What is an Orthopedic Merger?
An orthopedic merger is simply a type of medical merger, which by definition is the absorption of one practice into another. The primary practice, or the one that will acquire the existing clinic or location, generally will brand the acquisition with its own name, logo, and messaging. From a marketing standpoint, and really a patient-facing standpoint, the primary practice is just gaining a new location. Examples of (albeit large-scale) healthcare system merges include Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health or the acquisition of Geisinger Health by Kaiser Permanente.
To existing customers of the outgoing practice, there needs to be a clear transition to prevent confusion, and for local search and online visibility, it pays to follow some simple best practices in order to ensure search engines like Google and Bing, as well as maps, such as Google or Apple Maps, are clear about any name, address, or location changes.
While the following steps can apply to most types of medical practices, here at today’s business we work with a number of Orthopedic, Physical Therapy, Sports Medicine, and surgery centers. These types of practices overlap, as do their services. We can use our background in working with orthopedic surgeons and providers to break down the steps you’ll need to follow as you transition your new location(s) into your practice.
What to do Before the Merger?
The most important thing you can do is give yourself enough time to correctly plan your merger. Sometimes, the larger your organization, the more work it can take as key pieces of information may take time to track down. A basic list of what you need generally includes:
Website login information for the incoming practice.
We’ll assume that either you or your brand or marketing agency will have access to your website, but we also want access to the incoming site of your acquisition. For example, if you are taking over a practice, and they have a WordPress website, we like to request login credentials. As these can sometimes take a while to hunt down, it’s best to try and get them as soon as possible.
Access to the ‘DNS’
Not to get overly technical, but if you simply ask a tech or IT person on their end for access to their DNS, this can be helpful when it comes time to do a redirect or switch hosting of the old site (which won’t shut down overnight.) Often, the person who has login credentials will also have this information as well.
Access to Google Business Profiles
Local search is important for both service-based businesses, like plumbers or restaurants, but surprisingly, for healthcare as well. As people will often search for ‘the best back surgeon +their location’ or ‘physical therapist near me’, organic search is just as important as a website. This is where Google Business Profiles come into play. Often, profiles come with a fair amount of reviews, exist for each location of practice, and exist for each doctor or nurse practitioner. It is important to access these profiles as it can be difficult to prove you own them later on down the road once the merger has already happened and time has passed.
As a bonus, search engine specialists will be able to transition your profile just like they transition your website, updating the brand name, hours, and eventually photos, and even create GBP posts to help let people know what is going on with the profile. Other directories can start picking up on the changes as well, following Google’s lead, ensuring that everyone searching for either your new location (or the old practice) will run across the appropriate profile.
Access to Google Analytics, ‘Tag Manager’, Search Console, and social profiles
By now, it might seem like we are being a little invasive, asking for access to social media and other types of what might once have been private data. But in order to make realistic goals on how much online traffic to expect and have an understanding of which services pages to focus on first, we need to go to the source. This tends to be Google Analytics, as it should be connected to most websites. A bonus if Search Console is too. Meanwhile, Tag Manager is another Google tool that can help us learn about how the previous practice utilized tracking and let us continue to improve on those old metrics even after you obtain the prior brand.
For social media, our expert Social team at Today’s Business can work to coordinate an appropriate transition, sending signals on both sides that a new location is incoming, and on the flip side, the acquired practice will be undergoing some exciting changes!
Questions to ask the Incoming Practice
Before your medical brand acquires the new practice in full, there will be a negotiation period on what will become property of the new owner. Surprisingly, a few things in the digital realm may not be up for grabs. This can include:
- Media, such as videos and photos
- Blogs and website copy
- Slogans or taglines
It makes sense to discuss if the incoming brand will grant access to these, as even though you’ll be taking over the website, the photos may have old logos, or the providers in the videos may not be coming with the merge.
Finally, you should find out about ads. Is the old practice running ads? If so, it might be worth it to discuss whether an ad account will need to be transitioned, when the ad campaign might be ending, and make sure your practice is not on the hook for any residual PPC fees.
What to do After a Merge?
After the merge happens, you will be in a transitional phase. While certain elements of this period may be fairly obvious to you, unless you are highly invested in digital marketing, it might be easy to miss the expected. You will have new pages on your primary practice site dedicated to the old locations. You may have taken on new providers, so those pages will now be showing on your site. You should be able to ‘Google’ the address of the old practice, or even search for it by name, and an updated profile should pop up. Additionally, if you visit the old website, we may have taken over the hosting of it and will leave it up for a period, setting up a redirect from pages on the old website to ones that are the best fit on the new website.
With a trusted digital marketing team, you can expect online communications directed to your patients, like email marketing (if that is a powerful source of outreach for your practice or the previous one), or social media messaging, GBP posts, and website news or blogs. Often overlooked things, such as forms that may go to new personnel or offices, should be tested and confirmed, and any CRM merges, or new tracking, will happen during this period.
While there are quite a few anticipated steps that you can expect, it is important to go into a merger knowing that each practice is unique and has specific ways in how it operates. It may not always be a one-size-fits-all solution, and an experienced marketing and branding agency like Today’s Business recognizes that as we navigate through your transition together. (In fact, ‘together’ is our motto!) Keep in mind, we don’t walk away here. It’s only the beginning because next, it’s about growth, return on investment, and making informed decisions to take your practice to new heights.
Next Steps in Upcoming Months
You may already have a marketing or communications team in place. In some cases, they might exclusively handle managing SMS marketing, your reviews strategy, email marketing, or more traditional marketing. With the merger out of the way, Today’s Business will have learned about your brand, your goals, and what makes you unique from other practices. Now we can work to bring you hand-tailored reporting, identify gaps in what’s working (or what’s not), bring content to your site, optimize for organic search, partner with you to run ads when you’re ready for a campaign, and help you overtake competing practices.
Are you Planning a Medical Merger?
If you’re planning an upcoming healthcare merger, the best place to start is with a consultation with a leading medical marketing company like Today’s Business. You can get started here today by using our easy consultation wizard, or reach out to us traditionally, at info@tbsmo.com