Starting a medical practice is both exciting and overwhelming. Whether you’re a primary care provider, opening an urgent care clinic, or beginning an independent practice in another specialty, the first year is a flurry of activity. You’ll establish a business structure, secure a location, purchase equipment, obtain insurance, hire your staff, and more—but too many new medical practices overlook a key step: Getting their first patients.
Some marketing strategies are better suited for multi-location or established practices, but if you’re launching a new independent or single-provider healthcare practice, these are nine marketing moves you’ll want to make in the first year. Many of these can happen before you even open your doors.
1. Choose Your Location Wisely
This may not sound like a marketing move, and perhaps it isn’t in the strictest sense. Yet, for most patients, the experiences of finding you and interacting with your office support staff will be significant factors in whether or not they return.
We surveyed more than 200 patients about what’s most important to them in choosing a healthcare provider. 68.5% named a convenient location as a top reason for sticking with their current doctor. When evaluating office space, consider your demographic. If much of your patient population will come from referral partners, locating near other medical offices, clinics, or hospitals is ideal. If you’re primarily serving patients for wellness and preventative care, locating near a residential area often makes more sense.
A good rule of thumb is to find lease terms that keep rent under 10% of projected revenue. It’s important to work with a healthcare real estate specialist who understands medical office requirements as a helpful resource.
Our recommendation: Partner with practice management consultants like Doctors Management for detailed financial planning. They specialize in the business side of medicine and can help you avoid costly mistakes.
2. Prioritize Patients with Your EMR
Choosing the best electronic medical record (EMR) system for your new medical practice is a pivotal decision. Most providers will choose an EMR based on specialty-specific templates, integration with billing and patient portals, implementation support, and the total cost of ownership.
But when you’re starting a new healthcare practice, also think about the patient experience. While many EMRs come with built-in patient appointment reminders, it’s not uncommon to find this as a separate (and costly) add-on feature.
Automated appointment reminders are proven to reduce no-shows and will certainly free up your administrative staff in the first year of owning a practice. Popular choices include:
All of these softwares offer patient engagement features and analytics for various practice types. Switching EMR systems later is expensive and disruptive. Choose carefully from the start.
3. Develop a Professional Website
The overwhelming majority of American adults will search for your medical practice online before they make an appointment. In today’s digital-first world, the table stakes are higher than ever for a new healthcare practice website. It can’t just exist. It has to be intuitive, well-designed, and feature-rich for your practice to meet patient expectations.
This is your 24/7 resource for prospective patients. Your website must be mobile-responsive, optimized for searches like “doctor near me,” easy to navigate, and HIPAA-compliant. It’s also recommended (and, depending on the size of your practice, required) for your website to be ADA compliant.
Beyond the home page, it’s important to regularly publish blog posts about the conditions you treat, preventive care advice, and health topics relevant to your patient population. Starting out, a realistic goal is often to update two pages per month—although if you have the team capacity, more content is even better. This builds authority while educating your patients about the care you provide.
4. Claim Your Google Business Profile for Reviews
One of the most important steps for any business, especially for a new healthcare practice, is to claim your Google Business Profile. Claiming a profile is free. Once you’ve verified that you own the business, you can update the profile with accurate information about your hours of operation, details of the services you offer, and high-quality photos of your office space.
Of course, one of the biggest benefits of having a Google Business Profile is showcasing your patient reviews. There’s some evidence that having more reviews increases the likelihood of your profile showing up in organic search results, both in Google Search and in Google Maps, but having more reviews will certainly convince potential patients to give you a call.
When you’re starting out, systematically request reviews from satisfied patients. It’s helpful to have a QR code at the check-out counter and to send a follow-up email with a link to leave a review. Respond warmly and professionally to all feedback.
If you do happen to get a negative review, the best way to handle it is to publicly offer to discuss the situation, such as commenting, “We’re sorry to hear about this experience. Please call our office right away so we can look into this.” This comment is less about the dissatisfied patient and more about the hundreds of other people who will see you as prompt and professional.
5. Build a Sustainable Social Media Strategy
Perhaps more than any other area of marketing, social media is the one our clients ask us about the most. Do new medical practices need to be on Instagram and TikTok? How often should they post, and about what?
In terms of what to post, sharing behind-the-scenes content (like your staff dressing up for Halloween or at a charity event), health tips, and educational videos will typically lead to the highest engagement. Patients connect with the person behind the medical degree.
Most importantly, though, a social media strategy should be sustainable. Trying to post a video every day will only lead to burnout. Think quality more than quantity. If you have a dedicated social media manager or marketing agency, 3-5 posts per week is a good baseline. If you’re handling social media all on your own, however, just aiming for once per week might be the best place to start. Consistency will help you perform better with social media algorithms rather than having a flurry of activity followed by long silences.
6. Advertise Strategically
While SEO builds long-term visibility, Google Ads and Facebook Ads drive immediate patient inquiries during your critical launch phase. A new medical practice should consider paid advertising as a core marketing strategy.
As with social media, it pays to be strategic. Starting with a smaller budget will help you learn which targeted demographics are most responsive to your messaging and which advertisements have the best performance. Once you have data to act on, you can increase your advertising budget to see the highest return.
Intentional targeting will help your budget go the farthest. For example, if your primary patient population is women over 40, target your advertisements to that specific demographic. It’s also a worthwhile exercise to carefully determine how much you should spend on ads before you begin.
7. Build Your Team with On-Brand Hiring
Next, it’s important to use some of your medical practice marketing dollars on hiring. After all, having the right people at your office will improve the patient experience and lead to better reviews. Prioritize candidates who demonstrate patient-centered care and strong communication skills. Technical abilities can be taught, but empathy and attitude are harder to instill.
For a solo practice, you’ll typically start with essential clinical staff like a medical assistant or nurse, and key administrative roles, including front desk staff and a medical biller or billing company. You may decide to advertise on platforms such as LinkedIn for qualified candidates, but it’s equally important to build out a hiring page on your website where you can share more about your philosophy and values.
The best candidates have multiple opportunities and can afford to be choosy, so you’ll want to convince them to apply.
Once someone is hired, having branded training materials can improve and standardize the onboarding experience and build excitement for working with patients.
8. Host a Grand Opening
When you’re ready to open, make it an event. Invite local community members, neighboring businesses, and potential patients to tour your facility before or shortly after you open. This generates excitement, allows people to meet your staff, and gives you an opportunity to collect contact information for future marketing through giveaways or informational sign-ups.
Building excitement has another benefit. Word-of-mouth referrals remain powerful in healthcare, especially for solo practices building from scratch. By creating a welcoming environment and showcasing your commitment to community involvement, you’ll increase the likelihood that community members will tell their friends and family about your practice.
Here’s a secret: A grand opening doesn’t have to happen only once! You might host an open house two or three times per year, always with the same goal of generating positive interactions and meeting new prospective patients in a non-threatening setting.
9. Monitor Performance and Optimize
Finally, it’s important to remember that marketing strategies are always evolving. Track key metrics including new patient volume and sources, patient satisfaction scores, revenue and collections, and marketing ROI.
For a new medical practice, monthly meetings are often a good cadence. Gather everyone who is involved in marketing to review data and adjust strategies. Healthcare success comes from continuous improvement, not perfection.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Most physicians need six months to one year to complete all steps to start a medical practice. The timeline depends on financing speed, office space construction requirements, and especially credentialing delays.
These are some of the most common mistakes for new startup healthcare practices.
Underestimating startup costs: Budget 20-30% above projections for unexpected expenses.
Delaying credentialing: Start the process six months before your target opening date.
Skipping marketing until after launch: Begin building awareness three to six months early.
Choosing the wrong EMR: Research thoroughly—switching later is extremely costly.
Hiring poorly: Having too many staff drains cash, but having too few burns out your team and damages the patient experience.
Ignoring patient experience: Clinical excellence matters, but so does how patients feel throughout their journey. Medicine is both science and service.
Partner with Healthcare Marketing Experts
Unless you have marketing expertise and time, working with a healthcare marketing agency makes sense. Healthcare marketing companies understand medical compliance, HIPAA regulations, patient psychology, and healthcare-specific SEO strategies.
At Baker Marketing, we specialize in helping medical practice startups build visibility and attract patients from day one. Our services include local SEO, website design, reputation management, paid advertising, and building a comprehensive strategy tailored to your specialty.
We’ve helped hundreds of practices overcome the challenge of building patient volume quickly. Marketing isn’t what you went to medical school for, but it’s essential to practice success.
Ready to start your journey? Schedule a free consultation with our team today.
FAQ: Starting a Medical Practice
What do I need to start a medical practice?
You need a medical practice business plan, financing, location, technology (EMR system), staff, legal setup, credentialing with insurance providers, and a marketing strategy. We recommend consulting with specialists like Doctors Management for business setup aspects and focusing on marketing early to accelerate patient acquisition.
Do I need a marketing strategy for my medical practice startup?
Absolutely. Patients search online first—without digital marketing for medical practices, your schedule won’t fill. Working with a healthcare marketing agency helps you build visibility quickly. Start marketing three to six months before opening.
How long does it take to start a medical practice?
Typically, it takes six months to one year from planning to launch. Credentialing for a medical practice startup alone takes 90-180 days. Start credentialing early to avoid revenue delays.
What’s the biggest mistake when opening a practice?
Underestimating costs and delaying marketing. Many solo practitioners don’t budget for rising operating expenses or start marketing until after opening. Another major challenge is starting credentialing too late, which delays revenue even when you’re ready to see patients.
Should I start an independent medical practice or join a group?
Independent medical practice offers complete autonomy but higher risk and more responsibility for practice operations. Group practice provides shared overhead and support but less control over patient care decisions. Consider your tolerance for business management and desired work-life balance.
How do I attract patients to a new medical practice?
Implement a comprehensive strategy including a professional website with local SEO, optimized Google Business Profile, online reputation management, patient education content, and paid advertising. Partner with healthcare marketing companies specializing in medical practice marketing to accelerate growth.
Launch your medical practice with confidence. Contact Baker Marketing Labs for a healthcare marketing strategy that attracts patients from day one.