Marketing: Physician Relations: Four Attention-Grabbing Messages

"Some of them will read newsletters and info coming from the hospital . . . if it's got useful info, practice management tips, time-savers, announcements that will make their practice better," he says.

We understand the unique challenges your practice faces.
"We need to understand that physicians come from different generations, just like we do, so in addition to the war generation, the boomers, the Gen Xers, and the millennials, we need to understand what their needs are at each of those stages of their practice."

For example, the boomers and the millennials differ in their work ethic, Halley says. Boomers are used to working 60, 70 hours a week; millennials are willing to work hard, but they also want to enjoy a life outside the office.

In addition to realizing generational differences, marketing executives need to understand variations among specialties. Primary care physicians face vastly different business problems than physicians in surgical practices, says Halley.

"The issues for those particular practices differ, so the marketers who understand those differences can tune their information gathering and dissemination to those different specialties," he says. "They can ask more appropriate questions about those practices if they understand the differences."

We will stand by you through the uncertain times ahead.
Building a trusting relationship with physicians is especially critical now, as the possibility of health reform creates uncertainty about future pay structures.

"All these strategies are going to become increasingly important as reform legislation passes," Kaufmann says. "Additional pressures fall on physicians and healthcare organizations as payments become restricted to both of them in order to fund the increased access for the uninsured and underinsured."

—Marianne Aiello