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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – I’m talking about the Internet. It is the “great unknown” that lies out there in technology-land where properly marketing your website has the power to either reach hundreds of new patients each day or can send them in droves to the surgeon down the street. Do you know how to get to the top of Google so these potential patients find you first? Let’s not shoot so high…do you know how to get your site to page 1, even?
If you’re a plastic surgeon who knows that having a website for your practice is essential, then good for you! You are far ahead of those who are still stuck in the dinosaur ages where social media marketing and search engine optimization are already extinct. So, now that we have established that you have a website, do you know how to use it to reach every patient in your local area? Do you have a strategy in place that is actively moving your marketing into the 21st century so you can help far more patients than you are now?
Don’t Get Taken for a Ride
The truth is that many plastic surgeons who are ready to expand and grow their medical practice don’t really know how to do this. If they do, they try search engine optimization (SEO) on their own and end up doing a halfway job because it’s not really their main focus (and it shouldn’t be, right?). On the other end of the spectrum, some surgeons give over all of their cosmetic surgery marketing needs to a company that didn’t explain anything to them, they don’t know what to look for along the way, and they end up never seeing the results they expected.
So where is the happy medium? I’m going to go out on a limb and say something that may shock you…the happy medium to success online has nothing to do with how much you know about Internet marketing. It is rather a combination of: a) how well your marketing company helps your site reach new patients and b.) the staff that you trust your patients with. That’s right! The way to a successful, multi-million dollar plastic surgery practice lies in hiring the right folks to do your marketing as well as training your staff members to serve patients in the best ways possible.
Blah, Blah, Blah
First, let’s talk about picking the right folks to market your practice. I know, it’s something that drums up thoughts of countless hours of boring discussions with a rep from some firm that drones on and on about terms that only geeks and nerds get excited about. But, the truth is that a good marketing company will be able to look at your current website, Google rankings, and in-office marketing techniques and come up with a simple and straightforward plan for how to turn things around for you.
Seven Marketing Areas that Can Kill Your Success if Not Addressed
Along the way, you should be told in layman’s terms about what is not set up properly on your website as well as why they have come up with those conclusions. The technical mumbo-jumbo aside, you should feel like you have learned something about SEO & cosmetic surgery marketing when you walk away from the discussion. **Important note: You should also feel confident that they have justified their planned course of action before you buy any of their services. The sad fact is that many cosmetic surgeons who walk away without a good understanding of how everything works will end up feeling taken advantage by the time they pay for their very first invoice! I’m hoping that this article will prevent that from happening to any more surgeons.
Areas of your current marketing methods that they should look at include:
Your website’s content (words), pages, ease of use for your visitors, and design layout.
The title of your website, the keywords used on your site that help or hinder the types of patients you are trying to reach (by area and by procedure, for example).
Your HTML code (tags used, your alternative text and the words you are linking to on your site).
How many links from other sites are pointing to your website.
Whether or not you have videos on your site (this is a big part of how you’ll turn website visitors into paying patients).
Whether or not you are using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to gain traffic to your website.
Many other factors including a blog, testimonials, articles in article directories, press releases, newsletter marketing, and patient referral programs.
What Your Staff Doesn’t Know Can Cause You to Fail
Secondly, let’s talk about your staff. You may think that your staff’s only job is to answer the phone, handle billing, schedule a convenient time for patients to come in, and clean up the exam rooms. And, you’d be right to think that. However, there has to be so much more to your staff in order to run a successful cosmetic surgery practice!
For example:
How do they answer the phone? Is it professional and scripted (friendly and consistent)?
Are they able to intuitively read into the patients’ concerns and apprehensions and address them?
Do they have a basic knowledge of your procedures and can answer basic questions about pre- and post-op requirements that you have as well as expected healing times?
Have they heard how satisfied your patients are and can effectively share that knowledge and sell/refer your services to others in their own circle of influence?
These are qualities that many doctors don’t consider because they feel that it’s their job to sell to patients and answer every single question they have. Not so! Your staff is your “first responder team”, if you will. It’s their job to present a professional, friendly, and knowledgeable face to your medical practice. If your staff isn’t currently achieving these things for you, how can you help them?
Four Ways to Prepare Your Staff for Success
Here are four suggestions for educating and seasoning even the newest of staff members so they can be your greatest asset.
Collectively train your staff during a luncheon or after-hours meeting about how you’d like the phone to be answered. Explain that a simple slip-up such as eating, chewing gum, or being too busy and dismissing a patient’s questions to get to the “scheduling the consultation” part does more harm than good.
Give staff the sense that their success is yours as well and make them feel like they have a stake in the ownership of your practice. This includes rewarding staff members with gift cards for new patient referrals and giving them a small percentage of each procedure they book, just to name a few.
Have them share the most frequently asked questions that they receive when patients call. Discuss what the answers are to those questions and document this information for them keep it by the phone. One staff’s “simple” question can be the same thing that has always stumped someone else. Give them guidance on how to best answer the tougher questions and help them to understand that the more knowledgeable they are the better the chances that a caller will schedule a consultation. It can’t be about how fast they can book the appointment; it’s truly about making a patient feel that they are in safe hands and can trust you and your staff.
Teach your staff to treat patients with as much care and attention that they would want if they were a patient of yours. It’s all about the little things: being a good listener, helping ease patients’ apprehensions, thoroughly answering questions, following through with caring concern after the procedure and staying in touch just like a good friend would.
By using these tips, you can confidently choose the right cosmetic surgery marketing company and also have a staff that is trained to be the greatest asset to your practice. Then, you’ll have a strategy that naturally brings in new patients on a consistent basis due to the care you have put into all aspects of how your patients are reached as well as how they are treated.
Author Bio:
Kim Virrueta is owner of EggStream Marketing, a cosmetic surgery marketing and plastic surgery advertising company located in Corona, CA. As a plastic surgery patient herself, she has made it her mission to help plastic surgeons reach more patients through SEO, Internet Marketing, and patient relations in order to educate and serve the plastic surgeon community. EggStream Marketing provides complete marketing services, both online and in the office. Contact EggStream Cosmetic Surgery Marketing to get a free marketing consultation & analysis and a free 30-second video to promote your practice. For further information: www.eggstreammarketing.com
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