To market, to market! A marketing plan for the next 6 months.
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
As promised, I would set up a goal for the year, and plan to achieve it. I had earlier noted that business for my company, ExtraMD was down for the first time in five years. My company supplies physicians to clinics/hospitals/urgent care in the city where I live. I am the physician owner, and feel responsible to the other 5 physicians in our group. So, I developed a marketing plan for the next six months to bolster our shifts. The general marketing theme was a birthday celebration, as ExtraMD is turning five.
The goal: have 5o shifts per month for our physicians. (This is what we usually have, but has suddenly decreased.)
Unless noted, all responsibilities for marketing are mine.
The plan (by month):
January: send an email to our clients, announcing our birthday celebration, and giving a discount of 10% off the first shift. (Already done by our trusty office manager.) Send out a press release announcing the birthday celebration. (My responsibility.)
February: deliver birthday cupcakes to potential clinics with cards/brochures.
March: build a referral tree via email. E.g.: if a client refers someone to us that uses us to fill shifts, the referring client will get a discount off their next shift with ExtraMD.
April: send out postcards reminding clients/potential clients of our services, focusing on how we benefit the practice when one of our doctors fills in.
May: send out email reminder for practices to book now for summer vacations.
June: send out a newsletter with tips on practice management to our email subscribers.
Most of the marketing will be low cost. This marketing plan was developed with help from Philippa Kennealy, a physician entrepreneur. I also consulted Duct Tape Marketing, by John Jantsch. I’ll keep you informed as to our progress.