The Ultimate Marketing Checklist For Direct Primary Care

Go to dpcfrontier.com, click "Physician Login" at the top right, create your account, and follow the instructions on screen to create your mapper listing. Fill out as much information as possible.

This is a make-or-break skill to have as a DPC doc. Get your 30 second description of DPC down pat. Iterate on your language and pay attention to what different types of patients find compelling.

If a patient wants to learn more about DPC, direct them to DPC Nation. DPC Nation is a patient-centric DPC educational website.

You can directly provide Google information about your business, and they'll show a special business infobox on searches by people in your area. It's easy: go to business.google.com and fill out the form. You'll need a Google account.

You should create two profiles. This is important. One profile should be for your business ("Awesome DPC"), the other should be for you as a physician ("Alex Awesomepants, MD"). This way, Google will present good information to a potential patient regardless of whether they search for you or your practice.

Once you fill out the form, Google will send you a physical postcard with a verification code on it. They do this to ensure that you are a real business with a brick-and-mortar location that can receive mail. The postcard should arrive within 14 days.

• preventative health tips
• pithy comments about medically-related current events
• PSAs relating to common issues: tick bites, flu, etc
• interesting developments in the DPC world; your patients have a stake in DPC too

Chances are you have profiles on multiple major doctor review sites. Go claim your profiles and update your information! Your previous employer may have been managing these profiles on your behalf; if so, you'll need to contact them and ask them to unlock/unclaim your profile.

Pay attention to major sites like Yelp, Vitals, RateMDs, WebMD, and Healthgrades.

Make a list of ways to inform your community about your existence! Marketing is a numbers game; you've got to struggle along for a while before the seeds you've planted start to bear fruit. Don't be discouraged.

Be clever and strategic! Think about where lots of people go and are! Think about what you can do to curry goodwill with important figures or widely known people in the community! Winning over one super-social connector could provide you with a permanent source of interested patients. Think about subpopulations that stand to benefit in an outsized way from DPC: the elderly, the children of the elderly, athletic groups, worried moms, uninsured students, marginalized populations, struggling employers, health nuts, [fill in the blank]. Make a list of tight-knit communities where DPC could spread like wildfire: country clubs, rotaries, bingo/poker clubs. Think of free services you could provide to get people in the door or start a conversation: flu shots, cheap blood tests. Propose an interview to local talk radio stations. Ask your patients what convinced them to join - you’ll start hearing certain phrasing over and over again. Use that phrase in your marketing.

Printing out promotional materials is a great way to put information about your practice out into the world. You never know who will see a flyer you send home with a patient. If you meet with an interested potential patient, give them a card or a brochure - they'll be more likely to get back to you if they have a physical reminder of your conversation. Put up signs around your community, especially if you're doing an open house/Q&A or offering a pre-enrollment deal.

It's remarkably easy to design these things yourself once you have a good logo. Check out Canva—it's a slick online tool that lets you plug your logo and business information into a bunch of excellent pre-designed templates.

• Flyers/brochures: make it easy for your patients to advertise on your behalf.
• Business cards: make it easy for your patients to contact you; this is likely a huge factor in their decision to join a DPC practice
• Big posters: ask local businesses if you can put them up in the entryway. Also buy a sandwich board on Amazon here and put one on the sidewalk outside of your building
• Sign: get a big sign for the exterior of your building
• Envelopes and stationery

Put your cards/flyers at local gyms, day cares, YMCAs, universities, grocery stores, benefits consultants, and health establishments of any kind. Think about who in your community has the greatest need for DPC. Then try to figure out where those people go.

Check out BNI, local Meetups, the Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, 1 Million Cups, NFIB, and Facebook Groups for local business owners.

• Print: radio, billboard, and newspaper ads. The consensus is these are poor investments.
• Facebook: you can "boost" a post on your Page to get it in the timelines of people in your area. It's not very targeted; your mileage may vary. Some people have found success with boosting, but the best way to get patients from Facebook is to regularly post useful, interesting content and encourage all your patients to join.
• Google Ads: it's easier than ever for small businesses to advertise on Google. You have a lot of control; you can specify exactly which search queries you'd like to show up for.