FIELD GUIDE: Medical, Dental and Chiropractic Practices

Nature of the beast: Family practices, eye doctors, chiropractors, dentists and other health professionals set up shop everywhere from cities to tiny hamlets. Most handle their own marketing and patient communications, unless they're affiliated with a health system.

Approachability Level: Fair. Unlike hospital administrators, doctors and other medical types vary greatly in their understanding of what a freelancer can do for them. This is client that may require some grooming and education. 

What they need from freelancers: Web content, newsletters, patient communications, articles, ads, ghostwriting.

Ask for: The person who handles marketing. Sometimes it's the practice manager, sometimes it's a doctor.

Potential to Become a Regular: I haven't had much luck with private practices, though I've heard other freelancers have. Anyone care to chime in?

Caveats: Some practices are owned by large health systems which handle their marketing. You can usually tell from the practice website whether it's independent.

Calling practices will make you very good at dealing with receptionists and other folks who are protective of the boss's time.

I've been surprised how few doctors have voice mail. Be prepared to leave a brief message and ask for the decision maker's email so you can forward a link to your site.

FIELD GUIDE: Health Systems

While I think hyper-analysis is usually the enemy of cold calling, I do want to talk about some of the different clients you're likely to encounter out there. I'll offer just a few quick pointers on how to approach them on the phone and what they might be looking for in a writer.

Since it's the one I'm most familiar with, I'll kick off with:

HEALTH SYSTEMS

Nature of the beast: One large umbrella company that operates hospitals, doctors' offices and often extras like a charitable foundation. Some local health systems are owned by even larger conglomerates, but generally each regional system does its own marketing.

Approachability Level: Excellent. Most health marketing folks know all about freelancers, so very little education will be required on your part. 


What they need from freelancers: Anything and everything. Press releases, articles for their newsletters, advertorials, brochures, patient letters, TV and radio spots, grant support, fund raising materials and internal communications.

Two off-beat projects I received through hospitals/health systems include an award speech and a ghostwritten fiction book. Both were exceedingly fun to work on.

Ask for: The marketing department (check online press releases for a name and contact info).

Potential to Become a Regular: High. I've heard of several folks making well over $1,000 a month from health system/hospital gigs. 

Caveats: The good news in Fort Collins is we have a large health system that produces tons of writing. The bad news: it owns just about every health facility in a fifty mile radius, which cuts down on the number of potential health system clients.

Some health systems (particularly smaller ones) write in-house, hire agencies or simply don't have the budget for freelancers.