The 3 Biggest Marketing Mistakes That Healthcare Professionals Make
When I see this, it legitimately hurts my soul. Please stop ...
Welcome to issue #004 of The Patient Pipeline. Each week, I send you an essay to help you become a better healthcare entrepreneur. I’ll give you a digital lead gen audit for free.
I’m not quite sure how to say this, but almost all healthcare professionals (doctors and clinicians especially) are terrible marketers.
I think it has something to do with the two different sides of the brain. Anyway …
In today’s issue I will explain the 3 biggest mistakes you’re making in your marketing, and give you simple solutions to fix them.
If you fix these three giant holes in your marketing, I’m certain you will generate more leads, bring in more patients, and increase your revenues.
Let’s dive in.
Mistake 1: Not Tracking Phone Calls
Let me set the scene.
I receive a phone call from a therapist in Madison, Wisconsin. We will call her Beth.
Beth works specifically with high achievers who feel burnt out and lonely. She has a lot of success with her practice and wants to open a second location. She knows she needs to invest in digital marketing and lead generation, so she calls me.
Here is how the conversation usually goes.
Me: Hi Beth. How can I help you?
Beth: I want to get more phone calls and inbound leads.
Me: Okay, great. How are you getting your clients now?
Beth: Well, I get some referrals, I think some people find me online, I am listed on Psychology Today, and I post on social media, which I think helps.
Me: Okay. Do you know how many calls you get from all those sources? Or which source generates the most calls?
Beth: No.
Me: 😔
Tracking your calls is the easiest way to understand your marketing. Call tracking can be difficult to set up, but once it is running, it gives you a crystal clear picture of where your marketing dollars are most effective.
With call tracking, you will know:
How many SEO calls you get
How many social media calls you get
How many direct calls you get
How many people called the phone number on your business card or brochure (I call these dinner table leads)
Once you know your call data, you will know the best place to spend your marketing dollars.
In most cases, you are wasting money because you have no idea which marketing channels generate revenue and which ones are a waste of time. So you’re spending money on marketing channels that aren’t working and not enough on the channels that are.
Please set up call tracking. Hit reply to this email or DM me on LinkedIn if you want my help.
Mistake #2: No CRM
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.
Simply put, a CRM is a tool to track leads, create follow up sequences, and build a process to connect with leads who did not close.
I have noticed a strange dynamic where many healthcare practitioners feel it is unethical to follow up and work a lead with the intention of closing the deal.
Just because you are in healthcare does not mean you should avoid actively generating leads, creating automations for email and SMS, booking follow up appointments, and tracking your data to increase your conversion rate. You need to be selling your prospects on why they should work with you.
A CRM is a game changer. If you build out the front end of your sales process, the rest becomes autopilot.
Many people make the mistake of investing in a massive CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot. That is appropriate for larger healthcare facilities like an inpatient treatment center. However, for local clinics, it is perfectly valid to use a simpler system like Close CRM or Go High Level.
The data is gold.
Mistake 3: No Sales Process
This piggybacks off having no CRM. A CRM will help you create a sales system, but a sales process will help you turn phone calls into sales.
Most healthcare clinics send phone calls straight to the front desk. I am not saying there is anything wrong with having a receptionist answer calls, but at the very least, they should be trained on the difference between managing an admin call and bringing people down a sales script with the intent of closing a new patient.
Sales is an emotional process. Just because you are selling healthcare services, rather than something transactional like a car, does not mean you should ignore a sales script or skip training your front desk workers in sales. You need to recognize how to bring prospects down the emotional path of a sale.
The best case scenario is to set up your call routing to send admin calls to the front desk and sales calls to a sales rep. See Mistake 1 and Mistake 2 above.
Sales are the lifeblood of your clinic. If you cannot sell, you cannot serve.
You are in business to help people and have dedicated your life to reducing suffering. If you cannot sell, you have no way to share your gift and practice your craft.
So please, learn sales.
In Conclusion
I promise, if you:
Set up call tracking
Use a CRM (and actually use it)
Establish a legitimate sales process
Your business will grow. It is a statistical certainty.
As always, feel free to hit reply to this email with any questions or leave them in the comments. I answer every single one myself.
Have a great weekend, and I will talk to you next week.
Tim
I’ll Build You An Automated Lead Generation And Sales System For You Healthcare Clinic
Here’s how I can help you …
Inbound leads and phone calls: I’ll get your phone ringing with qualified leads from potential patients who want your services.
Dominate your local search: I’ll get you in the local pack for relevant search queries. When you win the local pack, you get ALL the leads.
A firehouse of inbound calls though ads: Google ads and Meta ads will flood your healthcare clinic with relevant calls.
CRM, call tracking, and data management: Your patient acquisition system is only as effective as your data management. I can build you a high level CRM and call tracking system.
Sales and patient acquisition: Healthcare clinics don’t think of themselves as “sales people.” I will help you turn your leads into paying patients that drive revenues.
I’m only interested in working with people who are serious about leads and new patients.
Book a call to work with me.