Out of 21 million people in Florida, 4.76% need a pediatrician
Usually, pediatricians obtain new patients by word of mouth, others because they work in a hospital and offer their services to the new parents. Sometimes new parents choose the pediatrician because they don’t have any choice, and sometimes the doctor gets the new patient, sometimes not.
Around 21 million people live in Florida to Florida Health. According to the United States Census, approximately 20% are individuals under 18 years old; this represents about 1 million in need of pediatrician services in Florida.
Out of 21 million people in Florida, 4.76% need a pediatrician. Also, there are around 4,743 licensed pediatricians in Florida per Florida Health. So there is about one doctor for every 210 potential patients.
Underage persons usually don’t pick their doctors. Instead, the parents choose and make the decision where to take their children.
Nowadays, people use a lot of Google to search for everything and check on social media networks not only to get in contact with friends but to discover new products and services. And, of course, finding a pediatrician is not an exception for consumers.
How do pediatricians get to the right audience?
If you are a general pediatrician and your practice is in a particular area, your patient will live nearby your office. Unless you are a specialist, like a Nephrologist, Pediatrician or Otolaryngology, people from West Palm Beach will not go to your office in South Miami.
To target the right audience, you should start the segmentation by defining who your patience is and how you can reach them. For example, in a previous paragraph, I mentioned that there are around 1 million people under 18 years old in Florida, but the problem is that they don’t decide to choose a doctor. So it would be best if you target their parents.
I will start the segmentation first by geographical area. If your practice is in South Miami, your target area will probably be people living in South Miami-Dade County, like Coral Gables, Downtown Miami, Little Havana, Pinecrest, Kendall, and Westchester. The second factor to consider is the age and life cycle stage of the population in these areas. Who can probably be a parent? We have to pick an age range. By the nonprofit organization March of Dime, the highest fertility rate in women is from 20 to 40 years old.
Another factor we have to take into consideration is the socio-cultural factors. How many of those people are Hispanics? How many speak Spanish at home? This is important because we might want to consider this to create customer value for the parents who prefer to communicate in Spanish rather than English. We can segment the audience by single-segment concentration. I am not saying you will target only Hispanics or Spanish speakers, but take advantage of this niche. People who speak Spanish in Miami-Dade county represent 67% of the population, by MiamiMatters.org
Segmentation summary:
- People living in South Miami-Dade County
- Women in the age range of 20-40 years old
- People who speak Spanish at home
How do you reach the patient’s parents?
Let’s imagine you just started your practice in South Miami and have the data I gave you.
Assuming you already have a website but are not very active on Social Media, I recommend you to start posting on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
Per Pew Research, most Americans say they use YouTube and Facebook, while Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are widespread among adults under 30.
Starting a traffic campaign to your website using these platforms will help to increase your audience. In the meantime, I suggest collecting information about your patience online and via your website (if laws and privacy policy allow you to do so). Any platform will enable you to create look-a-like audiences so you can retarget those who visited your website or engage with your ads.
Another strategy I suggest is participating in health and wellness fairs and school events and advertising in local newspapers and local church bulletins.
The key is to engage with your target audience and offer them your professional services. Your name is your brand. Take advantage of your strengths, the services you can provide, and your experience.
