If you want to acquire more patients for your medical practice, you must look beyond the necessary physician referrals.
That’s because patients are now using digital channels to proactively research their conditions and choose physicians they want to see. While it’s crucial to maintain a relationship with your existing patients, it’s just as essential to growing your practice with new patients.
Regardless of what you have been told, promoting your practice and gaining new patients doesn’t have to be costly and time-consuming. Here are eight ways to attract new patients to your Rheumatology practice.
Ensure your website is optimized.
A website is the digital business card of any practice, so if yours needs updating it’s time to start. Make sure it’s fresh, modern, user-friendly, and reflects your rheumatology practice.
Your website can be a great referral source where you will be able to:
- Publish reviews and testimonials from patients and staff members.
- You can organize a blog with useful information for your patients.
- List out all the services that your practice offers.
- Display the bios and expertise of your team.
- Let patients quickly contact you or make an appointment online.
It shall be created or updated with the patient in mind and help them locate what they need as quickly as possible. Your site should be mobile-responsive and easy to use regardless of the mobile device.
Monitor online presence.
Be sure to dedicate consistent time to monitoring your practice’s online presence. Ensure the information you find is accurate and up to date.
If you find bad reviews, don’t ignore them, as that is the quickest way to scare away a potential patient. When you encounter a negative review, contact the patient and express that you’d like to discuss their concerns. Responding to them personally increases the chances that they remove the negative review. If you choose to respond online, don’t get into specifics and always keep it professional.
Get social.
Build a beautiful website, implement a creative blog, and create an active Facebook presence. It’s 2021, so if you haven’t already, it’s time to embrace social media and make it work for you and your practice.
It is essential to have a working social media strategy in today’s world, even in the medical field. Social media is a great advertising tool with a lot of potential. If you are active on your social media accounts, you will give your patients the option to like or share your content. Their social circle will then see it, and it will create more traffic to your site and potential leads that can become patients.
Don’t be scared to ask for help.
Encourage positive reviews from your current patients as they are an excellent opportunity for free publicity. Ask them to make referrals to friends and family and post positive reviews online. Just asking can be one of the most efficient and simple ways to get reviews, but some other ideas include:
- Link your online listing from your website.
- Go old school with a comment card.
- Ask via a personalized email.
- Automate it with special tools.
- Make a video with a call-to-action asking for those crucial testimonials.
- Send some shout-outs on social media.
Find out more about getting reviews by clicking here!
Connect with your community.
Connecting with your surrounding community is not only great for your practice but great for the community as well.
Online, you can make yourself relatable to potential patients by offering patient-friendly tips and guidelines. Utilize your blog, social media, and emails, but try to think outside of the box as well. Or put yourself out there by working out a deal for a local TV segment, writing an article for the newspaper, or organizing a presentation for the neighborhood church.
Utilize marketing materials.
People love free stuff. Spread the word about your practice with informative brochures, pens, notepads, or magnets branded with your office logo and contact information.
Handing out swag is a simple gesture that has a major impact on patient satisfaction and loyalty!
Give back.
Put forth those volunteer efforts and give back to your community while doing something good for your practice. Volunteer to help a sports team at the local high school with annual physicals, conduct seminars at nearby gyms, or have your office team participate in events that raise awareness.
Showing your community that you are involved and willing to help speaks volumes about you and your practice.
Say thanks.
A little effort goes a long way. Take the time to personally follow up with new patients with a phone call or handwritten note.
As Rheumatology practices continue to change and evolve, so will the way they acquire new patients. While the best way to keep patients and attract new ones is quality service, a practice’s ability to interact with those inside and outside of the office will play a massive role in building new and robust relationships.
Tags: Attract New Patients, Marketing, Marketing Dos and Donts, Marketing for Office Managers, medical office management, national organization of rheumatology managers, NORM, office management, office managers, patient feedback, patient portal, Patient technology, Regardless of what you have been told, rheumatologists, rheumatology, social media Posted by
