Ambulatory Surgery Center Marketing Ideas – Reach More Patients

Are you struggling to reach new patients at your ambulatory surgery center (ASC) and stumped when it comes to marketing ideas? With the right ambulatory surgery center marketing strategy, you can acquire a steady flow of patients while providing high-quality care that keeps them coming back.

When you wrote your business plan, you likely listed a few marketing avenues, but you may need to add more and take full advantage of modern technology when it comes to SEO and website optimization. The right marketing campaign should allow your surgical services to flourish so you can focus on providing exceptional patient care while your emails, newsletters, and ads continue pulling in revenue for your healthcare facility. 

At Weave, we provide comprehensive Medical Software that helps medical practices streamline operations so they can attract more patients through email campaigns, paid ad campaigns, and more. Learn the top ways you can reach more patients at your ambulatory surgical center with these marketing ideas.

Digital Marketing Ideas for Ambulatory Surgery Centers

Digital marketing allows you to scale your efforts to reach the right audience. After the initial campaign setup, you can allow the global strategic marketing campaigns to work for you, pulling in patients and boosting brand awareness.

Website Optimization

Patients, partners, and physicians turn to your practice’s website to evaluate your credibility. According to research by The Stanford Persuasive Tech Lab, you can build your website’s credibility by ensuring that you have the following:

• Accurate information regarding business hours, addresses, and details on outpatient procedures
• A solid organizational structure that works well on mobile devices
• An “about us” section highlighting your healthcare provider expertise
• Physician or surgeon bios showing that real humans operate the site
• Easy contact information, including convenient forms
• A professional UX design structure for intuitive flow
• Frequent content reviews and updates
• Minimal ads or pop-up items
• No errors, grammatical mistakes, or broken links

The above list may sound intimidating. You can begin working through it by starting with the lowest-hanging fruit, like obvious errors. 

Next, think about the top items a potential patient needs to know before scheduling something like spine surgery. They will likely care to see that your facility has qualified professionals, excellent reviews, and a credible brand. 

Your contact or scheduling information should be simple and clear. With Weave, you can integrate Online Scheduling directly on your website so patients can make appointments without needing to call. 

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) increases your website’s visibility so more patients can discover your healthcare facility. When you master SEO, you can rank at the top of search results for queries like “outpatient surgery centers in New York City.” 

SEO involves over 200 complex factors that can take years to master. To start, we recommend optimizing your website using the following tactics:

• Research keywords relevant to health care and your surgical procedures
• Integrate keywords into your web content
• Avoid over-stuffing your content with keywords
• Use appropriate HTML structures
• Create useful navigational paths with internal links
• Ensure that your website works well on mobile devices
• Optimize page speeds
• Regularly publish high-quality content
• Request backlinks from reputable sources
• Remove errors, like broken links and duplicate pages
• Add alternative text to all images

Online Ads (PPC)

SEO can take around three to six months to yield results, assuming you have a team of marketers working around the clock. If you want to speed up the process, you can create paid ads that allow you to immediately rank high for target keywords. Paid advertising surfaces your ambulatory surgery center above other practices to boost your web traffic, credibility, and scheduling rates.

You can create paid ads on search engines, like Google, or social media channels, like Facebook. Consider where your patients may search and when they may be at their highest likelihood of scheduling a procedure. 

Reviews

Before a prospective client chooses your practice, they’re likely going to consider your patient satisfaction rates, trustworthiness, and ability to ensure patient safety. To evaluate these concerns, many patients will look at your online reviews. Online reviews affect not only patient opinions but also search engine rankings. 

Urging patients to leave positive reviews while trying to mediate any poor reviews can feel like an overwhelming task when you’re already attempting to juggle everything discussed thus far. Unless you have a marketing manager, reputation governance is likely out of reach. With Weave’s Review Management tool, you can automatically collect reviews from patients and respond to feedback to boost your brand’s reputation and search engine rankings. 

Local Business Listings

Local business listings surface your ambulatory surgery center across digital directories, like Google Business Profile, Yelp, YellowPages.com, and more. When you create a local business listing, patients will be able to find all of your facility’s need-to-know information in one spot, like your hours, phone number, and average ratings. 

You can create local business listings for free to improve accessibility and brand awareness, making it easier for potential patients to find out about your center and contact you if they’re interested. You may already have listings that you don’t know about. If so, ensure that your clinic’s contact details are accurate.

Social Media Campaigns

Social media is an integral part of any business development marketing plan. While an Instagram Reel may not immediately convince someone to schedule a procedure, it can increase your brand’s visibility, awareness, and credibility. When you build your brand’s social media presence, more patients will recognize your name and feel more confident choosing you when they need a reputable healthcare professional.

Building your social media presence takes time. We recommend choosing two to three platforms to focus on so you don’t spread your efforts too thin. Next, spend time posting high-quality content, interacting with your audience, and publishing posts regularly. 

Email and Newsletter Campaigns

Email marketing allows you to communicate with patients on a platform they check regularly. Email and newsletter campaigns can improve scheduling rates while boosting brand recognition. Here are a few ideas for email campaigns you could send out:

• Pain management tips for post-op patients
• A link to a press release about a new partnership you’re entering
• Upcoming Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) events
• Information on available Medicaid services

Anyone who visits your website can subscribe to emails to learn more about your practice. Your existing patients can also receive promotional emails to stay in the loop. At Weave, we offer an Email Marketing tool that automates campaigns so you can easily send highly personalized messages that reach more patients.

Patient Marketing Ideas for Ambulatory Surgery Centers

Sometimes, your patients can be your most powerful marketing tool. Learn how to maximize word-of-mouth marketing with these top three client-led marketing ideas. 

Referral Programs

Consider asking your patients to refer friends or family members who may need surgical procedures. You can create referral programs that incentivize patients with discounted services, free items, and more. For example, you could give patients a coupon for post-op physical therapy appointments when they refer their friend. 

Practice Referral Requests

One of your biggest sources of consistent patients is physician referrals. When another practice recommends your surgery center to its patients, you can receive new clients with minimal effort. 

We recommend reaching out to practices in your area directly to ask if they can recommend your surgery center or if they’d like to partner. In a partnership, the other practice may earn a percentage of your profit when referring a client. After landing a referral or partnership, you can gain a consistent flow of patients from that office. 

Post-Visit Surveys

Post-visit surveys are a great way to collect feedback while it’s still fresh on the patient’s mind. You can even use the feedback as marketing content in testimonials or reviews, assuming you receive consent. 

You may also use surveys to improve how your surgery center operates. By boosting the client experience, you can naturally raise retention levels.

Traditional Marketing Ideas for Ambulatory Surgery Centers

While internet marketing and word-of-mouth efforts may help you reach younger audiences and local groups, they won’t cover all your bases. Traditional marketing ideas help expand your brand awareness in the community. 

Radio Ads

While younger audiences may spend their morning commutes listening to podcasts on social media, 82% of people still listen to the radio. Radio ads can help more people recognize your brand’s name so they know who to choose next time they need surgery. Be sure to weigh out the costs and potential gains of radio advertising before creating your campaign. 

Billboards

Billboard advertising helps boost your brand’s exposure. More people in town will recognize your name, so they may be more likely to choose you when they need to select a surgeon for their next operation. The key things you need to consider with billboard ads include the following:

• Cost
• Location
• Size
• Design
• Duration

Something simple, like your brand’s logo, can go a long way. Avoid overly salesy designs, as such techniques may defer patients and reduce your practice’s credibility. As with radio ads, be sure to consider the associated costs before creating the billboard, as you may not see immediate returns. 

Local Event Sponsorships

Sponsoring a local event can help more people in the area learn about who you are. An event sponsorship shows that you care about your local community and want to give back. You can try sponsoring local sporting events, charity runs, live music gatherings, festivals, and more. 

Other Marketing Ideas for Ambulatory Surgery Centers

If you want to think outside the box with your marketing strategy, we’ve got you covered. Consider trying one of the following unique marketing ideas below for your practice:

Partner With Local Businesses

Partnering with local businesses can greatly increase your exposure, helping you pull in consistent streams of patients. You can partner with practices in your area who may refer patients to your surgery center, though the ideas don’t end here. 

For example, you might work with local hospitals that send patients your way after discharging them in non-emergent scenarios. You could also work with physical therapy centers in your area that could recommend your services to patients in need. In return, you can send your post-op patients to their facility. 

Provide Educational Resources to the Community or Online

When you provide educational resources, you’re proving your authority on the subject. People want to know that you’re an expert in your field. Whether handing out pamphlets on various procedures or posting in-depth blogs on spinal surgery, the content you provide can boost your authority, brand awareness, and, ultimately, appointment scheduling rates.

At Weave, we help medical facilities expand their practices with our comprehensive platform designed to combine your internal system with your outward-facing experiences. Our Medical Software allows you to streamline everything from payment collections and patient scheduling to review management, email campaigns, and provider texting. Schedule a demo to see Weave in action today, or call us at 833-572-2139 with any questions.