Marketing is probably not a skill that most doctors think about marketing, but healthcare marketing is essential for any doctor who is trying to build a practice. While you probably know the ins and outs of providing medical care and giving good customer service in your practice, it won’t do you any good if you don’t have a constant flow of new patients coming into the surgery for you to take care of. Promoting your surgery doesn’t always have to be expensive to do, and there are plenty of ways to attract new patients without breaking the bank. Read on below for a few of the best ideas.
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Offer Patient Financing
In a world where every penny counts and the cost of living is soaring, offering patient financing can be a good way to make sure that your patients can be seen for whatever is wrong with them and a way to bring new patients into the business. Offering financing will not only benefit your patients, but it will also benefit your bottom line as well.
Train Your Team
Your staff is going to get to interact with the patients who come into the surgery long before you, so you need to take the time to train your whole team in the art of being social and in customer service. If they are providing better service, word will spread, and more new patients will be encouraged to try your surgery instead of a competitor. Things that you should make sure that your staff are trained to know include:
Pricing
Equipment that is used during procedures
What to expect during a consult
Any other customer service related things
Get Social
There is no way to get around it. The days when word of mouth alone was enough to get you patients are long gone. Instead, you have to be able to get social and lean to make use of Digital Health Marketing to draw patients in. Having a professional, easy-to-navigate website, a well-written, informative blog, and the ability to post on social media sites is key to bringing in new patients to grow your business. You can share news from your surgery, informative guides on industry developments, and your opinions on relevant news. Remember, there are a lot of doctors out there, so you need to be able to that you are different and better than the rest. If you’re a specialist in a particular field, you should also make sure you are listed in a database for that field, such as Medifind, so patients can easily find you when they need you. If you aren’t sure of your capabilities when it comes to marketing, there are plenty of companies and freelancers out there who can take over your social media for you.
Know Your Target Audience Ahead Of Time
Before you decide to reach out to new patients, you need to understand who your current patients are. Finding your target audience isn’t as tough as you might think. Look at your office records, and make a note of the following for your existing patients:
Location
Profession
Gender
Other identifying factors
This data will help you to find the best marketing techniques to target the patients that you want to bring in.
Always Follow Up With Patients
Holding onto your existing patients is just as important as gaining new ones. Make sure that you follow up with your patients to make sure that they are happy with the service that they have received and to answer any questions they have. Adding this personal touch of contacting them yourself will make them feel at home and help with word-of-mouth marketing, which still matters, even in the modern digital world.
Try Out YouTube
YouTube is a medium that is always getting the word out there about your practice. Ask your patients if you can post a video on YouTube with a review of your practice. Do an interview with a patient yourself, and post it on YouTube. This shows future patients that you like to get to know your existing patients.
Give Quality Service and Care
This should be obvious. If you want to attract new patients to your practice, then you need to give good quality care and service to the patients that you already have.
These are just a few tips for bringing in patients you can follow. Remember, marketing is important, but not as important as good old-fashioned patient care. You shouldn’t ever forget that point.