It’s About Patient Acquisition, Not Just Medical Marketing

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Many practices assume that marketing is the only factor that impacts profits. They believe that if there’s a dip or stagnancy in profits, it must all be due to bad marketing. This line of thought  could not be further from the truth. While marketing is an aspect of patient acquisition, it is just one of many factors that will influence your acquisition and retention.   Instead of zeroing in on marketing, the lens through which you should review your practice’s success is the patient acquisition process. If you are looking to increase revenue, there are several steps you need to understand. Here are the patient acquisition best practices you should keep in mind:
"Instead of zeroing in on marketing, the lens through which you should review your practice’s success is the patient acquisition process."

Return On Investment

This is, without a doubt, the most important factor to consider in the entire process. Your ROI is an excellent indicator of how well your business is doing. If you have not already, it is time to understand exactly how much money are you making from your patient acquisition activities.

If you invest $1 in patient acquisition, are you getting $0.50 or $3.50 back? Once you begin to see how well your investment is doing, you can make changes to the following issues.

Marketing

Despite what you may have been led to believe, marketing isn’t about clicks, rankings, or impressions. The success of your marketing is actually determined by the number of leads you are receiving from your advertisements.

When potential clients reach out and provide their contact information, you’ve received a lead that could become interested in your services in the future. You are now on the road to success.

Quality of Lead Management + Scheduling

Your ability to acquire clients relies upon your ability to manage and schedule the leads that come in. Familiarize yourself with the lead management and scheduling process you currently have in place.

How many phone calls came in? How many emails arrived? Were any of these leads missed because the staff was otherwise occupied? How many leads decide to schedule? And how far are clients scheduled into the future?

When you understand where the gaps in the process might be, you can more clearly see where you need to revise your process, streamline your system, or hire additional staff to manage your unique situation.

Acquisition and Retention

This step is where we begin to see the return on investment. Of those who scheduled and attended, how many made a purchase? And of those who have purchased once, how many come back again? The secret to having a thriving practice is not just to get people in the door, but to keep them returning again and again.

Ultimately, when looking to improve your practice’s financial picture, the conversation expands beyond marketing to include the entire patient acquisition process. Once you begin to understand how each piece fits together, you can feel more confident pulling the departmental levers to make an almost immediate change in profit.