Ajay Prasad is the CEO of GMR Web Team, a full-service healthcare digital marketing agency focused on patient acquisition and retention.
It’s crucial for healthcare practices to retain patients and establish long-lasting relationships with them. Focusing on retention can help you establish a loyal patient base that can further grow your practice. It can cost businesses anywhere from five to 25 times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. And by boosting your retention rates by 5%, you may be able to increase your profits by more than 25%.
In the current digital age, when it is generally easier for healthcare professionals to interact and connect with patients, digital marketing strategies are critical to retaining patients and increasing practice growth. A robust online presence offers patients the resources they are looking for and creates opportunities to engage with your medical practice.
Drawing from my experience working with clients in the healthcare sector, I’ve compiled the following tips for using digital marketing to effectively retain patients:
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Establish Effective Multichannel Engagement
If you are creating several touchpoints to connect with your patients and retain them, multichannel engagement will be important. Multichannel marketing involves using various direct and indirect channels — such as websites, emails, SEO, social media, mobile marketing and more — to communicate with patients. Most importantly, it gives patients a choice about when and how they want to interact with you.
In simple terms, multichannel marketing lets you act across multiple channels to reach your patients at the right time and in the right place. Therefore, it is vital to understand each channel’s strengths and weaknesses and connect with your patients at the right time to build a strong relationship with them.
Implement A Retention-Focused Digital Marketing Strategy
I’ve found that the following digital marketing strategies are the most effective when it comes to retaining patients.
• Patient satisfaction monitoring: Gather patient feedback after their appointments to monitor their satisfaction. You can do this using automated text message and email surveys. By tracking the patient experience, you can understand exactly how your patients felt about their visit and identify areas for improvement.
• Social media marketing: Posting to social platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, allows you to engage with your current patients and remind them of your practice. Share health-related information across social platforms to build your credibility and further educate patients.
• Email marketing: Many patients check their email regularly. Send personalized emails like newsletters, appointment reminders, birthday cards and holiday cards to strengthen your relationships with your patients and show that you are thinking of them.
• Content marketing: Publish quality content that’s relevant and valuable to your patients not only to educate them but also to establish your practice as a reliable source of information.
Promote Patient Portals
Patient portals play a very prominent role when it comes to the relationship between patients and healthcare providers. These portals give patients access to lab results, secure messaging services, discharge summaries, immunization records, medication lists, prescription renewals and much more.
Research has shown that patients who interact with their healthcare providers through a patient portal are more likely to continue with the same providers. So focus on promoting your patient portals and their benefits via channels like email and social media to encourage more patients to use them.
Efficiently Map The Patient Journey
The patient journey comprises the patient’s entire experience with the healthcare provider, from when they contact the healthcare system, attend an appointment and receive a diagnosis and care to when they’ve recovered. Patient mapping helps healthcare providers gain insight into the patient’s experience and interactions with the health system throughout their journey.
By mapping this journey, you can also identify drawbacks and gaps in the patient’s experience. You can use these insights to fill the gap with various digital tactics like emails, paid advertising and interaction via social media.
Digital marketing is key for retaining and growing your patient base. After all, patient retention is about providing excellent care and keeping your team engaged with your patients to win their trust.
Source: Forbes
