How To Find New Patients For Your Medical Practice
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If you’re a doctor or a clinic owner or you are a medical office looking to grow your practice and get new patients this post is for you.
Watch the video: How To Find New Patients For Your Medical Practice
Every medical practice wants more patients. But, how do you find new patients for your practice? It’s not an easy task.
Standing quietly at the corner of your street does not help. You know that you need marketing.
But, shouting out loud from your street does not work either.
Essentially, finding new patients is not so easy.
I want you to stop thinking about “How to find patients” because that will not take you anywhere.
Let’s turn that question around and focus on “How do patients find doctors today?”
Long gone are the days when people would call up professional advisors like lawyers, doctors, and accountants for every question they have and any information they need. The Internet has become the primary source of information for most of us and more so in the healthcare space with the growth of web portals such as WebMD and others. Your patients are doing the same. They are searching on Google, searching on Youtube, reading articles and reviews before even calling you up. They will look you up.
Studies have shown that patients base their choice of the doctor more on the website’s ranking and social media presence, weighing it over the doctor’s education, skills, and experience.
And, that is a little sad, but it is the reality.
People are associating the quality of your service and outcomes with how you look on Google and the social media platforms.
The word of mouth has gone digital. Doctors need to go digital too.
The key here is if you are trying to find new patients it is not so much outbound marketing, but more so inbound marketing, where patients are searching on Google and they find your website, they visit your website, they check your reviews and they call you up.
So if you want to find new patients,
“You need to be where your patients are.
Every screen. Everywhere. Every time.”
And this takes us to the essential marketing assets for your practice. I call them assets because these are really the investments you are making for your practice.
Essential Marketing Assets
4 Essential Marketing Assets
Essential Marketing Asset #1: Website
Your website is the single most vital marketing asset for your practice. If you don’t have a website go get one. If you have a website, take a look at it and see if you need to make any changes.
Here are the 5 “must-have” pages for every website:
1. About page: You know your practice inside out, but your prospective patients do not. The About page should talk about your practice, your credentials, experience, and why you are different. Share the reasons why a patient should visit your practice.
2. Locations or Contact us page: You need to publicize what locations you have in your clinic. If you have multiple clinics, again, remember, depending on the services that you’re offering and depending on the services that people are willing to take at this time, the location becomes pretty critical. They need to think about how much they need to travel. Highlight the location(s) of your clinic or the medical office on this page.
3. People or Doctor’s page: It is about doctors and the staff. Patients today need to take a look at their doctor, to familiarize themselves with the doctor, the staff, and how caring as well as patient-centric they are. So the People page is important. Post headshots of your staff and include a short bio on this page.
4. Services page: List all the services you specialize in on the Services page or have a separate page dedicated to each service you provide. If you’re making any changes to the services then you need to go and update that as well.
5. Testimonials page: Reviews and testimonials serve as social proof and patients want to know what other people have to say about your practice.
Click to read more about the Top 5 Pages of a medical practice website.
Your website is your first impression. Make it count. Your website should look good, load fast, and all-in-all provide the best digital experience for your patients. Patients are looking for conveniences such as booking or rescheduling appointments online. Everybody has a busy life and you want to make it easy for them and give them the ability to connect and communicate with you on digital channels. The quality of digital experience you provide to your patients goes a long way in terms of acquiring new patients.
Essential Marketing Asset #2: Social Media Pages
With billions of active users on social media, you just cannot not be on Facebook or Instagram and other social media platforms.
Marketing on social media is not just about selling. Social media is for socializing with your patients, building relationships with your patients, getting to know them and connecting with them, getting them interested in you, and building their trust. You are their doctor and you’re the one who they trust for the best possible health care.
Create a business page or a profile for your practice on Facebook and Instagram. Create posts and stories that are engaging and encourage your patients to like, comment and share.
Essential Marketing Asset #3: YouTube channel
YouTube is the second largest search engine next only to Google and it can be a great brand-building tool for your practice. Make informational videos on a procedure or service you provide or share patient stories and experiences or just give some sound advice. You have to have great content for people to watch your videos and come back for more.
How do you shoot videos? Well, you really don’t need any fancy equipment for shooting your videos. A smartphone with a good quality camera and good lighting is just enough. There’s hardly any need to over-productionize your videos. Keep them simple and organic and focus on your content.
Essential Marketing Asset #4: Email Marketing List
Email marketing is not dead. In fact, email marketing can be very effective in attracting new patients and retaining existing ones. Of course, only if done right.
Focus on the content of your email message and make it informative, educational and engaging. People read most of their emails and do not mind frequent emails as long as they are relevant, interesting and specific to their needs.
Email is a 1-1 communication. Make it like one. Personalize every email you send by adding the recipient’s first name and writing something that is unique to them.
Build your email list organically and make sure patients have opted-in to receive email messages from you.
So these are the 4 essential marketing assets for your practice and it takes time to build them and grow them. So start early and be consistent.
I can imagine that probably you’re super excited right now to start this journey of building and growing the marketing assets for your practice. Apply 360° marketing strategies with Mktg.Doctor to acquire new patients, re-engage existing patients, improve patient experience, streamline your front desk, and justify your marketing spend.
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