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Opportunities to Partner-and-Prosper with Area Providers
How to link arms with a kindred healthcare practice for a win-win-win marketing success.
Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts—and so it goes with cost-effective cross promotion. With minimum time and expense, two or more healthcare entities can team-up for a healthy Return-on-Investment.
The concept of cross promotion in healthcare marketing has been around for a while—mainly because it works—producing results for two or more practices. We've been teaching it for years; it's neither expensive nor difficult to do, and there are always creative new ways for dentists, doctors, physician groups, and other healthcare organizations to pump up their return on investment.
In marketing-speak, this is where you team-up with a non-competing colleague or business to effectively reach a common target audience. As one example, let's say a dentist and a dermatologist across the hall both provide cosmetic services for image-aware adults. The oldest version of cross promotion is to agree to simply put each other's business cards on your respective front desk.
The low-key business-card-exchange is easy to do, but being passive, it's not always impactful. Two similar-minded offices could inch forward by also exchanging brochures or flyers, but here are some tactics to move things up a notch or two.
- You're not limited to the guy down the hall.
You can duplicate this marketing affiliation with several
other practices and/or include non-direct referral sources.
For appearance-oriented practices that might be a wedding
photographer, beauty salon, medi spa, or others, provided
that everyone sees everyone else as non-competitive.
- Leverage location and proximity. Elective
and cosmetic services share appearance-conscious clientele.
Good for them, but maybe that's not you. Alternatively,
cross promotion partners can be linked by proximity. The
public tends to purchase goods and services where it's convenient.
You may find good business partners that are geographically
close—in the same shopping district or neighborhood for
example—regardless of what they are selling.
- A written recommendation. Each participant
can craft a mailing to their respective customers or patients
with a specific reference to the other. A letter works better
than a newsletter mention, and remember that you cannot
share patient lists; each practitioner needs to mail to
their own base.
- E-mailings are faster and cheaper. Many
of us are more connected (and increasingly reliant upon)
email. If your target audience is email-centric, it may
be appropriate to send your cross promotion message electronically.
If you have collected opt-in permission email addresses
from individuals, it tells you who is digitally connected
and who prefers email to the mailbox.
- Create special web pages. You and the
cross promotion partners can each devote a page on your
respective websites to feature the services that would interest
the visitors. In doing so, create a link exchange between
your sites for more information. Link exchanges can also
improve page rank results with Google and other search engines.
Adding a web page is relatively quick and cheap.
- Create an "umbrella" website with multiple
participants. Several kindred practices or organizations
can jointly create an independent website as a cooperative
marketing tool that embraces all. For example, a "River
City Healthcare Alliance" website...with a page or
two for each of you. It is optimized for all the key search
words, etc., and there is a link back to each of your respective
individual websites.
- Send in the practice reps. Some relationships
may be appropriate for an exchange of representatives for
a day at your respective locations. You'll need to carefully
evaluate how this option would work—it's not always a good
fit for both partners.
Teaming up with cross promo partners at a "neutral location" (such as a health fair or community event or a hospital event for the public) might be a more suitable alternative in some situations.
- Consider bundled offers and/or cause-marketing.
When you share a common purpose with a common audience—such
as appearance appeal, location or mutual health interests-consider
putting offers together. A "bundled" offer provides
the recipient with value from two or more sources. Perhaps:
Teeth whitening treatment from a dentist in combination
with a facial offer from the medi spa.
Alternatively, dissimilar businesses can link arms with the community through a "cause" such as helping prevent cardiovascular disease; good dental health plus proper exercise and nutrition; an allied healthcare event; or in conjunction with a hospital promotion.
There are three winners in good cross promotion. First, your practice or group and the non-competitive practice (or kindred business) that partners with you. Reaching out to a common audience, you both open the door to new patient opportunities. The bonus winner is the patient, someone who enjoys the added value from the cross promotion partners that truly value their business. Win. Win. And Win again.
We'd be happy to work with you on a comprehensive marketing plan. Please give us a call today at today at (800) 656-0907 and we'll arrange to dig into the specifics of your situation. Or you can visit with us in person at one of our Advanced Healthcare Marketing Seminars.
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