In the healthcare industry strategic online marketing is the key to growing and attracting new patients to a new or existing medical practice. More patients are moving online to research Physicians and book appointments with them.
So how can you enhance your online marketing strategies to meet the needs of potential patients and ultimately attract new patients to your practice?
In order to meet their expectations and offer a strategic online marketing experience that is guaranteed to get new patients through your practice doors, consider this 10 step checklist on how to attract new patients to a practice.
Every physician wants to attract new patients to their practice, but as more patients continue to move online to research medical brands; so are your competitors. This makes it harder for you to reach your target audience because now you have to compete with other local Physicians for their business.
This 10 Step checklist will guide you towards creating your own strategic plan to attract new patients to your practice and ultimately grow your business.
Offer High-Quality Services
This first one may seem straightforward but it goes hand in hand with word-of-mouth marketing. The most effective form of medical marketing is referral marketing. If you offer a high-quality service that your existing patients know and love, they will be encouraged to share their experiences with others.
Every patient expects to be treated with care and receive exactly what they paid for, and every medical practice should enhance their digital and in-office experience to reflect a high-quality patient experience.
Patients will pay more for a high-quality experience and will tell others about it as well. The key to attracting new patients to your practice starts with enhancing the patient experience at your practice. Make sure that your entire team is on board and understands the importance of being responsive, friendly, and engaged with new and existing patients at your medical practice.
List your Practice on Local Directories
Invest in local SEO strategies and business listings so that you appear higher in the search results when your patients search for specific services or Physicians in their area. Google My Business is one of the most essential listings that you need to claim and frequently maintain.
After listing your medical practice on different local directories you need to ensure that your contact information, hours of business, address, and website links are all current. It would also help potential patients if they found photos of your practice, written reviews, ratings, or video testimonials as well.
Attract New Patients with Visual Content
People's attention spans are short these days and visually engaging content is the perfect solution for attracting new patients to your practice. Visual content like graphics, animated gifs, and medical videos grabs your attention a lot faster than text-based content.
Bonus tip: If you'd like to attract more visibility to your social media posts, consider boosting your best content to a targeted audience online. This will help you maximize your reach and accelerate your results per post.
Instead of using generic stock photos of people your patients won't recognize, capture real photos of your staff. This way potential patients can get a sneak peek into who works at your practice and who they might meet once they book an appointment. Posting your team online is a great technique for building trust with your practice online.
Optimize your Website for Conversions
Your website is like your digital brochure. It's where people go to find out more about what you do. A beautifully, modern designed website with easy navigation, a functional layout, and clear information with direction providing the user's next steps, is essential for practice growth.
However, if your website is currently not attracting new patients to your practice, it's probably not optimized for conversions.
Here are some actionable tips that you can apply to your website so that new patients can find your website on Google and other search engines:
Write relevant page titles, meta descriptions, and page headers
Create useful content that also includes your target keywords
Add alt tags to your images and files names that include your target keywords
Create a responsive website design that fits any device including mobile
Add effective CTA's (call to action buttons) like 'book now' or 'call us today'
Videos and blogs add fresh content to your site and also helps with SEO. Showing up consistently and sharing relevant and original content on your website shows both google and your patients that you're very knowledgeable about what you do and care about keeping your target audience informed. You can also pay to promote this content on social media which will also help attract new patients to your website.
Target New Patients on Social Media
In order to target potentially new patients on social media, you need to understand your current patients. Take an internal look at your current patients and analyze their data. Look for behavioral and demographic trends with their age, location, gender, etc. This information will help you create a strategic social media targeting strategy to attract new patients online.
Provide an Incredible Patient Experience
Ensure that your patients are getting an amazing experience at your practice. Your entire team should understand the goals of your brand and do everything that they can to leave a positive impact on each patient. Patient referrals are extremely valuable in healthcare, and they all start with an incredible patient experience.
Patients will not refer your practice to potentially new patients if they aren’t satisfied with your services or the experience. If your vision and your goals are aligned with your team's mutual understanding and effort to create an incredible patient experience then you're on the right track towards attracting new patients to your practice.
Diversify your Services
Consider expanding your current services if you want to attract new patients to your practice. Take note of the questions your patients ask and make a list of the services that they wish you offered as well as their demographic. Here's an example, you might find that older female patients at your practice might prefer to do a non-invasive treatment like CoolSculpting rather than liposuction (this is just an example).
By diversifying the services that your practice offers, you're opening up windows of opportunity for new business from new potential patients and even current patients because you can upsell them on new services offered at your practice.
Ask Patients for Reviews & Video Testimonials
Reviews are one of the most efficient ways to attract new patients to your practice. Encourage your patients to share their feedback online with a written review or even better, a video testimonial.
I know that it can feel intimidating asking patients to share their experiences especially when the service that they received is a bit private. An easy way to avoid directly asking them is to send a follow-up email thanking your patients for their visit and encouraging them to review you online.
You can also offer incentives to thank patients for posting online reviews and with their permission, you can ask them if you can share their reviews on social media and your website.
Stay Active & Responsive on Social Media
If you want to attract new patients to your practice then you definitely need to get active on social media. You should be frequently posting at times when your target customer is most active online, sharing content that is valuable and engaging, and be extremely responsive to messages and comments received on social media.
Potential patients observe how you respond and engage with them online, and take that as a reflection of how they will be treated at your practice. Remember, your brand goes beyond the patient experience at your medical practice and extends into social media and other digital communication channels as well.
Grow your Email List with Magnets
Did you know that 8 in 10 patients who subscribe to your email list, will make a purchase based on what they receive in their inbox?
Email marketing is a great way to send promotional offers and updates about your practice to your existing patients, but email magnets are an excellent way to grow your email list beyond your existing client base and attract new patients to your practice.
An email magnet is a valuable resource that you give away for free in exchange for an email address. Here are some examples of email magnets:
- A Quiz
- Free Cheatsheet
- Downloadable Guide
- Free ebook
Once you've created an irresistible email magnet that your target customer would love you need to create a strategy to market this email lead magnet to them. You can run a social media promotion or included a pop-up on your website.
Do you need help putting these tips into action?
Our team of content strategists, content creators, and creative marketers would love to help. Book your free virtual consultation with us at any time.