Marketing tips?

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Baron Samedi

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Please hit me with your marketing tips and how to build a good referral base. I'm completely new to this and want to start game planning. How do you get in the front door for potential referral sources?

I also have no social media presence whatsoever. Do you guys think it's helpful in getting quality referrals or can I continue to avoid it like the plague?
 
If you’re not a natural at social media and self-promotion, I wouldn’t try to force it. I don’t like talking about pain procedures that way, because success rate is not the same as doing a hip replacement or breast lift. If you’re naturally smooth and good at sales it can work in your favor.

You’re more likely to get the pain patients you want to see by marketing to surgeons, PCPs, neurologists, rheumatologists
 
Only get into social media if you want Steve to track down your posts and make fun of you on this forum 🤣

But seriously, agast is right - as specialists, we're better off in most cases directing our marketing to the people who refer to us. Make face to face connections with PCPs, neuros, surgeons. Get their cell phone numbers and text them with little updates about their patients, ask them to text you with requests. Tell your patients to let their referring doctor know when they're happy with their outcomes. Let them know to pass your name around among friends. Especially our medicare population, everybody has multiple friends with pain, and they love talking about their doctors.

Also, when you have unhappy patients, drop their doc a line, so they can hear your side of things (wouldn't prescribe their oxy 30 q3), instead of just "dr samedi is the worst doctor ever!"
 
Baron Samedi said:
Please hit me with your marketing tips and how to build a good referral base. I'm completely new to this and want to start game planning. How do you get in the front door for potential referral sources?

I also have no social media presence whatsoever. Do you guys think it's helpful in getting quality referrals or can I continue to avoid it like the plague?
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Did you leave the military for private practice?

What kind of private practice setup
 
1. Availability
2. Affability
3. Ability

Best that helped me out of fellowship was finding 3-5 PCPs that will send you every back/neck pain and then finding 1-2 surgeons that you have good communication with sending patients back and forth PRN. Social, TV commercials, magazine ads, etc. have been waste of time/money. Being able to get people in within one week or less is a HUGE benefit. See 5-10 people with bread and butter stuff every week who came to us because other pain/spine/ortho groups had 4+ week waits.
 
drrosenrosen said:
Only get into social media if you want Steve to track down your posts and make fun of you on this forum 🤣

But seriously, agast is right - as specialists, we're better off in most cases directing our marketing to the people who refer to us. Make face to face connections with PCPs, neuros, surgeons. Get their cell phone numbers and text them with little updates about their patients, ask them to text you with requests. Tell your patients to let their referring doctor know when they're happy with their outcomes. Let them know to pass your name around among friends. Especially our medicare population, everybody has multiple friends with pain, and they love talking about their doctors.

Also, when you have unhappy patients, drop their doc a line, so they can hear your side of things (wouldn't prescribe their oxy 30 q3), instead of just "dr samedi is the worst doctor ever!"
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Or even better yet call or text the doc and tell them right then what happened. Also document it in the note and send that to the office.
Chances are the patient will just say that you were rude and uncaring. But if the doc already heard the true story from you they will know the truth
 
social media , online and paper ads will attract weirdos and addicts and sketch self referrals

ultimately quality work leads to good reputation leads to busy schedule ; unfortunately this simply takes time.

best to go door-to-door . but boots on the ground requires repeated multiple visits. I feel like the whole process is " out of sight, out of mind" so you have to constantly visit them annually and remind them of your existence. Also always remind them that it's your goal to get patient's off opioids, not on them. If there's one singular thing that I learned from SDN Pain University, it is to know not to take care of someone else's trash.

Surgeons are the best referral sources. Young PCPs who are paranoid and afraid of opioids are the next best because they refer patient's to you before introducing opioids. In my experience, it's the older PCPs and international docs that send me the xanax/percocet/soma patients who suddenly had a change of heart and their license is now on the line. I absolutely hate talking to rheum because they'll just send you the RA/lupus patient who they refuse to provide pain medication for even though they are the "experts" in prognosis , expectations and true immunomodulatory treatment of these rheumatologic diseases.
 
Lunches, dinners, events, open houses, happy hours, booths at conferences, anyone you meet exchange cell and keep communication lines open, texting after seeing pt, good outcomes etc, keep practices warm with brochure/referral pads/swag/food drop offs, make sure outbound referral process is easy, reciprocate referrals and make sure they know it. Social media is important like it or not, and not just FB, IG, etc but website SEO and Google, FB ads too.
 
If you’re a reliable source of stimulators, the device reps will sponsor the lunch for you when you visit the referring doctors. In case you get tired of paying for everything yourself…
 
geauxg8rs said:
Or even better yet call or text the doc and tell them right then what happened. Also document it in the note and send that to the office.
Chances are the patient will just say that you were rude and uncaring. But if the doc already heard the true story from you they will know the truth
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Yeah, this is what I was trying to say. Get out in front of it.
 
In my neck of the woods, no amount of marketing or Availability/Affability/Ability (debatable sure), seemed to make a difference. All of the referring docs are owned by hospitals. Once I made a good connection with one of the hospital CEOs, the referral flood gates opened (after years of struggling).
 
Baron Samedi said:
Will be yes. It's a little early to get overly specific but small single specialty group.
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That's great news!! Congrats!! Now there's no longer a need to advocate for your employees to receive higher wages anymore. Now you can easily pay them more as it comes straight out of your paycheck and not someone else's. The more you pay them the less you bring home to your family. I'm glad it'll be easier for you to get them the money they deserve. I would say I'm curious how things will turn out but I already know the answer, lol!!!

What I did was contact the SCS rep. They set up lunches for all potential referring offices and I went out and met all of them. Contacted the local paper and local TV station too. Worked out well. Good luck!
 
Pain Applicant1 said:
That's great news!! Congrats!! Now there's no longer a need to advocate for your employees to receive higher wages anymore. Now you can easily pay them more as it comes straight out of your paycheck and not someone else's. The more you pay them the less you bring home to your family. I'm glad it'll be easier for you to get them the money they deserve. I would say I'm curious how things will turn out but I already know the answer, lol!!!

What I did was contact the SCS rep. They set up lunches for all potential referring offices and I went out and met all of them. Contacted the local paper and local TV station too. Worked out well. Good luck!
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I'll be an employee, not an owner. Staff wages won't be up to me.

Hope your practice manager/head nurse/MSA is doing well. She sounded like a real hard worker.
 
Baron Samedi said:
I'll be an employee, not an owner. Staff wages won't be up to me.

Hope your practice manager/head nurse/MSA is doing well. She sounded like a real hard worker.
Click to expand...

If you'd like you can always offer to reduce some of your pay and transfer it to the employees. Now that you're free from the strict gov regulations you can do things like this. Freedom is great! If you'd like I can call the owner to see if he or she will accept this plan to you. PM me his or her number and I'll make the offer for you, lol!

My one employee is doing great. Feel free to ask her. If she says anything other than that let me know and I'll have to get the paddle out, lol!
 
jymifalcon said:
One great tip is to focus on providing top-notch service – happy customers are more likely to spread the word about you. Networking events and industry meetups can be golden opportunities to get in front of potential referral sources.
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I can't emphasize this enough. Also, spending time outside work with your referral sources--getting the spouses and families together, etc. If you end up coaching a neurosurgeon's kid on a team or activity, you'll get many referrals from that doc.
 
jymifalcon said:
One great tip is to focus on providing top-notch service – happy customers are more likely to spread the word about you. Networking events and industry meetups can be golden opportunities to get in front of potential referral sources.
Click to expand...

drusso said:
I can't emphasize this enough. Also, spending time outside work with your referral sources--getting the spouses and families together, etc. If you end up coaching a neurosurgeon's kid on a team or activity, you'll get many referrals from that doc.
Click to expand...

I think this guy is AI. Doesn't make his advice any less useful though.
 
ashunka said:
Social media is a big deal now. If you're not on it, you're missing out on lots of potential customers. It's where people look before they buy things, and it's an easy way to show off your work.
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Also a great place to get trolled if pics are not up to specs.
 
Unless you're doing something where you're trying to get to a very specific type of pt, like cash pay PRP, I think direct patient marketing in pain is more trouble than its worth. This includes creating and maintaining any type of social media presence. Does anyone else have contrary experiece with that?
 
no effing way do i want my work on social media.
 
drrosenrosen said:
Unless you're doing something where you're trying to get to a very specific type of pt, like cash pay PRP, I think direct patient marketing in pain is more trouble than its worth. This includes creating and maintaining any type of social media presence. Does anyone else have contrary experiece with that?
Click to expand...
Been lucky so far. I may get one opioid seeker every 2 months. Despite trying to catch it on the front end with the in take person.


Most of my practice has been built via word of mouth and social media in private practice.

I don't post pics of procedures or anything like folks do on LinkedIn. Just information about what I do.

There would literally be no other way to compete with the hospitals. All the PCPs and specialists where i am are all hospital owned..
 
drrosenrosen said:
Unless you're doing something where you're trying to get to a very specific type of pt, like cash pay PRP, I think direct patient marketing in pain is more trouble than its worth. This includes creating and maintaining any type of social media presence. Does anyone else have contrary experiece with that?
Click to expand...
That’s my experience as well but it’s market-dependent. My schedule is full and then some, with no effort on my part, so I don’t bother with social media or anything like that.

I imagine if I were practicing near a big urban area where there’s a lot of competition and selling a lot of cash pay regen procedures, I’d be advertising like crazy.
 
I can't tell you how valuable offering CME is for grabbing referral sources.

I've mentioned it on here before, but we do a large CME event for local therapists and doctors. Really anyone who wants to attend.

Prob 5 or 6 of us give a 45 min talk on ortho topics.

I usually do CRPS because that allows me to discuss a vast amount of conservative care that doesn't involve opiates, AND all of these measures play a role in chronic back, neck and peripheral joint pain. I make sure to mention that during these talks..."This is also great for generic back and neck pain..." Most people are surprised at how many different things we offer.

Tell a few jokes while you're up there, and always put a few pics of your family in your PPT.
 
MitchLevi said:
I can't tell you how valuable offering CME is for grabbing referral sources.

I've mentioned it on here before, but we do a large CME event for local therapists and doctors. Really anyone who wants to attend.

Prob 5 or 6 of us give a 45 min talk on ortho topics.

I usually do CRPS because that allows me to discuss a vast amount of conservative care that doesn't involve opiates, AND all of these measures play a role in chronic back, neck and peripheral joint pain. I make sure to mention that during these talks..."This is also great for generic back and neck pain..." Most people are surprised at how many different things we offer.

Tell a few jokes while you're up there, and always put a few pics of your family in your PPT.
Click to expand...
How do you apply to get CME credit approval for your lectures? I was under the impression it was somewhat complicated
 
Our state pain society lets PCPs and midlevels go to annual meeting that has CME for free(i think) and the guys who are super involved in the society give lectures. Im sure its good marketing. I think its cosponsored by a big hospital system to get the CME done.
 
Agast said:
How do you apply to get CME credit approval for your lectures? I was under the impression it was somewhat complicated
Click to expand...

It isn't that difficult.

Our admin took care of it, and despite the fact it took many months to complete, those man hours pay off in the end bc the face time these conferences provide to our community providers is worthwhile.

We're fighting encroachment by a major medical system and this helps.
 
Baron Samedi said:
Please hit me with your marketing tips and how to build a good referral base. I'm completely new to this and want to start game planning. How do you get in the front door for potential referral sources?

I also have no social media presence whatsoever. Do you guys think it's helpful in getting quality referrals or can I continue to avoid it like the plague?
Click to expand...

Talks at VFW's
Senior centers
Join Rotary
Join the Chamber of Commerce
Invite referring providers and their spouses over for dinner
Kids' events and activities are great networking opportunities
Sponsor a little league team "Pain Killers" is a great name for a Little League BTW
 
bump

Has anyone has had success using companies like searchkings or Tebra for their google ads marketing campaigns? Other suggestion specific to google ads help?

Thanks
 
jerkii929 said:
I'm coming back here after some time and can say that, besides the classic methods, I found the advice from healthcare marketing from <SPAM NAME HERE> useful when it comes to building relationships with referral sources. They put a lot of emphasis on trust and online visibility, even though being super active on social media isn’t a must.
Click to expand...
How much did they charge you? Membership?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I hired someone local to run Google ads. Bigger process as adding new landing page with that is supposed to be more conversion friendly than my website. Will update after a couple months. Hope to have several different pages for high value procedures. Ie kypho
 
Make sure you show up on Google maps both as your name and as your practice name, with high star reviews. When I’m looking for some kind of service I go to the maps app first to see who is closest to me. I suspect that’s what most smart phone users do.
 
Agast said:
Make sure you show up on Google maps both as your name and as your practice name, with high star reviews. When I’m looking for some kind of service I go to the maps app first to see who is closest to me. I suspect that’s what most smart phone users do.
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i tend to want to see the patients who dont check goggle reviews. they are high maintenance. medicare population who can barely use a cell phone is my target demographic
 
SSdoc33 said:
i tend to want to see the patients who dont check goggle reviews. they are high maintenance. medicare population who can barely use a cell phone is my target demographic
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“I called and called and you guys never called back”

ma’am, we tried to call you and it went straight to voicemail but your voicemail was full

“Oh yeah I never check that and I block calls that might be spam”
 
Agast said:
“I called and called and you guys never called back”

ma’am, we tried to call you and it went straight to voicemail but your voicemail was full

“Oh yeah I never check that and I block calls that might be spam”
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meh.

overbook to the no show rate. lather, rinse, repeat.
 
1) Excellent bedside manner with each patient you encounter. Excellent outcomes. Every procedure you do, should be your best yet. You can start to adjust based on what you can psychologically tolerate in a sustained long term fashion down the line, when your practice is full.

2) Make it EXTREMELY easy for providers to get patients in to see you. For your first couple of years, seriously consider not requiring referral review. Just open the flood gates. It can be stressful, but it will grow your practice quickly, and you'll become comfortable treating the entire spectrum of pain medicine. Later on down the line, when your practice is full, you can then choose to eliminate patients/conditions with who you don't have chemistry. If you don't have a marketing team helping you with this, ask your reps for various technologies to set up the lunches for you. Everybody wins.

3) Make time to meet referring providers and provide them with lunch, friendly conversation, and let them all have your cell number. We should view primary care providers as if they WALK ON WATER, yet they rarely get any love from specialists. When a specialists takes the time with a PCP to try to establish a relationship, and create easy access to care for their patients, it makes a big difference to them. Also, don't underestimate doing the same thing for all of the PT and chiropractic offices in your area. They get basically ZERO love from specialists. Other specialists to hit obviously include neuro, podiatry, spine, PMR, ortho, endocrinology.

Social media presence, and good reviews (Google maps is probably the most important) are nice too, but the above 3 points are THE WAY.
 
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