Three Steps to Making 2015 Your Record Year for New Patients

33% of your new patients should be coming in from your web presence. For example, if your patient and professional referrals generate 50 new patients per month, your web presence should be generating another 25. The bad news is it will probably not be free. The good news is these new patients are internet users, most of whom are young, healthy and smart, and have good jobs.

Step 1: Your Website Promotion

Because the internet has become such an effective way for healthcare providers to attract new patients, you are facing some competition. It’s like the Parliament of the United Kingdom: you must yell a bit before you can be heard. You need to attract attention with free profile pages with Google, Yelp, Healthgrades and other free listing services. You can also buy internet advertising with Google, FaceBook, YouTube, Twitter and so on. The best methods for you are based on your community’s needs, your practice strengths and your advertising budget. Just keep focused on the purpose: get potential new patients to visit your website. Review the results of your ads on a regular basis to drop the useless ads and double the effective ads. When you yell just enough on the internet, your website gets a statistical spike of visitors.

Step 2: Your Website Content

You have a good website if it compels potential new patients to request an appointment. Nothing else is more important. To do this, your website needs to enhance your reputation, educate the visitors, promote the benefits of your care, provide a personal touch and make it easy to get an appointment. If your website is not getting visitors to call your office, constantly improve it until it does! Thanks to the latest website technology, improving your website and adding new material is easy. You, your spouse, or one of your staff members can post the news, provide new educational material, replace old photos and bios, and give your website new looks until new patient calls start coming in.

Step 3: Your Professional Staff

No matter how much time and money you spend on internet advertising and your website, whoever handles the new patient calls must be a pro. When potential new patients call your office, one of three things happen: they schedule an appointment, they give an excuse and continue their search, or they are turned off and hang up. When a professional answers these calls, potential new patients feel they have found what they are looking for. They feel important, cared for and satisfied with the contact. They look forward to coming in. If you get all of the above three elements in place, your 2015 total new patients will be your highest ever. One, two, three!