It’s a fact of life for startups and all other businesses: Nothing happens until someone sells something. Not bringing in clients is the surest way for a startup to quickly go out of business. And the number of startups that go out of business is staggering. One survey found that 90% of startups ultimately fail.
One way to avoid becoming part of this statistic is to build a predictable pipeline of new clients, so you can maintain the proper staff and profit margins to run a healthy business. At BURG+CO. Marketing, we’ve done that in the same ways that many other startups have. We have used our team’s contacts to bring in clients. We’ve picked up clients at trade shows and symposiums. We have brought in clients with our own marketing and advertising efforts.
However, a few months ago, our leadership team realized that these pathways weren’t going to help drive the growth that we are ultimately looking for. That’s why we brought in our new Business Development Coordinator, Justin Bergeson.
An interview with BURG+CO. Business Development Coordinator Justin Bergeson
Kelly: Justin, we’re so happy to have you join the BURG+CO. team and to have you here talking with us today.
Justin: It’s great to be here, Kelly. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the BURG+CO. team and starting to build out my role as Business Development Coordinator over these first few weeks.
Kelly: That’s really great to hear! Now, let’s get into our questions for you.
Justin: Fire away.
1.How would you describe your role as the business development coordinator at BURG+CO.?
My role is primarily to introduce BURG+CO. to clinics and health care systems and listen to the challenges they face in trying to gain new patients and grow their practices. I also share how our capabilities can fit our prospective clients’ objectives and help to solve their growth problems.
The health care providers I’m talking to are jam-packed with their day-to-day work, so another part of my job is to share valuable information with them, as well as to make sure they know we exist and how we can help them. Additionally, the services BURG+CO. offers can be personalized to fit each clinic we partner with; part of my job is to ensure that the BURG team’s understanding of and approach to the client’s problems aligns with the client’s objectives.
2. What do you see as some of the top challenges of creating an effective partnership between business development and digital marketing teams?
Many of the marketing folks on staff with health care providers are very good at what they do. One challenge I have is to make sure they understand we’re not a threat to them. We want to work as an extension of their team and take tasks off their plate. No one person (or small group) can do everything or be an expert in everything, which is where the BURG+CO. Marketing specialists and skill sets can complement the internal digital marketing efforts of a health care provider.
Gaining trust is also a must for any successful partnership. That’s why the BURG+CO. team was built to put patients first and help them find the care they need. This allows our team to build trust with health care providers that share this key value. It also makes it easier for us to help the client demonstrate genuineness in their desire to help people address their pressing health care needs.
3. BURG+CO. works with many clients in the health care industry. What do you think are some of the problems health care business development coordinators face that digital marketing can help them solve?
Time is one of the major problems business development coordinators in the health care sector face. There aren’t enough hours in the day for internal teams to focus on all the tasks required to create and run effective digital marketing campaigns. There are so many critical specialties from research, writing, keeping up with what the search engines are doing and keeping in touch with what potential patients are searching for, to name a few.
Cost is another key challenge. There needs to be an entire team handling digital marketing efforts, but many health care providers can’t afford to have all these specialists in-house. So, they often try to make do with a small digital marketing team at most.
Finding the right way to bring in new patients is a third problem health care business development coordinators must crack. Health care providers face specific challenges around how people choose a new provider. These challenges are illustrated by questions like:
- How will potential patients find you?
- What research do these patients do, and how do they make care decisions?
- How do clinics appear on page 1 of a search, specifically related to their targeted service lines?
- How can a clinic improve its website to drive new appointments?
There are so many questions centered around optimizing search engine optimization (SEO), content, website user experience, and the patient life cycle. The challenges posed by finding answers to these questions quickly become unmanageable if you want to do it right.
Specialists with experience, like those at BURG+CO., become increasingly valuable when they’re very good at one piece of the pie, with teammates helping round out the entire solution. It’s all about helping the client get across that they can bring value to patients as the patient navigates through a complex and emotional health care journey. We exist to help health care clients provide thought leadership and community outreach that demonstrates that value. By doing so successfully, we can help prospective patients on their journey toward scheduling treatment with a provider. Predictable new revenue is simply a byproduct of helping patients find what they need from our health care partners.
4. What would you say are the top solutions that digital marketing teams can offer that can help health care businesses development coordinators address their problems?
In my opinion, it’s not about a top solution; it’s about the current situation of the provider and where they want to get to. What are their goals and what stands in the way? Many of our potential clients already have a digital marketing effort that is producing results. For them, we would help them find the gaps and where we can help them improve. The gaps might be in their SEO and content, for instance. We may even need to help them design and implement a completely new digital marketing strategy.
Other providers may have a website or nothing at all and need us to build the entire strategy and website from the ground up. There are a thousand examples of digital marketing strategies, but the critical point is understanding the client, their competitive market, search engines and how to improve a digital marketing strategy over time.
As you put it, the “top solution” is to have access to HIPAA-compliant technologies and proven digital marketing methodologies for health care providers that can continue to drive predictable growth and measurable ROI. The digital marketing strategies that meet these goals need to be highly analytical and constantly improved to maximize results. And that’s exactly what the BURG+CO. team does. So, in the end, I guess you could say that our team is the top solution.
Kelly: Justin, it’s been great to talk with you about your role on our team and discuss your insights about business development.
Justin: Thank you, Kelly. I hope my thoughts are helpful to other business development coordinators out there.
Want to attract new visitors to your website? BURG+CO. can help
Increasing traffic to your website plays a role in increasing conversions and bringing in new clients. However, it’s difficult to attract visitors to your site when you don’t know what to do. Fortunately, this is what we specialize in at BURG+CO.
Our team has years of experience in helping health care providers improve their digital presence to attract new patients and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more prospective patients to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
