When we start working with a new functional medicine office, they usually want to know what things they can do to help their SEO. We find that offices who take part in their own marketing efforts are more successful than those that don’t ever think about it. Here are the things we recommend to the offices we work with to help their SEO.
1. Get Reviews
This is one of the hardest things for offices to keep at the forefront of their mind. They know reviews are important, but they are also scared to send their link to every single patient. If that is the case, then someone in the office should be tasked with sending out the review link to specific patients you know had a good experience.
Another way you can get reviews is to put a QR code out in your office or reminders in the lobby for patients to leave a review. When they are checking out with the front desk, your team can point out that they can leave a review for them and encourage them to do it while they get their paperwork wrapped up for check out.
2. Create Scripts For Answering Lead Calls
You can’t expect that your front desk will know how to answer the phone when a lead contacts your office. When you start investing in SEO or Google ads, you will inevitably get more callers that are asking general questions and gathering information. It’s important that you teach your front desk how to answer those calls in a way that is positive and provides the information the potential patient needs to make a good decision.
3. Come Up With A Follow Up Strategy
When your front desk takes phone calls from potential patients that are in an information gathering stage, they need a follow up strategy to check back with them. Following up with leads can easily fall by the wayside, so you’ll want to come up with an accountability system as well.
Here are a few things you can do to create a follow up strategy:
- Create a spreadsheet – the most basic way of creating a follow up strategy is to have a leads spreadsheet that your front desk can write the information from the call. They’ll want to look at that spreadsheet every week and see who needs to be called back.
- Use a CRM – if the patient management system you use doesn’t have a way for your front desk to follow up with leads, you can use other CRM’s. For example, Pipedrive or Pipeline are systems where you can create lead cards and add notes from the calls. There is even a way to send email communication to the cards so your front desk can keep it all straight.
- Set up an email campaign – many offices will put an automatic email campaign in place that is set up to send out information to potential patients every few days. Email campaigns can be very effective because it keeps your office in front of potential patients. They may not be ready to schedule with you now, but next year they may be in a better place.
Whatever you decide to do for follow ups, make sure someone in the office is assigned to do that and they are given time to make it happen.
Contact Us For SEO Services
If you’re ready to get started on SEO for your practice, get in touch with the team here at Functional Medicine SEO. We are happy to work with doctors and practitioners to help them show up higher on search results. Contact us today and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
