Three Ways to Increase Your Practice’s Online Visibility
Sep 7th
Making sure your practice stands apart from other practices in your area goes beyond delivering great customer service and having an attractive website. When patients are searching for information about treatments and procedures that you offer, you need to make sure that your practice gets noticed and prompts a phone call or the completion of an online form. An eye-catching website is an important part of your online marketing strategy, but it?s not the only element to focus on.
Here are just three ways to increase your practice’s online visibility:
1. Promote special offers for new patients. Don’t be afraid to extend a discount or special offer to new patients. Many prospective patients are very price-conscientious, so a special deal on something they are interested in will help to pique their interest and increase the chances of booking a consultation. Promote these offers on your online profile pages and on your website.
2. List your practice on major directories. Generate more interest in your services, procedures and treatments by making sure you have a highly-visible placement on a major physician or surgeon directory. These directories attract highly-targeted traffic every day, and can help you get noticed by patients who are looking for exactly what you have to offer.
3. Stay active on Twitter and Facebook. Social networking tools are only effective when you engage with your community and followers regularly. If you want your social networking efforts to pay off, you have to stay active and provide insights, news and quality updates. If you decide to use Twitter and Facebook, make sure you have the resources to stay active for the long-term.
How Call Tracking Services Can Convert More Patient Calls
Jul 28th
Join us for a complimentary webinar, “Assessing Your Office Staff” on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 1 p.m. (EST) to learn more about the benefits of call tracking and ways to train your office staff to increase patient satisfaction.
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/287312147
The way your office staff handles inbound calls plays an important role in the number of consultations and treatment appointments you book on a daily basis. Have you ever wondered what type of conversation takes place between a prospective patient and your office on any given day? Call tracking can provide some insight on how your staff handles inbound calls.
When a prospective patient calls your office to find out more about a particular service or is interested in setting up a consultation, it’s imperative that your office staff knows how to handle the call and bring the patient into the office as soon as possible. Call tracking systems also allow you to monitor all calls coming into the office and ensure that your staff is handling each call effectively.
Many doctors and medical professionals also use call tracking systems to as a training tool, because staff members are able to record and review their conversations. Supervisors can review each call to make sure it meets quality standards, and change scripts or provide more training to staff members to ensure that most inbound calls turn into an appointment for a consultation or treatment.
When you set up a call tracking system in your office, you will be assigned a unique toll-free number that makes it very simple to track the effects of all of your marketing campaigns. As you promote this phone number on your website, profile page and other marketing materials, you will be able to see exactly where your leads are coming from. This can help you tweak and streamline your marketing campaigns so that you generate more inquiries or requests for consultations on a regular basis.
Call tracking is very simple to set up and provides valuable data about your lead, including the time of day the prospective patient called, the duration of the call, and how the call was handled by the staff member. Take the guesswork out of your advertising campaigns with a call tracking system that is easy to manage and provides a high ROI.
3 Ways to Increase Patient Conversions Online
Jul 21st
Attracting more traffic to your website doesn’t always translate into booking more appointments for consultations.
Many plastic surgeons, dentists, chiropractors and medical professionals with beautiful websites and profile pages find that they are generating lots of traffic, but can’t seem to get their visitors to submit contact information for an appointment.
First impressions are essential for converting traffic into patients, and there are several things you can do to make the patient feel confident that you are the doctor of medical professional they should seek treatment from.
Here are just three things you can do to increase patient conversions online:
1. Make sure your contact information is visible on every page. Put your phone number, e-mail address or a contact form within easy reach so that patients who are ready to make that consultation appointment can do so within seconds. Patients who need to “dig” for this information may simply get fed up and leave the site. Make it as easy as possible for the patient to get in touch with you.
2. Provide educational content for patients who are doing research. Establish yourself as an authority in your niche and build confidence in the patient by providing articles or blog posts that describe various treatments you offer. This type of content can help develop trust and make you stand apart from your competitors.
3. Offer discounts and special offers regularly. Prospective patients who are still deciding whether or not to pursue treatment because of the price may be more interested in your services when there is a discount or special offer available. Take the time to come up with several different offers that you rotate throughout the year so that patients will choose you over a competitor when making their final decision.
Best Practices for Promoting Your Services on Twitter
Jul 14th
If you’re one of the hundreds of physicians, dentists or medical professionals with a Twitter account, you may already have found effective ways to reach out to your patients and prospective clients. Twitter is a popular micro-blogging tool that allows you to post short updates called “tweets” and attract “Followers” who are interested in keeping up with your latest posts.
Businesses across all industries are now able to market to their target market in a fresh new way, but it’s important that you understand how Twitter works, and what your patients are expecting, before you post. Here are just some best practices when promoting your services on Twitter:
1. Make sure your profile description is thorough and complete. Be sure to fill in all the fields available with your website URL, and a brief description of your practice or services. If your Twitter account is public, many people will be able to find you simply based on the words you use in your profile description.
2. Stay active to attract more followers. In order to attract followers that could become patients, you need to understand the dynamics of the Twitter relationship. People who follow your updates on Twitter will pay attention to you when you are posting timely, relevant and unique posts and links. Avoid “spamming” your followers with specials on services. Focus on providing important information, links about different treatments available, and a special offer here and there for balance.
3. Promote your Twitter account on your own marketing materials. Encourage current and future patients to follow you on Twitter by attaching your Twitter handle to your e-mail signature, posting a link on your website, and dropping your Twitter handle in any blog posts or online discussion groups you participate in. This will make it much easier for people to track you down on Twitter and follow you automatically.
Tips for Generating More Referrals for Your Practice
Jun 30th
There are several ways to generate more referrals for your practice, and some of them don’t involve any direct marketing. Here are a few simple strategies that will help to keep your appointment books full season after season:
Improve Your Search Engine Rankings
When patients are looking for specific procedures online, they are more likely to find you when you are at the top of Google search page results. When a coworker or friend mentions your practice name or doctor names, it’s important that you can be easily found after a simple search. Make sure you are investing your marketing resources towards higher search engine placement so that your customer referrals can find you easily after a simple online search.
Focus on the Patient
Make sure your patients feel welcome and comfortable in your office, and take the time to decorate your waiting room so that the patient feels right at home. Showing concern and care for each and every patient builds rapport, and may just encourage a referral. Running a successful medical practice is just like running any other business — keeping your clients happy is a top priority!
Market Your Specialties and Strengths
Define what you do best, and emphasize the key services and procedures your practice offers in all of your marketing materials. Think of ways that a prospective customer would describe you when introducing you to their friends or associates. What makes you stand apart from other doctors in your niche? How convenient is it for patients to schedule an appointment with you, or to find your office? Focus on marketing some key details about your practice so that anyone else can highlight these benefits when sharing information with others.
Become Active in Your Community
Make yourself more visible in the community, either by joining a local Chamber of Commerce, participating in local social events, or even sponsoring community events. Highlight your activities and involvement in the community on your website or blog. Prospective clients may be more likely to refer you simply because you’re at ‘top of mind’ by being visible online, and offline.
More Tools for Monitoring Your Practice’s Brand Reputation Online
Jun 23rd
Last week, we discussed the importance of managing your brand reputation online, and some effective ways to intercept negative comments or posts about you and your practice.
As more and more patients turn to the Internet to share their experience about their office visit, procedure or treatment, it’s imperative that you have a brand reputation monitoring strategy in place so that you can protect your brand identity and address concerns as quickly as possible.
In addition to using free tools such as Google Alerts, BackType and BoardTrackers.com, there are a few other great tools that will help you better monitor your practice’s brand reputation online.
Technorati is a blog search engine that indexes thousands of blog posts every hour. You can sign up for an account with Technorati and link to your blog or website so that it can be ranked based on authority and popularity.
If you’re using Twitter on a regular basis, you can monitor the popularity of certain keywords in your industry, and also track links that people are retweeting using free services such as TweetBeep or Monitter.
Another simple way to manage your brand on Twitter is to simply run a basic Twitter search on your practice name or primary doctor names.
When you’re fairly active with posting blog comments, participating in social media sites such as Digg Twitter and other microblogging tools, you may benefit from running a search on sites such as Social Mention. This social media search engine provides search results only of blogs and social media tools, giving you an ‘at a glance’ view of any mentions of your practice and doctor names in real time.
Monitoring the effects of your social media activities and keeping up with comments and reviews about your practice is easier when you have an arsenal of tools by your side. Consider using some of these tools as part of your brand reputation monitoring strategy.
Free Tools for Monitoring Your Practice’s Brand Reputation Online
Jun 16th
Years ago, the only way you would know if one of your patients or clients was satisfied with a treatment, or had a complaint about a recent visit was if they contacted you directly via a letter, phone call or email.
Today, many patients turn to the Internet to share their opinions and comments with friends, family members and the world at large. Review sites and blogs have made it incredibly easy for anyone to publicly post their experience with you and your office within minutes.
Last week, we discussed ways to handle negative comments about your practice, and outlined some specific strategies that can help you continue to attract and retain clients. Since many online conversations happen without your consent, you also need a brand reputation monitoring strategy so that you can respond as quickly as possible.
One of the easiest ways to monitor reviews or posts about your practice is to set up a Google Alert on your company name, physicians and other medical practitioners. Google Alerts provide you with email updates on the latest Google search results based on the keywords you request. You can set up alerts that are delivered to you as they appear, once a day, or once a week. The alert goes straight to your inbox, and can make it easier for you and your office to keep tabs on what is being posted online at any given time.
Patients who maintain a blog, or individuals that post on other people’s blogs regularly may be leaving comments about their experience at your practice, or sharing information about a particular procedure. Backtype is a free service for monitoring blog comments. You can track where and how people are linking to your website, and follow those links to post a response when needed.
Services like BoardTrackers.com also allow you set up alerts on certain words and phrases, except this search is a little more comprehensive and keeps track of mentions across forums and discussion groups.
Again, keeping up with these posts puts you in a more powerful position because it gives you the chance to provide a professional response.
Next week, we’ll discuss some other tools and services that can help you monitor your brand reputation online…
How to Handle Negative Reviews About Your Practice Online
Jun 9th
The social media landscape now encompasses hundreds of blogs, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and user-generated sites that allow your patients to post reviews and experiences after visiting your practice or office.
While a glowing review of a treatment or procedure can help to bring in more clients, a negative review can damage your reputation.
How can you effectively handle bad reviews and insure yourself against negative comments and feedback from clients?
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that a single bad review won’t destroy your business or reputation — as long as there are a number of positive reviews posted on the same site. Most patients will take the time to read at least four or five reviews, both positive and negative, before making a decision.
If you think the review is unjustified, or that it is particularly vindictive and not based on an actual patient experience or visit, you may be able to have the comment or post removed by the site administrator. Another option is to post a professional response to the site so that other patients can see that you have acknowledged the post, and have an explanation. The key is to take action as soon as possible, and support any unjust negative reviews with a professional and positive response.
In a situation where you can identify the patient, you may be able to resolve the issue and address the negative feedback offline. Some patients may be willing to remove their review or edit their comment after you have approached them in a professional manner and express concern about their experience. In many cases, the patient simply wants to be heard — you can be the first to listen to their situation and take steps to remedy the situation, if possible. Find a way to e-mail or call the patient directly so that you can address their review or comment privately.
Handling negative reviews about your practice and patient experiences can be challenging, so it’s important that you have a plan in place to acknowledge the review and can take steps to improve the situation.
Stay tuned for next week’s blog post with more tips about monitoring your reputation online.
Five Minute Marketing Checklist for Promoting Your Practice Online
Jun 2nd
Have you set goals for marketing your practice online? Do you have a marketing strategy, or are you trying different advertising and marketing campaigns to attract more patients this season? Knowing how to market your practice online and achieving the results you want often requires putting together a plan that will connect you to the right patients.
Having a website, running banner ads or sending out direct marketing materials is no longer enough. Your prospective patients are using several online tools and search engines to track you down, so you need to take steps to ensure you?re front and center, wherever they go. Here’s a five-minute marketing checklist to help you get started:
Does your online marketing strategy enable you to:
1. Establish you as an authority in your specialty? Are you providing website visitor with fresh content, blogging about your industry or sending out press releases that position you as an authority? If not, consider ways that you can become more active online.
2. Provide you with a high return on investment? Are you investing your marketing dollars in the right areas? What type of return on investment (ROI) are you getting? Make sure you’re investing in tools and strategies that provide you with trackable results.
3. Build a database of current and prospective patients? From email newsletters to Twitter followers, an effective marketing strategy will put hundreds, even thousands of current and prospective patients at your fingertips. If you’re not actively building this list, you may be missing out on the chance to book dozens of appointments and consultations each month.
Consider all of the ways you are connecting with patients with your online marketing strategy.
If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to the three questions above, it may be time to revamp your practice marketing strategy and focus on efforts that will maximize your ROI and keep your appointment books full.
Effective Ways to Increase Patient Loyalty and Generate Repeat Business
May 26th
One of the primary goals of your online and offline marketing plan is to build a strong client base. Today’s patients have access to a wealth of information and can get in touch with doctors within seconds, so surgeons and medical professionals need to make an extra effort to increase patient loyalty and generate referrals.
Rewards programs are one effective way to generate more interest in your practice, and keep those patients coming back for additional procedures and services. You can develop a rewards program that offers discounts on future services, or even complimentary services after the patient acquires a certain number of points. If you are a cosmetic surgeon, you may consider offering free Botox injections or other lower-priced procedures in exchange for a certain number of points. Plastic surgeons may be able to extend a discount on laser hair removal packages, or may even offer a medical spa package as a reward.
For cosmetic and plastic surgeons that also offer medical spa services, a membership program can be a valuable way to generate repeat business. Membership rates and discounts can encourage patients to turn only to you when they are looking for more than just a cosmetic procedure. Today’s popular minimally-invasive procedures, including Botox, dermal filler injections and even laser hair removal, can be attractive to many of your existing cosmetic and plastic surgery clients. Membership rates on these popular services may an attractive incentive for your existing plastic and cosmetic surgery clients, as well as their friends and family members.
You can also increase patient loyalty by offering seasonal promotions and discounts. Highlight some key procedures for the season, and offer a discount or ‘double rewards’ on certain procedures or services throughout the year, to keep your patients interested.
Marketing to your patients is an ongoing process, and rewards and membership programs can be an effective way to keep existing clients coming back. Consider implementing a rewards program or offering membership rates on certain services so that you can generate repeat business, season after season.
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