Easily implement these now!
The lessons learned as we navigated through 2020 have created a blueprint for marketing to patients, and this year the marketing buzzword for practice owners is patient experience. All of your advertising, marketing and messaging should be created with those two words in mind!
Patient experience encompasses the range of interactions that patients have with you and your practice. While social distancing may make it difficult to provide the personal interactions that improve a patient’s experience, you can certainly reinforce positive patient experience through the communication that you share with your patients. Below are the top trending marketing strategies that you can incorporate in your campaign for 2021.
Communication
Patient retention should always be a key component to any practice owner’s marketing strategy, and patient retention begins and ends with the patient experience. Effective communication is the foundation for ensuring that your patient is receiving the best practice experience. As we continue to live through this pandemic, it’s imperative that your website is updated with:
- Procedures for in-person and telehealth appointments
- New safety procedures and requirements
- General information about COVID-19
If you use an automated phone system and/or call routing, update it with any procedures, policies and contact information that have been communicated on your website. Consider personalizing email and text notifications, which also bring value to the patient journey.
FAQs
We live in a time where we are inundated with constant information. Being able to cut through the unnecessary noise and provide your patients with facts will be essential in building trust and fostering positive patient relationships. A quick and easy way to do this is by creating a FAQ page on your website of the most frequent questions you’ve been asked by patients. You can mix up the questions by dedicating some to hearing health and some to Covid-19 related inquiries. Your FAQs can be written on a landing page and or via video. Take advantage of this content and promote it on social media profiles, YouTube and newsletters in order to keep in touch with your patients and prospective patients.
Reputation Management
Reputation management covers digital reviews, social media engagement and more. It’s important that providers in your practice are talked about online so that patients can get to know who they will be seeing. When creating an online presence, make sure to:
- Create bios of the providers that work at your practice.
- Ask your customers to write a review of your hearing health services. This will help potential patients understand that similar people are coming to you for help.
- Showcase your customer testimonials on your website which creates confidence in your ability to support patients.
- Expand your presence over social media because you want to be where your patients are.
Update Your Practice Listings
Remember to post any updates about your practice to your business listings. For example, plenty of patients use Google Maps to search for nearby hearing health providers. Update your Google My Business listing with safety and health bulletins so patients know what to expect prior to their appointment. Keeping your directory listings, like Google My Business, current and consistent can help you capture additional patients as well.
Times may still be uncertain, but one thing remains a definite, the patient experience will always be the top priority in 2021 and in the years to come. If you remember to make it the focal point of your marketing efforts, you’ll not only retain the patients you have, but you’ll also acquire new ones along the marketing journey.