Based on a PracticeCare® podcast conversation, Bridgette Hannigan on Marketing That the Big Guys Cannot Copy, with Bridgette Hannigan, owner of Atlanta Ultrasound and a self-pay primary care and women’s health practice serving Atlanta’s uninsured Hispanic community.
Who are Bridgette Hannigan’s real competitors, and what does she compete on?
Bridgette owns two practices in Atlanta: Atlanta Ultrasound, a concierge diagnostic imaging practice, and a primary care and women’s health practice serving the uninsured Hispanic community. Her competitors on the imaging side are the satellite offices run by Northside, Emory, and Piedmont, which still bill at hospital rates.
They compete on two issues. First, price. An echocardiogram runs about $2,500 at a hospital and $300 to $400 at Atlanta Ultrasound. Second, wait times: a hospital system in her market has a three to four month wait for a cardiac ultrasound. She turns them around in three days.
What marketing advantage does a small practice have over a hospital system?
She talks to her patients directly, so she knows their fears before she writes an ad. A hospital’s ad says click here to book an appointment. Her ad names the fear itself — a high deductible, a $2,500 bill she can’t afford for a test her doctor already ordered twice.
Bridgette is able to “speak” to her target audience in their advertising. A hospital marketing department has never had that conversation. She has it on the phone every day, and it goes straight into her ads.
What marketing tactics work that a hospital system won’t touch?
A few things she’s found reliable:
- Renting a booth at the local flea market once a month to offer free blood pressure and glucose screenings. About 42 people stop by each time, and three to five turn into new patients.
- Building relationships with local real estate agents and apartment complex managers so her practice’s materials land in the welcome folder every new resident gets.
- Writing a free monthly two-page article for a local women’s magazine instead of buying ad space in it — it builds authority instead of getting skipped over as another small box ad.
None of it takes a hospital-sized budget. It takes someone willing to show up in person, which a system with layers of employees and liability review isn’t set up to authorize quickly.
Who should staff a community event like a flea market booth?
Not the doctor. Bridgette sends her friendliest, most nurturing front desk staff and medical assistants, trained to take a proper blood pressure and glucose reading so nobody walks away with bad information.
The screening itself is just the icebreaker. After the testing is done, they start asking questions, and that staff member’s warmth is what actually sells the practice.
Why won’t a hospital system do this kind of grassroots marketing?
There are a few reasons that Bridgette sees:
- Hospitals are built around high-ticket volume — emergencies and surgeries — not preventive screenings at a flea market booth.
- Community outreach means staffing, rent, and supply costs with no clean way to track return, no promo code, no coupon, nothing to prove it worked.
- It takes an owner’s mindset, not an employee’s. Asking staff to run an outreach program on their own time, for a cause that isn’t theirs, doesn’t get traction.
A private practice owner can act on all three directly. Figure out what your community needs that the hospital isn’t delivering, and you’ve found your opening.
Where does cash-pay or self-pay marketing fit into this?
Self-pay is a gap most hospital systems ignore. There’s a growing population of contractors, entrepreneurs, and gig workers who don’t qualify for government coverage and can’t afford $800 to $1,200 a month in premiums — and even then, they’re often still carrying a $5,000 deductible.
Most practices already have a self-pay rate for their most common services, often $100 to $300 a visit, but almost nobody promotes it. A patient who can’t get a straight price out of five different hospital phone calls will choose whoever makes the offer easy to find.
What marketing has she tried that didn’t work?
Paid radio ads and traditional print. Being a guest on a radio segment works, because it builds authority. Paying for radio airtime doesn’t convert the same way.
Newspaper and magazine display ads were the lowest-return channel she’s run, and local print ads in her market average $1,300 to $2,200 a month with roughly six months before any traction shows. She’d rather put $3,500 over six months into Facebook and Google ads that speak directly to a specific patient concern.
What should a practice owner do this week to get started?
Keep it simple and get started:
- Decide what you’re actually comfortable doing. If video makes you freeze, don’t force it — record audio, write, or do something else you’ll stick with.
- Pick one channel and commit to it for six months before judging results. Decide in advance what “working” looks like so you’re not guessing halfway through.
- Set a spending ceiling you could lose entirely without losing sleep over it. If a channel doesn’t perform, you’ve still learned something for the next one.
A final note
I hear this all the time from clients: how do I compete with the big hospital system down the street? Bridgette’s answer is the same one I give. Being big doesn’t make a competitor more capable — it makes them slower, more cautious, and less willing to get their hands into the community. Find the gap they won’t fill or can’t fill easily, show up in person, and say it over and over. That’s not a workaround. That’s the advantage.
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