Congrats, you finally accomplished the tedious task of joining multiple networks in hopes of capturing lots of patients!
You’re new private practice is all set to run and you are excited. You bought the granite counters, the stainless steel sinks, the crown molding, and decorated the waiting room with fancy art and a large flat screen TV! You hired the best staff using the a top notch healthcare recruiter and your computers are all warmed up.
But wait! Where are all the patients?
Perhaps, you were under the impression that joining medical networks would automatically grow your practice? I hope not.
Joining networks do offer some great benefits such as, granting you access to hundreds of their members who can potentially become your patients. It can reduce the headaches of an out of network claim, allowing you to be paid in a timely manner with less hassles.
What enrolling with provider networks does NOT do is, marketing and for any new medical practice marketing will be needed. You will need to create a strategic plan to reach new patients who are members of the plans you are participating with.
Today, you can do most of your marketing from your laptop, phone or a tablet.
So, here is a list of 6 tips and things you should do to attract patients organically from online and mobile searches:
- Create a interactive website that allows patients to easily contact you.
- Set up an email marketing account.
- Engage patients through newsletters or informative emails.
- Set up a blog. This should be connected to your website. Linking the two allows you to share blog posts on social media platforms and then bring them back to your site and get them to sign up, connect, or schedule an appointment. This is another form of patient engagement; important to build trust.
- Set up all your social media sites and physician directories.
- Advertise on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. (There are billions of people on Social Media, they literally live there! Get their attention through ads.)
You’ve probably already figured out by this extensive checklist that just having a website alone is NOT enough. In fact, they don’t work unless you work them! This means that the entire list above is not only necessary, but must be managed on a daily basis to work.
Overwhelming, I know! But the truth is, practices found online quickly and successfully who convert visitors to leads on a list and then to patients, spend hours on digital marketing. Don’t skip this part of building your practice.