The Top 12 Things Medical Clinics MUST DO To Increase Patient Bookings

& Stop Leaving Money on the Table

1. You must define a niche for your marketing

You’ve fallen into the trap of Generalism, where you serve ANYONE YOU CAN.

This is rampant in the medical and healthcare industries. You have no idea exactly who you serve.

You MUST pick a niche if you want to differentiate yourself and gain a competitive advantage in the market. You do this by identifying a group of people who share similar pain points or problems which you can fix or solve.

If you don’t target who you help, people don’t understand how you can help them. If you try to be everything to everyone, you’re nothing for nobody. If you try to serve everyone, you serve no one.Remember: the specialist always gets paid more than the generalist.

2. You must refine your marketing message to connect with your target audience

In this day and age, people are bombarded with messages, seeing an average of 5,000 ads PER DAY!

You think your Facebook post, LinkedIn article, or Direct Mail is going to get read and you’re going to get a new booked patient? Think again.

You need a message that resonates with your target audience

You need a message that clearly articulates your VALUE and positions you as the EXPERT and AUTHORITY who can solve their painful problem, or propel them to their desired result.

People only care about two things:

Problem they have but don’t want anymore.
A result they want but aren’t getting.

When you create a message that resonates with those pain points in a specific niche, you’ll have ideal prospective customers and patients coming to you.

This is how you dominate your market.

3. You must get predictable systems in place to get bookings

Over my nearly two decades in the Health and Wellness Industry, it became clear a predictable and consistent system to get new patients was sorely lacking.

When it came down to brass tacks, everyone was marketing based on hope and crossed-fingers.

It looks like this:

You wake up and drive to work. You dive into your daily tsunami of office management and patient-services coordinating. When you catch your breath for a few minutes, you post a meme on Instagram, maybe you even watch another video about “how to DIY Facebook ads,” or you just hope some referrals come in…

Leaving your clinic’s success largely up to chance.

You can’t grow a medical business by crossing your fingers that your lead-generation methods will work.

Sadly, this is exactly what most medical businesses do.

Without predictable systems, your business will always be condemned to highs and lows.

If you don’t have a predictable, repeatable “rinse & repeat” system to get patients you don’t have a business.

4. Stop trying to do ALL-THE-THINGS to market your clinic

No matter where you go, you’re endlessly inundated with all the latest marketing tools.

There’s running ads on social media and then there’s posting on social media.

There’s posting to Tik-Tok and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and YouTube and Vine (oh wait, nevermind, Vine is so five minutes ago).

There’s blogging and guest blogging and podcasting and guest podcasting and hosting webinars and emailing your list.

There’s Google Ads and Groupon. There’s….well, you get the point.

Shiny Object Syndrome gets the best of us, no matter how intelligent and well-intentioned we may be.

There’s a quote often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, which I can’t find evidence he actually said, but I find it worth reminding doctors and clinic managers about on almost a daily basis: don’t mistake motion for action.

Another worthy mention: the Parks and Rec character, Ron Swanson, played by Nick Offerman, once sagely instructed Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope, “Don’t half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.”

You will take your business to the next level only when you are able to strategically narrow down your marketing channels to the select few that will drive maximum results–and then you scale those systems.

Of course, you have to actually know what you’re doing with each of these systems to produce results.

5. You MUST establish your Authority in Google and in your ideal patient’s mind.

So let’s say you’ve already defined your niche. And you’ve already refined your marketing message. Great! But how much attention are you paying to your digital presence?

No, I’m not asking if the color palette and font on your website are pretty.

I’m asking…

Does your website provide exceptional VALUE to your prospective ideal patients? And does your website tell Google that it does?
Are you ranking on Page 1 of Google – and ideally in one of the Top 3 positions on Page 1 – for multiple keywords that your ideal patients are searching for?
Do you only rank in Google for your name/brand name?
When was the last time you updated your blog?
How frequently do you publish new blogs?
Do you make a practice of updating your old blogs?
How long are your blogs?
How relevant are your blogs? (Read: are people actually searching Google for what you’re writing about?)
How Google-friendly are your blogs? (Read: alllll the nitty-gritty necessary things that go into a Search Engine-Optimized blog.)
Are your web pages strategically written to funnel visitors to you that have never heard of you before?
Do visitors to your website stay on your site for longer than a couple minutes?
Does the mobile version of your website take more than 3 seconds to load?
Are you more focused on regularly maintaining your social media accounts than you are on your website content? (Unfortunately, social media doesn’t play a major role in your Google ranking, and therefore your authority.)
How many QUALITY backlinks do you have? And what’s your Domain Authority like? Better still do you know what Domain Authority is and are you investing in it?

Simply put, if you’re not paying attention to the above – to your Digital Presence – you’re not optimally drawing in ideal prospective patients, you’re not reaching as many people as you could with your message, you’re not building authority, connection, and trust, you’re working harder, and you’re leaving money on the table.

Newsflash: 80% of patients research doctors online before committing.

And did you know

90.63% of website content receives zero traffic from Google.
75% of people never read farther than the first page of Google search results.
Over 60% of all clicks go to the top three listings in search results.
70-80% of people ignore paid search results, choosing to only click on organic listings.
Search engines promote 300% greater traffic to websites than social media does.
Leads from search engine results have a 14.6% close-rate. In contrast, outbound leads (i.e. direct mail, cold calls, etc.) have a 1.7% close-rate.

What do all these stats mean? In short, when you want to grow your brand, SEO that includes Technical SEO, Content Marketing, and Google My Business (GMB) are where it’s at first and foremost.

Fortunately, we’ve got you covered – without price-gouging your wallet. Our rates for quality, effective All-In-One SEO services (SEO, Content, and GMB) are crazy-competitive compared to 99.99% of agencies out there.

6. Understand that boosting a post on Facebook is not the same thing as running an ad

This doesn’t require much spelling out, but it’s important I mention it.

More than I’d like, I run across well-meaning clinic managers who claim they’ve run Facebook Ads but didn’t get any new bookings.

When I question them further, it turns out they’ve only been boosting posts. Not running paid ads.

There’s a huge difference between these two things.

And the fact that someone isn’t aware of the difference is also a good indicator that that person is not the best person to run actual Facebook Ads.

Plus, sometimes you should focus on Google Ads, not Facebook ads. (You heard me.)

7. You need to spend more money on ads than you are.
And you need to run your ad campaigns longer than you are

Chances are you’ve heard a rumor through the grapevine that you can run Facebook ads or Google ads for $5 to $10 a day.

You may not want to hear this, but the truth is you can’t collect the kind of data you need with that kind of ad-spend. And your data becomes even more useless or nonexistent if you don’t run your ads long enough.

Anyone who tells you they can get you results at $5 to $10 a day is going to enjoy taking your money in agency-fees while you “save” ad-spend money.

Sadly, we see the results of this scenario (disappointment and wasted time and money). All. The. Time.

I can’t tell you how many times brands tell us they invested money into Facebook or Google ads and paid a contractor or agency, but they didn’t get any results.

Then my team and I run an audit of their ad account and, like clockwork, we see only $5-$10 a day was spent for nine months, or sometimes as little as one month. We also see little to nothing in the way of strategic ad-creation and split-testing. And we see little to nothing in the way of retargeting (taking the data that has been collected to advertise – again – to those leads).

Case in point: Anyone can run Facebook or Google ads. Not everyone knows how to get results from Facebook or Google ads. There is a difference.

A strategic, skillfully designed and managed Facebook or Google Ad Campaign works by

Expertly and intensively split-testing varying sets of ads (headlines, images or video, and ad copy) among various target audiences (based on initial marketing knowledge and extensive research)
Then running ads and intensively collecting data
Then retargeting based on that collected data
Then running your ads for a substantial enough period of time to see a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

AD-SPEND:

If your ads and ad-campaign are skillfully executed, the low ideal amount for ad-spend budgets that can get results lies around $1500 per month ($50 per day).
You can always start on the low end of ad-spend and intelligently work your way up as you collect data from your campaigns.

DURATION OF AD-CAMPAIGNS:

In the ideal range of ad-spend, where you can intensively split-test different ad sets across multiple audiences, you’ll likely need only 4-6 weeks to accumulate optimal data. Then you can retarget and scale through the three-month mark and on.

Don’t skimp on your ad budget. And don’t skimp on the time you run your ads.

If you feel hesitant about your skillset or bandwidth to learn how to run your own ads with a higher ad-spend across a longer period of time, it’s important to not get paralyzed and take no action at all. Treat your hesitancy simply as valuable information that indicates you should outsource.

8. Understand when you’re better off not running ads – yet

Paid ads are the absolute quickest way to generate NEW leads and get NEW patients/clients. But sometimes it’s not in your budget to go full force with paid ads.

(Let’s be clear that paid advertising isn’t necessarily that expensive because expertly-crafted ads can yield an ROI (return on investment) many times more than the initial investment. So even loaning money to properly market your healthcare business can be a strategic jumper-cable.)

So when might you be better off not running ads – yet – if budget is a concern?

ANSWER 1) You might be better off not running ads yet if you haven’t offered enough value on your website in the way of CONTENT. If you don’t have solid website content (web pages and blogs) on your website, people who are directed to your website via ads are more likely to drop off. Why? Because they don’t understand how you can help them, don’t see you as an AUTHORITY, and they don’t have reason to trust you.

Granted, you might be able to get away with having less content on your website if you have a killer value-packed landing page where visitors are directed to from you ad-campaign. But it can take testing (and time) to get a landing page dialed in. Which puts a lot of pressure on the landing page and on you – because you’re the one paying for ads until that landing page gets dialed in and starts to optimally convert ad-viewers to ad-clickers.

But QUALITY GOOGLE-FRIENDLY CONTENT BUILDS YOUR AUTHORITY.

If you need help with creating quality, valuable Google-friendly content that doesn’t break the bank and leverages you into an AUTHORITY in your market (local or national), help is available! Just ask us about our AUTHORITY & REACH ALL-IN-ONE SEO PACKAGE, which includes SEO, Content, AND Google My Business for a fraction of the cost of other agencies (seriously our pricing and value breaks the Internet!).

ANSWER 2) You might be better off not running ads yet if you already have a substantial email list of pre-existing patients.

Instead, you might want to try re-engaging those warmer leads before you invest in generating new leads.

If you barely email your subscribers, they’ll likely need more warming up.

Don’t just email your list and try to sell right off the bat. Be sure to OFFER VALUE and CONNECT with them. Always aim to connect and offer value first and foremost. Conversion (i.e. a booking) happens naturally when you’re doing the connection and value part well.

Remember: you’re in business and the nature of being in business is connecting with other humans and offering value – not asking people to pay you just because you want to make money. (This may sound like common sense, but we see this a lot!)

Of course, ideally, you’re doing these things at the same time – publishing valuable Google-friendly content, nurturing your email list, AND running ads. But if budget is a concern, sometimes you’re better off focusing on Content and/or engaging your pre-existing list of leads first, knowing that you should invest in paid ads as soon as possible.

Plus, it’s always the right time to publish valuable content and email your list. If you haven’t been doing this, get on it – stat!

When you really want to optimize emailing your list, consult with an expert (us) about Data-Driven Email Marketing Campaigns.

9. Check yourself so you don’t make marketing decisions based on wishful thinking

This point doesn’t require much spelling out.

Simply put: don’t believe everything you hear.

Be suspicious if a contractor or agency tells you they can drive high-converting results for you at $5-$10 of ad-spend per day.

Don’t pay someone you find on the Internet $300 a month and expect you’re going to rank on Page 1 in Google and your website visitors (if you get them) will trust you as an Authority.

And especially don’t bleed your wallet out with a stupid-expensive (many many many thousands of dollars) SEO service that 99.99% of agencies overcharge for – without even including Content or Google My Business!

10. Update your website

Websites help you grow your authority and they support ad campaigns.

When someone clicks on a listing of one of your blogs in Google, or clicks on one of your ads, they’re redirected to your website (whether it’s a blog page, or a landing page).

Either way, no matter how good the blog or the ad may be, and no matter how well-matched or good-quality your lead may be, if your website is, shall we say, inhospitable to your new visitor, your Search Engine Optimization efforts or your ad performance may take a hit.

WHAT A WEBSITE SHOULD DO:

A website isn’t just something that should look pretty. An effective website needs to be skillfully-designed (often in less-obvious ways) for user-experience (UX) and to optimally funnel and convert your visitors into paying and loyal patients.
Your website should showcase your authority, build trust, inspire confidence, provide value, catch Google‘s attention, and support your lead-generation systems.

So what makes a medical website inhospitable?

SOME COMMON PROBLEMS WITH WEBSITES:

Many things about a website can make a potential new patient slip through the cracks no matter how good your ad is, or your services are. Some website snafus include (but are not limited to):

No opt in.
An opt-in that’s not easily noticeable.
No call to action (CTA).
Not enough CTAs.
An outdated “theme” that makes it hard for Google to crawl your website.
Poorly laid out navigation (how information is divided into pages, how pages are listed in navigation menus, etc.).
Too few web pages overall.
Too few Services pages.
Too many web pages overall.
Too few Services pages.
Subpar copywriting.
And more.

Your website needs to be treated as a functioning part of your marketing funnel to get you more patients.

11. Don’t hire an in-house Marketing Manager to run your clinic’s marketing. Instead, outsource and keep everything under one roof

No one should wear all the hats in a successful clinic.

You certainly don’t want to do all your clinic’s marketing yourself.

And you certainly don’t want to hire a dozen contractors for ALL-THE-THINGS only to wind up having to liaise with those dozen different parties. The last thing you want is another job on top of your current position of Clinic Manager!

So what are your options? (And by options, we mean strategic options.)

If you want to grow and scale your clinic, you have to outsource and keep all your needed services under one roof.

All too often we see clinics just like yours think they need to hire an in-house Marketing Manager–or they’re already paying one way too much money–to oversee and liaise with a dozen or more contractors. Or worse, they’re paying someone in-house to mostly just post on social media.

Instead, you must directly hire expert outsourced support in one place if you want to intelligently, efficiently, and effectively grow your medical business–without spreading yourself thin or unnecessarily paying an in-house Marketing Manager.

This way, you’ll position your clinic to consistently and effortlessly attract new patients–even while you sleep.

Seriously, in-house Marketing Managers are a totally unnecessary expense.

You’re welcome.

12. Don’t assume you’ve already exhausted all your resources

Don’t assume you’re a marketing expert.

I mean this kindly.

You are an expert at what you do. Your clinic would fall apart at the seams if it weren’t for your daily commitment and wrangling.

But there’s an–unfair–belief these days that clinic managers should be marketing experts and are responsible to perform all marketing services for a clinic.

If you haven’t yet seen the kind of business growth you want for your clinic, you have to tap different resources than you have been.

The Top 12 Things Medical Clinics MUST DO To Increase Patient Bookings​