching for conference speaking, promotion of conferences, coordination of marketing materials for conferences, content marketing, social media marketing, and promotion of press hits on social media. The list is pretty long…medical practice marketing and PR could be a full-time job! This is why most physicians choose to outsource their medical PR campaigns to our public relations agency for doctors.

How much does medical PR cost?

The cost of a Medical PR campaign will vary depending on the type of campaign the scope of services included in the monthly retainer. 

There are several factors that determine how much medical PR costs including:

  • Campaign length
  • Media placement goals
  • Agency fees

The average medical PR campaign lasts starts out at a minimum length of six months. 

A medical PR consultant can give you senior-level consulting at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee with less experience.  

healthcare pr tip

 

Why most doctors have a PR problem

The majority of local physicians rely on traditional advertising methods and direct marketing to attract new patients. At one point, this was the tried and true way to build a practice, but with the advent of digital PR and social media, it is no longer the only effective way to build a medical practice.

Why would a local medical practice need national media exposure?

National media outlets do not only entail the big ones most people commonly think of such as Fox News or CNN. The great thing about the disruption of traditional media is that there are so many different digital channels to market your practice.

For example, Web MD, Healthline, or even high-ranking health and wellness podcasts can all fall under the national media umbrella today.

As a local physician, you may think national media exposure would be a total waste for your practice because you can only serve local clients.

Here is why that is wrong.

People in local areas still read national outlets, so if you skip national media, you are making a big mistake! Plus, national media is a great value proposition and brand differentiator. This helps you attract new patients.

Traditional advertising in print publications simply can’t compete from a reputational standpoint with the amount of credibility gained from third-party media endorsements. Media coverage is the #1 way to get credibility for physicians. And yes, the top doctor award you pay for and the sponsored content sections still count as print ads. That is not the same as PR.

What do I need to know before hiring a New York public relations firm to promote my medical practice? 

Resource allocation. The number one thing you need to understand is the amount of time it takes to work with a healthcare public relations firm. You also need to have time in your schedule to respond to their press requests, usually on a minute’s notice.  If you enjoy having a very scheduled day with no interruptions, a healthcare public relations firm may not be the best approach. Doctors that get the most out of working with a medical PR firm answer the media immediately when they call. You also need to know that everything is a balancing act between the PR firm and the media outlet.

Most of what you write won’t be used. Even if you spend two hours answering a press request and craft a one-page response, only two sentences may be used in the article. You have to be comfortable with the inherent lack of control that comes with working with a medical Public Relations firm and the media.

Flexibility. Things often change very quickly and you need to be able to adapt to that. Also, think about what kind of media is preferable for you. For example, if you don’t have the luxury of shutting down your practice for the day when a TV producer calls and wants you on set in an hour, radio may be a better approach for your medical practice.

HIRING A MEDICAL PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRM FOR YOUR PRACTICE

10 things to evaluate when hiring a public relations healthcare marketing consultant

What should I look for in a medical PR agency?

When choosing a medical PR agency to market your practice, look for the following:

  1. Experience. How long has the agency been around? What types of campaigns do they have experience in? Work with a specialist instead of a generalist. When evaluating healthcare marketing agencies, Doctors should always work with a PR company that specializes in medical media services. Do they specialize in one area of healthcare? For example, do they have deep industry experience in functional medical or do they have more experience in traditional medicine? At Ruby Media Group, you will work with our agency of trained medical marketing professionals. One wrong move in the media can cost a doctor their medical license which is why working with a trained medical marketing specialist is critical.
  2. Reputation. The key is not how many clients they have worked with over the years. Look at how long they worked with the clients they had. For example, we have worked with one dentist for over ten years. We worked with a functional medicine doctor for over four years, and we worked with an interventional cardiologist for three years. The focus should not be on how many new clients an agency can get. It should be on how many clients they can keep and for what period of time.
  3. Quality. Does the agency use the highest quality AI marketing tools? Are they ethical? Will they tell you if they can’t deliver? Is there transparency throughout the process?
  4. Results. Can you see the results they have delivered to other doctors, surgeons, or dermatologists? How does the healthcare marketing agency measure success? Their success metrics must align with your KPIs and success metrics for the engagement to be a home run.
  5. Accountability. Who is responsible for the results? Will you have a dedicated team that works on your account daily?
  6. Communication. Can you communicate effectively with the agency? Do they respond quickly to your requests? Do they follow up?
  7. Commitment. What is their termination policy? Someone who lets you terminate without any notice does not have your best interest at heart when it comes to results. This means they have not done any long lead pitching on your behalf, meaning their commitment to you is as small as your commitment to them. Most agencies like Ruby Media Group will ask for a longer-term commitment because we often pitch stories to medical reporters that are several months out.
  8. Value. How much value do they add to your business? Do they help you grow your patient base? Do they make your life easier? Do they provide you with resources that allow you to focus on running your practice? A strategic medical PR consultant will provide substantial gains to your life above and beyond press mentions.
  9. Integrity. Is the medical marketing consultant trustworthy? Do they follow through on promises? Do they keep their word? Is the consultant trustworthy with confidential patient information? Do they represent themselves honestly? Will they represent your patients with integrity? Will they take necessary precautions with confidential information?
  10. Flexibility. Can they change direction based on market news? Can they adapt to new trends in healthcare?

Benefits Of Public Relations In Healthcare

What are some of the Benefits Of Public Relations In Healthcare?

As consumers, we choose service providers largely by what the media dictates and by what we find on Google. So, what makes you think it is any different for how people hire physicians?

People want to see that you are quoted as a medical expert in national TV outlets or on digital sites and medical blogs. They don’t just want to hear you say why you are the leading cardiologist (and neither does Google). They want to see other media outlets show why you are the leading cardiologist through national validation from the media on the claims you make on your practice website.

[MORE]: How to get booked on national TV 

FACT: Patients value media exposure much more than you think!

Here is the harsh reality.. 

If you are not marketing your practice and publicizing your medical practice through a systematic and ongoing medical PR campaign, patients are more likely to look past you and choose another physician who has branded their practice in a more visible way.

When they search on Google, they want answers to their medical questions.

Wouldn’t it be great if you were the one answering their questions as a quoted medical expert in articles instead of another doctor? Yes! It would!

Healthcare PR Benefits:

There is a direct correlation between physician influence and increased visibility in the media.

PR for your medical practice can lead to the following outcomes:

  • More inbound leads with prospective patients as a result of PR
  • Higher retention rate with current patients
  • Demanding higher rates with new patients as a result of national media coverage
  • Press coverage can lead to paid speaking engagements or brand endorsement deals
  • Ability to grow your practice by attracting top talent and doctors
  • Increased visibility to referring physicians

HOW DOCTORS CAN CONNECT DIRECTLY WITH THE MEDIA

This is an e-mail we received from a New York physician interested in our medical PR services. Unfortunately, most doctors have not had great luck pitching the media on their own.

Many doctors have tried using HARO and hear crickets back. Why? Because pitching the media takes skill and requires a substantial amount of time. Time, unfortunately, is not something most doctors have a surplus of!

“I’m still fairly early in my career and need to better establish myself as an expert to gain trust for business expansion pursuits. Our caseloads are generally full at the practice, but marketing to attract higher-paying clientele is always a good aim too. I’ve tried cold-calling reporters to volunteer for pieces on mental health, but to no avail. I have a competitor who seems to have excellent PR and I’m jealous because she is even more junior than me but has greater name recognition!”

Is HARO (Help a reporter out) a replacement for PR and personal branding for doctors?

Haro is a great resource for doctors to build media mentions.

However, responding to Haro queries is not a comprehensive public relations campaign for your medical practice.

For example, if you are looking to build referrals with other physicians, attending conferences and hosting medical events with referring physicians may be a more suitable approach to achieve that goal.

There is an art to pitching the media and crafting press-worthy replies to journalist queries.

Some doctors may be more likely to craft responses back to queries in medical jargon, which is not necessarily what a reporter is looking for if they are writing a consumer-focused health article.

Hiring a healthcare Public Relations consultant who specializes in the medical field ensures that you have the highest possible chance of getting quoted as an expert medical source in the media.

We know how to package quotes and prioritize incoming media requests. We work around the media’s schedule, not your patient’s schedule. Our ability to consistently prioritize media requests with doctors is why our medical experts consistently get quoted in the news. Want in? Apply to become a new client today.

If you are just starting your practice, Haro is one of many great tools to keep in your arsenal. But keep in mind that it is not an integrated PESO strategy approach.

BONUS: Here are some great PR tips on how to use HARO to increase your response rate and write a great HARO pitch.

Can traditional media exposure grow your medical practice? 

Absolutely! People love to see their Doctor on TV. In fact, we recently just landed one of our medical PR clients on “The Doctors” TV show in Los Angeles. It has done amazing things for her practice!

LISTEN: PR FOR DOCTORS PODCAST (1 HOUR!)

PR Branding for Doctors: Why Every Doctor needs to Develop a Personal Brand

 

Does a doctor really need a NY Public Relations firm to promote their medical practice? 

Yes, unless you are a super-savvy social media influencer who has already amassed thousands of followers on your own, you should consider working with a medical Public Relations firm. The majority of doctors you see quoted in the media don’t miraculously land those spots on their own.

They simply don’t have time to be pitching themselves to media or managing the tedious work that is entailed with media relations outreach. They are focused on their medical practice and seeing patients. Sure, anyone could technically do PR successfully on their own if they put in the time, but from my experience, doctors have very limited time and marketing themselves is simply not at the top of their list. They want to focus on practicing medicine, not on the business of medicine.  This is where we come in and help.

Additionally, a marketing firm that specializes in healthcare will understand the legal terms and updated FTC guidelines to make sure everything you are doing is compliant and will not get your practice sued.

Any time a physician speaks with a reporter, the quotes they provide must be HIPAA compliant.

A trained medical marketing and PR consultant will understand HIPAA regulations and have a basic understanding of the law for doctors when you’re doing PR for doctors and medical marketing. It’s not like doing regular PR for just any type of consumer-facing brand. Their investment in medical marketing education will pay dividends in the long run when it comes to marketing your practice. It saves you time and money.

TV CELEBRITY DOCTORS:

How can I get booked on TV as a medical expert?

When most people think of doctors on TV, they think of celebrity doctors.

The truth is, not every physician or surgeon who hires a PR firm wants to be the next celebrity doctor. Some physicians or hospital groups hire a medical PR firm to mitigate a crisis while others hire a PR firm to maintain a consistent presence in the media.

“You should hire a PR firm when things are good, too, not just for crisis management so that you have a plan in place not only when things are bad.”- Kris Ruby, Ruby Media Group

Many Doctors write off TV because they see it as glamorous and not academic.

Medical experts on TV can shape public opinion on important narratives. They play a critical role in getting health information to the masses, including topics that may otherwise never be in the mainstream narrative, such as Covid-19.

Producers are always looking for doctors who can share a fresh perspective on health topics.

PR can help doctors share their message with a larger audience and leverage traditional and digital media channels to disseminate your message to potential patients and referring physicians.

TV Doctors: How to break into medical news

Want to be the next Sanjay Gupta? Keep reading..

Every Dermatologist and Plastic Surgeon wants to be able to say that they are the medical expert who was seen on TV.

The reality of making that happen is very different than the dream of it. Being on TV as a doctor means you will have to clear your patient schedule for the rest of the day unless you have a practice where you have five other doctors that can run it without you.

You can’t practice medicine full time and be available to media at the drop of a hat. If you are watching medical experts on cable news and you want to be that person, understand it’s very hard to practice full time and be a full-time on-air medical contributor or TV commentator.

MEDIA TIPS FOR DOCTORS:

Public Relations tips for Medical Practices

How to get booked on TV. 

If you want to be on air, someone will want to see a clip of how you look and sound on TV.

Have you appeared on TV before?

CNN, FOX, or any other network will not be replacing go-to TV doctors and guests with a person who is new to the TV news business and an unknown entity. When you work with a PR firm that has accumulated trust with bookers and producers, that trust transfers over to you, and they are more likely to take a chance on you.

Are you the go-to doctor in your market when the media needs a quote about a medical issue? If not, why not? Probably because no one knows who you are and no one trusts you in the media.

Doctors who want to become more high profile and snag an appearance as a TV medical expert need to create a public relations strategy that includes getting PR for their practice and procedures.

Our healthcare marketing agency helps you aggressively go after the medical news stories of the day by contacting media outlets on your behalf and offering you for commentary as an available expert. Most doctors are not comfortable pitching a story to a producer which is why you need to hire a publicist who will do this for you.

We will work with you to lay the groundwork to becoming a covered TV News Doctor and frequent on-air guest.

MEDIA TRAINING FOR DOCTORS

Do Doctors need TV & Media Training?

If you are a doctor, consider how media training could benefit your practice. Yes, Doctors Can Benefit from Media Training.

MEDIA TRAINING FOR MEDICAL EXPERTS, DOCTORS, AND SURGEONS

Media training for doctors is critical before speaking to healthcare reporters to avoid potential legal pitfalls. You worked too hard to get to this point only to lose your license because you wanted to save a few dollars on marketing expenses.

Teaching a medical practitioner how to start speaking the language of TV is challenging and jarring.

Doctors are used to providing summaries of research, so this requires a change in thinking.

As a PR firm for physicians in New York City, we always tell clients, I don’t want a summary. I want your opinion.

“Don’t tell me what the study is. Tell me what you think of the study.”

Medical Messaging Tips for Surgeons (TV & Interview prep!)

MEDIA TIPS FOR DOCTORS:

Public Relations Interview Tips for Medical Practices

Be concise. Many doctors give academic answers that do not play well on television to a non-medical audience. If you look at the quotes that make it in the media, those aren’t the ones that get used.  Why? Because they are speaking in medical industry jargon and trade terms, not consumer-facing terms that the public understands. When you are talking to a healthcare reporter, you have to learn how to take a very complex medical situation and speak about it in terms the general public will understand. How can you take that and then dispel information or analyze it and give a two-line quote or soundbite? There is an art to doing that.

Have patients lined up. Media training is critical for doctors to understand how to speak the language of TV.  Doctors must learn the art of giving reporters the information they are looking for. You can’t just discuss a new medical treatment if you don’t have 5 patients who can speak about the benefits of the procedures and who are willing to appear on air.

Condense information. A common mistake doctors make is regurgitating medical research back to a reporter. This isn’t a term paper. A reporter isn’t looking for a doctor to tell you what the study says. They are looking for the doctor to analyze it and state their opinion on the research.

Give your opinion. As a dermatologist or interventional cardiologist, you have to learn how to give your opinion on medical trends. This is the direct opposite of what is taught in medical school when most things are black and white and not opinion-based.  Media commentary is the grey zone of medicine- it is the opposite of the black and white thinking that most medical professionals are taught. Reporters are researching a topic and can cite a study. That’s not why they want to talk to a medical expert. They want to talk to the healthcare expert because they want their opinion. They don’t want to speak with a doctor to regurgitate the research they can find on Google. They want a doctor’s opinion to add analysis to the story.

HEALTHCARE PUBLIC RELATIONS FAQ

Why does a medical practice need to be visible if they have nothing newsworthy to promote in the media?

I constantly say that we don’t do medical marketing in the traditional sense of the word.  Rather, what we do is medical practice communication. Doctors need practice marketing the same way they need to drink water, sleep or eat. It isn’t really up for debate. It is a critical component of the way that people communicate today. You are either in the conversation or you are completely left out of it.

It is better to have a hand in mitigating risk and managing the conversation than to let angry patients trash your reputation online or make false accusations. You worked too hard to let someone else control the narrative. And when you take a passive approach to digital PR because you think your practice doesn’t need it, you let others control the destiny of your practice.

Doctors don’t have the luxury of pausing marketing campaigns either. If they expect to build real relationships with a community, they can’t pause the conversations for months at a time. Imagine trying to build a relationship with someone but saying, “I have nothing new to tell you, so I am just not going to speak.”

The details are in the daily interactions.  That is the ‘life” and the pulse of a medical practice. Those are the patient stories people want to hear. But expecting this to be a big media blitz to start or stop at your leisure is not at all what healthcare marketing is all about. To reap the benefits of medical practice marketing and PR, you need to make a long-term commitment (and financial investment) to stick with it and understand why you are doing it.

It isn’t because you have something to promote. It is because it is what the new patient of today demands of your practice. The medical practices that choose to ignore this truth will lose out to the practices that are embracing this and will, unfortunately, become obsolete.

Look at any social media savvy practice owner and ask them how they have built their medical practice. The majority have done very little traditional advertising and have obtained most of their referrals through patients online via social media marketing and personal branding efforts. They would never think of pausing social media, PR, or marketing because it is so ingrained in their digital DNA. They don’t view any of this as marketing or PR, they view it as living and communicating.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DOCTORS

Why do Doctors need social media marketing?

Many physicians ask, “Why would a medical practice use social media?”

The answer is simple: users’ media consumption needs have changed, and it is no longer enough to reach prospective patients through traditional media vehicles. If you want to reach millennials, you need to be active on social media. Plus, if you want to reach baby boomers, social media is also critical, especially Facebook.

How does social media help healthcare?

Social media helps healthcare because it enables you to take control of the narrative. One of the most common complaints we hear from doctors is that there is so much misinformation and fake news spreading around on digital platforms. Social media enables physicians to dispel those myths by creating content that not only helps patients but also helps those beyond your patient base (and can even help the media too!).

What are some successful social media marketing strategies for medical practices you would recommend?

The best marketing strategy for a medical practice includes a heavy focus on content marketing. Although it takes a lot of time to sit down and write these articles, it is instrumentally helpful for building the brand of your medical practice. If you successfully implement a content marketing strategy for your medical practice, you are creating a resource library of educational content for prospective patients. This content will give patients a real understanding of your deep knowledge base in a specific area.

instagram marketing tips for doctors

The first place potential patients go when visiting a physician’s website is the medical practice’s blog.  If you don’t have any information on it, you are missing out on a prime opportunity. The bounce rates are also higher for medical practice websites that lack strong content. Investing time and resources in creating targeted landing pages on service offerings, optimizing your site, and crafting compelling content is the first place to start if you are serious about marketing your medical practice.

BONUS material: Click above to learn how to grow Instagram followers for your medical practice!

Why is content marketing crucial for medical practices? 

Patient needs have infinitely changed. Unfortunately, they expect a steady flow of information coming from your practice. If they look up a medical practice that has no content or strong referring backlinks to their site, this is troublesome. Or perhaps a Facebook page for the practice that has never once been updated.  All of these are red flags to the social media savvy millennial consumer today when searching for a doctor.

What are some benefits of social media marketing for medical practices? Will it drive new patients? 

Social media marketing is great for maintaining a steady flow of communication with your current patient base. For example, many of the medical practice Facebook pages we manage receive consistent comments, likes, and shares from current patients. As a doctor, you may think, why am I paying a social media marketing agency to market to my existing patient base if I already have them as patients? The reason is because every time they are sharing or engaging with your content, it is being promoted to their entire friend list which could be in the thousands.

These are all potential new patients for you, many of who are located in your geographic area. Practices that are more active on social media also have patients that feel more “connected” to the practice. Another perk of social media marketing for medical practices, particularly with millennials, is that they don’t have to pick up the phone to call you. They can get their question answered directly from Facebook or Instagram through a comment thread or Direct Message. For many millennials, myself included, that would be reason in itself to choose a doctor (someone who communicates with you the way you like to be communicated with).

What are two ways doctors can use content marketing to promote their medical practice and attract new patients? 

If you have invested time and resources in a great piece of educational content, make sure it is optimized with relevant keywords. Next, promote it in the right media channels. A great way to do this is through targeted Facebook ads. So, if you are a dermatologist in Manhattan and write a piece on the top ten ways to achieve greater skincare, target the post to people in your demo by hobbies, age, location, interests. You may also consider retargeting as an additional component.

PERSONAL BRANDING ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DOCTORS

How can a doctor leverage social media marketing to build their personal brand? 

Social media marketing is ideal for personal brand building for doctors.  It gives you a platform to share your press mentions with others in your industry, which can indirectly lead to other speaking opportunities at medical conferences or more social media. mentions. The social media-savvy doctors on Instagram are building their practices at exponential rates.  They have become the new healthcare “influencers” of the medical field.  As a result of social media, many have bypassed having to hire a traditional public relations firm because the media comes to them directly (through direct message!).

What are some social media marketing mistakes doctors make when promoting their medical practices? 

The biggest social media mistake doctors make is that they ask their office manager to run social media marketing for the medical practice. Another mistake is not consulting with legal counsel before launching a social media marketing campaign for your medical practice. For example, the law can be tricky with what medical questions you answer on social media platforms or what type of patient information is revealed and transmitted through secure and insecure channels.

Someone who is an office admin, or even a social media specialist, may not know the legal intricacies. Social Media Marketing is great for building your medical practice, but it also infinitely opens you up to legal risks if not handled properly. It is critical to invest in the right healthcare marketing resources.

Social media moves at a rapid pace, so there needs to be a plan for HIPAA-compliant responses on behalf of the medical practice. Another obvious mistake is being overly self-promotional or still using social media like it is a traditional ad.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND AS A PHYSICIAN

Personal branding tips for physicians

Think about what area of expertise you want to specialize in as a medical expert for media queries.

For example, do you want to be branded as an expert in Crohn’s disease? As the leading spinal surgeon?

If you were booked as a medical expert, what would the lower third refer to you as on screen?

Before I start a healthcare public relations campaign, I always do a deep dive discovery session with a doctor.

It is critical to create a personal branding strategy for the doctor before you can execute a larger healthcare PR strategy for the medical practice.

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT FOR DOCTORS AND PHYSICIANS

How would you get media for my medical practice so that the first search results on Google are positive?

One of the benefits of digital PR for Doctors is that it will help to push down negative reviews and Google results you are not happy with about your practice.

Consistently publishing new content and being quoted in high-profile media outlets (both consumer and trade) will help positively impact rankings. However, PR is still not a guarantee that negative reviews will disappear entirely. A proactive reputation management strategy paired with PR will do wonders to combat any issues.

As a healthcare PR firm, our focus is on a mix of content marketing, digital PR, and social media. We are not focused on quick one-hit-wonder press hits. Instead, the goal is to keep you visible for your subject matter expertise as a thought leader which will have the greatest impact on search rankings and visibility over time.

We specialize in Public Relations for Doctors and private medical practices. We get our clients consistently mentioned in high-profile media outlets online and quoted for their expertise around timely news topics in their specialty niche.

However, it is important to note that despite our best efforts, publicists do not control Google search results, regardless of how good they are! We discuss this in our latest article as being one of the top 5 misconceptions about publicists and public relations (scroll down to PR Misconception #5).

If you have top-tier media mentions but poor Google Reviews, there will still be inherent trust issues that a long-term reputation management strategy would be more likely to remedy.

How Healthcare PR Influenced Patient Care

You’re a doctor first, but you’re a media company second.

If you think that you will run a thriving practice and not be a media company, that is an outdated and pre-historic way to practice medicine. You can’t just practice medicine and say, oh, I don’t need media, I’m not going to be involved in media. My entire practice is based on referrals and that’s enough. No, it’s not enough.

If you care about the millennial generation who doesn’t want to pick up a phone, and they want to book all their appointments online, It’s not enough.

Previously, it may have been enough. It may have gotten you to where you are today. But it is certainly not going to get you where you want to go in the next ten years. You have to evolve your business and healthcare marketing strategy.

If you’re doing the same thing you did when you started your practice, it is simply not enough, period.

Practitioners constantly evolve their knowledge. They speak at medical conferences and purchase new technology that is on the cutting edge of medicine. But you need to take that knowledge and put it in digital media platforms.

It’s not just that your knowledge needs to evolve. It’s that the technology paired with your knowledge needs to evolve and the media channels paired with your knowledge needs to evolve, too.

That way people understand that you’re on the cutting edge and that your practice has changed or that you’ve gotten new technology or that you’re doing a new procedure.

Ready to update your medical marketing strategy for the future?

PUBLIC RELATIONS BUILDS YOUR LONG-TERM DIGITAL LEGACY

When you keep your knowledge in your head, that knowledge lives and dies with you. The only people who get exposed to what you know are the people you treat in your practice.

The doctors I work with are at maximum capacity with patients. They are not coming to me for more patients as their primary reason for hiring me.

If you want more patients, direct marketing makes more sense than PR.

There is a difference between a long lead sales funnel and a shorter sales funnel.

If you want more patients tomorrow, hire a physician liaison or a director of sales.

If you want more patients this decade and can wait for the results, hire a PR company that can help you with publicity, SEO, and content marketing.

Short-term plays bring short-term results. Long-term investments bring long-term gains.

PR is not the quickest way to get that.

If you want to build brand awareness and notoriety and take that next step because you’ve been in practice for ten years, PR is the right path.

If you care about building a legacy, PR is an important component of that.

You have spent a lifetime accumulating knowledge.

Don’t you want to share that with people beyond the people that can afford to see you?

Most people will say yes, and then they say how, and that’s where we get started.

PR Firm for Doctors: Medical Practice PR | NYC

Looking for a medical public relations firm that represents medical experts?

Ruby Media Group has executed dozens of successful public relations campaigns for doctors.  Through our award-winning health and wellness PR division, we have secured hundreds of impressions of earned press coverage for doctors and medical specialists in national media outlets including Allure, Men’s Health, Shape Magazine, Dr. Oz Magazine, Popsugar, Ask Men, Everyday Health, Radio MD, Vice, Healthline, Readers Digest, Newsweek, Fox 5 NY,  People Magazine, New York Post, Harpers Bazaar, Women’s Health, Prevention Magazine, TodayShow.com and hundreds of other national media outlets. RMG’s public relations campaigns for doctors establish NY physicians as the go-to doctors in their field.

As a leading healthcare PR firm for physicians in New York City, we represent doctors in specialties including cardiology, dentistry, primary care, and more! We also work with hospitals and top NY physicians to gain massive earned media results for clients. We have access to a wide network of regional health experts available to the media at all times. Additionally, we have a solid understanding of HIPAA issues pertaining to medical social media.  We help doctors distill complex medical issues into actionable healthcare tips for public consumption.

B2B Marketing to Doctors– Medical Practice PR 

Are you a doctor who needs help promoting your medical practice, securing press and interviews, and building your personal brand?

Contact us today to learn about our healthcare PR services or click here to see case studies of stellar Public Relations results we have secured for medical PR clients.

Public Relations Services for Medical Doctors 

Are you looking for a strategic medical marketing public relations program that gets results?

Interested in increasing media exposure for your medical practice? Click here to view Medical Practice PR, RMG’s division dedicated entirely to healthcare public relations for doctors, medical practices, and NY physicians. Click here to see case studies of media coverage and press placements we have generated for our medical PR clients. Ruby Media Group is a recognized leader in healthcare PR. Personal branding in medicine is done strategically and methodically. If you want to learn how private practices brand themselves, email us for a copy of our free webinar. If you are looking for a PR firm for Physicians in New York, NY, contact us today!

Transformative PR 

Want PR that results in new patient leads and business development? We can help you land tier-1 media coverage in national media- the type of PR other physicians dream of. Become the talk of the town and fill your practice walls with accolades and press placements. When it comes to medical public relations, we deliver. Want in? BOOK a discovery call.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As the CEO of a top healthcare PR agency, Kris Ruby provides public relations services for doctors, hospitals, and leading physicians in private practice.  Kris Ruby has 12+ years of experience managing and executing public relations campaigns for doctors.

pr firm for doctors quote

 

PR Firm for Doctors Webinar: How traditional media can grow your medical practice, fast!

Let me guess. Someone promised you the golden ticket to DIY PR. You may have even purchased a course called, “How to earn media coverage without hiring a PR firm.”

Yet here you are, reading this article because you know the false promises of these courses failed you and just didn’t deliver.

Watch the full PR for Doctors webinar to learn:

  • How media can attract more patients and increase the visibility of your medical practice
  • Why you need to bring on a PR firm (and stop wasting time and money on DIY PR efforts)

BONUS: Learn my Top Medical Practice PR Secrets

The top 3 ways medical experts break into the media including:

  • Positioning newsworthy medical cases
  • Tying into breaking news stories of the day
  • Tapping into the power of Medical Trade Publications (a hidden gem for feature interviews!)

Do you want more media exposure for your medical practice?

Yes! Teach me how to grow my practice

PUBLIC RELATIONS FOR MEDICAL DOCTORS RESOURCES

Media Tips for Doctors 

How to Leverage Social Media to Develop a Personal Brand & Increase Media Exposure 

Brand Yourself: Why Every Doctors Needs a Personal Brand 

 

LISTEN:

PR for Doctors

 

*Date last updated 2024

 

 

 

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