Defining your niche market based on current company capacity and ability to expand, skills inventory of your transcriptionists and editors and technological adaptability is just half of your marketing plan. The other half is marketing your strengths and distinct advantage over the large market of transcription providers.
But before discussing this, let’s see what are we up against in the outsourcing arena. The first is a continued biased perception to outsourcing, second is an existing protectionism attitude and lastly is the requirement for a track record or client list.
The continued bias for outsourcing is slowly being hurdled by the Philippines through its continued excellence in providing quality work and customer support. This perception issue is part of their protectionism attitude and thinking that work being outsourced can never come into par with work done in the US though continued efforts in improving our English proficiency is slowly transcending this thinking. Requirements for track record or client list is generally required for larger accounts and initially you can go into mutually beneficial partnership with larger and more established MT companies or start building your own track record by getting individual doctors from referrals.
Now in marketing your service, it is important to create self-differentiation, to offer uniqueness in the service you offer. The more common vantage points being emphasized in marketing efforts are quality of work, efficiency in turn around, cost effectiveness, work type specialization, ASP transcription and record management platform, and HIPAA compliance. Often self-differentiation starts from the very name the company markets. This will play a large role as potential clients search through the web using key words that they feel they want for the service that they expect. Part of your marketing requirements would be an informative website that contains basic information of the service you are providing. Providing a unique profile would ultimately define your distinct advantage with the other providers. A good website also allows prospective clients to send a file or two to you for actual testing and a comprehensive contact information on how the clients can get in touch with you. Remember that whenever you place a phone number make sure somebody answers the phone and not some recorded voicemail which is not appreciated by clients. Then advertise your website on other related sites where potential clients usually browse through. These are normally medical association official websites, medical organizations, etc. Subscribe to search engines like Yahoo, MSN and Google to increase webpage hits through related searches. Having covered your online presence, you also need to develop other marketing paraphernalia such as brochures and leaflets as well as audiovisual presentations and promotional materials to hand out during your marketing runs on conventions, seminars or related functions where potential clients attend which essentially mean foreign marketing trips to the US. These can also be sent directly to potential clients that you generated either through personal referrals or cold leads that you want to pursue.
Now having all these peripherals ready the first objective is to be able to present your service and establish a relationship with a potential client. Try to gauge the type of service they need and what is important to them. Remember not all clients are looking for the cheapest service available in the market. Some clients value HIPAA compliance, others efficient turn around time and the most common is impeccable quality of transcribed reports. When you have a feel of what they want then impress on them these aspects of your service plus the other added value they will receive from your service.
The final step is to get them to try your service because this will be the most tangible assessment of the client of the type of service you are offering. There are no clear cut guidelines as to the number of files or length of dictation you should receive for testing, but generally it should be anywhere between 10 to 20 files or at least 30 minutes’ worth of dictation. This will give you enough leverage to measure up your own skill and capability to deliver without having to invest a lot of your production time and resources.
