As a medical practitioner, getting new patients for your practice should be your top-most priority. Your ability to acquire more patients for your practice will determine how successful you will be as a medical practitioner.
There are many ways that you can get more patients in your practice. In this article, we will enumerate the various ways you can get new patients for your practice.
Provide Exceptional Healthcare Services
As a medical practitioner, you should always provide exceptional healthcare services to patients. You indirectly showcase your expertise by providing exceptional healthcare services to your patients.
Satisfied patients will definitely go out there to say good things about you to their friends, colleagues, and family members. The more people hear about your expertise and excellent healthcare services that you provide, the more new patients will want to visit your clinic.
Word-of-mouth referrals from your satisfied patients can significantly help you get new patients.
Ask for Patient Reviews
Reviews are very important in today’s business world, particularly in healthcare. Most people read now reviews from previous patients before making decisions about medical practices. Many doctors agreed that patient reviews were the most effective way to get more patients.
As a medical provider, it is important that you ask your patients to leave reviews about their experiences with your practice on your review pages. Potential patients will read those reviews to know what your existing patients are saying about your practice. This will help them make informed decisions about your practice.
Create a Patient Referral Program
Getting referrals from your existing patients is an easy way to get more patients. Many of your patients have families, friends, and colleagues that they can talk to about your practice. However, most of your existing patients will likely not refer your practice to their families, friends, or colleagues if their efforts are not rewarded.
You can prompt them into referring your practice to their friends, families and colleagues by creating a patient referral program that offers rewards to patients for referrals. The rewards could be in the form of discounts, free consultations, or coupons.
Employ Qualified and Experienced Staff
As a medical practitioner, the qualifications and experience of your staff members is very important. Apart from your own qualifications and experience, you should also know that your staff members are vital to the success of your practice.
Right from the front desk receptionist and the cleaners to the nurses, medical assistants and all other medical professionals that you have working with you, it is crucial that you employ people who are passionate about their jobs.
Employ people with the right skill set, knowledge, and proficiency that can provide exceptional services to your patients. This will go a long way in helping you acquire new patients.
Send Cold Emails to Target Audience
Cold emails are mass emails sent to a group of people in an email list. As a medical practitioner, you can get new patients by sending cold emails to your target audience. First, you need to identify your target audience according to various criteria.
The criteria could be age, gender, health conditions, specialty, etc. After identifying your target audience, create an email list of your target audience and then send emails to them. Cold emails can be automated to send emails to your target audience weekly or monthly.
The content of your email should be able to prompt potential patients to seek your practice.
Create a Google Business Page
Many businesses can now easily be found on Google Business listings. Google is the largest search engine with over 1 billion health-related searches per day. Registering your medical practice on Google Business can help increase your online presence.
If you don’t already have a Google Business page for your medical practice, you should create one. Your Google Business page should include the name of your clinic or hospital, contact details, services that you provide, opening hours, and links to your website and social media pages.
Optimize your Website
Your website is the gateway to your practice. Potential patients will first visit your website to know more about your practice before deciding whether or not to contact you. It is important that you optimize your website to attract new patients.
Your website should be of high quality. It should look visually appealing, easy to navigate, and be updated regularly with all necessary information. It should also be optimized for mobile view so that people using their mobile phones can easily view your website.
It should contain patient reviews, testimonials, relevant photos, and videos of your treatments and lectures. Include information about your qualifications and experience, including those of other medical professionals working with you.
Get Listed on Online Directories
Getting listed on online directories can help increase your online visibility. You can get your practice listed on various online directories and review sites to increase your online visibility.
Getting listed on various review sites can also help you get more reviews from existing patients. You can get listed on review sites such as Yelp, ZocDocs, WebMD, and Healthgrades.
Leverage Social Media
Social media is a great tool that you can use to get new patients. There are over 4.8 billion social media users in the world today and many of these users need healthcare at a point in their lives.
According to survey, 41 percent of patients use social media to search for and decide on their healthcare providers. 80 percent of people online search for health information on social media.
As a healthcare practitioner, you can leverage social media to increase your visibility and reach out to potential patients. You can get your practice on various social media platforms to reach out to potential patients and increase your visibility. These include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Practice Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) effectively increases your visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Creating content and including relevant keywords can help improve your SEO.
You can also capitalize on local SEO by including location-based keywords to increase your visibility for local healthcare searches. Hiring an SEO expert that can help boost your practice visibility using SEO is best.
Networking both Online and Offline
As a medical practitioner, networking with other medical professionals both online and offline can help you in getting new patients. There are various medical fields available. You may be a specialist in a particular medical field while you network with specialists in other medical fields.
When you network with other medical professionals, they can refer to you patients that require medical attention in your specific medical field when needed. Network with other medical professionals within and outside your community to expand your reach.
Engage in Community Services
Engaging in community services allows you to network and connect with the locals. Share your knowledge with them by conducting seminars where you can give lectures on various medical topics.
You can also volunteer to speak at fundraising events or give free health talks at parks or community gatherings. Use the opportunity to promote your practice and share your complementary cards with the locals.
Manage your Online Reputation
Your online reputation can impact your brand either positively or negatively. As a doctor, you should manage and monitor your online reputation. Know what people are saying about you and ensure that people are saying good things about you.
One negative review could ruin your reputation and prevents potential patients from contacting you. Ensure that you monitor your reviews and address negative reviews immediately.
You can set up Google Alerts to notify you instantly when your name or clinic is mentioned online. This will help you monitor your online reputation
Be Active and Interactive Online
It is not enough to create social media pages for your practice; you need to be active and interactive on your social media pages. If you don’t have the time to be active and interactive on social media, you should employ a social media manager that will interact with potential patients on your behalf.
Being active and interactive online is a way to communicate with potential patients and build a relationship with them. You can offer them professional advice and use the opportunity to promote your services to them. This can help you quickly get new patients for your practice.
Leverage Pay-Per-Click Advertising
According to stats, PPC ads have a 200% ROI. PPC ads generate twice the number of visitors compared to SEO. PPC ads can increase brand awareness by up to 80%. All these stats show how beneficial PPC advertising can be to your practice.
Leverage PPC ads like Google, FaceBook, and Display ads to increase your visibility, drive traffic to your website, and increase your conversion rates.
Start a Blog
Blogging has become increasingly popular in this age and time. Many people now go on blogs to get information. Blogging also helps with SEO to increase your visibility. If you don’t have a blog page already, you need to create one. Your blog page should be visually appealing and easy to use.
You should consistently post relevant and useful content on your blog page. You can showcase your expertise by posting content on various health-related topics on your blog page to attract new patients.
Use your blog to impress potential patients and get them engaged by asking them to share your content on their social media pages. You can also promote your blog on your various social media platforms.
Make it Easy for Patients to Contact You
If a new patient finds it difficult to book an appointment or contact you, he or she will be discouraged and will likely not continue. In such a scenario, you would have loosed a new patient. You should make it easy for new patients to book an appointment or contact you whenever they want.
Create a seamless appointment booking page that allows new patients to book appointments easily. You should also display your phone number so new patients can easily call with a single click. Keep your phone line open so that you can receive and attend to your calls at all times, particularly during working hours.
Provide Incentives
If you want to attract new patients, you should provide incentives. These incentives are what can attract new patients and prevent them from going to your competitors.
When you’re offering the same services as others at the same cost, the tendency of attracting new customers to yourself is low but when your cost is lower or you’re offering incentives, you will definitely attract more customers to yourself. As a doctor, you can attract new patients by providing incentives like discounts, coupons, and free consultation sessions.
Utilize Modern Technology
As a doctor, you should embrace technological advances. Always go in search of modern technology in delivering your services. This will help you in delivering exceptional healthcare services to patients.
Make your medical practice more automated to make delivery quicker, more effective, and seamless. Surgical procedures should be provided using modern technology and equipment. Conduct consistent research to know the newest and most advanced technology that should be used in healthcare delivery.
Be Flexible
Many doctors are not flexible, which can negatively impact their ability to get new patients. As a doctor, you should be flexible. Your patients should be able to book appointments with you at dates and times that are convenient for them.
If patients need early morning, lunchtime, or evening appointments, you must make yourself available. When they call your mobile phone, you should create time to listen and attend to them. This can greatly help you in getting new patients.
Leverage Local Media
While the world is becoming more digitalized, you can leverage local media such as TV adverts and radio adverts to increase your visibility. TV and radio advertising never run out of fashion.
They have been used for decades to advertise goods and services, and are still being used today for the same purpose. Advertise your medical practice on local TV and radio stations to increase your exposure within your community.
Banners and Business Cards
You can also increase your exposure within your community by creating and displaying banners of your practice at strategic locations. Banners can attract the attention of passersby and commuters.
Ensure you include your contact details in your banners. Also, create business cards and give them out to business associates, friends, and colleagues. Doing all these can help increase awareness about your practice and in getting new patients.
Find New Patient Leads with Lookalike Targeting
Most advertising platforms now offer lookalike targeting to reach new ideal leads. Lookalike targeting involves using an algorithm to analyze millions of data points to target and reach ideal new patient leads.
These algorithms narrow down your target based on the data you provide about your target patients. Lookalike targeting is a very high-performing advertising that is available on most ad platforms for medical practices and social media platforms.
Create Readable and Downloadable Content to Capture Leads
Creating readable and downloadable content on various online platforms is a great way to provide valuable patient education materials to capture potential patients. You can create readable and downloadable content on your website, blog page, social media pages, or third-party websites like Amazon.
Use SMS to Reach and Interact with Leads
According to stats, SMS open rates are as high as 98% and SMS response rates as high as 46%. Potential leads are much more likely to open and read a text message than an email. You should include SMS marketing in your general marketing campaigns to acquire new patients for your medical practice.
Host Podcasts and Webinars
Hosting podcasts and webinars are avenues to showcase your expertise to more audience. You can give lectures and share useful information with your audience during your podcast and webinar sessions.
Showcase your specialty by providing in-depth information on various medical-related topics and share your knowledge with your audience. Use the opportunity to promote your practice and encourage your audience to visit your website.
Create a YouTube Channel
YouTube is one of the largest social media platforms with billions of views. As a medical practitioner, you can create a YouTube channel to upload videos of your practice. You can capture the attention of potential patients by sharing educating videos on YouTube.
Leverage LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a networking platform for professionals. You can create a professional LinkedIn profile and promote your practice on the platform. LinkedIn has over 930 million users worldwide. You can leverage the huge audience on the platform to reach out to leads.
Give Lectures at Universities and Healthcare Facilities
As a doctor, you can showcase your expertise and promote your practice by giving lectures at universities and healthcare facilities. Volunteer to give lectures at various universities and healthcare facilities within and outside your community. This will help enhance your reputation and increase your practice awareness.
Follow-up on Leads
You can get new patients by following up on leads. Do not relent in your efforts to acquire new patients. You may not get immediate results but with perseverance and dedication, you will see results. Always follow up on leads and engage with them until they become your patients.
FAQs
How do you increase the number of patients in a clinic?
You can increase the number of patients in your clinic in various ways. We have explained many of the ways that you can get new patients above. Utilize them accordingly to increase the number of patients in your clinic.
How can a hospital attract more patients?
There are many ways that a hospital can attract more patients. These include delivering excellent services, providing patient-centered treatments, leveraging social media to reach out to new patients, using various advertising channels to increase awareness, and many more.
How do you promote a doctor’s clinic?
You can promote a doctor’s clinic via various channels such as social media, paid advertising, radio and TV advertising, banners, blogs, content marketing, email marketing, webinars, and podcasts.
How can I improve my medical business?
You can improve your medical business by providing excellent medical care to patients. Provide medical care using modern and innovative technology. Consistently research for the newest and most innovative technology to provide medical treatments. Research for trends and look into your competitors to know what they are doing to improve your medical business.
How do you schedule more patients?
You can schedule more patients by putting in place a scheduling platform that is easy to use. Ensure that it is easy for patients to schedule appointments with you. Your scheduling page should be on the front page of your website. Patients should be able to schedule appointments with you in a few simple steps.
How do I advertise my clinic on Google?
You can advertise your clinic on Google Ads. Google is the largest paid advertising platform. Your ad can appear on Google search results when people search for medical services like yours. You can with your Google Ads via https://ads.google.com. Create an account and sign up to start advertising your clinic on Google.
How do I promote my clinic on Instagram?
Instagram is a large social media platform with over 2 billion users. You can promote your clinic on Instagram by creating and posting your content on Instagram. Showcase your expertise by consistently posting medical-related topics and treatments on your Instagram page.
Engage with your followers on Instagram to further promote your clinic. Share useful content with them and use all available features on Instagram to display your medical services to the public.
How do I promote my clinic on Facebook?
Many business owners use Facebook to promote their businesses. As a doctor, you can use Facebook to promote your clinic. Facebook allows you to share content in the form of text, images, videos, and audio with the public. You can post your medical content on your Facebook page for the public to know more about you and your clinic.
Facebook also allows your friends to share your content on their Facebook pages. This will further increase views and create more awareness. You can also advertise your clinic on Facebook using Facebook Ads. This will help reach out to the target audience in search of the kind of medical care you provide.
How do I mark my clinic on Google Maps?
Google Maps is another great platform to promote your clinic and create more awareness. With Google Maps, people can easily search and locate your clinic. Sign in to Google Maps and follow the steps accordingly to add your clinic on Google Maps.
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