Urgent Care Marketing Strategy for 2023 (and Beyond) – Part 1

In the last 3+ years, the Urgent Care industry has grown by over 16%, from 9,616 facilities as of November 2019 up to 11,150 as of early 2023. While some of these locations are in a “healthcare desert” or other areas with unmet demand, more and more clinics are opening in many of the same desirable communities.

Currently in the U.S., based on Google Trends data, the total urgent care search volume is about the same as a year ago at this time. Prior to Covid, it took a flu season surge to reach this level. If your competition, along with the population base in your area, has NOT changed, then these numbers may be in your favor compared to a pre-pandemic spring.

On the other hand, if you are facing new competition, volume is probably down – often significantly. If this describes your situation, analyzing the competition – and what sets you apart – is critical. Then, based on what you learn, you need to evaluate your options for reaching new patients and/or offering new services.

In some cases, there may be a short-term fix. For example, increasing your advertising spend on Google or other ad platforms that are working for you may lead to fairly immediate results. Then again, if your advertising strategy was more proactive to begin with, it may not be possible to obtain additional patients at a positive ROI. Beyond a certain point, you will see diminishing returns to an increase in ad spend.

Given current market conditions, there won’t be many other tactics that can bring near-immediate results. Furthermore, short of a pandemic, urgent care is a seasonal business. Your volume will always be slower at some times of the year than others.

For most parts of the country, in a typical year, the slowest months for typical urgent care visits are from April through July. If you are in a particularly competitive area, and you are used to the last few years of visit volume, you may be uncomfortably slow over the next 3-4 months. The good news is that you and your team can leverage this lull. By working on local – and often easy – marketing activities, you can use this time to strengthen your long-term outlook. To make this work, it helps to think of marketing as more of a chess game, where you are thinking several steps ahead. Advertising is a valuable part of that game, but if you focus too much on ads to the exclusion of other tactics, your marketing is more like a game of checkers. Or like a game of chess where you have an unlimited number of pawns to sacrifice.

Building Future Urgent Care Volume

Local/Community Marketing is about building relationships to get exposure for your practice in the communities you serve. By getting out into your community, you can connect with referral sources and find other marketing opportunities. You will get in front of people who don’t spend as much time online, while reinforcing your brand with people who do spend more time on their phones or computers.

If your local resources are limited or you are looking for a more advanced local outreach process, WebForDoctors can help. But, most of what we recommend in this article starts with and depends on your local team. The bulk of the work is literally in your community and your whole team can contribute in different ways during any downtime.

While some tasks can be done remotely, such as creating segmented lists of leads, the best way to connect with local leads is often an in-person visit. This isn’t a high-pressure sales call – instead, the first step is to simply introduce yourself. Before you even think about segmenting lists, the best place to start is with your neighbors.

Regardless of whether you outsource list development or do the research in-house, once you create your list you should share it with your employees. Often, you will find connections to organizations you have identified. You can even uncover additional organizations that didn’t make your initial list. Any time you can leverage personal connections with members of prospective organizations, it makes it easier to introduce your practice, and you will increase the odds of creating a relationship that pays dividends.

Examples of Community Marketing

Here are some simple and common examples of the types of relationships and activities that are a part of community marketing:

• connect with and support school nurses and other medical officials in your town
• connect with and provide resources to local parent/teacher organizations and other parent groups
• deliver posters or flyers to local hotels with messaging targeting the under-the-weather or injured traveler
• drop off flyers or posters to a variety of other segments – from gyms and yoga studios to places of worship and senior centers – or anywhere else in your community where people gather
• attend networking events where you can meet other professionals in your community

What Can You Get From Community Marketing?

Before entering into a new marketing program, you need to know how you will measure success. Here are some typical outcomes you can expect from a successful community marketing program:

• A collection of area businesses where you can hang posters or leave flyers
• A collection of referral partners who are likely to have the opportunity to make referrals
• Links from local websites – providing both direct value traffic and significant SEO value
• Opportunities to win occupational medicine business (if relevant)

If you already offer occ med services, this last point could turn out to be the most important. When your community marketing includes both urgent care and occ med services, the opportunities expand – often exponentially.

To learn more about community marketing, especially for practices that offer both urgent care and occ med, stay tuned for Part 2 of this series.