It’s no secret capitalism shapes our lives into an individualistic landscape, where even life and death become commodities. It’s also no secret that we, as human beings, thrive within communities, as it is our most basic physiological need to feel safe and supported. It truly takes a village (mind you, our inner child lives forever!).
This is exactly what FQHCs have been doing: these healthcare centers have been serving as pillars in providing healthcare to underserved communities. However, FQHCs don’t often get the credit or the trust they deserve beyond their own clientele—they struggle with stigma and lack community support.
To create a secure path towards success and sustainability, FQHCs need to explore how to become better integrated into the community and leverage that support to enhance their marketing strategies, build stronger relationships, improve health outcomes, and increase their own profitability so they can continue to improve the quality level and accessibility of care they provide.
Community: The Vital Force of FQHC Marketing
Community support isn’t just nice to have: it’s a dynamic force that can significantly amplify an FQHC’s reach and impact. Engaged and motivated community members are important advocates who can organically promote these centers through word-of-mouth and guerilla campaigns.
Community support in FQHC marketing involves various forms of engagement, such as patient feedback, local partnerships, social media interaction, and grassroots initiatives. Effective community support builds a two-way relationship where the community feels valued, safe, and invested in their FQHC’s mission.
Leveraging community support in FQHC marketing fosters trust and credibility much more effectively than traditional advertising and has an essential role in driving growth and outreach.
Build Trust through Engagement
When we mention engagement in the context of marketing, it instantly evokes analytics dashboards, reach, engagement rates, and other vanity metrics.
Plot twist: in FQHC marketing, engagement primarily takes on its native shape and relies on communication, inclusion, and storytelling. Being present online is crucial today, but finding the fusion between online and in-person presence in your community is what can truly set you apart.
Gather Patient Reviews and Testimonials
Patients’ stories are a powerful marketing tool. They provide authentic insights and lived experiences of the care and services your FQHC provides, fostering trust among other potential patients in your community.
Online reputation management will help you leverage these stories: encourage satisfied patients to leave a review on popular online listings such as Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Healthgrades, Yelp, etc.
To increase the number of reviews and improve your overall rating, consider automating review requests to make this journey as seamless as possible for your patients. Make sure you regularly monitor and reply to reviews in a HIPAA-compliant way to engage with patients, keep the conversation going, address any concerns, and show you’re open to feedback and committed to making improvements to meet your community’s needs.
Additionally, a great, and yet underappreciated, tool for gathering patient feedback is patient surveys. Often seen as a bureaucratic burden by healthcare providers, standardized surveys such as PROs, CAHPs, and NPS can inform your day-to-day decision-making process with a palpable inclusion of your patients and community.
Streamlining the collection and analysis of data through electronic automation can relieve you of all the pain and leave you with all the benefits of conducting patient surveys. To take this process a step further, you can leverage patient surveys as testimonials on your marketing channels and materials, just as long as you get the patient’s consent to do so.
Engage in Local Partnerships
Engagement is a two-way street: just as you encourage your patients to engage with your clinic, you should be engaging with your community through collaborations, partnerships, and active participation.
Partnering with local businesses and organizations can help boost your visibility and amplify your reach. Find the local businesses that share your vision, support your causes, and align with your values, and initiate joint events, seek sponsorships, and build co-branded initiatives to create a sense of community solidarity and bring attention to your FQHC in off-premises surroundings.
Develop a habit of being an active event participant: host or participate in local health fairs and community events. These platforms offer opportunities to meet potential patients outside of the hospital walls, introduce your best staff, and educate the community about available services through direct community interaction.
Enhance Community Relationships with Grassroots Initiatives
Grassroots initiatives are powerful tools for fostering deeper connections within the community. By involving local residents in meaningful projects and activities, FQHCs can build trust, loyalty, and a sense of ownership among community members.
These initiatives improve community engagement and amplify your clinic’s impact, creating a strong network of support that drives sustainable growth and community well-being.
Initiate Volunteer Programs
Engage local volunteers through official programs that allow your community members to contribute their time and skills. These programs help you get the helping hand your center may so desperately need from time to time while building a strong sense of community with people and letting them discover first-hand how your center works, what it provides, and how vital it is to your community’s health and well-being.
To encourage ongoing participation, and motivate and attract new volunteers, we recommend you publicly acknowledge and celebrate the efforts of volunteers. This doesn’t have to be a resource-draining procedure: a neighborhood potluck with certificates of appreciation can be a great way to give thanks to hard-working allies through a community-building event.
Include Community in Decision-Making
To build a trustworthy and inclusive FQHC, consider establishing advisory boards that include community members and allow them to provide input on FQHC operations and strategies. This approach ensures that your FQHC’s initiatives resonate with your community’s needs, therefore keeping you a relevant, useful, and trustworthy source of care.
Test Grassroots Campaigns
To maximize your FQHC marketing, initiate targeted health education campaigns focused on prevalent health issues within the community. These campaigns should focus on a small-reach-high-engagement performance and they should raise awareness, educate the community, and position the FQHC as a trusted health resource.
Encourage community members to advocate for health policies that benefit the local population. Active community advocacy can lead to better health outcomes, increased support, and better funding for your FQHC.
Amplify Your Reach through Digital Platforms
Digital platforms offer a versatile, creative, and cost-effective way to amplify your FQHC marketing efforts and engage with a broader audience. A strategic approach to these tools can help you raise community awareness, make deeper connections, and establish your FQHC as a trusted source of health care and education.
Social Media Engagement
Share engaging content that invites community participation, such as health tips, Q&A sessions, and patient success stories. Use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to interact with your audience. Encourage comments, shares, and discussions to increase visibility and build a sense of community around your FQHC.
To take this approach a step further, create or join local community groups on social media to stay connected with your neighbors and understand their needs and concerns. Active participation in these groups allows you to directly address issues, provide valuable information, and showcase your FQHC’s commitment to the community’s well-being.
Influencer Collaborations
Don’t forget about the influencers! Find micro-influencers within your community whose mission and values align with those of your FQHC and reach out with collaboration proposals. These people often have dedicated followers and can effectively spread your message to a wider audience.
Work with influencers to create content that highlights your FQHC in unique ways. For example, they could produce “volunteer for a day” videos, conduct Q&A sessions with your staff, or share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your operations. This type of organic content can significantly boost your visibility and credibility.
Email Newsletters
Use email marketing to keep your community informed with regular newsletters featuring updates on services, health tips, upcoming events, and success stories. This format of consistent communication will help you maintain engagement and ensure your community is aware of any changes, upgrades, and benefits your FQHC faces or provides.
Include community contributions in your newsletter: recognize and thank community members, volunteers, and partners for their help and participation. Acknowledging their efforts strengthens their relationship with your FQHC and builds a sense of pride and belonging within the community, leading to increased support and advocacy for your center.
Track Everything, Celebrate Everything
Measuring and celebrating success is essential to understanding the impact of your community engagement efforts and fostering a culture of appreciation and pride. By tracking engagement metrics and publicly acknowledging milestones, your FQHC can continuously improve its strategies and strengthen its bond with the community.
Track Your KPIs
You can track the effectiveness of your community engagement efforts through social media interactions, event attendance, patient feedback rates, and overall reputation score to understand how well your strategies are working. However, don’t stop there: to truly understand if this approach yields new patients, you should see how this performance reflects on your KPIs: new patient acquisition, conversion rates, patient acquisition cost, and FQHC marketing ROI.
Analyzing this data helps identify what resonates with your community and where there’s room for improvement. Use these insights to optimize your strategy through data-driven decisions, focusing resources on the most effective strategies, and ensuring your FQHC remains responsive to community needs.
Celebrate Milestones
Celebrate your FQHC’s achievements and milestones publicly. Whether it’s the opening of a new service line, hiring a long-awaited specialist, or receiving a community award, acknowledging these successes builds community pride, trust, and support.
Highlight these accomplishments through social media posts, press releases, and community events to share the good news: host events like open houses, appreciation ceremonies, or community fairs to mark important milestones.
These events provide an opportunity to thank community members, volunteers, and staff, reinforcing their connection to your FQHC and encouraging ongoing support.
Streamline Your FQHC Marketing Efforts with Healthcare Marketing Tools
FQHCs, just like people, thrive when they have strong, supportive relationships with their communities. By leveraging community support through patient engagement, local partnerships, digital platforms, and grassroots initiatives, you can enhance your FQHC marketing efforts, build trust and visibility, and positively influence health outcomes in your community.
The community’s investment in the FQHC’s mission creates a powerful synergy that benefits both the health center and the residents it serves. By fostering a culture of collaboration and inclusivity, FQHCs will finally be seen as integral to the fabric of their communities, providing essential health services to those who need them most.
SocialClimb’s comprehensive marketing platform offers a wide array of tools that let you centralize your FQHC marketing management, streamline campaigns, automate reputation management and patient surveys, and conduct highly targeted patient acquisition campaigns to diversify your patient mix and reach sustainable profitability.
We have been building this streamlined, HIPAA-compliant healthcare marketing platform to help healthcare providers across the country reach more patients and provide better, patient-centric care with comprehensive patient inputs. To help support FQHCs and their communities everywhere, we offer custom pricing and extended benefits to all these clinics looking to improve their reach, strengthen their community position and relationship, and grow to serve even more people in need every day.
Whenever you’re ready, we’ll be here, eager to boost your FQHC marketing through data-driven marketing solutions.
