Do you have a lot of failed new patient marketing programs? Are you frustrated at the amount of effort it takes to get new patients in the door? If so, you may have a “Sales Prevention Department” secretly operating inside your practice.
If you are pushing hard to get more new patients and nothing seems to be working, perhaps someone is pushing back from within.
It’s tempting to hope that everyone on your team acts angelically with pure motives to help you and your practice succeed however experienced practice owners know that often when they find recurring failures of marketing there’s actually someone acting as a sales prevention department within the organization itself.
One common example is a front desk employee who prefers downtime to browse social media rather than work diligently. They might offer excuses for low performance, such as blaming bad weather or claiming that marketing leads are all bad.
Here are some common signs to look for:
1. Negativity. They continually complain about the quality of the new patients contacting the practice. Apparently, everybody is stupid, broke, or not really interested in care despite the fact they called in.
2. Constant failure. No matter what marketing program they work on it never seems to quite work and it’s always somebody else’s fault for the failure.
3. Fear-mongering. They are constantly giving you bad news and warnings about potential problems, real or imagined.
Some of these people will go to great lengths to convince you how indispensable they are as a way of protecting their position.
(By the way, if you thought of a particular person in your office while reading this article you may want to take a closer look at them.)
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To save time, many practitioners choose to partner with my agency, The Customer Factory.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call. You could have new patients coming in as soon as this time next week.
Find out more at:
Running that super-discount limited-number voucher offer with the countdown clock didn’t just fail to bring in qualified new patients, it may also have damaged your brand (how people perceive your practice) by making you look like a smarmy used car salesman, desperate to make a deal.
A strong brand is one that is top of mind with the prospective audience, with a positive image and a clear understanding of its value to them.
Brand damage occurs when the perceived value and trustworthiness of a practice are negatively affected, often due to poor marketing strategies.
One example of brand damage is when a marketing company promotes a high-quality clinic as a cheap, discounted service, confusing potential patients and attracting the wrong type of person in the door.
This damages the clinic’s reputation in two ways.
First, while the campaign might bring in dozens of people, thousands and thousands more people saw the advertisement and created an opinion of the practice from it.
Next, those dozens and dozens of low-quality patients that came in were not a good fit and tended to not become success stories from care.
These people then go out into the community talking about how they tried that practice and “it didn’t work”.
Of course, it takes more than a typo or a few simple marketing mistakes to damage a brand.
To identify brand damage, monitor the quality of incoming calls and walk-ins. If you are attracting the wrong type of customer or receiving fewer referrals, your brand may be damaged.
Brand rehabilitation can be a slow process, often requiring two to three times the duration of the damaging marketing campaign. Some aspects of brand damage may never be fully repaired, but significant improvements can be made.
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To save time, many practitioners choose to partner with my agency, The Customer Factory.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call.
Find out more at:
Too often practice owners buy new equipment, such as a decompression table or laser only to see it gathering dust months later. Take the following steps to ensure you maximize the use and profitability of your new service.
Adding new services can help you sell more to existing patients, attract new patients, and increase revenue. Here’s how to successfully add and market a new service to your practice.
Keep it real
I once saw a regenerative medical office bring in an expensive machine designed to melt fat. Purely an aesthetic treatment. While it was initially profitable less than a year later they were getting rid of it because those patients and that service just did not fit with the vibe of their practice.
Train your staff
You spent days or perhaps months researching the new service and know it inside and out. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your staff have a clue. They may be nodding their heads, but they don’t really get it until you train them – and then train them some more. Not only do they have to understand how to provide it, they also have to be able to explain (without you around) the benefits of the new service to patients and how it fits into the practice’s mission and purpose.
Introduce Existing Patients to the New Service
You have an existing database of patients that you can leverage to introduce the new service. Send emails, texts, and/or postal mail campaigns to your patient database highlighting the benefits of the new service.
Keep talking about it
Don’t stop marketing your new service after the first few announcements. It takes longer than you think for most patients to realize what you’re offering and to take action.
The general rule is that you have to tell somebody about a new product 20 or more times before you have fully cut through the noise.
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call.
Find out more at:
Nothing is more frustrating than having a new patient inquiry who won’t answer your calls when you call to schedule them for their first appointment. You can waste hours of time calling and calling and calling and eventually begin to wonder if the person is real or not.
I’m going to bet if you got a phone call right now from an unknown number you probably wouldn’t answer it.
Most people wouldn’t.
Realize that is how you look to a prospective new patient. Just because the person submitted a form on a web page or left you a voicemail does not mean that your phone number is in their contacts list.
The fix is simple.
Text the lead before calling them: Send a message saying, “Hi, Josie. This is John at Dr. Smith’s Office. You asked for an appointment. I’m going to call you in about 1 minute from this number.”
This increases your chances of getting a response by up to 50%.
Beyond this, you can set up a system that sends automatic follow-up “nurture” messages to the person every few days for several weeks.
This re-engages the lead, reminds them of their need, and encourages them to call your front desk to book an appointment. Sometimes people request an appointment and then things come up or change. Just be persistent.
If they needed your help last month they’ll still need your help next month if they don’t get care.
To take it to the next level, implement marketing automation software or a CRM. This keeps track of the prospects you have so that none fall through the cracks.
There are many options available, from MailChimp to more advanced software such as Infusionsoft.
Alternatively, you can use an agency that already has a system in place. You’ve probably heard of Go High Level and other variations.
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To save time, many practitioners choose to partner with my agency, The Customer Factory.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call. You could have new patients coming in as soon as this time next week.
Find out more at:
The only thing that never changes is the fact that things change. If your practice relies on just one or two sources for new patients you could wake up tomorrow and find yourself in big trouble.
Here is how you make sure you never run out of new patients no matter what’s happening.
The first thing to adopt is a strategy of Abundance.
Too often people aim at what they think they need. However, that leaves zero room for error and assumes everything goes as planned.
The strategy of abundance says if you need 20 new patients per month to thrive you should aim at building systems that generate 40 or even 60.
This means you have to diversify the sources where you get your new patients. Of course, this does not happen overnight so here are some steps you can take now to build towards that bulletproof future.
Work on your referral program. When it comes to referrals the most important thing is remembering to ask for referrals.
There are a lot of ways to go about it but that’s the bottom line ask more, get more. Determine how to ask for referrals, what your referral offer is, your referral contact strategy, and what to say to patients when asking for referrals.
Implement an ongoing patient reactivation campaign. Have a process in place to contact former patients and offer them a chance to come back and see you.
Continue building relationships with them by sending emails, texts, or letters. Too often a practice owner will do this one time and then stop.
Invest in paid marketing. Begin with Facebook advertising as it’s a quick and easy way to get new patients. Focus on targeting patients with specific complaints or issues, rather than promoting specific treatments or equipment.
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To save time, many practitioners choose to partner with my agency, The Customer Factory.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call. You could have new patients coming in as soon as this time next week.
Find out more at:
No matter how much search traffic or attention your website gets, it’s going to disappoint new patients and waste opportunities if it was built with new patient conversion as the top goal.
The entire purpose of your website is to get people to contact you so you can ultimately get them in for care. After all, you can’t get someone new onto service if they never contact you.
Unfortunately, many websites fail on this critical point.
Too often a practice website was designed by a web designer (not a marketer) to please the practice owner. Little to no less attention was put on the actual performance of the site in terms of getting new patients to reach for more information.
So you end up with websites that look great but actually underperform when it comes to the number of new patients generated.
You really see this in action when you see a website that goes out of its way to answer all the people’s questions.
This sounds good until you think it through.
If someone comes to your website with a question and you answer them on the website you never get a chance to speak to them.
Your website shouldn’t just be pretty; it should be designed foremost to get you, new patients. The design should be conversion-based, meaning that every element on the website should be focused on getting prospective patients into direct communication with you and your office.
That usually means LESS text and an emphasis on contacting the office for answers.
You need to measure its effectiveness by tracking how many patients it brings in. Start by putting a tracking phone number on your website and counting how many people contact you through it each week or month. Treat your website like an employee that you pay; if it’s not producing, then it’s time to make changes.
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To save time, many practitioners choose to partner with my agency, The Customer Factory.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call.
Find out more at:
If your new patient Facebook ads are not performing as well as they should, check to be sure you are not misformatting your ads with the below tips.
Primary Text:
Facebook has made a significant change to the primary text in your ads, which refers to the text appearing above your ad image. Previously, ads had up to seven lines of primary text. However, this has now been reduced to just three lines.
It’s essential to make those first two or three lines as engaging and attention-grabbing as possible. Get straight to the point and focus on the primary benefits of your offering, using powerful words that elicit a response from your target audience.
Images change:
Facebook has also updated the aspect ratio for ad images. Previously, images had a 2:3 aspect ratio (two parts high by three parts wide). The new aspect ratio is 4:5 (four parts high by five parts wide), resulting in a more square-ish image. This change is crucial because Facebook now crops the top of images, potentially cutting out important parts of your photo. To avoid this, adjust your images to the new aspect ratio.
Discovery! Authentic Photos mean better performance:
When selecting images for your ads, using real photos from your practice can lead to better performance compared to stock images. Authentic photos create a sense of connection and can resonate more with your audience. Just remember to respect privacy regulations and use images with the correct aspect ratio.
Tips for Adapting to the Format Changes
Craft concise, impactful primary text: Take the time to create two or three powerful sentences that effectively communicate your message. This can be challenging, but the effort will pay off in the long run.
Test multiple versions: Once you have your primary text and images, don’t be afraid to test different variations to see which ones perform best.
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call.
Find out more at:
If your Facebook new patient ads are underperforming perhaps you’re trying to do too much with your ad.
Basically, it comes down to Laser versus Shotgun.
Shotgun marketing is a broad approach, where you list all services offered in an ad, hoping to catch someone’s attention.
On the other hand, laser ads target one specific complaint (ie. Knee pain, Neuropathy, etc), speaking directly to the viewer’s needs. From years of experience, it’s clear that these one-topic ads outperform the shotgun approach by a significant margin.
Shotgun ads often stem from a lack of experience or confidence in advertising.
Marketers anxiously want to cast a wide net, hoping to reel in potential customers by listing everything they treat.
Thus, shotgun ads tend to be more about the advertiser, rather than the prospective patient.
In contrast, single-complaint-focused ads speak entirely to the prospect appealing to their self-interest, which is vital for effective copywriting.
It is far better to run separate campaigns for each specific complaint or service you want to advertise.
Ensure the conversation continues seamlessly from the ad to the landing page, using the same language and addressing the viewer’s concerns about that one complaint.
By showing you understand their needs, you gain their trust and interest.
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To save time, many practitioners choose to partner with my agency, The Customer Factory.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call. You could have new patients coming in as soon as this time next week.
Find out more at:
To build a successful practice, you need a competent, loyal team. Regardless of your goals, you cannot grow without skilled individuals who share your purpose. The key to achieving this is to find people who genuinely care about their work and share your practice’s mission.
Here is how I hire competent and loyal staff.
I own a successful new patient marketing company. Our hiring process is quite selective, and we go through numerous resumes to find the right candidate.
We eliminate candidates with errors in their resumes because it suggests they aren’t detail-oriented. We also conduct thorough testing, including IQ tests and aptitude assessments, to determine if they can learn and execute tasks efficiently.
We prefer hiring individuals without prior marketing experience, as they may have misconceptions or insufficient knowledge.
We train them with our proprietary methods to ensure they excel in their roles. Ongoing training is vital for everyone in the company, as industries are constantly evolving.
Our commitment to improvement extends to each team member. While they might not work with us for their entire careers, we want them to grow and develop while they’re with us.
Our business relies on documented procedures and comprehensive training, which allows us to seamlessly onboard new team members.
This approach prevents the loss of competence when someone leaves, ensuring our clients don’t experience any disruptions.
Developing a solid hiring and training process will enable you to build the business you love without feeling trapped or overworked. Cultivate a team of skilled, purpose-driven individuals and watch your company flourish.
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To save time, many practitioners choose to partner with my agency, The Customer Factory.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call. You could have new patients coming in as soon as this time next week.
Find out more at:
Being able to attract qualified and motivated new patients on demand is one key to setting yourself free as a practice owner and guaranteeing your financial future.
One crucial aspect of marketing for new patient leads is controlling lead quality.
By “quality” I mean a combination of factors ranging from someone’s level of motivation for care to their ability to pay for that care.
Lead quality is about finding the right balance between qualified and motivated individuals.
Highly qualified individuals may not be motivated enough to commit, while highly motivated individuals might lack the means to access your services. Striking the right balance is key to a successful marketing campaign.
Marketing “friction” is what helps you target the ideal audience. Friction refers to the level of difficulty a person faces when making an appointment request.
For example, a low-friction method like a Facebook lead ad requires minimal effort, while a high-friction method may involve them leaving Facebook to go to a dedicated landing page with a video and lengthy lead form, all before they can book an appointment.
More friction = higher quality
To optimize your marketing efforts, you must find the ideal level of friction that generates the leads you want for your practice.
Adjust factors such as form length, required fields, and the wording on your landing page. Keep in mind that as the quality of leads increases, the quantity almost always decreases.
Your ideal level of quality/friction can change based on your front desk’s efficiency or the size of your staff.
By working closely with your marketer, you can find the perfect balance between lead quality and quantity, ultimately maximizing the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
Of course, there are many more things to know in order to create a consistent flow of qualified new patients for your practice.
To save time, many practitioners choose to partner with my agency, The Customer Factory.
To find out if our marketing program is a good fit for your practice visit our website and book a 15-minute Discovery call.
Find out more at: