20 Marketing Tips For Ayurvedic Doctors
Honestly, we, Ayurvedic doctors have to improve a lot in marketing aspect. You have a clinic, there is decent amount of patient in-flow. But you are failing to reach your monthly financial targets. Sounds familiar, try to incorporate these tips and excel.
A. DO NOT HESITATE or do not feel shy to adopt marketing strategies to improve patient flow to your clinic / hospital. Consider your hospital as a business. More the people you treat, more people will get healthy and more will be the benefit to the society. Do not feel shy to tell that yours is the best Ayurvedic centre in the city. Tell that and back that up with ultra awesome patient experience with best possible treatments and medicines.
If you are not advertising and marketing yourself and your clinic, your opponent, who has set up a new clinic in front of you, will be doing marketing and advertising. How are you going to compete with him? What are you going to counter his marketing efforts?
You may say that with your good treatments and with the blessings of God, people will eventually find you out. That may be true but that may take 2 – 3 years of time, minimum. What will you do to feed your family and pay your bills till such time?
Don’t worry much and start keeping at least 5,000 rupees per month aside for marketing and advertising and start following below-mentioned useful techniques.
As they say, God helps those who help themselves. So, help yourself first 🙂
B. Get your centre’s address enlisted along with email id and phone number in websites such as Practo.com, justdial.com etc
Now-a-days everyone searches in the internet for good doctors before going to the clinic. Usually, in google, practo and justdial search results with a lost of Ayurveda doctors show up ahead of other websites. Hence, it makes sense to get yourself enlisted in these two websites.
Another advantage with these two websites is, if you treat the patients really well and if they give good ratings, then your centre will be shown more frequently. This will help in improving your business further.
There are also advertising options with justdial. Try it for a month of two to know the conversion of patients. If it is yielding results, continue it with more budget.
List your clinic address as a business in google maps. Go to maps.google.com in the left top, there is menu, click on that, select “add a missing place” and add your clinic details with appointment phone number, working hours etc.
C. If you ever wish to have a website, keep it minimal and do not spend more than 20,000 rupees for the website. Your website engineer may offer more and more features. Most of those features are useless and pull out more money from your pocket.
If you ever have a website, make sure to display your email id and contact number of the hospital right at the top, with big font, clearly visible to all.
The purpose of the website is to show the patient how can she contact your hospital. She comes to the website, sees the phone number. Calls and books the appointment. Only then the purpose of your website will be met. That is the only purpose of your website. Nothing else. Do not get trapped into the website developing companies different features. They suck a lot of money without adding much value.
D. Naming your clinic –
Name your clinic with –
Your own name – Shalini’s Ayurveda care, Prashanth’s Ayurveda Center,
Your surname – Gaekwad’s Ayurveda and panchakarma Center, Chauhan’s Ayurved Clinic, Ali’s Ayurved Center, etc.
Somehow the name of the clinic should sound with the name of you, the owner of it. This will help patients to get connected to you better. Every time the patient takes the name of the centre, she will remember you. This adds to the brand value.
Avoid generic names such as Arogya Ayurveda Clinic, Swasthya Ayurveda Center, Athreya, Patanjali, Charak, Sushruta, Vagbhata, Kashyapa etc.
They are all already popular.
It is time for YOU to become popular 🙂
1. Keep a testimonials book in the reception. Let the patients write their testimonials in the book.
The testimonial, include a line – Can we use your statements in publishing media? If they tick YES, then you can use those testimonials in your future advertisements.
2. Make a pamphlet with one disease information and tips, your clinic information, contact details etc. Make sure to pick of one disease that you are really expert in. It can be in black and white pamphlet pamphlet. Circulate it along with local newspaper (news paper insert).
I think, they take around 5000 rupees per circulation. Run this pamphlet circulation campaign twice a month.
3. Advertising money: You need to keep a fixed amount of money to spend on advertisement. I would suggest, at least 5000 – 15000 rupees per month. Though you may feel it as a burden, it will surely be rewarding in coming weeks.
4. Contact local news papers and offer to write articles in them, regarding disease explanation, lifestyle tips, home remedies, etc. This will yield a lot of local traffic to your clinic. You can write about clinical success stories, home remedies, lifestyle advice, relationship etc.
5. Give your clinic address detail to me, along with your disease – expertise . Whenever I get a patient online query from your area, I will refer them to your clinic. (Dr Hebbar – email – hebbarjv@gmail.com)
6. Wherever possible, take a before-after photographs of the patients, with their permission to publish in future.
7. Make sure to have a very good banner for your clinic. It should be clearly visible from a long distance.
8. Contact local municipality authorities and negotiate to put your banners or direction banners in 3 -4 roads, near your clinic. For example: Way to My Ayurvedic Clinic – with an arrow mark.
9. Improve on English. Read some health magazines. Always find ways to improve your knowledge – Medical or other areas.
10. If you have your own manufactured products, such as hair oil, Cough syrup etc, then advertise those products with good photograph and a few lines description in the patient-waiting area. Waiting patients seeing them, might be interested in buying them.
11. Learn some commerce basics. If your total turnover is crossing 10 lakh per year, consult a Chartered Accountant immediately.
12. Identify local senior citizen group, nearby colleges, companies etc. and offer them to give free public speech. Make sure to go with your hospital banner and visiting cards.
13. You guessed it right, have a visiting card in the first place. Make sure to have your clinic phone number and email id in it.
14. Let us assume your clinic name is Prakruti Ayurvedic clinic. Let us assume you are talking about Arthritis management to a group of people.
While giving health talk, add sentences like – “In our Prakruti Ayurvedic clinic, we do special camps for arthritis. Next camp is on next Saturday.”
“Authentic Ayurvedic oil massage is very important to reduce arthritis pain and inflammation. In your Prakruti Ayurvedic Clinic, we offer special discount on oil massage packages”
So, use your clinic name at least for 4 – 5 times in a half an hour speech. Mention about, at least one or two of your services during your speech.
15. If you are just BAMS, you will be competing against many MD (Ayu) fellows. Hence, it is a good idea to do a post graduate diploma course and include that qualification after the BAMS. It adds value. IGNOU offers many such courses. One such is – Post Graduate Diploma In Hospital And Health Management – PDGHHM. You need to be an Ayurveda graduate with 3 year experience, for this. More details here
16. In your clinic, just behind your chair, on the wall, fix a book rack. Keep 8 – 10 good looking, fresh looking Ayurvedic and modern books that you use the most for quick reference. Let them be arranged very neatly, vertically. The names of the books should be visible to the patient.
This serves two purposes.
a. You can refer them quickly whenever needed.
b. It sends a silent message to the patient that you are an expert and studious Ayurveda doctor. It is just a small thing to improve your impression in the patient’s mind.
If you are wondering which book to keep in your rack, the choice is very easy. You can choose my book Living Easy With Ayurveda 😉
17. Using Quora
This is a long term plan to develop a brand. Try to answer 1 health query on quora per day. Do not self promote excessively. You may get banned if you do so.
18. Do not keep too niche expertise –
If you market yourself as gout expert or asthma expert, if such patients in your locality are less, your chances of getting more patients are dull.
19. Online marketing –
If your budget is minimum Rs 11,000 per month, we can help you with online marketing. Please write to me at
hebbarjv@gmail.com
I do not promise that we are a big expert in this. You can contact any local online ad company for this.
53 comments on “20 Marketing Tips For Ayurvedic Doctors”
Dr Shweta
Thanks Dr. It is very informative and practical. if anyone follows these guidelines properly at least for first year then surely they will get success in their practice.
habiba
thanks useul inormation.
Ranjana
Sir,Is this marketing necessary for Doctors,it should propagate through word of mouth,the marketing expenses will be on the patient head only,according to my personal opinion helath should not be linked with marketing/money,already allopathy is doing this in vast like business ,atleast ayurveda doctors be away from this marketing technologies.
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Try telling this to those Ayurvedic doctors who invest lakhs together of rupees in setting up a Panchakarma center, who are waiting for patients since years together.
Since 10 years, I am in this field of practice, marketing, product promotion etc. I worked my sweat out in promoting AVN Arogya Ayurvedic centers across Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Madurai and Ernakulam.
If some Ayurvedic management company agrees with you and depends on word-by-mouth only, let me tell you out of my experience. Such an Ayurveda center will go bankrupt and shut down within 2 years of time.
You may say that, if the doctor is very good, patient will come in search of him / her. If you are thinking in those lines, I am pretty sure you have do not have experience in this field.
It is pretty easy for the patient to think that Ayurvedic doctors should be saint-like, they should not sell Ayurveda, they should not make money etc.
But who will pay for bills and expenses?
Venkat
In my understanding, Doctor, you are giving away so much of knowledge and wisdom for free through your blogs and magazine articles, while you sell for a charge, only your products (such as books, eBooks, affiliate medicines etc.,) and services (email consulting etc.,) .
When a business is founded on traditional wisdom or body of knowledge nurtured by sages and several wise men, it is not ethical to sell their knowledge and make a gain out of it. However, it is fine for us to create products/services out of such ancient wisdom and make a business out of it.
I agree with you, Doctor on the point that without systematic marketing, it is impossible to reach the value to lots of people and keep growing (scaling to millions of users is, I am sure, the basic and perhaps the only true mission of any business).
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Well said sir. 🙂
Simha
Why blame allopathic doctors when health is sold s commodity in every stream of science. It is unwanted surgeries and procedures in allopathy and here it is pushing expensive panchakarma therapies for patients. Choosing a profession is by choice and no one has forced. There are many good doctors in all streams of medicines who making their living through mouth referrals.
Dr. Shubhanm Puri MS ( ayu)
Nice information and suggestions. Marketing skills are essential to be successful Ayurveda Doctor. New era is for Ayurveda. Every one is seeking Ayurvedic guide for health and beauty. Best of Luck to all new age Ayurved Doctors. One suggestion from me. Try to make good relationships with local Allopath Orthopadacians. They will refer you many patients related to spine, disc disorders. We can help pt. To avoide surgery. Ksharsutra for fistula in ano is better and successful management than Modern surgery *fistulectomy and *fistulotomy. Jalaokakarm ( Hirudotherapy) is popular worldwide. Respect Ayurveda with other pathy and never say bad about other pathy but Praise Ayurveda always. Be confident and dress properly. Soon success name and fame will come and most important.”you will get many blessings
“
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Many many thanks for valuable inputs Dr.
Dr.Krishna Kishore Alisetty, M.D(Ayurveda)
very good article from an experienced and practical person. i really appreciate your views in promoting ayurveda. Let me say this article is intended to earn bread and butter for the person and to his family who practice Ayurveda and NOT for the saints/ rushis.
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Well said sir 🙂
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Wish you all the best Dr Agasthiya. Please send your full contact details and clinic address to my email id – hebbarjv@gmail.com
Dr Swapnil Rthi
Hello Sir
Thnks for giving such a valuable information and guidance.It will help be a boost up for new ayu practitioner.
Dr. Fasna Nissam
this is very useful information.thank you doctor
Dr Malini Bhat
You are welcome madam.
dr.vineetha manoj
I agree with you sir.nwadays marketing plays an important role.every ayu physician has studied the same thing but we should present us in different way.there lies succeess.
Dr.Anoosha
Thank u so much doctor..started a new clinic at Gokulam, Mysore.concentrating mainly on asthma allergy, migraine,obesity and diabetes..
We have our own products for the same..we assure 100% results too
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
All the best Dr Anoosha 🙂
Gopakumar Nair
Superb post Dr. Hebbar, its very useful. Even I have started an Ayurvedic Wellness Center 1 year before. I am not a doctor, but found that without publicity, nothing works and definitely would have to shut down the center. If people are doing heavy publicity for the dangerous chemicals, why shouldn’t we promote Ayurveda which is completely natural and cures people from root. Moreover, Ayurveda is our country’s rich heritage…So lets take Ayurveda to the next level. All the best to all my dear fellow Doctors and founders..
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Very try Mr Gopakumar Nair.
In this very crowded competitive world, if you do not make enough noise, nobody would care for you.
It is that hesitation, that lack of self confidence to proudly market your clinic – that kills most of the Ayurveda centers.
All the best with your venture! 🙂
Dr. Staicy Pankaj
Thanks Doctor,
I really lack in marketing. Skills in treatmental fields are only not sufficient these days.
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Dear Dr Staicy, There is no perfect master in marketing. We have to start trying few things and then improvise.
Few things that are important –
1. experimental and curious attitude
2. Courage to try something new, in which we are not experts.
3. Allocating money and dedicating some time, on monthly basis.
Dr M R Ajay
Makes a lot of sense sir. You have very well understood the mental makeup of our doctors and given excellent directions. Thanks
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Welcome 🙂
Dr G Yasodhara
Really useful info.more useful to beginners.
Dr prashant saxena
Wonderful strategy .this will work certainly
Dr.Chanchal Malhotra
Useful marketing tips.annd also need of time .
dr namrata
V useful tips doc Saab….I m gonna start my clinic v shortly…N will try to follow above…Thanks
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
All the best Dr Namrata. 🙂
Dr. sangita shrivastava
it vl be very useful in our practice.its not a marketing its all about presentation of our knowledge. infront of society.news paper pamphplate..all are media to reach in people’s mind.
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Absolutely! 🙂
dr Augustine Jose Gama
well said sir
Dr G Yasodhara MD
useful information .
Shifa
I have just started a clinic. I think these tips will be very useful to me.Thank you doctor. .
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
All the best Dr Shifa. If you provide your clinic address with consultation booking phone number, I will try to refer cases whenever possible.
Rajesh
A retiree graduate doctor from Govt Ayurveda deptt wants to set up clinic. Is it feasible he goes for p g diploma from IGNOU? Are there any such online courses? Moreover what general medicines required (with minimum budget because in rural-semi urban areas people are not inclined to pay fee to ayurveda doctors) to start an ayurvedic clinic for dispensing?
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Hi,
PG Diploma of IGNOU may not be directly useful in Ayurveda practice. It is a distance learning program.
Simple medicines like Kamadugha ras, Kutaja ghanavati, Sudarshana churna, amritarishta etc can be useful.
Chandan Ravva
Very well detailed.. systematic anf logistic, informative..
Thanks
Dr. Sonia
Thanx for the valuable information sir
sathiajith
very well said dr J V Hebbar. Thank u
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Welcome 🙂
rekha
Thanks a lot dr…really helpful tips..
Dr.Merlin Dora
Thank you Dr for the valuable information.I am going to start a clinic very shortly
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Best wishes!
RAJESH KRISHNAN
DR, THANKS FOR YOUR VITAL INFORMATION. ITS A MORAL BOOST FOR ALL AYURVEDIC DOCTORS.
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Welcome!
All the best 🙂
dr kajal
Thankyou so much for this valuable information sir. i stumbled upon this article at the right time. i am going to start my clinic soon. And thankyou so much for your advice.
Dr.Pooja R Chavda
Thank u so much for vulnerable information.. Some points are so great for practice..
Dr. Sri Jyothsna
Thanq very much sir for valuable information..Iam Dr. Sri Jyothsna from Ravi Ayurveda Hospital,Tirupati..we started clinic recently..tips you told will be definitely useful for our practice
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
All he best Dr Sri Jyothsna
Dr Namita
Very Informative, Clear, Targeted and practical approach suggested by you. Thanks. Dr Namita, Nasik, Maharashtra
Dr. Sudha
Very Good information for startups sir, Thank you soo much sir🙏🙏
Dr J V Hebbar MD(Ayu)
Welcome 🙂