If you practice the art of writing letters back to referral sources, such as GPs, have you ever wondered if they are successful in getting your message across? Are they being read? Recently I engaged in research regarding ‘What GPs Want’ and discovered some food for thought that has definitely changed my approach to marketing to GPs.

It's the time of year when a small gesture of thanks to your referrers for their support during the year can be very much appreciated. If you are looking for a suitable gift for your referrers and need inspiration, we have put together some ideas for you...

While advertising and marketing communications help build brands and position programs, it is doctor recommendations that still have a large influence on referrals. Great practices are built around systems that foster client retention, build expert status and generate referrals. From an allied health perspective, we have two levels of ‘customers’ – our clients, and our referrers. How can we effectively manage these?

Whilst we need to take an individual approach to how we market our own services and also how our local general practitioners might prefer our marketing materials, I thought I would share with you some ideas on how you might engage with your current referrers, or start to form relationships with potential referrers to your practice. These ideas are based on my own experience, but also on the recent research I have engaged in, that looks into how allied health practitioners market themselves and communicate to GPs.

Traditionally, one of the common ways to market an allied health practice was to send a letter to your referrers introducing yourself, sending your business cards, and printing brochures to drop off to referrers.  Although there are lots of mention in health care marketing literature that brochures are a good way to market, there is minimal actual evidence that tells us which ones work and what the return of investment is.