Referral marketing, for the uninitiated, is the act of sending a marketer out on behalf of a medical practice for the purpose of building relationships with potential referring physicians. At Points, we’ve taken this concept a step further to include community marketing, which allows us to build relationships within the community as well.

Referral and community marketing is not to be confused with pharma reps or other vendor meetings. It is all about relationship building and trust. Trust that when primary care physicians send their patients to a specialist that their patients will receive excellent, compassionate care. Trust that the flow of information between the two practices will be in the best interest of the patient’s overall health.

In order to support this relationship building, the referral and community marketers thrive with the backing of strong marketing campaigns. In addition, it is beneficial when a practice understands the role they play in keeping the relationship on solid footing. Below are what we’ve found to be the top five ways to support referral marketing:

1) Excellent patient experience

When referral marketers are meeting with referring practices and community organizations, their messaging is very clear: Send your patients to my practice. But all the referral marketing in the world cannot overcome a lousy patient experience. Inability to seemlessly schedule appointments, rude or disorganized office staff and dingy waiting rooms will all be a turnoff. It’s important to get your internal house in order so it’s ready to welcome new patients to the practice. Points has written extensively on patient experience, so please be sure to check out our other blogs.

2) Three-way communication

There are three parties that need to stay in communication in order to maximize the effectiveness of a referral and community marketing program:

Referral Marketer: Referral marketers can gather a wealth of information during their meetings. They are the eyes and ears of the practice taking the pulse of the referral community. What initiatives are/aren’t working, what services or features of the practice draw the most positive feedback, which print materials are the most captivating, what’s the overall patient experience feedback – these are just a few examples of the types of information a referral marketer can gather. All of this information needs to be captured and communicated to the practice and the marketing team.

Practice Staff (clinical and administrative): The practice staff is typically the first to know of any changes within the practice (e.g., when a new procedure is being offered, a new location is opening or a new physician is joining the team, changes in insurance coverage or hospital privileges, etc.). If you read those examples and thought, wow that’s important information to know, you’re 100% correct. And it’s imperative that the referral marketers and marketing operations team know, too. They are the people who will communicate this information to referring physicians, the community and your patients. The sooner your staff informs the team, the better. This gives time for new materials and messaging to be created and for a rollout campaign to be planned.

Marketing Operations Team: The marketing operations team develops everything from a single flyer to an entire marketing plan and strategy. They are the people who take the practice initiatives and the information learned from the referral marketers and turn it into the deliverables needed to support both parties. In order for their work to be on target, priorities from the practice and feedback from the referral marketers is needed. Additionally, referral marketers and the practice need to know about the initiatives being driven by the marketing operations so that they are aware of any campaigns that are planned or in progress.

Bottom line – establishing a line of communication between the three groups is essential for both effectiveness and efficiency. You don’t want anyone unintentionally working against each other, and the best way to avoid that is communication.

3) Direction

In this case, direction has two meanings:

  • Directions, geographically speaking
  • Directions from the practice regarding which referral and community groups to target

Geographic Direction: If you’re a one-location practice, this question is much easier to answer. Identify the catch basin for that practice by determining the average distance the majority of patients are willing to travel for your services. Points has a custom software that we’ve developed – the Catch Basin Analyzer – to help take the guesswork out of that question. However, if your practice has multiple locations, there may be other factors at play. A newer location or a less busy location may need more referral marketing than a location that already has a bustling schedule. Geographic decisions may also be based on specific physicians that need to be marketed, such as a new member of the practice whose schedule isn’t as full as an established physician.

Target Group Direction: Your practice needs to work with the referral marketer to identify target referral groups. In some cases, it is common sense (e.g., you’re not going to target OBGYNs to get patients for prostate exams). However, there are plenty of instances where the target referral groups are not as obvious, which is why defining and refining target groups is a necessary step in building a referral and community marketing program.

4) Time and budget

Referral and community marketing is a strategic investment in your practice. Building relationships takes time and doesn’t transpire simply by making phone calls. A referral stream needs to be nurtured, which means follow-up visits and other touchpoints. It takes months with repeat visits and interactions. Because of this, very rarely do we recommend a short-term referral marketing program – and you shouldn’t want one, either. While we often experience immediate traction and interaction with referrers and community organizations, we have also uncovered that it takes about six to nine months to start seeing a meaningful impact. By investing both time and budget, your practice will reap the long-term benefit of a steady stream of patient referrals.

5) Marketing campaigns

Marketing campaigns that incorporate referral marketing are a great way to build interest in the practice. Providing fresh messaging and materials to the referral marketer allows them another opportunity to revisit a practice, and can even provide a foot in the door to visit a new potential referrer. Along with referral marketing tangibles, the marketing campaign is typically spread across multiple channels including digital marketing, media and the physical office locations. This unified message can be adjusted according to the intended audience and allows the practice to come out strong with a new physician, location, procedure, awareness month – you name it.

If you’re a practice that isn’t actively working to build your referral base or perhaps you’re looking to take your referral marketing to the next level, contact us.

Our Partners

partners
facebook marketing partner
google partner
shopify logo
hubspot partner program

Subscribe to Our Newsletter!

@ 2023 Points Group / All Right Reserved

This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which Points Group, LLC collects, uses, maintains and discloses information collected from users (each, a “User”) of the https://www.pointsgroup1.10web.me website (“Site”). This privacy policy applies to the Site and all products and services offered by Points Group, LLC.

PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION

We may collect personal identification information from Users in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, when Users visit our site, subscribe to the newsletter, respond to a survey, fill out a form, and in connection with other activities, services, features or resources we make available on our Site. Users may visit our Site anonymously. We will collect personal identification information from Users only if they voluntarily submit such information to us. Users can always refuse to supply personal identification information, except that it may prevent them from engaging in certain Site related activities.

NON-PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION

We may collect non-personal identification information about Users whenever they interact with our Site. Non-personal identification information may include the browser name, the type of computer and technical information about User’s means of connection to our Site, such as the operating system and the Internet service providers utilized and other similar information.

WEB BROWSER COOKIES

Our Site may use “cookies” to enhance User experience. User’s web browser places cookies on their hard drive for record-keeping purposes and sometimes to track information about them. User may choose to set their web browser to refuse cookies, or to alert them when cookies are being sent. If they do so, note that some parts of the Site may not function properly.

HOW WE USE COLLECTED INFORMATION

Points Group, LLC may collect and use Users personal information for the following purposes:

  • To improve customer service
  • Information you provide helps us respond to your customer service requests and support needs more efficiently.
  • To personalize user experience
  • We may use information in the aggregate to understand how our Users as a group use the services and resources provided on our Site.
  • To improve our Site
  • We may use feedback you provide to improve our products and services.
  • To run a promotion, contest, survey or other Site feature
  • To send Users information they agreed to receive about topics we think will be of interest to them.
  • To send periodic emails
  • We may use the email address to respond to their inquiries, questions, and/or other requests. If User decides to opt-in to our mailing list, they will receive emails that may include company news, updates, related product or service information, etc. If at any time the User would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.

HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION

We adopt appropriate data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures to protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of your personal information, username, password, transaction information and data stored on our Site.

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We do not sell, trade, or rent User’s personal identification information to others. We may share generic aggregated demographic information not linked to any personal identification information regarding visitors and users with our business partners, trusted affiliates and advertisers for the purposes outlined above. We may use third party service providers to help us operate our business and the Site or administer activities on our behalf, such as sending out newsletters or surveys. We may share your information with these third parties for those limited purposes provided that you have given us your permission.

THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

Users may find advertising or other content on our Site that link to the sites and services of our partners, suppliers, advertisers, sponsors, licensors and other third parties. We do not control the content or links that appear on these sites and are not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to or from our Site. In addition, these sites or services, including their content and links, may be constantly changing. These sites and services may have their own privacy policies and customer service policies. Browsing and interaction on any other website, including websites which have a link to our Site, is subject to that website’s own terms and policies.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

Points Group, LLC has the discretion to update this privacy policy at any time. When we do, we will revise the updated date at the bottom of this page. We encourage Users to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically and become aware of modifications.

YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS

By using this Site, you signify your acceptance of this policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our Site. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to this policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes.

CONTACTING US

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, please contact us at:

Points Group, LLC

https://www.pointsgroup1.10web.me

150 Morristown Road, Suite 220

Bernardsville, NJ 07924

This document was last updated on July 24, 2014