For medical practice managers, patient acquisition is often the top priority. Yet, many practices overlook a critical factor in driving patient decisions: brand awareness. If your practice isn’t top of mind, you’re losing opportunities to competitors who are.
Research shows that practices patients remember are more than twice as likely to be chosen as those that only come to mind later. Let’s explore why brand awareness is essential and how you can leverage it to grow your practice.
Why Brand Awareness Matters
Patients today face overwhelming choices when searching for healthcare providers. From online ads to word-of-mouth recommendations, they’re inundated with options. When faced with this complexity, they rely on a small group of providers they can easily recall. This group is known as the Initial Consideration Set.
Consider findings from McKinsey & Company’s Consumer Decision Journey database:
- 87% of consumers research options before making a decision.
- 58% of consumers ultimately switch brands.
- 69% of switchers choose a brand that was in their Initial Consideration Set from the start.
For medical practices, this means that being part of a patient’s Initial Consideration Set is critical. If your practice isn’t in this set, you’re at a significant disadvantage.
Despite this, many practices focus solely on marketing during the Active Evaluation and Moment of Purchase stages, neglecting brand awareness altogether:
- Active Evaluation stage: Patients actively compare their options by reading reviews, visiting websites, or asking for recommendations.
- Moment of Purchase stage: Patients make their final decision and schedule an appointment with a provider.
Focusing only on these stages can leave your practice out of consideration altogether, as patients tend to choose practices they already know and trust.
A Simple Strategy to Increase Awareness
1. Narrow Your Focus
Focus your marketing efforts on a specific audience or geographic area—but only as much as necessary to saturate and dominate that space effectively. The goal is to create a strong, consistent presence where your practice can stand out and build trust.
How to Apply This Strategy:
- Start with a single neighborhood, zip code, or demographic where you can achieve maximum visibility and recognition.
- Develop hyper-local campaigns tailored to specific community needs, such as addressing seasonal flu outbreaks or promoting convenient access to care.
- Expand your focus gradually, maintaining saturation in the initial area as you grow.
Why It Works: By narrowing your focus strategically, you avoid spreading your marketing too thin and ensure your efforts generate meaningful results. Once you dominate one target area, you can replicate the approach to build awareness in new markets.
2. Cover Every Stage of the Decision Journey
Your marketing should address all four stages of the decision-making process:
- Awareness: Build recognition through consistent branding and messaging.
- Consideration: Share patient success stories or detailed service descriptions to inform potential patients.
- Evaluation: Provide clear, compelling reasons to choose your practice, such as shorter wait times or specialized services.
- Loyalty: Retain existing patients with follow-up communications, appointment reminders, and educational content.
3. Sustain and Expand
Once your practice is top of mind in your initial target area, maintain your gains with consistent messaging. Then, expand to new areas or audiences. The goal is sustained growth without spreading your resources too thin.
The Cost of Ignoring Brand Awareness
Neglecting brand awareness puts your practice at risk of being overlooked, even if you provide excellent care. Without recognition, your marketing efforts during later decision stages become far less effective.
- Lost Patients: Potential patients won’t consider your practice because they’ve never heard of it.
- Higher Costs: Marketing efforts aimed solely at immediate conversions often require higher spending for lower returns.
- Competitive Disadvantage: Competitors who invest in awareness will dominate patient decisions long before you’re noticed.
What Sets Successful Practices Apart
The most successful practices don’t wait for patients to search for care—they build connections before they’re needed. They invest in brand awareness to create a lasting impression, ensuring they’re the first choice when care is required.
Organizations like CommonSpirit Health, GenesisCare, and Dignity Health Medical Foundation understand the power of awareness. They partner with Simple to create marketing strategies that scale and deliver measurable results.
Let’s Build Your Brand Awareness
If your practice is ready to double the likelihood of being chosen and attract more patients, we’re here to help. At Simple, we specialize in turnkey medical practice marketing solutions that free up your time while helping you grow.
