Identifying a Practice Marketing Strategy

Jennifer Spector, DPM:
Welcome back to Podiatry Today podcasts. I'm Dr. Jennifer Spector, the assistant editorial director for Podiatry Today. Today, I'm so thrilled to have Dr. Melissa Lockwood with us to discuss identifying a practice marketing strategy. Dr. Lockwood is a fellow of the American College of Podiatric Medicine and the American Society of Podiatric surgeons. She is a Diplomate of and vice-president of the American Board of Podiatric Medicine, and she practices in Bloomington, Illinois. Thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Lockwood. I think a good for us to start out would for you to maybe tell us a little bit about how you determined your current marketing strategy for your practice.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
I'm in private practice in Central Illinois, so one of the things that we really market to was trying to define who our ideal patient is first and foremost. So once we figured that out, and for our particular practice, that involves a female who would be between the ages of ideally 25 to 55-ish. Whoever this person is, this woman is, she's making medical decisions and financial decisions for her family, so her husband, her kids, her parents. Those people are all coming in because this woman is looking at us online. We really went all in with our marketing strategy on a digital format and a web format in 2019 into 2020. COVID was a part of that, but we really knew that the patients that are coming to our practice that come to us from a search engine that got to the website where they're getting the information that they need to have, that has been our ideal population. So however she is hearing about this information, she's disseminating it to whomever, and then they're going to the website. They're reading about the practice, and they're learning about what we do and how we're different. That's the biggest thing.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
COVID exacerbated this need because the reality is we weren't really getting a lot of referrals from other physician offices in 2020 and a little bit into 2021. It definitely picked back up again. But we did find that it was anecdotal that those types of patients that are coming to us from a referring physician office aren't necessarily our ideal patient any longer, and that is a number of reasons why. So it would've either been from the chief complaint that we don't necessarily want to be seeing as much of. We're not trying to market or advertise to those types of patients. It may be an insurance payer that aren't necessarily in network with, and it also could be ... They could have the right insurance. They could have the right chief complaint, all these things, but ideally, this patient, how we determine the strategy, this patient is someone who knows what's going on. They understand what they need to do, and they're willing to be a partner in their healthcare. Even most important in a private practice setting, they are willing to pay for the service. So we really try to filter out people who may not want to pay, so that's how we determine our marketing strategy.

Jennifer Spector, DPM:
I think so many people, they don't think about having that ideal patient be who they're targeting. They're just trying to get people in the door.
Which is certainly good in and of itself. But if you're really trying to find that ideal balance for yourself and for your practice, you got to look at the other side of it, who that patient is.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
Right. Perfect example happened last week. So we had a patient come in who had come to us through the website. They actually traveled for about 90 minutes to come over and see us, which in Central Illinois is far. It's not close. One of our practice niches is fungal nails. I actually really like treating them. We have a really good program with combination of topical products, plus laser therapy. Sometimes we throw the oral in. We've got some options, and we do a really good job of educating the patients about the chronicity of the problem and how we can help them.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
So this gentleman comes in. He had come to us from the website. He had researched it. He already knew that there was potentially an out-of-pocket cost that could be associated with it, which was great because then I'm already talking about this. When we discussed it, even though ... So I'll talk to this in just a moment. Even though on our website we even have pricing listed ... So even prior to when it was required of hospital systems, we've actually had our fee schedule listed based upon chief complaint on our website for several years now, and it has been a game changer for us for marketing.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
But to this gentleman's credit, we spoke to him about the cost. He was a little taken aback and he said, "That's just not what I want to do," and then he made a comment. We were like, "Our goal is to educate you. Now you know what you would need to do if you want to treat this and please let us know how we can help." I was a little disheartened when I went back to my office afterwards. My husband, who does a lot of our marketing for us, he looked right at me, and he said, "He's not your ideal patient, don't worry about it." I was like, "Yeah, but I feel like everything went right. He got to us from the website. He did this." He was like, "Okay, but it's not always going to be a 10 out of 10," and that's the thing with marketing.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
You have to throw spaghetti at the wall and figure out which one's working for your practice, and if you're seeing a larger number of a different type of patient that you may not like or ... I mean, like as in you may not like treating that chief complaint. That's the reality of it because we're so lucky in podiatry that we can specialize in sports medicine, or in dermatological conditions, or in injuries, and all of these different things. If you don't like to do something, you have the choice to not see it and to market to the types of things that you want to be seeing, which I think is amazing, and that's a great opportunity that we all have. We don't all take advantage of it, but we all have it.

Jennifer Spector, DPM:
I like the analogy of throwing spaghetti at the wall because I think sometimes people will try to throw everything at the wall and not everything is spaghetti. Not everything's going to stick really well. I think people think that perhaps they are not succeeding at the level that they would like to if it's not sticking, but like your husband pointed out, it might not be that ideal patient for you.

How did you arrive at that point of branding your practice in that way? How did you determine what you wanted this to look like? Did you take into account the patient's perception of things, your perception of things? Tell me a little more about that.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
Absolutely. We tell the team all the time that perception is reality. So our goal with branding in this practice, so our vision, is for a community of healthy, happy feet, and that is branded everywhere on all of our marketing materials. It's written in two different places on the wall in the office. People cannot be in this office and not see it. When we talk about healthy, happy feet, we're talking about people who are educated, people who understand what their problem is, how we can help them take care of it, and we have to own the fact that not everyone that we see is going to be able to do the treatments that we're offering. So you can become really disheartened if that sort of situation occurs. It can happen with any chief complaint, but it's sad when that happens, and you're stuck.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
Now in the private practice setting, unlike where I would compare it to some of our colleagues that may be listening that are in a hospital based setting, they are a little bit more limited with what they're allowed to do because there's corporate branding, and there's that ... There's a higher up scale that they're not allowed to necessarily bypass. But in my little world, we're able to really help cultivate and decide who that person is, number one. So we figured out who the ideal patient was, and then also what we wanted them, that person to perceive and to get out of the appointment. We want them to feel like they're part of our family and that they are knowledgeable. They can go home with concrete tips and things. Even if they're not doing anything else, there's something. Here's the very basic first step of how we can take care of you.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
It doesn't just start with what we're doing on an advertising and a marketing level. It comes to those treatment protocols if we have them listed out. The MAs and I practice them. We practice scripting and what to say to the patient because the type of word and what we're saying matters. Even the infliction of how we're describing it, adjectives like it's critical to do this, it's essential that we do that. I really try to practice that, and I consider that to be part of our marketing strategy because I try to really get out of my comfort zone and practice these types of things, so that I'm providing a very concise and detailed answer to a patient when they're asking a question. Then we're not fumbling, not a lot of ums. I just did twice in that answer, and I was like, darn it, so try not to do that.

Jennifer Spector, DPM:
So can you walk us through how a doc would go about finding that favorite chief complaint that they like treating?

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
So when you're trying to determine an ideal marketing strategy for whatever it is, whether it's targeting a type of patient or a type of chief complaint, I find it's easier to identify the type of chief complaint once you have an overarching view of who this ideal patient is. So we'll hone in on, let's say, plantar fasciitis. You want to make sure that in all of your efforts, whether it be on social media, on your website information, on your handouts that you're giving to the patients when they come in, that you're really not only having this all available to them, but that you're asking the question of the patients that are not coming in for that problem.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
So my number one marketing strategy tip is asking patients, is there anything else I can help with? It's a faux pas because so many of us have our hand on the door handle trying to get out of there. But you will start to see so much more of what you want to be seeing when you're asking that question of your other types of patients. Is there anything else? Because you would be shocked, heel pain is the example, how many patients are just dealing with it, and they think that it's normal. Or you say, "Oh, I noticed that you have this type of foot. You haven't had any heel pain, have you?" Just asking that question, we both know. People, they have it. It's so common, and you'll start to really see it. Aside from all of your spend on Facebook, and Google, and all of your blog updates, it's just asking that question of the patients. You're going to see a lot more of your ideal type of patient chief complaint-wise.

Jennifer Spector, DPM:
For sure, and I think it makes the patient feel heard as well.

That you're really listening and have considered everything they have to say, and you're giving them that attention to give them one more chance to ask those questions or make that outreach. I think it probably hits a lot of the check boxes for that.

Melissa Lockwood, DPM:
Right. But you have to get over your own fear of, oh gosh, this is going to make me a few minutes late. Be prepared for that conversation.

Jennifer Spector, DPM:
So we had such a great conversation with Dr. Lockwood today that we are going to bring her back for another episode next time, focusing on social media and other ways that you can execute this marketing plan. Thank you so much to Dr. Lockwood and to the audience for joining us today. Don't forget to check out past and future episodes of Podiatry Today podcast on podiatrytoday.com or your favorite podcast platforms.