Beyond Word of Mouth: Tips for Maximizing Referrals with MMS
When it comes to building trust and confidence for physicians, hospitals, recruiters and medical schools, referrals are essential. But referrals go beyond patient reviews. Maintaining a positive online reputation and aligning digital channels such as websites, social media and programmatic advertising — as well as launching marketing campaigns — can all drive referrals. MMS can help.
Why do referrals matter?
Referrals are used to demonstrate trust and respect, build relationships, drive positive outcomes and even express gratitude. But most importantly, they drive business. This includes increasing patient engagement at acute and non-acute healthcare facilities, successfully placing candidates through recruiting agencies and boosting registrations to CME programs.
Below are additional reasons why referrals make a difference:
Cost-effectiveness
Credibility
Revenue growth
Network expansion
Reputation building
Competitive advantage
Data and insights
The Link between Rankings, Reputation and Referrals
Rankings, online reputation, and referrals often go hand in hand. Since rankings influence how health systems are perceived by referring physicians, earning a coveted spot on the U.S. News & World Report’s (USNWR) “Best Hospitals” list and other sources can bring national attention and an expanded referral base.. The result: Marketers are wise to promote rankings heavily because they can strengthen reputation and influence referrals — long after they’re published.
Promoting your Brand to Boost Referrals
Expert scores based on recommendations can enhance the brand of a physician, recruitment agency, or medical school — and this can also drive referrals. Hospitals can promote their brand through their key opinion leaders (KOLs) by leveraging their expertise and influence. As a medical marketer, you have a variety of channels at your disposal to humanize your brand, showcase expertise, celebrate accolades, provide thought leadership, and more. All of these tactics can be used to strengthen your digital footprint and promote your brand, which, in turn, can drive referrals.
So, what exactly are these tools?
1. Email
Whether it’s a single email or a full referral campaign with resends, MMS can help you leverage our NOWW platform for a tailored, targeted, beginning-to-end email solution that identifies your ideal recipients, delivers your message, tracks the right metrics and achieves — or exceeds — your goals.
Tactics include:
Targeted newsletters: Regular updates to referring physicians about new services, treatments or research; hospitals can utilize KOLs to enhance brand reputation, attract talent and build trust
Educational content: Informative articles, case studies or webinar invitations
Personalized communication: Segmentation to tailor messages based on physician specialties or past referral patterns
Referral process reminders: Emails outlining the easy steps for making referrals
Follow-up communications: Updates to referring physicians on their patients' progress
2. Direct mail
Direct mail continues to be a key component when marketing for referrals, especially when used in conjunction with email. MMS makes sure you get to the right mailboxes by applying the same technology leadership and savvy that make our email data the best.
Tactics include:
Informational packets: Detailed brochures about specialties and services offered
Personalized letters: Introductions to potential referring physicians about your practice
Referral cards: Pre-printed referral cards for easy use
Event invitations: invitations for educational seminars or networking events
3. Social media
Social media can be utilized to assess a doctor’s professional credentials, expertise and compatibility. KOLs actively engage on social media platforms and share insights, updates and success stories. This helps in building a strong online presence and connecting with both the medical community and the general public.
Many social media tools are available, including social networking platforms, blogs, microblogs, wikis, media-sharing sites and more — all of which can be utilized to facilitate referrals among healthcare providers.
MMS can help you segment and target your ideal prospects on Meta and LinkedIn with American Medical Association (AMA) selection criteria — helping reinforce your direct mail and email communications in a way that makes a lasting impact.
4. Programmatic advertising
Effective programmatic advertising uses an automated workflow to effectively deliver ads to your audience. Automating targeted campaigns to custom audiences allows for highly personalized messaging and outreach.
MMS offers a range of services beyond audience creation. We expand reach beyond traditional channels by encompassing programmatic advertising, advanced TV and contextualized triggered engagement strategies. These diverse tactics enable multi-platform campaigns that adapt to user behavior and optimize impact.
Summary: Taking Action on Referrals
Once you’ve planned to increase referrals, it’s time to turn strategy into action. Well-executed marketing campaigns can help support efforts to improve referrals by increasing awareness and reputation, highlighting achievements to key stakeholders, promoting specialties and more.
MMS can help you deliver well-timed messages to increase brand awareness, strengthen online reputation and most importantly, take referrals to the next level.
Why MMS?
No other healthcare marketing service provider offers the unique MMS combination of great lists and powerful email and direct mail marketing (coupled with social media and programmatic advertising expertise), delivered together with a focus on making it easier to achieve the results you want.
Contact us today and see what we can do to help you make the most of your referral campaign.