Programme overview
Introduction:
Healthcare marketing in many hospitals and clinics still means untargeted advertising, while patients choose providers through referring doctors, insurers, employers, search results and online reviews. Marketing budgets are spread across every department, referring physicians receive no structured contact and campaigns report impressions rather than new patients. This Core Concept course equips hospital and clinic marketing, business development and patient relations teams to segment patient demand, position service lines, build referral and payer relationships, run provider digital marketing within ethical limits and measure patient acquisition. Participants produce a Service-Line Marketing and Referral Growth Plan.
Course Objectives:
- Explain how healthcare services marketing differs from product marketing and apply the extended services marketing mix to a hospital or clinic service
- Segment patient demand and map the patient decision journey from symptom search to booked appointment for a chosen service line
- Build a physician referral development programme with referrer targeting, liaison visit routines and referral tracking
- Prepare marketing and account plans for corporate clients, insurers, employers and international patient facilitators
- Run provider digital marketing across website, local search listings, social media, health content and online review responses within ethical and privacy limits
- Measure campaign and referral performance with patient acquisition cost, conversion and return on marketing investment
Target Audience:
- Marketing and communications staff who plan campaigns, content and brand activity for hospitals, clinics and medical centres
- Business development staff who manage corporate, insurer and employer accounts for healthcare providers
- Physician liaison and referral coordination staff who visit referring doctors and track referral volumes
- Patient relations and contact centre staff who handle enquiries, bookings, reviews and patient feedback
- Service-line coordinators who promote specialty clinics and centres of excellence
- International patient office staff who respond to overseas enquiries and coordinate facilitator relationships
Course Outline:
Day 1: Healthcare Services Marketing Foundations and the Patient Decision Journey
- Intangibility, Trust and Information Asymmetry in Healthcare Services Marketing
- Health Marketing 4Ps Applied to Clinical Services, Access, Promotion and Patient Cost
- Patient Decision Journey Map: Symptom Search, Referral, Provider Choice and Booking
- Influencers on Provider Choice: Referring Doctors, Payers, Family and Online Ratings
- Provider Marketing Current-State Audit Template
Day 2: Segmentation, Service-Line Positioning and Brand Reputation
- Patient Segmentation by Need State, Payer Type, Life Stage and Geography
- Extended Services Marketing Mix: People, Process and Physical Evidence in Clinics
- Service-Line Positioning Statement and Competitor Perception Map
- Hospital Brand Architecture: Master Brand, Specialty Centres and Physician Brands
- Reputation Management Plan: Media Relations, Review Monitoring and Issue Response
Day 3: Referral Development, Payer and Employer Contracts and International Patients
- Referring Physician Targeting Matrix: Volume, Specialty Fit and Loyalty
- Physician Liaison Visit Plan, Referral Kit and Relationship CRM Log
- Corporate and Employer Health Account Plan with Screening and Occupational Packages
- Insurer and Third-Party Payer Network Proposal and Tariff Negotiation Brief
- International Patient Programme Overview: Facilitators, Coordinators and Care Packages
Day 4: Provider Digital Marketing, Patient Experience and Ethical Limits
- Hospital Website Service Pages, Doctor Profiles and Online Booking Conversion
- Local Search Listings, Map Profiles and Online Review Response Protocol
- Social Media and Health Content Calendar with Medical Review Sign-Off
- Patient Experience as Marketing: Testimonials Policy, Word of Mouth and Referral Loyalty
- Health Advertising Ethics Checklist: Claims, Before-and-After Images, Consent and Patient Privacy
Day 5: Campaign Measurement and the Service-Line Marketing and Referral Growth Plan
- Patient Acquisition Funnel Dashboard: Enquiries, Bookings, Arrivals and Cost per Patient
- Return on Marketing Investment Calculation for a Service-Line Campaign
- Case Study: Orthopaedic Service Line Growing Referrals from Primary Care Doctors
- Case Study: Outpatient Clinic Recovering from Negative Online Reviews
- Service-Line Marketing and Referral Growth Plan Presentation and Peer Critique
Skills You Will Gain:
- Healthcare Services Positioning
- Patient Demand Segmentation
- Physician Relationship Marketing
- Payer and Corporate Account Planning
- Local Search and Review Management
- Health Content Governance
- Ethical Health Advertising Review
- Patient Acquisition Measurement
Why Attend This Course:
- Return with a Service-Line Marketing and Referral Growth Plan with targets, channels, referrer lists and a budget case
- Turn referring doctors, insurers and employers into planned sources of patient volume rather than chance contacts
- Check campaigns, testimonials and social posts against ethical and privacy limits before they are published
- Compare provider marketing practice with peers from private hospitals, clinic groups, diagnostic centres and specialty centres
Conclusion:
Patients rarely choose a hospital or clinic from an advertisement alone; they follow a referring doctor, a payer network, a search result, a review or a relative's experience. The course moves from what makes healthcare services marketing different and the patient decision journey, through segmentation, service-line positioning and reputation, to referral development, payer and employer accounts and international patients, then provider digital marketing and ethical limits. The final day measures patient acquisition and produces a Service-Line Marketing and Referral Growth Plan.