Tracking Internet Medical Marketing | Beautifully Profitable Ebook & Paperback

Statistical Software

Today, statistics software is available free of charge with Web-site purchases. Using software to evaluate your site can provide trackable information, including the number of visitors to the site, which search engines were used, which Web-site pages were read, and the average amount of time that the visitor spent at the site.

The Q and A

However, it is more important to know whether the visitors are the right prospective patients. Unfortunately, this cannot be easily accomplished with Web-site statistics. Perhaps the best investment you can make in the Internet is software that permits prospective patients to interact with your Web site to ask questions and provide the information. Interactivity improves the chances for true conversion.

Patient Forms

Patient forms available from the Web site may include a contact form, a patient-financing application, a patient-history intake form, or an online interactive consultation. All of these can help qualify the prospective patient and establish accurate indicators for measuring ROI.

Via interactive online videos, patient information can be logged that can be downloaded to the practice’s desktop and then be transported to the office’s practice-management software. At this point, the capabilities of the software and the patient coordinator determine ultimate conversion.

Whether you decide on a simple contact form or an interactive video, final conversion means that the prospective patient walks into the office, receives a procedure, and returns for postoperative care.
For more information, check out Cheryl Whitman’s Books, entitled Beautifully Profitable and Forever Profitable, which may be purchased online at Amazon.

Tracking Public Relations Campaigns

Public-relations opportunities, such as appearances in newspapers, on television, and on the radio, may be worthwhile. Newsworthy, non-promotional topics may consist of human-interest stories or new technology in your practice. However, the right medium is most important to obtain a strong ROI. For example, an appearance on national television may trigger too many calls for a smaller practice to handle.

Demographics must also be factored into a public-relations campaign. A local news story that airs on a station whose viewers tend to be your ideal patient type may be more profitable than exposure on national television. Even better, the most cost-efficient public-relations campaign may be one in which a staff member monitors the national plastic-surgery press and phones local television or radio stations or newspapers to comment on significant developments or trends.

Trackable data from a public-relations campaign mean that the viewer, listener, or reader has called the office to schedule a consultation. Continued trackable data mean that this information is stored in the practice’s database so that tracking can continue after the consultation, when the patient receives the procedure, and throughout aftercare.
For more information, check out Cheryl Whitman’s Books, entitled Beautifully Profitable and Forever Profitable, which may be purchased online at Amazon.

Drafting Letters to the Editor, Opinion Editorial Articles, and Letters of Endorsement

Letters to the Editor, Opinion Editorial Articles, and Letters of Endorsement can be some of the most meaningful ways to get the word out about you and your medical practice. Learn more about these types of modalities!

Letters to the Editor

One of the most read sections in publications is the Letters to the Editor column. Consequently, a letter to the editor makes is an advantageous location to have your message printed. This section of the newspaper is devoted to discussing opinions about current social issues and events.
When a relevant article appears about your specialty that you feel you can comment on, write a letter to the editor. This letter may either endorse the printed point of view or dispute it, whichever is appropriate. (Please see page … for a sample Letter to the Editor) The following factors are important when considering a letter to the editor.

Special Considerations: Letters to the Editor

Check and double-check any facts you refer to in your letter. Be as accurate and fair as possible.
Be brief. Edit, edit, edit.
Pay Attention to the Readers. Consider that hundreds will read the finished letter.
Be timely. Your Letter to the Editor must be received within one week after a related story appears.
Letters to the Editor are about your point of view. Make only a small reference to your practice. The information in a comprehensive biography about the doctor is all that is required to provide reference to the author or the practice.
Sign the Letter to the Editor. Letters to the Editor must be signed.

Opinion Editorial Articles

Op-ed is the short term for an opinion editorial article. There are publications that like receiving a well-written, well-edited article from an independent credible individual. The op-ed article provides a perfect opportunity to present your practice’s ideas, objectives and goals. After the op-ed is published, reprints can be used for mailings to patients, referring doctors and specialty related key organization members.

Op-eds are an excellent means for raising the public awareness about new medical concerns. They also have the potential to educate policy makers.

Op-Ed Tips

Exclusivity: Always send an op-ed article to one newspaper.
Spacing and Margins: Most newspapers like op-eds to be 750- 800 words, double-spaced with wide margins. The Sunday edition may have different spacing and margin requirements.
Easy to Read: First, op-eds should state what the problem is. Second, the article should show how your idea will or has solved the problem. Finally, the focus should be of general appeal to the audience.
Timing is Everything: Op-eds should be timely, talk about today’s problems/solutions, not last week’s.
Pay Attention to the Readers: Consider that at least hundreds will read the finished op-ed article.
Edit, edit edit.
Submission: Direct your article to the Editorial Editor or the Op-Ed Page Editor. Use the person’s name and title, spelled correctly.

Letters of Endorsement

Letters of Endorsement should be short, one page preferably. The text should be positioned in small paragraphs, whereby a portion could be better preserved for presenting true context if that portion was used by press. Letters of Endorsement should refer to accomplishments that your practice has made, benefited the author and has an application to helping consumers at large.

For more information, check out Cheryl Whitman’s Books, entitled Beautifully Profitable and Forever Profitable, which may be purchased online at Amazon.