Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

The top 3 factors influencing how patients choose your health care practice

Marita McCahill, MBA
Finance
February 14, 2024
Share
Tweet
Share

When building your practice, knowing what factors influence how patients find you and ultimately choose to be treated by you is critical. As a health care provider, you focus on treating patients and providing the best care possible. The business side of health care may be of less interest to you. However, to effectively grow your practice, it’s essential to know how new patients find you and why they chose to see you for care versus another provider. This is true whether you own your practice or are a provider in a larger practice or hospital. Your long-term professional success relies on your ability to attract and retain patients.

What are the best ways to attract new patients?

Health care marketing is a big business. The U.S. health care advertising market reached $21.3 billion in 2021 and is predicted to reach $28.1 billion by 2027.

As a health care provider and perhaps a practice owner, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with all the marketing channels being utilized to market to potential patients, including websites, social media, paid advertising, SEO, email marketing, video, TV, radio, direct mail, billboards, and many more mediums.

Unless you have unlimited time and resources, which most of us do not, utilizing the proper marketing channels is essential for getting the greatest return on your marketing investment.

What are the optimal marketing channels to attract new patients?

Depending on the source, you will discover varying results. A reputation management company will tell you it’s all about patient reviews. A social media company will make you believe it’s about your social presence. A website development company will recommend a robust online presence. An established provider might credit a strong referral network. You might consider your expertise in your field to be the determining factor.

In reality, it’s a mix of all these elements alongside your credentials, training, practice location, and, most importantly, your ability to foster strong relationships with your patients. Without concrete data, knowing the most crucial marketing channels is challenging.

According to the 2021 RepuGen Patient Review Survey, the top three most important factors when a patient selects a health care provider were:

  • Online reviews
  • Referrals from another trusted health care provider
  • Referral from family or friend

Given that RepuGen is a health care reputation and review management platform, these survey results could be considered biased, or the study could be regarded as flawed as they had a vested interest in the results. However, there is much supporting evidence from various sources that support these findings.

How do patients find and ultimately choose their health care providers?

As a health care consumer yourself, how do you find your providers? Do your selection criteria track with the results found in the RepuGen survey?

Action item: For the next three months, ask each patient you treat how they found you and why they chose you as their provider. This can be done in just a few minutes during a regular visit – either in an informal conversation or via a quick patient survey.

ADVERTISEMENT

Track the results, and look at the end of the three months to see what patterns emerge. Determine the top three factors that influence new patients to be treated by you and then focus your marketing efforts on those channels. This is a simple and effective technique to achieve the greatest return on your marketing investment because you target channels your patient population has identified.

Marita McCahill is the founder of practiceGRO, a health care growth strategy consulting firm. She is passionate about developing, implementing, and executing creative programs to help health care practitioners build brand awareness, improve patient relations, and scale their practice. She can be reached on Facebook and Instagram @practice_gro.

Nowhere in medical school do they teach personal branding and how to grow your practice by attracting more of your ideal patients. Marita identified how a niche online course could address this learning gap, and practiceGRO Marketing 101 was born! In this eight-hour, self-paced, CME-approved course, she breaks down all the marketing jargon to the crux of what you need to understand and identifies the necessary actions to grow your practice exponentially.  

Prev

From popcorn to peril: a C. difficile survivor's tale [PODCAST]

February 13, 2024 Kevin 0
…
Next

Psychodermatology: A skin-brain axis exists, so what are you doing about it?

February 14, 2024 Kevin 1
…

Tagged as: Practice Management

Post navigation

< Previous Post
From popcorn to peril: a C. difficile survivor's tale [PODCAST]
Next Post >
Psychodermatology: A skin-brain axis exists, so what are you doing about it?

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Marita McCahill, MBA

  • Practice permanently closed: How to avoid this costly mistake

    Marita McCahill, MBA

Related Posts

  • How social media can help or hurt your health care career

    Health eCareers
  • Patients alone cannot combat high health care prices

    Peter Ubel, MD
  • Physicians and patients must work together to improve health care

    Michele Luckenbaugh
  • Doctors and patients should be wary of health care mega-mergers

    Linda Girgis, MD
  • Doctors and patients continue to search through the overgrown forest of corporate health care

    Michele Luckenbaugh
  • The growing threat to transgender health care: implications for patients, providers, and trainees

    Carson Hartlage

More in Finance

  • The hidden impact of denials on health care systems

    Diana Ortiz, JD
  • Why physicians are unlike the “average” investor

    David B. Mandell, JD, MBA
  • Signing bonuses and taxes: What physicians should know

    Shane Tenny, CFP
  • 5 steps to ride out a non-compete without uprooting your family

    Stanley Liu, MD
  • What every physician should know before buying into a medical practice

    Dennis Hursh, Esq
  • Navigating your 457 plan: key steps for physicians changing jobs

    Shane Tenny, CFP
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
    • A world without antidepressants: What could possibly go wrong?

      Tomi Mitchell, MD | Meds
    • Why no medical malpractice firm responded to my scientific protocol

      Howard Smith, MD | Physician
    • When doctors die in silence: Confronting the epidemic of violence against physicians

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
    • When rock bottom is a turning point: Why the turmoil at HHS may be a blessing in disguise

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
    • Avoiding leadership pitfalls: strategies for success in health care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting

      American College of Physicians | Physician
    • What happened to real care in health care?

      Christopher H. Foster, PhD, MPA | Policy
    • The silent crisis hurting pain patients and their doctors

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • How to build a culture where physicians feel valued [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How the CDC’s opioid rules created a crisis for chronic pain patients

      Charles LeBaron, MD | Conditions
    • Are quotas a solution to physician shortages?

      Jacob Murphy | Education
  • Recent Posts

    • When rock bottom is a turning point: Why the turmoil at HHS may be a blessing in disguise

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
    • How grief transformed a psychiatrist’s approach to patient care

      Devina Maya Wadhwa, MD | Physician
    • A speech pathologist’s key to better, safer patient care

      Adena Dacy, CCC-SLP | Conditions
    • Navigating physician non-competes: a strategy for staying put [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • In the absence of physician mentorship, who will train the next generation of primary care clinicians?

      Kenneth Botelho, DMSc, PA-C | Education
    • Fear of other people’s opinions nearly killed me. Here’s what freed me.

      Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

Leave a Comment

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
    • A world without antidepressants: What could possibly go wrong?

      Tomi Mitchell, MD | Meds
    • Why no medical malpractice firm responded to my scientific protocol

      Howard Smith, MD | Physician
    • When doctors die in silence: Confronting the epidemic of violence against physicians

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
    • When rock bottom is a turning point: Why the turmoil at HHS may be a blessing in disguise

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
    • Avoiding leadership pitfalls: strategies for success in health care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting

      American College of Physicians | Physician
    • What happened to real care in health care?

      Christopher H. Foster, PhD, MPA | Policy
    • The silent crisis hurting pain patients and their doctors

      Kayvan Haddadan, MD | Physician
    • How to build a culture where physicians feel valued [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How the CDC’s opioid rules created a crisis for chronic pain patients

      Charles LeBaron, MD | Conditions
    • Are quotas a solution to physician shortages?

      Jacob Murphy | Education
  • Recent Posts

    • When rock bottom is a turning point: Why the turmoil at HHS may be a blessing in disguise

      Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD | Physician
    • How grief transformed a psychiatrist’s approach to patient care

      Devina Maya Wadhwa, MD | Physician
    • A speech pathologist’s key to better, safer patient care

      Adena Dacy, CCC-SLP | Conditions
    • Navigating physician non-competes: a strategy for staying put [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • In the absence of physician mentorship, who will train the next generation of primary care clinicians?

      Kenneth Botelho, DMSc, PA-C | Education
    • Fear of other people’s opinions nearly killed me. Here’s what freed me.

      Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD | Physician

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Leave a Comment

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...