As a healthcare provider, the last thing you want is a stagnant patient pool. You can avoid this situation by going beyond traditional methods and employing a solid lead generation strategy that attracts potential patients and turns them into paying ones in order for your practice to keep growing.

In this digital era, physicians can no longer rely on age-old techniques while hoping that patients will simply discover their clinics by chance. Instead, they urgently need to make that strategic shift that will increase the visibility and credibility of their practices while giving them an edge over the competition. Healthcare lead generation strategies enable you to do exactly that. Provided you do it right, you will continue to attract new patients to your practice while driving revenue.

Use these tips for putting together an effective lead generation strategy to attract new patients and grow your practice.

#1. Create Your Own Website

Do you have an online presence yet? Potential patients often look for a new physician online either because they aren’t satisfied with their current healthcare provider or it is the first time they need one. Unless you have a good digital presence, you can never hope to make them your patients.

Start by creating your own website. Look for a couple of medical websites that you like and list their key features. Take a closer look at the websites of your competitors and think about things you can do better. Once you have some idea of what your website is going to look like, you can make a final list of the key features, number of pages you want and type of design among others. Now, you are ready to book a domain name and buy a web hosting plan or get in touch with a professional who will do everything for you to design and host your website.

#2. Build Social Media Business Profiles

Social media platforms provide physicians with a great opportunity to share information and connect with patients. There are several ways you can use it to engage patients on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.

In addition to the popular ones, there are many dedicated social networks for doctors to generate leads. Before you dive into the world of social media, you should plan for the content you will be sharing in advance. For example, you can share patient experiences and success stories to build credibility. You can also create educational content series and collaborate with influencers. Just make sure the information you share is valuable and relevant to your medical practice. This will tell you potential patients that you care for your online reputation. 

Using social media will not only help you attract new patients but it will also keep you connected with existing patients.

#3. Use Paid Digital Ads

Running paid digital ad campaigns is a proven tactic to attract chunks of new patients to your medical practice over a short period of time. When searching for a new provider, people often turn to Google with queries such as “best dentist near me” or “family physician me.” These questions can also be more specific, based on the specific needs of the potential patient or searcher. This is where paid ads come in; you can use Google Ads to boost your lead generation.

Google Ads suits the specific capacity and budget of every clinic or medical practice. The service allows you to select keywords that relate to your clinic or services and set a spending limit. When a potential patient searches using those keywords and you win the bid, your ads will appear in Google search results. As a result, you will drive more traffic to your website and generate leads.

Likewise, leveraging paid campaigns on social media platforms is also a good option for physicians to generate leads.   

#4. Tap into the Power of SEO

Ranking your medical clinic website in top Google searches can significantly boost both traffic and lead generation. This is where the role of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes into play. include SEO as a long-term digital marketing strategy, which will continue to give results for years to come.

To build a robust SEO foundation, you need to focus on four key areas including high quality content, technical SEO, on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Publish high-value, well-structured and relevant content and make sure search engines can crawl your website without any difficulty. Optimize the content on your pages and try to build some external authority using off-site SEO techniques. Proper keyword research is pivotal for any SEO strategy to bear fruit.

#5. Host Webinars

Think of a webinar as an online meeting where people can interact with each other in real time. Conducting webinars is an effective strategy for physicians to engage people and generate leads as a result. The best thing: You can keep on generating leads even after the webinar has long ended.

It is for you to choose the content of a webinar. You can give a presentation, allow folks to ask questions or discuss topics that are relevant to your medical clinic or the services you provide. There are many software applications that help you conduct professional webinars. Some good examples include ClickMeeting, Zoom, Livestorm, WebEx and BigMarker among others. Hosting webinars allows you to educate, build authority and ultimately attract new patients.

#6. Create High-Value Content

Health-related searches are conducted in large numbers on Google. This means people are looking for answers to a number of health concerns. With high quality content, you can prove yourself to be a valuable resource and address the queries of potential patients while building credibility. 

Based on the type of healthcare services you offer, you can create highly useful content and publish it via various owned digital channels. Whether it is patient education, advice on common health concerns, explanations of medical procedures, health and wellness tips or health news updates, you will never feel short of ideas for consistent content creation. Just maintain accuracy and avoid any kind of technical jargon in order for your content to resonate with the audience.  

When creating content, explore various formats including blog posts, articles, images, infographics, social media posts, videos etc. In this way, you will keep people engaged and boost your lead generation.

#7. Participate in Local Healthcare Events

Attending health fairs and conferences can unlock new possibilities of lead generation for medical service providers and physicians. These events offer you a great opportunity to interact with potential patients.

Healthcare events are designed with an aim to showcase various medical services and connect with potential patients. Make it a point to participate in local health fairs, patient education seminars and conferences or organize your own specific events focusing on your service area to attract potential patients. Use registration forms and sign-up sheets to collect contact details of attendees. As long as there is an incentive, you will be able to gather leads in good numbers.

#8. Kick Off an Email Campaign

No effective lead generation strategy would be complete without email marketing. Using a series of well-structured emails doesn’t just help you attract leads, but it also allows you to build long-term connections with interested patients. As a result, you will create loyal patients for your medical practice.

Offer your website visitors a freebie as a means to collect the email address of potential patients. As soon as folks opt in, you can first send them a welcome email, introducing your healthcare services. Next, you can create and send a series of emails to keep the subscribers engaged. Explain what sets your practice and services apart and how you can provide them real value. Through emails, you can stay in touch with both existing and new patients. This is how you can keep your practice at the top of potential patients’ minds and pave the path for conversions.

#9. Network with Community Advocates

Whether individuals or groups, vocal proponents in your healthcare service area can be a great source of lead generation.

The role of community advocates is to champion the interests and overall welfare of a particular community. They could be physicians specializing in a new area of treatment or emerging business leaders. Networking with such influential professionals can prove to be a gamechanger. Such relationships can boost patient referrals for your clinic in a significant manner. Therefore, get to know physicians and healthcare professionals in your service area to grow your practice.

#10. Boost Your Online Reputation

Positive experiences shared by your previous patients help you build trust and credibility and drive others to contact you. So, don’t forget to politely ask your patients for reviews highlighting the quality of your service.

Good reviews can be a powerful tool for lead generation. You should know how to use them to your maximum advantage. Apart from displaying reviews on your website, you can include them in your email newsletters and post them to your social media profiles for potential patients to go through. While you are at it, you should also keep a close watch on review sites for new feedback and promptly handle negative reviews in order to manage your online reputation. 

Need Help with Your Lead Generation?

If you are a physician looking to drive growth for your practice, you will find the tactics explored above quite useful. You really need to finetune your approach and adapt to the changing healthcare landscape in order to attract new patients and generate new leads, consistently. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have additional questions or need expert help to generate leads.