How do you market for new patients in a cost efficient and effective manner? Starting with internal marketing is always the best approach, as it produces the most cost effective return, which is of utmost importance in managing a practice. Surveys are one method of internal marketing. But how do you go about generating new patients by using surveys?
Here’s the first tip that you can use to more effectively market: do a simple survey with all new patients who come in, in order to find out what brought them to your practice. This can be done as part of their new-patient intake forms, or the receptionist or any other designated staff member can ask the questions verbally.
We have a variety of prepared surveys for our clients to use. Here are examples of some questions you can use to create your own survey:
- If you were referred, who referred you and what did that person say to interest you in our office?
- If you responded to an ad, which one did you see? What about it attracted you?
- If you responded to our website, how did you locate it and what about it interested you?
A second tip is to use surveys on your existing patient base. Start by going through your existing patient records and find about 50 of your “A-list” patients/clients. Do a demographic search of where your best patients/clients are from. Then write a survey for those patients/clients to find out:
- what attracted them to your practice,
- what keeps them coming back to your practice,
- what they like the most about your practice and
- which services, if any, they would like to receive from you that you don’t currently offer.
You can then use this information to target the greatest demographic area of your A-list patients/clients and use their survey answers as “hot buttons” in a marketing campaign targeted to generate more patients/clients who are similar to those A-list patients/clients.
This is called targeted marketing. It’s all about generating quality patients and clients, not just getting people to walk through the door. Quality patients keep their appointments, follow your treatment programs, pay their bills, spend more than their insurance allotment, etc. These are the kinds of patients/clients you want to generate for your practice.
If you can determine in which area your best patients/clients reside and what brought them to you in the first place, you can then design a marketing campaign to generate more of those types of patients and clients.
Don’t just guess at what you think will bring new patients/clients in the door. Find out what got your best patients/clients there and use that information to your advantage. “Know before you go” is the motto of all good marketing. You find out the “know” by surveying.