The practice of medicine is a competitive business. If you’re not careful, your competitors will get ahead and put your practice out of business.
That’s why you need to develop a systematic approach to marketing that embraces the latest technology and automation tools. In this guide, we’ll show you some great ways to automate the marketing process for your medical practice and help you keep your patients happy.
| Takeaways |
|---|
| 1. Implementing marketing automation can safeguard your practice by streamlining processes and improving efficiency. |
| 2. Personalized communication through automation enhances customer engagement and builds lasting relationships. |
| 3. Utilize automated workflows to nurture leads, ensuring a consistent and targeted approach in your marketing efforts. |
| 4. Marketing automation empowers you to respond to customer behaviors in real time, increasing the relevance of your interactions. |
| 5. Properly integrated marketing automation tools enable data-driven decision-making, leading to more effective campaigns. |
| 6. Automation can assist in tracking and analyzing customer interactions, helping you adapt your strategies for optimal results. |
| 7. Overcoming challenges in implementation requires careful planning, alignment between teams, and continuous performance review. |
| 8. Prioritize content creation that aligns with your automation strategy, delivering value to your audience at every touchpoint. |
| 9. Embrace marketing automation as a defense mechanism to stay competitive and drive growth in today’s dynamic business landscape. |
| 10. Regularly assess and refine your marketing automation tactics to stay current and effectively protect your practice’s interests. |
Use Tech To Make Your Email Marketing Easier
Using marketing automation software, you can:
Create custom automated emails based on your customer’s behavior. For example, if a customer has visited your website or an online store before but not purchased anything yet, you can send them an email with a discount code for their next purchase.
Keep customers engaged with timely and relevant content in the form of emails that include information about sales and new products.
Measure the effectiveness of the campaigns they run by tracking click-through rates and conversions (purchases made).
Discover the potential of social media as a powerful business tool. Explore how investing in social media can enhance your practice’s growth and engagement strategies.
Make Your Newsletter A Ritual
Your newsletter is an extension of your brand, so make sure it has a consistent look and feel. Once you have an idea of what the newsletter should look like, create a template in MailChimp or another platform to use as a starting point for future newsletters.
Then go ahead and send out your first issue! If you don’t have many subscribers yet, send one every week until people start opening the messages then keep doing it!
It may seem counterintuitive at first (after all, why would someone want more emails from you?), but once people start getting used to seeing something from you consistently it becomes second nature and they will start looking forward to hearing from you again.
Market Your Event With A Webinar
If you’re hosting an event, like an open house or grand opening, consider using webinars as part of your marketing strategy. Webinars can help you:
Create an email list – It’s very important to have a list of people who are interested in your practice. You can use this list to market future events and also engage with potential patients on the phone and online.
Build relationships with prospective patients – It’s important not only that your new patient experience be great; it also needs to be memorable!
Using video marketing helps you connect with patients before their appointments so that when they arrive at the clinic for their first visit (or just think about scheduling one) they already feel like they know who “you” are as opposed to just another doctor or dentist on the street corner.”
Use Landing Pages And Closed-Loop Reporting
A landing page is a single web page with the sole purpose of converting website visitors into paying customers. In other words, it’s like an advertisement that doesn’t give up until someone bites.
Landing pages can be used to track results and better understand your audience and when combined with marketing automation software like HubSpot, you’ll have access to closed-loop reporting and optimization tools.
They’re also great for optimizing tracking because they allow you to isolate different aspects of campaigns (such as where the leads are coming from).
So if one campaign isn’t performing as expected, you can compare its performance against another similar campaign using different variables like content or images on the landing page.
This will help identify what elements need improving to get better results from future campaigns using those same elements!
Looking to optimize your marketing budget? Learn valuable insights on saving money with social media management services to maximize your practice’s efficiency without overspending.
Use Retargeting To Stay Top Of Mind
Retargeting is a powerful tool for staying top of mind with your clients. You can create a custom audience in your marketing automation tool that contains all of the leads who have visited your website, then set up ads or emails to follow those people around the web.
There are many different types of retargeting ads:
- Retargeting banner ads (banners)
- Retargeting text ads (text)
- Retargeting video ads (video)
You can also use different ad formats to create custom retargeted campaigns:
Remarketing tags: These snippets of code allow you to serve personalized ads based on customer behaviors and preferences when they visit certain sites across the web.
They work by placing small pieces of HTML on another page so that when someone visits it, the code recognizes that person’s browser as yours and serves them an advertisement from your company all without having made any purchases yet!
Retargeting pixels: These are tiny images embedded into websites where users browse as well as within ad units like banners or text links so that we know when someone has visited our site.
Before interacting with content there again later down line through cookies stored within their browsers’ cache folders which contain information about previous visits made by time frame reference points such as domains viewed last month’s worth monthly basis etcetera.
Depending upon frequency settings chosen during the setup process at point time during campaign creation period before posting goes live into production level state.
Automate Your Content Marketing Process
Once you’ve figured out your content marketing strategy, it’s time to go from theory to practice. To do this, you’ll need to automate the process of creating and distributing content for each of your channels.
Automation will help you free up time so that you can focus on other aspects of your business like improving customer retention rates or boosting referral rates.
Use Real Estate Book Publishing Automation Software To Publish Like The Pros
Book publishing automation software can be used to publish like the pros.
The real estate industry is full of professionals who are passionate about their chosen field but lack the time or resources necessary to publish their books.
These professionals may want to share their knowledge with others through a book, but don’t want to spend months writing and editing a manuscript by themselves.
This is where the automation software comes in handy–it can help you create a finished product from start to finish in record time!
Unleash the full potential of your marketing efforts. Our guide on marketing strategy will help you refine your tactics and make your practice stand out in a competitive landscape.
Use The Right Keywords In Your Blog Posts
You can’t start a blog post without using the right keywords. Keywords are the words that people search for to find your website, blog, or blog posts.
When they do, you want them to be able to find you easily by searching those same keywords that way they get right where they need to go and read what you have written about it!
If you don’t have time or interest in focusing on keywords, then here is an easy way to think about it: Think about what would bring value to your prospective patients if they found your content through search engines like Google?
Create A Relationship-Building System For Website Visitors
Once you have a relationship-building system in place to track website visitors, you can begin to analyze the data. This allows you to understand how often people are coming back and what they’re doing on your site.
If you want more specific data about the actions of individual visitors and their interactions with your content, use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system or web analytics tool like Google Analytics.
Change Your Website If You’re Not Getting Results From It
It’s time to change your website if you’re not getting results from it.
If your site isn’t responsive, mobile-friendly, secure, or optimized for search, then it needs updating. These are all key factors when it comes to ranking highly on Google.
If your website isn’t performing well in these areas then it could be costing you serious money – both in terms of lost leads and sales but also indirectly through any drops in SEO position that may be caused by poor performance elsewhere on the site (i.e., poorly coded links).
Engage your audience with captivating content. Dive into the art of creating buzzworthy content on social media that resonates with your target market and generates meaningful interactions.
Don’t Be Afraid Of Video Marketing
There are many ways to reach your patients with marketing automation, but if you’re still unsure about video marketing, let me help you out.
Video is a great way to share information. If someone is going in for a procedure that requires anesthesia, they will want as much information about it as possible. Patients often want more information than their doctors provide them!
This is where having videos on your website comes in handy.
You can create a page specifically about your office procedures and make sure that it’s easy for patients to access at any time by linking it from other pages on the site or even posting it on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram (which both have millions of users).
Automate Your Email Marketing Messages
Send personalized emails to your patients based on their preferences, the type of service they’ve received, and other information.
Use email automation to remind patients about upcoming appointments, send out appointment reminders, or even remind them about overdue bills.
Automate the sending of newsletters and other marketing messages. You can use this function for any type of content that you want your clients to receive from you regularly: promotional emails, educational materials, etc.
Create A Referral Program
A referral program is a great way to grow your patient base. When you offer discounts or free service, it can cause new clients to refer their friends, who then become patients as well. Also, it’s important to reward your existing patients for referring other people to your practice!
The way I see it, there are two main types of referral programs:
The first type of referral program rewards current patients when they refer new ones. This can include things like gift certificates or coupons for extra services at the next appointment.
The second type doesn’t require a recommendation from an existing client; instead, you can run an ad asking people who don’t know about you yet if they want a special deal on seeing someone like yourself (which would be another doctor).
Use Video To Build Relationships And Trust
Video is another way to build trust, relationships, and brand awareness. After all, people are visual creatures. We remember what we see more than what we hear or read.
Video can also be used as an effective tool for messaging your target audience and delivering content that speaks directly to them in their native language.
For example, if you’re targeting a younger demographic (think millennials), then using humor and relatable imagery will help boost engagement levels on your videos.
While keeping them watching longer than someone who isn’t interested in what they have to say might stay if they take too long explaining things like “how it works.”
Build An Email List
You should have an email list. And you should be using it. Email marketing is by far the most powerful tool available to practices, and the reason for that is simple: people are always checking their email.
It’s easy to get started with building a database of patient emails. First, create a sign-up form on your website by adding a “subscribe” button on one of your pages (most marketing automation platforms have this feature included as well).
Anytime someone fills out the form, you’ll then add them to your database and start sending out emails in bulk at regular intervals or whenever you have new content you’d like them to see.
You can also use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to grow your email list—just make sure that there’s no character limit so people can enter more than just their name when they sign up!
Another way is by including an opt-in box on printed materials such as appointment cards and pamphlets; if patients have no idea who will benefit from having them join this list, they probably won’t sign up!
You could also offer freebies such as coupons or other discounts/discounts through contests held every week or two months.
You don’t want everyone winning though since not all patients will come back after receiving prizes only once so keep track of who wins each time so that next time around it would go better (although some may never come back…but we’ll talk about those later).
Stay ahead of the curve in the evolving world of social media management. Explore how social media managers will need to be a real-time newsroom in the future to effectively connect with audiences and adapt to changing trends.
Build And Maintain Your Web Presence
Your website, social media accounts, blog, newsletter, and events are an extension of your practice.
But it’s not just about the number of “Likes” or followers you have on Facebook it’s about building trust through engagement by providing valuable content that helps people solve problems they have in their lives.
To build a web presence:
Make sure all the links to your website are working properly. If they do not lead anywhere useful (or worse yet, if they lead to an error page), then no one will visit your site again!
Use keywords relevant to what you offer so that people searching for these keywords can find your information more easily than someone else who may have less relevant content but higher rankings in Google search results or other search engines like Bing or Yahoo!
Personalize Your Communications
Personalized communications are more effective. Personalized communication is more memorable. Personalized communication is more likely to generate a response, a sale, and/or a referral.
Marketing automation can help you personalize your communications by updating the data collected from each visitor who visits your website, such as name and location;
Then send them an email sequence based on the information they provide when signing up for your service or product.
Provide Value To Patients Before Their Appointments
- Offer a free consultation.
- Offer a free book or e-book (or both!) on the topic of your practice and how it can help people with their problems/questions/needs/concerns (e.g., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).
- Offer a free consultation with another specialist in your field who specializes in treating patients with similar issues as yours (e.g., psychopharmacology, cognitive therapy, etc.).
- Offer a free consultation with an expert on the topic that is related to your practice but not something you’re already practicing yourself (e.g., a nutritionist for weight loss specialists).
- Offer a free consultation program where people can choose one topic they would like guidance on every week over email until they have built up enough knowledge to solve their problem themselves!
This way they don’t feel like just another number at your clinic but rather someone who cares about them as an individual human being
Create A Feedback Loop Between Patients And Staff
You can use Marketing Automation to create a feedback loop between your staff and patients. This will help you improve the patient experience, which in turn improves patient retention and referrals.
Use a survey tool like SurveyMonkey or Wufoo to ask patients how they felt about their visit when they leave the office. Ask them why they came in and whether or not your staff was helpful.
Ask if they would recommend you to friends or family members looking for an eye doctor, and consider sending an email follow-up with a link to that question so that you can capture more feedback long after people have left the office.
A/B tests different messages on social media platforms by showing two different posts side by side (one with “green” text and one with “red” text).
Then analyze which ones get more clicks, likes, retweets, or shares from your followers’ followers who aren’t already following you back on Twitter because most people are too lazy to unfollow someone who tweets something irrelevant every day (like me).
This can also be used as fodder for future blog posts!
Don’t Overlook The Power Of Blogs And Newsletters
Blogs and newsletters are a great way to promote your practice and build trust with patients. They can be used to tell stories about your practice, share information about new services and procedures, or even promote events that you’re hosting.
If you’ve been struggling with ways to generate leads for your practice, consider using blogs and newsletters as part of your marketing automation strategy.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the ways you can use automation to make your marketing efforts easier. Once you’ve implemented these strategies, you’ll have more time for the things that matter most in your practice.
Further Reading
Expand your knowledge with these resources on marketing automation best practices:
Marketing Automation Best Practices by Sprinklr: Discover expert insights and strategies for maximizing the impact of marketing automation in your business.
Effective Marketing Automation Strategies by Social Garden: Explore actionable tips and tactics to implement successful marketing automation practices that drive growth and efficiency.
Generated Marketing Automation Best Practices by Solutions Review: Dive into a collection of best practices generated by ChatGPT to help you enhance your marketing automation efforts.
FAQs
What are the key benefits of marketing automation?
Marketing automation offers various benefits, including improved lead nurturing, enhanced customer engagement, time savings through automated workflows, and the ability to personalize communications at scale.
How can I choose the right marketing automation platform for my business?
Selecting the right platform involves assessing your business needs, evaluating features such as email marketing, lead scoring, and analytics, and considering integration capabilities with your existing tools.
What are some common challenges in implementing marketing automation?
Common challenges include data quality issues, lack of alignment between marketing and sales teams, over-automation leading to impersonal communication, and the need for ongoing monitoring and adjustment.
How can I ensure successful marketing automation adoption?
To ensure success, start with a clear strategy, define your goals, segment your audience, create relevant content, set up accurate tracking, and continuously analyze and optimize your campaigns.
What role does content play in effective marketing automation?
Content is crucial in marketing automation as it drives engagement and nurtures leads. Providing valuable and relevant content at different stages of the buyer’s journey can increase conversions and build customer relationships.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.