Some healthcare providers forget the role marketing plays in running a successful practice. Implementing an analytics system at your practice will help you pinpoint whether your patients come from marketing campaigns or physician referrals.
Whether you’re looking to develop solid referrals or a meaningful web presence, analytics will help you create effective marketing strategies to help with acquiring new patients, as well as filter out inefficient methods and reduce practice expenditures.
The fifth installment of Power Your Practice’s Actionable Analytics series will help you identify the best patient sources so you can increase the amount of patients you gain.
Marketing Matters: Identifying Patient Sources
Do you know the source of new patients? Understanding how people become patients is essential for knowing the best way to grow your practice. Knowing whether the majority of your patients come from physician referrals or marketing campaigns will help you focus your patient acquisition efforts and resources on the most effective channels.
Physician Referrals – If the majority of your patients come from physicians, it’s important to know which doctors are giving you the most patients and the type of patients they are referring. This can illustrate which relationships are most beneficial, so you can strengthen them, and which ones may not be worth continuing.
Patient Referrals – When your patients refer their friends or family it shows that you are providing them with exceptional service. The ability to track these numbers can be an indicator of patient satisfaction, as well as listing patients who gave you the referrals, so you can thank them properly.
Marketing Campaigns – Whether you’re buying ads online, in the newspaper, on the radio or sending direct mail, marketing campaigns cost money. However you spend your marketing budget, a comprehensive analytics system gives you a clear view of your return on investment, so you can focus funds on the most beneficial marketing channels and get the most out of your marketing dollar.
Social Media – Incorporating a social media plan is an inexpensive way to build awareness for your business, increase your online presence, and connect with current and potential patients. Online social networking can be a great way to drive referrals, and closely analyzing which sites are most effective at doing this will give you insight as to the best ways to connect to current and potential patients.
There are many different paths to growing your practice, but it is difficult to do if you don’t know which strategy is most efficiently delivering new patients. Incorporating new patient data will help you most effectively utilize your time and resources in the areas that will deliver your organization the highest return on investment.
Next week, we’ll review how analytics help you track appointment trends more efficiently, which leads to less no-shows and more efficient labor.
Do you know what you need when setting up a new medical practice?