It used to be that patients sought out doctors, not the other way around. Today, with the increasing number of medical professionals, it is now necessary for doctors to market themselves to the fullest capacity.
As a doctor who is trying to build a practice with loyal, returning patients, there are specific things that you can do to make your practice more successful.
1. Have a professional website built.
Many healthcare professional underestimate the individuals that become patients based on their website. The first impression you make on a potential patient is on your website. What is currently on your site that would convince them to visit your practice over your competitors? Do you have high quality images of your office and employees? Are there testimonials of past patients? If not, you may want to look at having your website redesigned.
2. SEO your site.
Unfortunately, your website is useless if it cannot be seen by potential customers. According to BrightEdge data, organic search was the largest driver of traffic to websites across sectors studied, and the largest driver of revenue – even over paid search – in most sectors studied (source). The only way to ensure your websites visibility is through a marketing technique called Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization, also known as “SEO”, is the process of determining which keywords your target demographic is typing in to find services that you provide. After the keywords are determined, pages on your site are created around those keywords and links are built (from other sites pointing to yours) to these specific pages to increase their rank in the search results. Still unclear as to how SEO works? Don’t worry, watch the short explainer video below!
3. Don’t ignore social media
Everyone is using social media either for personal reasons, business or both. As a doctor, there is no reason why you cannot use it to grow your practice. In fact, you have a huge advantage because you can teach the public about various different things in your area of practice. Make time to create informative posts for your followers. This simple act creates trust and trust builds loyalty, which is the basis of all great marketing plans. Feel as though this could be an overwhelming process? Let us help by building your social strategy and managing all of your accounts.
4. Don’t be shy about asking for referrals.
Doctors give their patients referrals all the time but, what’s funny is, it’s very rare for them to ask for referrals. There is no reason you should hold back. Get in touch with other practices that offer complementary services. It can be as simple as sending a cold email or phoning local doctors to build a new channel for gaining patients.
5. Improve patient services.
Although the many businesses have moved upwards in terms of customer services some doctors remain stuck when it comes to patient service. Although you provide a medical service, it is important to make the patient feel as comfortable as possible throughout the entire process. Start by asking current patients the pros and cons of your business. Learn what they don’t like and fix it immediately. It could be the way that patients are scheduled is too confusing or the wait times are too long. Making the process as smooth and efficient for them as possible is a surefire way to keep them happy and coming back.
7. Encourage patients to review your practice.
Doctors with more and higher reviews get more referral patients, plain and simple. The reason is two-fold. First, when a potential patient is looking for a new doctor, the first thing they do is search for reviews. Just look at how many times the keyword “doctor reviews” is searched each month…
Second, there is a strong correlation between good reviews on sites like Yelp and your Google Business page. A good way to encourage patients to leave reviews is through automated emails after each visit. This can be developed and maintained through simple email software solutions such as Mailchimp.
