About Me
Ashley Blacker
Managing Director & Medical Marketing Specialist
About me
I am a medical marketing and business development professional, with sub-specialised skills in digital marketing and internet technology. Prior to my current role, I had a significant career leading the marketing of some of Australia’s largest general practice corporates, private hospital groups, research organisations and specialist clinics.
My responsibilities within the medical sector have largely involved:
- New patient and GP referral marketing for specialists
- Resident marketing for the aged care sector
- Study participant marketing for research organisations
- Opening new medical centres / clinics
- Digital marketing and website development
- Business strategy for specialists and healthcare corporates
- GP recruitment marketing for rural and regional medical centres
From 2008 – 2018 (10-years), I spent approximately half my time working for general practice companies and the other half for private hospitals / specialists. This also included the medical research and aged-care sectors. Working across both the primary and tertiary sectors was an excellent foundation for understanding how the sectors interact, the underlying referral network, and the relevant patient trends in elective surgery.
I have been solely responsible for managing medical marketing budgets of up to $500,000 pa for various healthcare companies, which granted me licence to experiment on a range of marketing strategies and platforms to develop an understanding of what works to increase patient numbers, and what doesn’t.
I started Medsolve in 2018 as I identified what I considered to be a gap in the market for a digital marketing agency that offered doctors access to marketing professionals who have actually worked within the industry at the highest level, as opposed to mainly generic digital marketing agencies that offer staff with no healthcare sector employment experience or knowledge. The reality is, medical marketing is an advanced area of marketing, which relies heavily on sector-experience, medical terminology, science, a thorough understanding of private health insurance dynamics, what constitutes an elective procedure, the demographics of diseases, and the supply and demand of competing services in specific regions.
Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my wife and baby daughter, playing the drums, the outdoors, astronomy and astrophotography.
Qualifications
- MBA (Finance & Business Law) (UTS), Distinction
- Bachelor of Communication (Advertising) (UWS)
- Diploma of Marketing Communications (UWS)
- Google Certification: Search, Analytics and Tag Manager
- Facebook: BluePrint Trained
- RACGP, GP CPD Point Education Certified
- Udemy Cinematography Course
Career Highlights
- 10+ years of full-time, in-house medical marketing and business development experience.
- 2-year full-time MBA at UTS in Sydney, graduating with a distinction average in the top 1% of graduates.
- One of the first in Australia to pioneer doctor-to-patient digital marketing more than 15 years ago, proving a small group of savvy doctors who trusted my advice with an incredible competitive advantage.
- Having helped over 200+ Australian doctors with their marketing and business development activities.
- Medsolve achieving Partner Agency accreditation status with Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
Previous Employment
- Group Homes Australia (Dementia, High Care & Palliative Care)
- Healthe Care Australia (35+ Private Hospitals around Australia)
- Evolution Healthcare (10+ Private Hospitals / Radiology around Australia)
- The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research (Sleep & Respiratory)
- St Vincent Hospital Sydney (Public Hospital)
- Eastbrooke Medical Centres (15+ Medical Centres around Australia)
- Ochre Health Medical Centres (60+ GP & Hospital VMO around Australia)
- Software AG / WebMethods (Internet & Software Global Company)