The Worst Time to Look For New Patients and How to Find Them

Is there a bad time to try and get new patients? Yes! When your books are empty and you need them. It’s easy to ignore new patient marketing when your books are full or you’re nearing capacity. Marketing efforts, especially SEO related, take time. Any functional medicine marketing you start now will usually take 2-4 months to bring you results. 

Here are the top ways we recommend that you get more patients in the door:

1. Invest in SEO

Now is the best time for you to invest in the SEO on your website. Many alternative health practices aren’t investing in SEO or they have stopped because of the pandemic. Since the competition is down in this area, you may be able to see faster gains during this time. 

Here at Functional Medicine SEO, our experts work on your website every month to target the keywords your potential patients are looking for. We sit down with you and learn about your practice so that we can generate the new patient calls for the services you offer. 

2. Start Google Ads Campaigns

We offer Google Ads management for our practitioners. Ads will bring you immediate traffic to the site, whereas, SEO takes a few months to see the increase. When used in conjunction with each other, you can see faster results. 

Our team will track the keywords that are getting the best results through your SEO and Google Ads. Then, we use this data to strengthen the campaigns we run. 

3. Focus on Internal Marketing

When everything shut down a few months ago, patients dropped off the books and didn’t re-appoint. Make it a top priority to go through your patient database and start calling your existing patients. Anyone that was scheduled for a regular check-up will not be scheduled for their next visit. You have to look ahead and see what months are going to sit empty and start filling them. 

4. Ask For Patient Referrals

Ask your existing patients to refer their friends and family to your office. Especially in a time where people are scared to go to the doctor, your patient’s experience can help them feel comfortable with coming in. You can ask your patients to spread the word by mouth, as well as leave a Google review. Send them your custom review link and tell them to share about their visit. 

5. Develop a Script For New Patient Calls

You can do a lot to get your phone to ring, but if you don’t answer new patient calls well, you won’t get them scheduled. Create a script that your front desk or you go through when a new patient calls on the phone. 

Make sure your script addresses how to answer common questions like: 

• Do you take my insurance? 
• Are you an in-network provider? 
• How much do your services cost? 
• What’s involved in the new patient exam? 

If you don’t answer these questions the right way, the person likely won’t schedule. 

It’s really important to get some information from them before you start answering their questions. For example, you can say, “I’d love to answer that for you, but first, let me get some information from you.” At that point, ask their name and phone number so they can call you back if they get disconnected. Then, you can ask them what they want to be seen for and get them talking about their concerns. Use this opportunity to share about your practice and services, before answering questions about insurance and finances. 

Contact us Today 

Here at Functional Medicine SEO, we help practitioners increase their organic and paid search traffic. We’d love to offer you a free SEO site audit. To take advantage of that offer, please sign-up here and we’ll send you information. 

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us right away. One of our SEO experts will be happy to answer your questions.