What is Patient Acquisition?

In its simplest definition, patient acquisition means how you can obtain patients to whom you can offer your medical services. It refers to the offline and online marketing techniques employed to get new patients to your practice.

While word of mouth is quite effective even today, most medical practices also leverage digital healthcare marketing, which should not come as a surprise since one in five searches made on Google are, in fact, healthcare-related.

Patient Acquisition Vs. Patient Retention

In general, patient acquisition is the reverse of patient retention. This is because patient acquisition means getting new patients, while patient retention means these patients become loyal to your medical practice. 

However, patient acquisition and patient retention are both very important to the future of your medical practice. It is because when you have loyal patients, they will refer more patients to your practice.

10 Best Strategies for Patient Acquisition with a Medical Digital Marketing Agency

1. Developing a Patient Persona

Awareness of your target audience is necessary for implementing any successful marketing strategy. Patient profiling extends knowledge of the demographics and psychographics of your target clients. It includes their age, gender, income, lifestyle, preferred healthcare and treatment options, and other things.

Using such personas, a digital marketing agency can create campaigns that match the potential patient and increase the chances of effective conversions.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Organic visibility is essential so people needing your healthcare services can locate your site online. A medical digital marketing agency employs SEO, which includes keyword selection, content optimization and link building, to rank your website among the best in the search engine. 

Higher ranking improves the website’s visibility, and traffic increases, meaning more patients inquire and make appointments.

3. Content Marketing

Good, well-informed content can easily draw and maintain patients’ attention. Sharing textual or video material such as blog entries, articles, and infographics focusing on popular health issues or questions helps the general public view your healthcare practice as credible. 

This keeps your audience informed and forms a sort of allegiance with them, ensuring that they turn to your services when they need medical attention.

4. Online Appointment Scheduling

The second critical factor that patients consider when selecting a healthcare physician is convenience. Adoption of online appointment scheduling systems can help the healthcare industry improve overall patient acquisition. 

Another benefit is that booking appointments online takes a shorter time; thus, it is easy to book appointments online. Not only do patients express increased satisfaction, but this feature also prevents no-shows and decreases administrative tasks.

5. Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms offer vast coverage and interaction possibilities. The best medical digital marketing agency can provide social media management. Such an agency produces and publishes the content, and your target audience is engaged to establish a community around your healthcare brand.

Social networks like Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn are perfect for posting patient stories, tips, and news about your services.

6. Reputation Management

The survey shows that online reviews and patient testimonial videos prove very valuable in choosing the point of treatment.

For example, you have to work on your Online Profile Presence by tracking what is said about you in Google My Business, Yelp, and Health grades and then addressing positive and negative comments as soon as possible. A good reputation management plan is active, ensuring that your practice is noticed and trusted by other potential patients.

7. Paid Advertising (PPC)

Google Ads and Facebook ads offer immediate exposure and are useful in marketing to specific patient categories. An independent medical digital marketing agency will also work on PPC campaigns that will help attract patients to your website. 

These campaigns work in every possible way to maximize the returns, and therefore, such a profile can be very cheap when it comes to bringing in new patients.

8. Email and SMS Marketing

Other traditional methods of communication, like emails and short message service (SMS), are perfect ways to keep patients engaged and assure them of future appointments. Appointment notices, health information, and one-on-one communications may also be served through the current channels to make your practice memorable among patients. 

Email and SMS marketing is effective when it comes to reviving inactive clients and bringing them back to your practice.

9. Data Analytics and Performance Tracking

Before adopting new marketing strategies, it is imperative to clearly define key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine their success. 

The best medical digital marketing agencies will offer precise analytics as well as reports that cover certain aspects, such as website visitors, conversion rate, cost per patient acquired, etc. 

Their implementation ensures that marketers achieve the best results from marketing endeavors this year due to constantly monitoring and analyzing marketing data.

10. Community Engagement

Getting involved with the community can potentially benefit your practice by improving your practice’s image and gaining more patients. Sponsoring local events and volunteering for different activities proves that the practice concerns the community. It enhances your image with the public and provides a means for direct interaction with the patients.

Wrap Up

Working with a medical digital marketing agency can be highly beneficial for healthcare providers by growing their patient base. Various internet marketing strategies and tools can help healthcare companies improve visibility, communicate with potential clients, and expand the practice. These include all the above strategies that we elaborated on in detail.

Suppose you can best implement them with the assistance of a competent digital marketing agency. In that case, this benefit ensures that healthcare providers do their best in delivering healthcare services while professionals do their marketing for the best outcome.