Patients are a fundamental part of any medical practice. For a healthcare practice to grow a clinic should attract at least 3 to 5 new patients per working day. Additionally, the practice should provide excellent treatment at competitive pricing so that patients are happy and spread the word. On the other hand, we should understand that the healthcare Industry such a niche market that needs a different approach to retain the existing patient set and to attract new patients.

In the digital age where information related to the health conditions is at the patient’s fingertips, so attracting qualified patients and maintaining the existing patients demands hard work and dedication.

Identifying your target patient audience: 

Before we start a promotion activity, first we need to analyse your current patients. Have a glimpse at your patient records and observe the age, sex, location, and profession of your existing patient list. This statistic will be crucial for you to find the right marketing techniques to boost your clinic and invite new patients to your practice.

Patient follow-up:

Majority of the practice trend to devote about 90% of their assets to entice new patients. But retaining your current patients is some of the costs effective and easiest ways to improve your practice. On the other hand, having a good relationship with your current patients will boost your patient referrals.

Build a mobile-friendly website:

Having a good looking contemporary and easy to use the website is extremely crucial for the development of your clinic and attract new patients. Most of the today’s web traffic comes via mobile, so do make sure your practice website is mobile friendly and works well on all the devices like laptop, pc, tablets and mobile. The main purpose of your website is to engage with your potential new patients so that they can decide and call out your practice for an appointment. Creating a user-friendly informative website is perhaps the most crucial marketing tool in the 21st century.

Starting a Blog:

Having a blog on the website helps you to keep the website fresh by adding new content regularly. Posting content regular and unique content on your blog indicates that you know your clinic and are delighted to keep all your patients updated. You can publish local events, share your practice updates, and provide wellness tips. You can post the blog link in your social media channels and make use of it to connect with current and potential patients.

Encourage Patient to provide online reviews

Online review is one of the highly effective ways to attract additional patients and grow your clinic. Encourage all your existing patients to share their opinion in an online review site. You can also provide concessions or free services to encourage patients to provide online reviews for your clinic. Another way of getting reviews is to send follow up email thanking them for their visit and encouraging them to review your practice online.

Stay Active in Social Media

Keep your social media handle active will help you convert new patients who are researching about your clinic online. Additional when your existing patients “share” or “like” your posts on social media, their whole social circles will see it. Additionally, it would also attract user traffic flow to your webpage and may assist in generating new patients. The trick is to post informational content that is appropriate for your target audience so that more and more individuals would engage with the content and share your posts.

Supervise your online presence

Let say your clinic has a few negative reviews online, identify most common issues for the negative review. The review website allows you to respond to the review, do reply to both negative & positive reviews to show the patient that you really care. The more you get positive review, the more calls you will get from potential new patients.

Be responsive

For any clinic, it is important how responsive you are for your existing patient and new patients. Always make sure you have adequate staff to respond to your patients. Feel free to recruit additional workforce to grow your existing service and if feasible, try to add new service to meet the new patient’s needs. You can also promote new services that strategically targets your potential audience group. If you meet your local requirements in a timely and strategic manner, you can boost the amount of patients and expand your clinic.

Deliver Quality Treatment / Services:

There is absolutely no way that your patients will recommend your clinic to other potential patients if they are not happy with your services and attitude. Your attitude and ambience of your practice are especially important. You must show real interest in your patients. You must be able to connect effectively with your patients and make your existence uplifting and positive.

Be Flexible

Make your appointment schedule and office hours suits your clinic patients. If you patients need evening hour appointments, lunch time, or early morning appointments. You need to make yourself accessible at a convenient time.

Referring Patients:

Maintaining contacts with other medics is a two-way road. Other doctors would be interested in referring their patients to you if you have been referring your patients to them. Make sure the doctor you refer to your patients is best in the class doctor.

Invest in Local Keywords (Local SEO)

Including local keyword Search Engine Optimization strategies in your promotion is very crucial because your clinic shows up for local keyword search results. These days patients are looking for medical services & doctors online. Make your practice comes up at the top few results. Having your website ranking on the 1st page of the search engine is very crucial for attracting potential new patients.

Post-Real Photos of your clinic and staff

Try to avoid stock images and generic photos on your website and social media channels. Customize your clinic website & make sure it a digital extension of your physical clinic. Having real-life pictures to display the ambience of your clinic & add some character to your clinic website.

Re-engage with your existing patients

Do have a system in place to monitor your patient’s appointments & sending appointment reminders to them on the day of the appointment to reduce patients no shows. If the patient is hesitant to come back to your clinic, you might encourage them to come back to the clinic by sending them birthday wishes & periodic appointment reminders.

Take all your cases seriously

Make sure you attend patients call, especially emergency phone calls, promptly. So if your patient is suffering & you are not accessible for them, they will never trend to come back to visit you again. If you are accessible for the patients especially in the time of emergency & go above & beyond their expectations, they won’t waste a single second in spreading a nice word about you and your practice.

As the healthcare market continuously evolves, you need to regularly evaluate your health care marketing strategy. You need to keep in touch with your existing patients and understand the value they add to your clinic. It is always advised to always keep your eye on the patient’s future potential as well. Engaging with your existing patients can help you find different ways to enhance & improve your services & products.