Today's health care consumers (and their physicians) want to do business with imaging centers offering the best possible service. How effectively a center can communicate to prospective customers its ability to satisfy their expectations of superior image quality, speed, comfort, and convenience often spells the difference between success and failure. Imaging centers can enhance their marketing efforts using 10 core strategies.

1. Emphasize your strengths . In all of your marketing materials, list, as bulleted points, the reasons that physicians should send their patients to you. If you can provide same-day studies, say so. Stress your ability to offer the shortest time on the imaging table or the easiest, most comfortable accommodation of special-needs patients. List rapid delivery of images and reports as well as the credentials and subspecialty training of the radiologists and support staff.

Jim Stuppino, president and CEO of Vision Imaging, Leesport, Pa, has built an entire marketing strategy around the technological prowess of his 6,000-sq-ft center. In 2004, his was the first US outpatient imaging center to begin offering whole-body angiography, breast imaging, and whole-spine screening using the new MAGNETOM Avanto 1.5 T MRI with Total imaging matrix ™ (Tim) technology from Siemens. "This is a system that can acquire seamless whole-body images of up to 2 meters without patient repositioning and changing coils," Stuppino says, a certified MRI technologist and a well known lecturer on the modality; he adds, "We have been able to cut scanning time by 50% to 75% on all scans without compromising image quality. For example, we can perform, in just 20 minutes, a whole-body angiogram."

2. Remember that face-to-face encounters with referral decision makers may be the most powerful way to convey your center's story. Wake Radiology, Raleigh, NC, maintains a marketing department that concentrates on this kind of contact. An important feature of this marketing department is a staff that includes radiology technologists who are especially adept at discussing imaging needs and requirements from the clinical perspective. Robert E. Schaaf, MD, is managing partner of the group, which consists of 48 imaging radiologists and 2 radiation oncologists. He explains, "Our team visits referring physicians' offices to educate the physicians, nurses, secretaries, and administrators with regard to new technologies and procedures. Among other things, they explain how to order the services, what to expect from the results, and how to make sure that the patient is properly prepared for the test. The team also lists for them those tests that have become outmoded and no longer are being performed."

The Wake Radiology team's visits afford, as well, an opportunity to address complaints from offices that already are referring patients to the group. This helps maintain a high level of customer satisfaction, Schaaf reports.

A useful way of meeting prospective referral sources is simply to bring lunch to their offices, Stuppino notes. The individuals making the lunch visit must first call the target office for permission to schedule a lunch meeting, as unannounced arrivals are usually unwelcome. They must also be sure to bring a quantity and variety of food sufficient for the entire staff (and more appealing than their usual fare).

3. Do more than tell referral sources what you can offer. When meeting with physicians, show them actual images produced at the facility. "Seeing is believing, and a picture is worth 1,000 words," Stuppino says. Of course, all patient identification must be removed from the images before they are used for this purpose.

4. Tailor your message to the recipient . If you are meeting with an oncologist,  bring sample images showing cancer cases, and speak to your overarching capabilities. "There really are no unique statements that work on one specialty and not another," Stuppino says. "Quality is quality, and that translates well, no matter which specialty's language you are speaking."

5. Collect testimonials from patients . These can be used in brochures, on billboards, in radio commercials, and as part of advertising of all kinds. "The effect on prospective patients is very potent when they hear positive comments about your services from actual people who have used them," Stuppino says. "You want yours to be the brand that the patients ask for when they see their physicians, and that is what testimonials can cause to happen."

Testimonials can be solicited, although Stuppino believes that those volunteered by satisfied patients are more compelling because of the depth of feeling or strength of opinion that prompted them in the first place.

6. Point out the extent of your payor relationships . The first thing that physicians' office staff may ask is which types of insurance you accept? The ideal answer, naturally, is that your center is an in-network provider for all payors, but that is unlikely. Therefore, you should spell out how it works with referred patients for whom the center is an out-of-network provider. Emphasize the center's willingness to accommodate these patients and to keep their copayment levels reasonable, Stuppino advises.

7. Use the Internet to disseminate your story . More and more consumers are turning to the Internet for information about health care providers, as well as about the procedures that their physicians order. Consumers can influence the referral patterns of their physicians in your favor if you have set up a Web site that introduces patients to the facility.

Your Web site should feature information about the facility, staff, hours, location, and other pertinent details. It also should be an interactive tool that allows patients to check the availability of appointment times and register to access certain services or receive special information, Stuppino reports.

8. Draw on vendor resources . Equipment manufacturers may have materials available for use in promoting your center. Stuppino, for example, tapped into the wealth of marketing tools developed by his vendor, including customized press releases, photography, and brochures as well as radio and television scripts.

9. Use signs effectively . Lighted marquee and pylon signs on the street-facing side of the facility will catch the attention of passing motorists and pedestrians. What the signs say can be just as important as how visually appealing they are. Some facilities' main sign consists solely of the business name followed by (or otherwise incorporating) the word imaging to indicate to the public the type of activity conducted. Other facilities include on their signs a bulleted list of the actual services offered, such as open MRI or diagnostic and interventional radiology. Stuppino's preference is to splash the facility's name across the sign and, just below that, to add a company slogan that weaves in a reference to the primary service line (for example, XYZ Imaging: Tomorrow's MRI for Today's Patient Needs).

Do not forget to deploy ample directional signs in your parking lots, lobbies, plazas, and hallways so that patients can easily navigate the facility. "Nothing spoils an otherwise satisfactory experience for the patient like getting lost trying to find the entrances to your parking lot and building," Stuppino says.

10. Measure the effectiveness of your marketing . Know whether the dollars that you invest in the various forms of marketing are paying back dividends or going to waste. Armed with that kind of information, you can better allocate marketing capital, concentrating on those things that work and deleting or revising the rest.

A basic measurement technique involves asking each new patient how he or she learned of the facility and why it was chosen over other imaging centers. Most will indicate that it was chosen at the direction of the referring physician, so that clinician's name should be recorded. At Vision Imaging, these questions are posed on a form that patients can fill out in the waiting room. If they prefer completing the form at home, the center provides a postage-paid envelope. Stuppino says that 99% of patients take the time to answer the questions.

Rich Smith is a contributing writer for Decisions in Imaging Economics.