Strategies for New Patient Acquisition

Updated on September 1, 2022

The primary objective of running any business is to acquire new clients or customers. New clients bring in more business and ultimately result in profits for the company or business. Similarly, even in medical practice, establishing a wide client base is crucial if the business must stay up and running.

Anyone running a medical practice must be aware that customer acquisition in medical practice is not very simple. In fact, patient acquisition can be a challenging task.

In this article, we shall discuss five best customer acquisition strategies that can benefit medical practices. However, before delving into the subject, let us first understand the meaning of patient acquisition.

What is Patient Acquisition?

Any strategy that helps a medical practice obtain new patients for its business is known as a patient acquisition strategy. The main goal of patient acquisition strategies is to increase revenue for the medical practice. The patient acquisition must not be confused with “patient retention”. Patient retention refers to strategies employed to keep your existing clients satisfied enough so that they do not prefer another medical practice. Nowadays, numerous patient acquisition strategies that make use of the internet have become popular. Some most common and effective patient acquisition strategies include advertisements, web content, online reviews, reputation management, and SEO optimization.

5 best strategies for new patient acquisition

Now that you are aware of the meaning and scope of customer acquisition, read on to know the five best patient acquisition strategies to use in medical practice:

Using internet advertisements

Internet ads, especially Google ads have emerged to be one of the most popular forms of online marketing for any business, including medical practices. Internet ads help target potential clients and place your website or social media handle at the top of user queries. Such ads can be customized to specific locations so that businesses can directly connect with potential leads near their area of operation.

Ensure that your content is SEO optimized

A cardinal principle for publishing any form of online content is to ensure that it is SEO-friendly. Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO, helps in ensuring that your website content is visible to those who search for your medical practice online. Basically, SEO makes sure that your website ranks above all your competitors when your potential clients make relevant searches online. One easy way to ensure that your website content is SEO-friendly is to use certain common phrases for your target clients. Use the same phrases on your social media handles and business website. Incorporating blog posts is another great way of search engine optimization.

Highlight positive reviews to instill trust in potential clients

Unless your content looks trustworthy to potential leads, the chances that they will choose your medical practice are slim. Trust plays a huge role in any business, especially in the medical practice industry. Posting your positive reviews on internet ads or on your website is an excellent client acquisition strategy. Ideally, such positive reviews should be mentioned on the homepage of the business’ website so that potential leads are tempted to choose that medical practice itself.

Stay active on Social Media

People might discover fresh and intriguing accounts by chance while exploring their preferred social media platforms. This is exactly what makes social media distinctive. You only have a brief window of opportunity to leave a lasting impact in such a public setting. With the growing use of social media, it is important for medical practices to use social media for marketing purposes. Medical practices can post informative photos, videos, and infographics that visually appeal to potential clients. Social media is an excellent tool for patient acquisition because, in addition to reaching out to thousands of potential clients, it also provides analytics. Such analytics help you understand how well your content is performing.

Maintain a strong online reputation

Maintaining a strong online reputation is crucial for medical practices. Online reputation management helps medical practices build a clean online presence that attracts potential clients and instills trust. There are numerous online reputation management services that can help medical practices utilize content creation tactics to their fullest potential. Online reputation management services are tailor-made to suit the needs of each medical practice. As a result, different client acquisition methods are employed by different service providers.

Final Words

These are only five of the numerous strategies that medical practices can use for acquiring new clients. Usually, a blend of some or all of these techniques forms a robust patient acquisition strategy for your medical practice to reach out to newer clients. One must also focus on strategies to retain them over a period of time. The rise and fall of any medical practice, just like any other business, depends on its ability to attract new customers and retain them for a long time.

The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.