10 Ways to Attract New Patients from Key Local Employers

Help Providers Win New Patients from Large Local Businesses with These Tactics

Large or dominant employers in your local communities are excellent targets of opportunity for new patients and cases.

Most healthcare providers have local businesses that are (or could be) a source of new business. Whether it’s a company that's conveniently located across the street, or a dominant employer in the community, your providers want their business—here’s how you can help them win it.

Identify key local employers in each of your geographic areas

Before we get started, it’s important to note that while any healthcare business may theoretically leverage these tactics, healthcare systems and multilocation providers are much more likely to access business development professionals or physician liaisons to assist with this process.

Many larger employers are motivated to find programs that help keep their employees healthy because it saves time, money, and resources.

Knowing this, health systems, hospitals, and multilocation practices can reach out to and partner with dominant companies in their local communities. This mutually beneficial partnership helps businesses create a healthier workforce and increases brand trust and patient volume.

Here we share several marketing tactics you can adjust and apply to meet your organizational goals.

(Note: Always check with an attorney before using a company’s brand name or logo in your marketing.)

1. Geofencing

Geofencing allows healthcare businesses to push hyper-relevant paid search advertisements to their target audience when they enter a specific location, like an office building or a factory. Rather than casting a wide net with one general campaign, geofencing and geotargeting allows healthcare organizations to launch a particular campaign for one company quickly.

2. Invest in local SEO

Local SEO for healthcare organizations is essential for building trust with your local audience—no matter how many locations you manage. The goal is to enhance the visibility and credibility of each practice and physician using consistent and accurate information.

3. Build custom marketing tactics

If the company is large or dominant within the community, direct some of your general media advertising to target these employees specifically.

a. Create a custom landing page
Include content and images that specifically relate to your target employer, and include a special offer just for employees. We also recommend asking existing patients (from your target company) for referrals and forwarding them a link to this landing page.

b. Create custom mailers or leave-behinds
Offer human resources executives custom brochures or flyers available as a "take one" in their common areas. Including a special offer for employees is an effective way to increase patient volume.

Alternatively, if you’re in the relationship-building phase, you could send a direct mailer to their executive team and/or managers or promote your special offer in a community newspaper.

c. Create custom informational posters
Once an event is planned with a target company, provide informational posters for corporate bulletin boards that promote the topic, speaker, benefits, date, and time. These posters are also an excellent opportunity to feature a link or QR code to their company-specific landing page.

4. Encourage existing patients to spread the word

Ask your marketing team or front office staff to identify existing patients from target businesses and encourage them to share their positive patient experiences with colleagues and decision-makers within the company.

Providers and staff can also encourage these influential patients to write online reviews, enhancing online reputation and increasing brand awareness.

5. Schedule meet and greets

When it comes to building trust and relationships, a lot can be accomplished with a simple face-to-face meeting. Identify one or two delegates from each location to schedule appointments with key decision makers at their target companies to discuss opportunities (e.g., present talks or participate in health fairs or appropriate employee activities like "lunch-and-learn" presentations). These tactics can help providers build brand awareness and increase patient volume.

6. Offer expertise

Do you have providers or medical professionals that are able and willing to share their expertise? Have a copywriter interview them to create informative articles for your target companies’ corporate communications or e-newsletters.

As you know, these publications are typically starving for interesting editorial material. Offer value to target employees by providing interesting content related to the benefits your providers can deliver.

7. Arrange an exchange of tours

Help providers get better acquainted with key decision-makers by hosting a tour of one or more of their medical offices. Your business development team may also want to tour prospective businesses, which is a terrific opportunity to leave-behind marketing materials like business cards, brochures, or information about company-specific special promotions.

8. Ask your vendors

Remind your team to speak with vendors. They're often a valuable resource for special offers and product samples for health fairs and presentations.

9. Plan custom workshops or programs

Depending on the medical specialty, consider ergonomic evaluations, work hardening programs, injury prevention classes, anger management classes, women's health classes, fitness programs, eye safety, wellness programs, expectant mother programs, etc., to add value to your relationships with your target companies and attract more patients.

10. Host an onsite immunization clinic

Offer free immunization clinics to employees at their place of employment. These clinics help promote employee health, reduce employee sick days, and lower healthcare costs for the employer and the employees. Not only that, it raises awareness about conveniently located medical services.

Telling employers exactly how and why your healthcare organization is uniquely capable of understanding and serving the specific needs of their employees is the key message.

Remind your team to keep the message—in presentations, communications, flyers, and web pages—focused on how THEY can benefit. 

Note: This article was adapted from a previously written article for Dental Economics.