Archive for June, 2011
Tips for Closing and Tracking Patient Leads
Jun 30th
PracticeDock online marketing products allow you to collect all leads, respond instantly via email, track ROI, and record phone numbers, names and conversations with potential patients to properly train staff.
You’ve worked hard to bring that new patient into the office, educate them about the benefits of treatment or surgery, and they?re now ready to go ahead with treatment. Congratulations! You’ve managed to take this patient lead all the way through the sales cycle, but now it’s time to close the sale — one of the most difficult stages of the sales cycle.
For doctors and medical professionals, closing the sale usually means bringing the patient into the office to sign paperwork to proceed with treatment and pay a deposit. At this time, the patient might also need to book a date for treatment and follow-up.
Use these tips to close and track those patient leads so that you don’t lose a single patient at this important stage of the sales cycle:
- Be prepared to answer more questions. Even though the patient might already have had a face-to-face consultation with you, they will probably have more questions and will turn to you for advice or direction. Be prepared to guide them through the process of treatment again and make yourself available. Patients need to feel comfortable and confident that they can trust you — treatment or surgery is a big decision. Take the time out of your schedule to answer questions or send an email reply as quickly as possible so the patient knows you care.
- Keep track of all communications. Whether the patient is asking questions via email or leaving a phone message, keep a record of all communications so that you know where the patient stands in the purchasing decision process. Remember that they may still be going back and forth over whether to proceed with treatment. Learning about what may be holding them back from proceeding with treatment could prompt a close of the sale. If it’s related to finances, you could offer them a convenient payment plan. If it’s about scheduling a time, you could offer several dates and options. Show the patient that they are in control and you are here to help them whenever they need it.
- Offer a free service or treatment for booking within a time frame. Inform the patient about an exclusive offer such as a free massage or spa treatment if they book their treatment or surgery within a given time period. Extending an exclusive offer — one that?s not published on your website or offered to all patients — will make the patient feel special and could prompt them to choose you over someone else they have been consulting with.
Make sales tracking and lead management easy with PracticeDock. PracticeDock’s suite of products includes the ROI Dashboard that allows for:
- Visual reporting on real-time stats for lead generation success
- Tracking staff response time to open and respond to leads
- Segmenting leads by type and source to measure the success of your marketing efforts
- Drill-down reporting for immediate access to your data
Learn more sales tips and techniques by talking with a PracticeDock specialist today!
Related content you may be interested in:
- Need Help Marketing Your Practice Online?
- How to Market to Your Current Patients
- Beef Up Your Website Content — New Advice Directly from Google
- 3 Simple Ways to Build Your Practice’s Social Presence
- 6 Tips for Doctor Marketing on Facebook
PracticeDock Marketing Expert Will Present “Converting Leads to Consultations” Talk at 2011 F.A.S.E. International Multi-Specialty Symposium
Jun 21st
Greg Brewer, PracticeDock Director of Sales
The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada will play host to the Multi-Specialty Foundation for Aesthetic Surgical Excellence (F.A.S.E.) International Multi-Specialty Symposium on June 23, 2011. The PracticeDock online marketing consultant team will be there at booth #46 to answer questions about online marketing, lead generation and presenting the PracticeDock suite of online marketing tools and products for doctors and medical professionals.
Our Director of Sales Development, Greg Brewer, will also be speaking during the “Practice Management” discussion segment. His presentation, “Converting Leads to Consultations” will show doctors and medical professionals how to better manage their leads and book more appointments.
Many doctors struggle with attracting the right type of patients and then following through to bring that patient into the office. This presentation will highlight the critical steps you need to take in order to bring more patients into your office after they contact you via phone, through your website, or through a directory listing. You’ll learn how to capture leads and lead them through the consultation and treatment appointment booking process.
Greg Brewer brings over 30 years of business and sales development experience to this discussion. He has also served as a world renowned Sandler Training sales coach. He is currently responsible for managing, directing and developing sales strategy for PracticeDock’s suite of online doctor marketing products including our award-winning physician directory, LocateADoc.com, and products such as Website Control, Call Tracking and Video Services.
If you will be attending the Multi-Specialty Foundation for Aesthetic Surgical Excellence (F.A.S.E.) International Multi-Specialty Symposium, be sure to catch the presentation by Greg Brewer of PracticeDock, and visit our booth #46 on the exhibition floor!
Read more about this week’s event in our press release.
Learn about PracticeDock’s online marketing suite of products and services here.
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6 Tips for Doctors Marketing on Facebook
Jun 9th
Managing a Facebook Page for your practice can help you tap into a whole new pool of prospective patients and market your services in fresh and innovative way.
Many of your ideal patients are active Facebook users and may be interested in keeping up with news and information about your practice on the social network. Creating a Facebook Page makes you appear more accessible to many patients, and can complement your online marketing strategy.
Use these six tips when marketing your practice on Facebook:
1. Be relevant. Make sure the information you are posting to your Facebook Page Wall is timely and relevant. Pick links and post status updates that will be interesting to a potential customer, and post updates that might spark a conversation.
2. Share before and after photos. Many prospective patients are very interested in seeing before and after photos of successful procedures and treatments performed at your practice. Post before and after photos regularly, and include a brief description of the procedure and a testimonial from your patient. This can be a very effective way to generate interest in a procedure, and also showcase what your practice has to offer.
3. Monitor comments and be prepared to respond. Not all of your Facebook fans will post positive comments or responses on your Wall. Be prepared to post a professional reply, and monitor your Wall regularly to make sure it isn’t being cluttered with spam.
4. Keep things fresh. One of the keys to making Facebook work for you is to be spontaneous and to share unique and interesting insights. Avoid posting links only to your latest blog updates. Ask questions, encourage people to post their thoughts on a topic, and focus on engaging your fans instead of only broadcasting a message.
5. Post occasional industry insights. Don’t be afraid to share some industry news or commentary about new procedures on your Facebook page. Many fans will be interested in reading more about a certain treatment or procedure, and will begin to turn to count on you as an authority on the subject.
6. Keep track of your results. The Facebook Insights tool can help you determine which posts are being viewed, and also tracks response rates to different updates. Use this tool regularly to weed out what is working from what isn’t so you can maximize your Facebook marketing efforts.
For more doctor marketing tips, visit the PracticeDock Facebook Page.
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Beef Up Your Website Content – New Advice Directly from Google
Jun 2nd
If you’ve noticed your practice website stopped appearing in the top few pages of search results for certain keywords in the past few months, it may have been affected by Google’s “Panda” update.
Google recently changed its algorithm to flush out spammy websites and ensure that people who are using the Google search feature are presented with more accurate results. Some websites have dropped off the search results pages completely, while others have moved up a few levels on search engine results pages.
Make sure your practice website isn’t outranked by a competitor and stays at the top of search results. Modifying your website content is one of the easiest ways to ensure your website doesn’t drop off results pages and can still be found by your target market.
Google makes the following recommendations for anyone who wants to maintain a quality website:
- Provide trusted information
- Avoid spelling, stylistic or factual errors
- Create useful content that is of genuine interest to the readers
- Provide original content or information, including original reporting, research and analysis
- Exercise some quality control over your content
- Edit and proofread your article
- Establish yourself as an authoritative resource on the subject
- Provide insightful analysis and information beyond the obvious — make your content as unique as possible
- Pay attention to detail
One of the key things to remember when writing content for your web pages is to make sure your content isn’t too “thin”. You want to make sure that each and every page is full of high-quality, relevant and useful information and that you are not publishing web pages that are identical or similar.
Be careful about the type of content you post and make sure you are focusing on providing high quality information for the reader. Anything that seems like spam — pages that are “stuffed” with keywords, pages that are full of ads, or content that has been copied and pasted from another site — will negatively affect your search engine rankings and may get you blacklisted from Google search engine results pages.
Talk to a PracticeDock specialist today to find out more about quality website content for your practice.
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