Franchise marketing for healthcare brands requires care. Patients look for a reliable practice nearby, with the right specialism and availability. We make every practice in your franchise brand findable and ensure the information is correct, without promises that have no place in healthcare. The Dutch Franchise Association (NFV) counts 38 healthcare franchise brands with 2,201 locations.
Bron: NFV 2025
How big is franchising in healthcare?
According to the Franchise statistics of the Dutch Franchise Association (NFV) (reference year 2025), healthcare has 38 franchise brands with a combined 2,201 locations. That is 6.3% of all franchise locations in the Netherlands, with an average of around 58 locations per franchise brand. Think of physiotherapy, dental practices, opticians with a healthcare function, home care and dental hygiene. Every location is a local marketing channel in its own right: a profile, reviews, a page and local customers.
| Metric | Healthcare | Entire franchise sector |
|---|---|---|
| Franchise brands | 38 | 936 |
| Locations | 2,201 | 34,937 |
| People employed | 25,700 | 438,800 |
| Turnover (excl. VAT) | €2.8 billion | €50.5 billion |
| Average number of locations per franchise brand | 58 | 37 |
How do healthcare customers search for a location?
A patient often searches with a complaint or a referral: "physiotherapist knee injury", "dentist accepting new patients", "dental hygienist evening". They pay attention to specialism, availability, reimbursement and other people's experiences. In healthcare, reliability carries extra weight, both for the patient and for Google, which assesses health information more strictly.
That is why we build healthcare marketing on facts: specialisms, BIG registration (the Dutch register of healthcare professionals) or quality marks where applicable, accessibility and clear practical information. No promises about outcomes.
Which marketing challenges do healthcare franchise brands face?
These are the bottlenecks we encounter most often among franchise brands in this sector. They can be solved, but they require time and specialist knowledge that a head office marketing team rarely has.
| Challenge | Consequence if you do nothing |
|---|---|
| Stricter requirements for health information | Careless copy costs trust and visibility |
| Reviews containing medical details | Replying requires privacy awareness |
| Specialisms differ per practice | Patients do not find the right practitioner |
| Waiting times and patient intake stops | The profile shows outdated information |
Which channels work best for healthcare franchise brands?
The order below is our starting point for this sector. In the scan we test it against the figures for your locations.
| Channel | Priority | Use per location |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile with specialisms | Very high | Treatments, accessibility, appointments |
| Location pages with practitioners | Very high | Team, specialism, quality |
| Review management with privacy rules | High | Replying without medical details |
| Medium | Reminders and explanations | |
| Google Ads | Medium | Within the advertising rules for healthcare |
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How do we approach local visibility in healthcare?
For each practice we add the treatments, specialisms and practical information (accessibility, parking, evening opening) to the profile and the location page. We answer reviews according to a fixed privacy guideline: never confirm that someone is a patient and never go into medical details, but do invite them warmly to get in touch.
If a practice stops taking new patients or has a waiting list, we update the profile and the page immediately, so patients are not disappointed.
Referrers also play a role in healthcare. GPs and other healthcare providers sometimes search online for a practice with a specific specialism. A complete location page with practitioners, specialisms and contact details helps them refer quickly and confidently to the right practice in your franchise brand.
Which figures do we measure for a healthcare franchise brand?
In addition to the standard KPIs in the monthly report, in this sector we look particularly at the following figures, per location and for the franchise brand as a whole.
| KPI | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Appointment requests per practice | Inflow of patients |
| Visibility for treatment + town | Findability per specialism |
| Review score and response time | Trust |
| How up to date the practice information is | Accuracy for patients and Google |
| Benefit | Explanation |
|---|---|
| All locations equally in order | One standard for profiles, pages and reviews |
| Time back for your team | Local delivery is in our hands |
| Comparable figures | Strong and weak locations become visible |
Which healthcare sectors do we have an approach for?
Within healthcare we work out the approach per sector, with its own search behaviour, bottlenecks, rules and KPIs. Choose your sector:
- marketing for physiotherapy chains
- franchise marketing for dental practices
- franchise marketing for psychologists
- marketing for home care chains
- franchise marketing for hair salons
- franchise marketing for gyms
- marketing for yoga studio chains
- franchise marketing for opticians
- franchise marketing for beauty salons
- marketing for skin clinic chains
- franchise marketing for day care centres
- franchise marketing for maternity care
- marketing for tanning salon chains
- franchise marketing for wellness centres and saunas
- franchise marketing for swimming schools
- marketing for padel chains
What does franchise marketing deliver per healthcare location?
The NFV figures allow a simple worked example. On average, a healthcare location turns over around €1,272,000 a year. The Growth package costs €3,000 per location per year. The break-even point is therefore a turnover increase of a fraction of a percent. Whether that is achievable is shown by the scan of three locations.
Our permanent team carries out the work: Gijs Bodenstaff as point of contact, Angela for analysis and content, Elisabeth for local Google Ads, Peter for local authority and ten trained freelancers for profiles and reviews per location. Read more about Franchise-Marketing.nl.
More about franchise marketing for healthcare
The foundation for every healthcare franchise brand is local visibility per location, supplemented by reputation management per location. Next come paid search for franchise brands or social media for franchise brands, depending on your customer journey. Also compare the approach in other sectors: franchise marketing for service businesses and franchise marketing for hospitality. You will find all sectors listed under our approach per franchise sector, and the prices per location under the package prices.
Frequently asked questions about marketing in healthcare
How do you reply to reviews in healthcare?
Are you allowed to advertise healthcare with Google Ads?
How do you show the quality of a practice?
What do you do when a practice stops taking new patients?
From how many locations do you help a healthcare franchise brand?
How many healthcare franchise systems and locations are there in the Netherlands?
How does a patient search for a nearby healthcare practice?
Which marketing channels work best for healthcare franchise systems?
Which KPIs do you track for a healthcare franchise system?
How do location pages help referrers such as GPs in healthcare?
Sources
Gijs Bodenstaff
Franchise marketer, local SEO and GEO specialist, author
Curious how your healthcare locations are performing? Request the free scan of three locations.