Fertility doctors frequently ask me, “Is it better to have an in-house marketing person or contract an outside marketing firm?” You might expect me to favor the choice of hiring the firm. I don’t. The two are not mutually exclusive; each role is critically important to the other. In fact, across the board, your staff are paramount to your fertility practice's efforts to recruit new patients. There are assignments that your in-practice marketer should and should NOT be tasked with to maximize effectiveness and cost-efficiency. The same is true of your agency. Depending on the size of your practice, it may seem redundant to have both an internal marketing person and an agency on retainer. When used correctly, they will each pay for themselves and then some.
marketing manager or clinic liaison?
If the practice has only one dedicated marketing person, his or her greatest productivity may very well come from the assignment of practice liaison. This is a function that is extremely difficult to outsource. As a marketer, my focus on digital media is owed only to its powerful results in attracting new patients. Digital’s proven ability to grow fertility practices doesn’t make physician referrals any less meaningful. Even in 2017, OB/GYN referrals still count for a tremendous share of new patients. Having someone who can regularly schedule physician-to-physician lunches, deliver semen analysis kits and information about infertility support, and educate OB/GYN staff in your area is tremendously valuable to the practice. Markets differ widely on the return on investment (ROI) of MD referrals, but in some cases, it may be a fertility center’s fastest path to growth.
physician referral case study
I asked an expert on the topic to share her experience on nurturing relationships with referring doctors. Shirley Sinclair is the practice manager of the Fertility Center of Chattanooga.
"For over 10 years, we’ve tried to find the magic source of how to bring in more patients and one of the top ways is still through referring physicians. This process has taken us some time to fine-tune, but it has proven to be very successful. We know our physicians are very busy, especially OB/GYN’s, so it is critical to remember that every minute of their day is valuable. With that in mind, we developed a few different ways for doctors to easily consume our message.
• Distribute referral packets in a beautiful folder filled with
o information about our clinics
o fact-sheets about infertility and testing
o semen analysis kit.
• Provide a referral sheet for the referring physician, in which they can
o add the patient name,
o check off the type of appointment they are requesting (such as semen analysis, consult, etc.)
o Fax back to our office
"We contact the patient to set up the appointment, thereby freeing up the referral’s time. We take these packets to each office about every 6 weeks, along with some type of goodie for the staff. This is not the time to ask to speak with anyone! They will remember you more if you do not become a nuisance. Also, do not leave too many packets; the idea is to show consistency and for you to become familiar with the staff.
"Another great tip is to set up lunches with referring practices. While this can be time consuming, this is a wonderful tool to use, especially when you have a new program or new protocol that you would like to share with the doctors. Always take one of your physicians and, in addition, it is helpful to take someone from your staff that is familiar with the clinical side, as well as financial. Physicians are always curious about what insurance will pay for as it is one of the first questions patients ask their doctor when they are encouraged to see a fertility specialist.
"Use this time to assure the physicians that you would like to set up a partnership in providing the best care for their patient. In other words, remind them that your goal is to help the patient become pregnant and send them right back! Also, educate the physician that referring a patient sooner, rather than later, will save the patient precious time, money, and especially undue emotional stress. Hanging on to a patient 6 months longer could be the deciding factor of what type of treatment the patient will end up having, therefore, adding additional hardship to the patient.
"While these tips are vital, they are worthless unless you track them. We use an EMR that is designed for fertility clinics, called eIVF, to track our referral sources. Keep track of which physicians’ offices refer to you! In addition, make sure your physicians follow a protocol to send letters to the referring physician after the patient’s visit. Then send a follow up letter when you send the patient, hopefully pregnant, back to her OB/GYN. Keeping your referring physician in the loop about their patients will solidify a long, successful relationship that will not only be beneficial to each of you, but, most importantly, to the patients for whom you both care!"
WAYS YOUR MARKETING MANAGER CAN HELP YOUR AGENCY
If you have more than one practice marketing person, or you live in a market where physician relations is not a full time job, your marketing manager is irreplaceable for a number of tasks that need to be accomplished within the practice.
Content sourcing. I don’t fly a member of my team to Honolulu every time we want to post a picture of the Fertility Institute of Hawaii’s staff to Instagram. Homemade and frequent content is vital to any practice’s content marketing strategy. In-practice marketers can serve as “brand journalists”, collecting the necessary images, stories, and videos to be sent to the agency for editing and distribution.
Operational changes. You may find that your online reputation is not as great as it should be, simply because of one or two common patterns. Patients might love your staff, but report your response time to be abysmal. The practice manager super-serves the practice when he or she is able to implement systemic changes that are needed to improve the marketing imprint of the practice.
Tracking. Your marketing agency will be able to tell you how many people RSVPed to your practice’s IVF informational session. Your in-practice marketer will tell you how many actually showed up. If using a CRM or not, the in-practice marketer is critical in measuring and reporting the volume and sourcing of new patients.
WAYS YOUR AGENCY CAN SERVE YOUR MARKETING MANAGER
Not the first time I've included a Jerry Maguire meme on my blog
One stop shopping. Your practice manager has enough to do without searching for a website developer, a photographer, a graphic designer, a writer, or a cinematographer every time your practice needs something. Your agency can provide that to you under one roof.
Social Media and Online Community Management. It’s not a good use of your practice manager’s time to respond to every comment on social media or online review sources, or to have to scour for content to post every day. Your agency can handle online interaction and take the lead from your practice manager when specific questions arise.
Content Development. Your agency can turn the raw text, photo, and video your practice sends into polished infographics, edited e-books, and maximize their distribution on social media and the web. The creative content and design that your agency helps you create doesn’t have to stay on your online properties, either. Digital materials like infographics and guides make for valuable resources that turn your clinic liaison’s visits into less of a sales call, and into more of a service to the referring doctor.
Advertising. It’s possible to waste a lot of money on bad advertising. Does your team know how to target same-sex couples, who married within the last year, who recently visited your website and live within 25 miles of your practice? Mine does.
Tracking. Your business manager doesn’t have to be an expert in Google Analytics or using a customer relationship management (CRM) software. Your agency can be in charge of mastering your conversion system.
THERE IS NO "I" IN aggregate TEAM MARKETING EFFORTS
A clinic liaison or marketing manager can be very effective for your practice. So can a hired agency. When they work in tandem, they return their investment exponentially. Studies find that marketing leads convert seven times more frequently when employees are fully involved in the process. Patients often mention their favorite staff when they leave positive reviews about their fertility center, and the compassion of team members can be invaluable in the fertility journey. Some personnel may want to be the star of a video, and others may prefer a “behind the scenes” role. From contributing to blog posts, to planning events like the baby reunion to promoting support networks, there are plenty of ways to engage staff in the practice’s marketing strategy.