Building a sense of community is one of the best ways to build trust in potential clients or customers. The way you interact with people online should represent the same way you interact with people in person at your place of business. This is super important, especially in a medical clinic. People want to feel heard and they need to know that you provide an answer to their concerns or pain points.
In today’s digital age, it’s more important than ever to harness your online community. By engaging with potential customers through your website, blog, and social media platforms, you can develop relationships that may lead to conversions. When done correctly, this can turn into long-term patients that provide lasting value for your business. Let’s take a closer look at why this is so important.
Develop Relationships with Potential Patients
The first reason why it’s important to harness your online community is because it allows you to develop relationships with potential patients. In order to convert someone from a potential patient into a paying patient, you need to build trust. By engaging with them on a regular basis, you can start to develop that trust. Over time, they will begin to see you as a credible source and eventually make a purchase.
Here are a few tips on how to get started:
- Get Active: Social media is not a tool to tell people how great your therapies are, its a place to build meaningful connections and build trust. People want to see that your practice is a trustworthy, caring, and compassionate place that promotes medical excellence. These days people can go online and find 20 + medical practices that most likely offer a similar treatment to yours. The #1 reason they will choose your practice over your competition is usually by referral, or some type of connection. Use this to your advantage and start getting your staff to post frequently about your practice.
- Be responsive: When someone takes the time to leave a comment on your blog post or social media platform, make sure to acknowledge them! A simple “thank you for your comment” goes a long way. If they ask a question, make sure to answer it promptly and thoroughly.
- Start a conversation: If someone posts something on social media that you have an opinion on, chime in! Engage in back-and-forth conversations with people online—the more you interact, the more likely they are to remember you when they need your product or service.
- Be helpful: If someone is struggling with something that you have expertise in, offer your help! Whether it’s advice on a health concern or tips on ways to help their concerns that they can do at home, people will appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge. Not only will you be helping out someone in need, but you’ll also be establishing yourself as an expert in your field—and people will take notice.
Increase Your Online Visibility
Another reason why harnessing your online community is so important is because it can lead to increased visibility and traffic for your practice. When people see that you are regularly active on social media and putting out high-quality content on your blog, they are more likely to visit your website and consider doing business with you. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are also great for driving traffic to your website or blog.
Tips for Increasing Your Visibility
- Create Engaging Content: The first step is to create content that will resonate with your target audience. This could be in the form of blog posts, social media posts, or even e-books or other downloadable resources. Whatever form it takes, your content should be engaging, informative, and relevant to your audience.
- Get Involved: You serve your local community in a big way. Getting involved with affiliate practices, local meetups, or even sponsoring certain events can help build trust in your community. The more active you are in your area, the more likely people are to hear about your place of business and consider becoming a patient.
- Build Relationships with Influencers: Another great way to reach potential patients is by building relationships with influencers in the health and wellness industry. These are people who have a large following on social media or an influential blog that aligns with your practice. If you can get them to promote your practice or share your content, you’ll reach a whole new audience of potential patients.
- Foster Community Engagement on Social Media: Make sure you’re active on the platforms where your target audience is spending their time and encourage them to interact with you. When done well, this can turn into valuable word-of-mouth marketing for your practice.
Improve Your Customer Service
Lastly, one of the most important but overlooked areas in any medical practice is training your front office staff in how they speak with, educate, and manage your potential and existing patients. Having a proper phone script and patient CRM (management tool) can dramatically help improve the revenue of your business on the front end. This helps to create a better overall experience for the patient and increase the chances of them doing business with you again in the future.
- Create a phone script: You must train your front office staff in how they respond to and schedule potential patient consultations. You could be losing thousands of dollars in potential revenue if your front office staff misinforms or miscommunicates your therapies to patients. The front office staff is not there to simply answer the phone, they are your patient experience coordinates and sales reps. This can make or break your business. You should also record and listen to all phone calls for the first several weeks when training a new front desk individual. They should go the distance in helping your potential patients understand the basics of what you offer and explain it in an attractive, engaging way.
- Get a CRM: If you do not have an automated patient management workflow you need to have one implemented immediately. Most patients will never call an office twice. If you do not have a workflow that automatically responds to and reminds your front office staff to call potential leads back then you are losing opportunities. The other thing a CRM can do is properly educate and warm up leads who have inquired about your services.
- Follow Up: You cannot only rely on your EHR to follow up with patients. Simply having automatic appointment reminders is not enough. Patients cancel all the time and always say they will call back or reschedule but rarely do. The follow up is paramount with patients who have inquired or have had an initial consultation.
The MedBrain Marketing Difference
We understand that the online world can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re already running a busy and successful practice. It may be hard to find the time to answer all the DMs and comments, but that is why we are here to help. From running social media platforms, content creation, blog writing, email marketing, to increasing traffic to your website and social platforms we have you covered.
By harnessing and creating your online community through your website, blog, and social media platforms, we can help develop relationships with potential patients that result in conversions. These patients can provide lasting value for your practice in the form of increased visibility, traffic, and improved customer service. So why wait? Get started today!
