According to the recent February 2019 CMO Survey on 2,556 top marketers in the U.S., healthcare marketing leaders expect to increase their marketing budget for the next 12 months by almost 15%. And the hope is that the marketing will improve the amount of quick leads coming in, and that these leads will convert to patients.
The average digital marketing budget is 4.8% of the monthly revenue. And if you stayed current with this trend, you’ve probably invested as much.
In our previous blogs, we’ve discussed ways to assess the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy. Below are some of what we’ve covered. These can help you maximize the return of investment from your budget:
- Social Media
- Well-defined actionable goals
- Audience research
- Social Content
- Video
- Mobile Marketing
- Buyer Persona
- Email Marketing
- SEO
We also discussed in a separate blog some lead generation tactics you can use for healthcare marketing. These include:
- Optimizing your website
- Making sure you have all the content of a great website
- Tailoring your lead magnet to your social media platforms
- Employing SEO strategies in lead generation
- Being the lead magnet
Click here to learn how each tactic works to generate leads to your practice.
We covered which factors contribute to lead generation, such as excellent user experience, value-based offering, patient satisfaction.
But did you know that there are quick ways to generate leads?
It’s all about building lead generation strategies into your existing practice, systems and processes, and online. This can optimize your budgeting strategy for healthcare marketing.
Three Ways to Create Quick Leads for Healthcare Marketing
1. Build lead generation into your practice
There are many creative ways to build lead generation into your practice:
To start, when discussing your patient’s condition, aside from handing them brochures and leaflets, you can show them a PowerPoint presentation and embed this educational tool on your website. The patient will be able to access the material from their home to review with their family and caregivers. Make the educational content downloadable and shareable. This is a quick way to lead their families and friends to your website.
Another way is when you hand them your calling card, generate a QR code that leads to your website, which the patient can scan. Make sure your website URL is visible on your calling card and email reminders. By piggybacking on your existing practice, this quick lead generating technique will result in a lesser impact on your budget.
And finally, you could use your website as a resource. Have an FAQ page on your website where you can redirect your new patients. Many of them may not remember all the information you may have given during the visit. Pre-operative and post-operative instructions may be misplaced. Have it accessible for your patients on your website. By maximizing the use of your site, you will increase traffic and your online presence, at the same time, you add value to your services.
2. Build lead generation into your systems and processes
Automate processes
Automate the process of sending email reminders, health updates and tips, and patient reviews for every patient. No time to figure out how to do this? See how we can help.
Personalize each digital effort
Patients will most likely open an email when the sender shows the provider’s name. But don’t abuse or misuse this strategy by sending out spam email marketing content that doesn’t add value to the patients’ overall health care.
Let your lead generation efforts be patient-focused rather than practice-focused. Ask your patients what kind of content on your emails and website they would find useful and helpful.
Recognize your staff
Ensure your online content not only caters to your external customers (your patients and their families) but also your internal customers (your employees).
When you feature success stories of how your staff cared for your patients, you will motivate them to share your webpage on their social media accounts. Potential patients will also have an idea of the kind of care they will receive from your practice.
3. Build quick leads using these online tools and lead generation services
Create an online ad campaign
There are many venues where you can place your ads to make it visible to your target audience. These could include Facebook, Google, or Bing.
But, how do you know your ad is effective?
Make sure your ad campaign is working
Look at the following metrics:
Total Reach
You can monitor your reach through each of the above venues. This number shows you how many people saw your ad. The more you pay, the greater your exposure. But if you’ve successfully found your niche, you can target your ad campaign to your specific audience for less amount of money.
Click-Through Rate
You know your ad works when those you reach will click on the ad. Let’s say you reached 400 people in your ad, but only five clicked on the ad. That’s a low click-through rate of 1.25%.
So why are the people not reading your ad? Perhaps you’re reaching the wrong people. Or your ad is not catchy enough.
Cost Per Lead
How much did you spend to gather your leads? This will indicate how effective and expensive your ad campaign ran. Reassess your strategy if you’re losing money instead of converting leads to patients.
Cost Per Sale
You can use this for products sold from your website with each ad campaign.
Make sure your practice appears on platforms where your target audience would most likely search. Enlist your service on lead generator sites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, Angie’s List, Vital’s.com, Medicinenet.com, and the like.
And finally, according to Google’s Best Practices for Lead Generation, there are sure ways to scare your potential clients away.
AVOID the Following Ways to Lose Your Leads
1. Using a generic call to actions like “Get Started” or “Learn More.”
Instead, Google recommends more specific and descriptive CTAs using keywords to describe your link like “Find the Best Wellness Program Here” or “Search For The Treatment Facility Near You Here.”
2. Rushing your target audience to decide in one click
No one likes to be rushed. Rather, Google recommends using words that give them a chance to opt-out like “Add to Cart” instead of “Buy Now.”
3. Focusing on what you can get and not what you can give to your target audience
To remedy this, Google recommends letting your prospect know what they can get from signing up. For example, “FREE healthcare marketing strategy checklist” instead of “Join my subscribers’ list,” which focuses on your need.
And above all, you should state value propositions clearly.
4. Not offering any proof of credibility or authority
Any credible business, plus Google, would recommend adding testimonials to your webpage, seals of approval, and ratings and reviews that will help you gain the trust of your target audience
5. Making the process complicated
As a courtesy, Google recommends giving your readers the ability to control the information they provide or how they want to be contacted.
Thus, you could add auto-fill capability, reducing the number of information they need to share, or using a single column layout, and the like.
We Can Help You Get More Quick Leads
These are some of the tools at your fingertips for quick lead generation as part of a healthcare marketing strategy. Contact the experts at Content First Marketing for a FREE review here to see how we can help you find more qualified patients to grow your practice.
References
Arnott J. Content First Marketing: The Ultimate Guide to Building Authority, Establishing Trust, and Creating Lifetime Customers. Performance Publishing Group, McKinney, TX. 2014.
https://services.google.com/fh/files/events/pdf_leadgen_ux_playbook.pdf
