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What time of year do you think about marketing your practice? Well, if you are like a lot of doctors, you probably think about marketing mostly during your slow seasons. And the logical knee-jerk reaction would be to go out and run some ads. Makes sense, right? Wrong!
It turns out that your slow seasons are absolutely the worst possible times of year for you to market your practice. Your patients and the general public have a natural predisposition to think of you only during certain times of year.
Just as winter coats don't sell well in August, it will be very difficult to motivate prospective patients during the wrong times of year.
External advertising should be undertaken during your best times of year. For many medical practices, the spring and fall are best (January is slow due to new deductibles, the "Dog Days of Summer" are slow due to vacations and general lethargy, and everyone gets distracted by the holidays).
However, there are many exceptions to this generalization:
> Primary care doctors tend to be busier during winter months due to cold and flu season.
> Orthodontists get flooded with new patients during August before school starts.
> ENTs and Allergists get busier in the fall and spring due to hay fever.
> Plastic Surgeons often get busy just before the holidays and during "High School Reunion" season.
Still confused? Here's a great tip.
Check your past three years worth of records and count up the number of new patient visits by month. (Not production or revenues, because those measures will lag.) Make sure you take into account aberrations, like that four-week trip you took to Europe last year.
Then come up with averages and then plot them on a graph where the average new visits are plotted on the Y (vertical) axis, and months are plotted on the X (horizontal) axis. In most cases there will be clear peaks and valleys. The key is to do your external marketing at the beginning of the busy season and cut back just before it ends. But that means my busy times will get even busier? To some degree, yes, so you'll have to be a good manager. However, here are some ways you can "even things out."
Remember that just because your new patient inquiries come in at once, for many practices the actual work can be spread out over time. For example, dentists have a large amount of control over their hygiene schedule, so they avoid scheduling those appointments during months where they know they will be busy with new patients.
Internal marketing is more powerful in motivating people to action than external marketing because you have a relationship with patients. Therefore, feel free to ask for referrals all year long (besides, it can never hurt).
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