8 Ways to Attract More Patients to Your Healthcare Business

Healthcare is a very competitive industry so it stands to reason, that if you want your company to succeed, you will need to do all you can to attract as many patients (and keep them) as you can.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most effective marketing strategies you can use right now to bring more patients through the doors…

1. Create a consistent brand

Yes, you might be a healthcare business offering various medical services and not a company selling the latest fashions or phones or whatever, but that does not mean you do not need a brand.

Branding may seem trivial but it is what helps to create the all-important first impression about your business, and even in healthcare, an eye-catching logo or snappy strapline can sway people to choose one company or another.

In order to create an effective brand for your healthcare business first think about exactly what it is that your business does and what makes you stand out. Do you ensure that your offices are all family-friendly? Do you go above and beyond with patient care? Have you created a zen-like medical, environment where people can relax? Work out your unique selling point and make this the focal point of your brand because, at the end of the day, one white coat is much the same as any other.

Oh, and once you have decided on your branding it is really important that you keep it consistent because if the message, or even the color scheme, keeps changing, people will struggle to work out what you’re really about, and they might just go elsewhere.

So ensure you have the same logo on your website, business, cards, uniforms, etc., that you use the same kind of language across all platforms and that your color scheme stays the same too. You’ll be amazed at just how much difference it can make.

2. Ensure your staff are smart

Healthcare staff work extremely hard in tough conditions, so how smart they look may not seem like it should be a top priority, and of course, doctors and nurses are going to get covered in all manner of bodily fluids and whatnot throughout the day, but when it comes to marketing, choosing uniforms that fo the job of keeping employees and patients safe, while also looking smart and stylish in photos is a really important idea.

Healthcare clothing brands like Uniform Advantage will ensure that your healthcare staff always look the part, which means when you put them on your marketing leaflets, brochures, websites, and what have you, customers will immediately be drawn to them and form the impression that they are dedicated professionals who take their work seriously. After all, no one wants to be treated by an unkempt health professional, nor do they want to choose a healthcare provider that does not look like it is run effectively, and disheveled employees can make things seem that way even if it is not a true picture of what is going on.

3. Design an effective website

These days, when people are looking for a healthcare provider, the first thing they do is log on to Google and perform a search. If your business does not have a web presence, it is unlikely to be a contender and you will lose out on a whole lot of business as a result.

Of course, it is not enough to simply have a website, it needs to be an effective one. What constitutes an effective healthcare provider website? First of all, it should be user-friendly. That means it should be responsive, so that anyone, whether they are using a tablet, phone or desktop computer can view it properly.

Secondly, it should also use language that patients can understand. Medical jargon can confuse a lot of people who are looking for solutions to their problems which means they do not know who to call and may end up thinking you cannot help them. Work with a good copywriter to condense things down to their simplest form and you will attract a lot more patients.

Of course, as a healthcare provider, you have a responsibility to ensure any information you are providing is accurate, so you need to make sure that your website is completely accurate in what it says too.

Other than that, making sure that it is easy for potential patients to find your contact information quickly is really important as it removes a pressure point and makes contact much more likely to happen.

4. Use social media

Social media is a fantastic tool for attracting patients to your healthcare facility. It is a good way of building organic traffic to your website, but more than that it enables you to show potential patients what you do and what you are about, that is, if you use it in the right way, of course.

Using social media, it is possible for you to show the human side of your healthcare business, so you can post short video interviews with the doctors and nurses who work at the facility, allowing prospective patients to get to know them a little.

You can also post photo and video tours of the facility so people can actually see what it is that you offer and hopefully be impressed by it.

Of course, you can also use it to advertise the services you offer, update p[ateints on any new services you are planning to add, and things like that. If you post a few times a day, you should be able to leverage your account to gain followers and convert more of them into patients without too much difficulty, but you do need to put a lot of effort into your content.

5. Collect patient reviews

Probably, one of the most effective things you can do to attract more patients to your healthcare business is to ask your patients for reviews. Pretty much everyone is going to be more comfortable visiting a particular healthcare facility if they know someone who has already done so and recommends it, or if they can see lots of online reviews singing its praises.

If you have treated a patient, ask them to fill out a survey and include a tick box that says they agree to you using their testimonial on their marketing materials. Not everyone will agree to do so, but plenty of people will and that will make it a whole lot easier for you when it comes to trying to convince people to sign up for your services.

6. Write for healthcare publications

Something else you might want to consider doing, if you can find the time, is writing articles or blog posts for various healthcare publications within your niche. Doing this will get your name and face out there and set you up as an expert who really knows what they are doing. So, when someone requires the kinds of services you offer, they will be much more likely to choose you as their preferred provider. The same goes for appearing on television, radio, or podcast providing they are reputable and taken seriously as a source of health news and information, of course.

7. Talk to existing patients

If you want to know now how to attract new patients, it can be a really good idea to talk to your existing patients. Why? Firstly because if you can find out what attracted them in the first place, you can do more than that, and secondly because they may have some good suggestions on how you can improve your services to make them even better.

Your patients are the ones who are going through treatment or using your services sn they know how it feels to be doing so, so they are often the best people to advise you on how to improve those things, therefore, making your services more attractive to more people down the line. It rlly isn;t rovket science.

8. Give back

Whether it’s running free healthcare clinics for disadvantaged people or raising money as a business for a local good cause, anything you can do to show that you are a caring healthcare company that really does try to help people, especially those in need in your local community, will give you lots of good PR which you can leverage to bring in more patients. It’s not the most important strategy in that patients will be more concerned about how well you can help them, but it will help to build positive associations between your business and the local people who are most likely to require your help at some point down the line. Just make sure you get the local paper to cover it.

Attracting more patients to your healthcare company can be tricky with so much competition around, but if you implement as many of the above strategies as possible, your chances of doing so will be greatly increased. So, what are you waiting for?