Healthcare marketing has grown faster than ever, making it more challenging than ever to keep patients engaged and happy. With so many healthcare options available, healthcare providers are laser focused on retaining their patients. Digital marketing has very powerful tools to lure new patients, but more importantly to retain patients you already have. Right done, it will ensure patients stay loyal, informed, connected. 7 Proven Digital Healthcare Marketing Tactics for Retaining More patients, Improving Satisfaction and growing your practice.
1. Create Engaging Patient Education Content
Building trust is the foundation for patient retention, and patient retention comes from education. The more patients know about their health conditions, the treatment options and preventive measures, the more they are likely to remain with a provider they believe cares about them. Share relevant, easy to understand information through blogs, infographics, videos, and newsletters.
Digital channels give you a relationship with the patient that isn’t just based upon the appointment. There will be so much more power in the content you’re reusing, for they will keep coming back to your content, reinforcing their loyalty. When done right, educational content not only helps you retain patients, but also establishes your practice as a thought leader. Your patients will expect you to represent the information they need on their healthcare.
The most important point to remember when producing content is to do it in an engaging and interactive way. If you are considering that, think about making video tutorials, interactive quizzes or even live Q&A sessions on your website, or on your social media accounts. The content that is of such type, gives patients a way to participate actively, thus making them feel involved and valued. Patients who feel they are a part of their own health journey are more likely to stay. Good content isn’t about what you say, it’s about how you say it, and how it can inspire your audience.
2. Personalize Patient Communication
For a personalized world there is a need to see and knowing that patients are more than a number in the system. Personalization is one of the easiest ways to increase patient retention. Their name is something you can use in your emails or segment your list with their medical history and send out specific health tips or reminders that might …
The email or phone that reminds a patient of their appointments, medication follow ups and other wellness tips rather than using Mail and postal system. Personalized content increases patient retention because it demonstrates that your healthcare practice genuinely cares about patient’s personal health.
Another parts of personalized communication is the dependence on automated email flow based on patient interactions. Building on that example, you could set up an email after a patient comes to your practice writing a “thanks” and a brief health tip related to their visit. If we are not using Follow Up televisions for those patients who have not scheduled their follow up appointment, after a lapse of 1 week, send a gentle reminder. This is a great way to show patients that you’re customizing frequency and type of communication for a reason — that you’re attentive, engaged in their well being, and showing them you care.
Another part of personalized marketing is to reach patients where they are in their healthcare journey. Personalized communication matters: whether it’s sending reminders about check-ups to retain patients or helping patients with chronic illness management, small actions create a significant impact on patient retention.
3. Leverage Social Media for Community Building
One of the most powerful building relationships and constructing trust tools is through social media. Since millions of people use social platforms every day, healthcare providers now have an extremely large opportunity to reach their patients directly. To help bring your practice to life through word of mouth, share your patient testimonials, health tips and look behind the scenes into your practice on your own platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
A great way to increase patient retention through social media is creating exclusive groups or communities. For instance, start a Facebook group in which patients can ask medical related questions and you and a team can answer. Belonging to these online communities is important for patient retention and these communities provide the feeling of belonging. At hospitals with more supportive healthcare communities, patients are much less likely to pursue care somewhere else.
Building long term relationships, social media is such an important factor for consistency. If you can post regularly, respond to patient comments and post regularly it can hike the patient satisfaction. If patients are linked to your practice through social media, they are more likely to stick and recommend your work but when patients feel connected to your practice through social media, they are more likely to stick that’s if social media is done the right way. The reach of social media includes the potential expansion of your patient base through the retention efforts.
There is no doubt when it comes to social media marketing in improving patient retention.
4. Use Email Marketing to Stay Top-of-Mind
While email marketing isn’t new, it continues to be one of the most effective ways to nurture patient relationships and grow your retention. Informative emails that you send on a regular basis keeps your practice on their radar and also keeps your patients with your services engaged. Email marketing is a great way to reach out to your patients via your email, which is a non intrusive, and effective way to send them your special offers and reminders.
Healthcare newsletters can be very effective. With an intention to keep your patients informed about healthcare trends, wellness tips, or practice news, sending out monthly updates accomplish just that. A simple, yet powerful way to keep patients engaged and retain them.
Additionally, emails can be segmented by the type of patient you wish to target for patient retention. For example, you can send in specialized tips or news for seniors, while sending different type of content towards parents with little children. By segmenting your email lists, your patients will not only be more likely to read and engage with your content, they’ll also be receiving the most relevant information. Targeted email marketing to specific patient needs is a winning formula for retention and can be used to get patients to come back.
Value based emails should be part of your pro tips for healthcare email marketing. These emails are emails that send educational information and facts and nothing that tries to sell you something right away. And it builds trust and promotes patient retention in healthcare.
5. Implement a Patient Loyalty Program
The use of loyalty programs isn’t just for retail business. Participating patients also provide healthcare providers with incentives to keep patients where they are. Consider offering a points system to patients in return for rewards for going along to regular check ups, referrals, or, the very least, engaging with your digital content. Rewards include discounts for wellness services or consultations or treatments.
Naturally, it has a community and rewards that encourage patient retention; rewards that not only incentivize recurring visits but actually cause the community you pick up to show up regularly and move in under your roof. Having a loyalty program not only makes them feel more appreciated, but also more connected to your practice which will increase your retention rates.
Patients can also create referral programs with added benefits if you consider creating referral programs. Referral programs are great for patient retention because the patients who bring in others tend to stay longer with your practice. Not to mention a well implemented loyalty program brings the layer of fun and engagement often missing on what can be a serious subject, healthcare. They appeal because patient retention has solid potential rewards and is mutually beneficial for all parties.
6. Invest in a Patient-Friendly Website with a Focus on User Experience
Your website is usually the first point of interaction with your potential patients and frequently used by existing ones. A significance of patient retention is very important in design and usability of the website. Your website should be user friendly, optimized for mobile devices, and include all the necessary information a patient might need, including options to schedule an appointment, to access a patient portal, and answers to frequently asked questions.
If patients identify it easy to communicate with your website, then you will find them coming back to your practice enhancing patient retention. Some of the best practices include making it easy for patients to book an appointment online, where patients can access their test results online, and have an opportunity to find answers to frequently asked questions without having to consult with anyone. It is quite clear that patient retention focuses a lot on the flexibility of the service provisions particularly in the current environment that has embraced an influx of technology.
Lastly, make sure you remember to work for SEO regarding the patient retention. If patients cannot locate your practice on the internet they are likely to turn to another practice. If your website is fully optimized for search engines, it will be more visible and with more patients and doctors seeing it, there will be more patient retention.
7. Offer Telehealth Services for Convenience
Telemedicine is one of those value-added services that may turn the patients’ choice in favor of your healthcare organization in a world where people value convenience. Not all patients can afford to come for a physical visit, due to time constraints or other factors, and so give them the option that telehealth provides. Tele dermatology means that the patients can have consultations with doctors, receive follow-up examinations, and even receive health advice online.
Telehealth services meet the need of flexibility that the patients have and thus they will come back to your practice rather than looking for other options for patient retention. Telehealth ensures that such patients and many others requiring follow ups or mental health check ups or even routine check ups are conveniently booked for they do not have to spend a lot of time and cash going to see their doctors.
Since the telemedicine solution is gradually gaining popularity, providing this service will not only retain your clients but also attract new ones to work with you if they appreciate the measures that have been taken to maintain flexibility in providing services. Today, there are many patients who want telehealth, and thus by providing it, you are guaranteeing higher rates of patient loyalty.
Final Thoughts
It is universally appreciated that the patient in any healthcare practice has to be retained in order to enjoy steady patronage. For such a health Care organization, it is important to come up with measures that will ensure that the patients are constantly and diligently attending their appointments. With customization of messages and high tech communication options ranging from telemedicine, patient enlightenment, to customized patient reward programs, the potential in the field of digital marketing towards increased retention rates is limitless.
Here at Madavi Agency, we understand how these strategic techniques work in the health sector and we can assist health care service providers to adopt these strategies in order to attract more clientele and manage to retain the existing ones. It is time to help your practice grow and make certain that your patient remains satisfied, active, and loyal to the practice through smart digital marketing strategies and real-time tracking.
