How building your brand can improve your medical practice

Some basic public relations skills can come in handy when building your practice.

I’m cited in a recent piece from the American Medical News, which talks about how consciously creating a “brand” can help shape your practice, and perhaps, make your medical work more rewarding.

With more patients having high-deductible health plans, “patients are going to be more picky about where and with whom they spend their money.” Having a brand can make it clear to patients your interests and style of medical care.

Indeed, as Philippa Kennealy, who blogs at The Entrpreneurial MD, says, “a physician’s brand will help attract the patients he or she has a unique talent for treating, or would most enjoy working with.”

Not surprisingly, I speak about the importance of having a significant online presence, since patients will increasingly turn to the web to look for medical care. Having a blog, maintaining social networking profiles, and participating on Twitter are simple ways your name can show up prominently on Google search engine result pages.

The article gives some helpful tips on giving yourself a consistent brand, which will help keep your services in demand.

And with physician groups essentially functioning as small businesses, a little marketing and public relations know-how can make the difference between whether your practice succeeds, or not.