Texting is a powerful marketing tool that has the ability to drive more patients to book appointments with you, increase referrals, and increase revenue. Especially when combined with other marketing strategies such as social media, blogging and email marketing, texting takes your communications to a new level.
Once you understand the HIPAA nuances of texting in the healthcare space, these five SMS marketing tips will help you foster patient relationships and establish a stronger presence for your practice so you can ultimately drive growth and efficiency.
1. Send special offers and promotions on popular services.
Your existing patients already know and trust you, and are more likely to take you up on an offer. So send them a message about a general service they could benefit from, like a physical exam or cholesterol test.
These patients may also not know that you offer a certain service. In fact, they probably don’t. But they would be open to booking another appointment if they knew more about what you have to offer. So tell them, perhaps with a monthly text campaign.
It’s also good practice to text past patients about ongoing promotions or seasonally relevant services, such as a free health check, blood tests, or flu shots. This will encourage them not only to return to your practice, but to take charge of their health at a discount.
Reaching out to existing patients increases value and builds long-term patient loyalty. After all, it costs less to retain existing patients than to find new ones.
2. Send general announcements and news about your practice with bulk text messages.
Send a text message to reach all your patients in seconds and ignite one-on-one conversations. If your practice schedule changes, perhaps due to bad weather or a holiday, send a text message.
You’ll also want to share updates about a new doctor, new equipment, new services, or renovation plans. These are interesting things your patients want to hear about, so tell them!
Bulk text works like BCC email, so no one sees who else is in the group and patients can reply directly to your query with any questions they may have, such as:
“You offer [x] treatment?” “Do you validate parking?” “Are you going on dates on Christmas Eve?” I live in [Town]. What is your closest location to me?
When you make general communications accessible to patients, you create space to build closer relationships with them. It takes less time to respond to a text message than it does to answer a phone call, so you’ll see higher patient satisfaction and more referrals. All of this equals more revenue for your practice.
3. Send an SMS newsletter with weekly health tips to keep your clinic on top.
Text tips are a quick way to connect and build trust with your patients. An SMS newsletter is easy to start, easy to run and very effective in keeping patients engaged, but it should be useful, not promotional.
Send reminders about general health tips, such as:
What to eat and diets to try (or avoid) Myths that do more harm than good How to avoid infections How to heal yourself
Patients will see these alerts firsthand and be able to take precautionary measures directly from the source. More importantly, these interactions are also creating an ever-closer relationship between you and your patients.
4. Promote blog content for your practice through text.
Maintaining a blog is an opportunity to rank for keywords that your practice specializes in and establishes you as a thought leader within the healthcare industry. It’s also an easy way to differentiate yourself from the competition, because few local doctors in particular are willing to put in the extra time.
If you already have an active blog, you should definitely be sending text messages as part of your distribution plan.
Some health-related topics to discuss:
Common Procedures and What to Expect Before, During, and After Break Down Common Misconceptions About a Procedure Address Frequently Asked Questions Patient Case Studies Your patients can request topics, too!
An SMS campaign with a link to your website is a quick way to let people know that your latest blog post is live.
In addition to educating your audience, you also have the opportunity to capture potential customers from those who take the time to read your blog. Include links to convert readers, such as a link to a pricing page or a link to book an appointment. Plus, you’ll drive more traffic to your website, which is helpful for your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts in the long run.
By creating content, you provide potential patients with valuable and relevant information that will encourage them to work with you.
5. Use texting in conjunction with your social media platforms.
Social media is a great way to put a face to your practice and show patients what you’re up to. It gives you a platform to connect with your audience on a personal level, and with texting, you open up space for even more engagement.
Encourage patients to like or comment on your post by texting them a link. These posts can be before and after pictures, a baby and mom, a doctor feature, a team photo, and more.
Turn your posts into a sweepstakes, telling patients to subscribe to your byline for a chance to win a prize. Winners may be chosen at random or in the order in which you subscribed.
Your social media posts might say something like,
“Sign up for our texts for a chance to win a free one [service]! Text “SMILE” to [number].”
O.
“Share a photo of a healthy meal! The most delicious dish wins. Text your photos [number], and we will feature the winners on our page. Good Luck!”
The more inclusive you are of your patients, the more they will feel recognized and appreciated. All of this leads to more word of mouth marketing and increased foot traffic to your practice. Social media algorithms will love you too. The more organic engagement you get from your existing audience, the more the algorithms will promote your post to new people.
Nurture your patient relationships with text messages
The growth of your medical practice starts with how you communicate with patients, so it’s important to give them multiple ways to contact you.
Texting has the power to help you build relationships, especially since it fits most people’s schedules and requires almost no effort to read and respond. The next step is to find a business texting solution that’s right for your practice.
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