5 Easy Ways to Use the i-pad for Health Care Marketing

The i-pad has been on my mind a lot lately. Not just because I was just in the store playing with one, or in the first month they sold over 1 million units, but because I think they could be an excellent tool in health care marketing.  

Let’s take a look at five ways you can spark interaction with your patient that increases engagement by using an i-pad.

1. Load it with before and after pictures, articles, and testimonials.
2. Make your social media pages available so patients can "check in" at your practice on social location sites (Gowalla, Foursquare, etc). 
3. Create a referral program so patients can email an invitation from your practice to their friends while they are still in your office.
4. Show educational videos to your patients when explaining treatment or while they wait. 
5. Present treatment using the i-pad to show mock ups, design, or function. 

What am I missing? How would you use an i-pad in your practice? 

Does your practice's online reputation matter?

Absolutely!  It’s one of the first steps to earning trust and building a relationship with new patients. For most new patients, a google search of your practice is their first impression. In fact, a recent Pew Research Center Project study showed that 44% of online adults say they have searched online for information about someone whose care or services they seek in a professional provider, like a doctor, dentist, or chiropractor. 

If you haven’t recently done a search for your practice, yourself, or the names of your key staff or care givers, now might be a good time to do it.

Here's what to do:

* Start your search with Google, Bing, and Yahoo, yelp.com, and Angie's List.

* Document sentiment, practice brand mentions, and patient concerns

* Share feed back with your team 

* Decide follow up strategy as needed 

You can also use some of these free tools to search for your practice and find real time results in social networks, blogs, and forums. 

Remember, its often the patients who never give you feedback that can be the most vocal online. Take some to see what your current reputation is and identify areas for improvement.  

- Sarah 

Twenty-somethings Prefer Texting to Calling

“I’m not trying to cause a big sensation, I’m just talkin’ bout my generation.” – The Who

Cell-phone texting has become the preferred channel of basic communication between twenty-somethings and their friends. A recent Npress survey of 300 Americans in their twenties showed that 94% say they sent and received text messages daily in April 2010.

Among those texters today:

• 17% send 100+ text messages a day, or more than 3,000 messages a month.
• 14% send 50+ text messages a day, or more than 1,500 a month. 

Most people in their 20s send 11-20 text messages per day.

Among twenty somethings, texting is used for multitude reasons, including communicating with friends and family (88%), managing work projects (59%), and coordinating meetings and plans (85%).

Calling is still a central function of the cell phone for people in their twenties, but they typically make and receive five- seven calls a day—far fewer than text messages.

Beyond text messaging and voice calling, twenty somethings who have multipurpose phones say they use many of the extra features. Among the most popular are email use (83%) and taking pictures (54%).

Bottom Line: Generation Y is 76 million strong and flooding the workforce. If you want to fill your practice with these young professionals and earn their trust and loyalty, you have to reach them where they are.

Have ideas on how to connect with your Gen Y patients? Share them here!

 

-Sarah

Looking for a great digital marketing strategy? The Practice Marketing Revolution can help! Email sarah@npressnewsletter.com today!

How to make good use of your social media time

As interactive media and online communities are getting an increasing amount of use in doctor – patient relationships, many doctors wonder when the best time to connect is. In a recent survey of 474 social media users, conducted by Npress, 54% of users said they are engaged in social media throughout the day.

Twenty one percent of the survey participants reported using social tools during the evening and weekends, 14% on their lunch breaks, and 8% in the morning or before work. All users in the study reported using interactive media tools at least 5 hours per week. 

 

Social Media Usage Trends by Time of Day 

 Users 

 

This means, if you are using interactive media in your practice, you should make time during your day to build relationships with your patients online. Properly communicating with and listening to patients online can take time to do it right, and you'll see your efforts will go much further if you meet your patients where they are. Pre blocked scheduling can help ensure that you have time for conversation and you can let your patients know ahead of time when they can expect to reach you. 

 

I've seen doctors helping 4-10 patients a day through interactive networks. Imagine what it could mean for your patients' experience, their online health literacy, and prevention knowledge if you took a 1/2 hour each day to converse with patients online. (Not to mention what it could do for your marketing and practice growth!)  

About the data: This Npress study is based on telephone interviews, interactive media surveys, and live questioning with a nationally representative sample of 474 social media users who use interactive tools at least 5 hours per week.

Email Marketing

WOW! Talk about a good return! According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing generated an ROI of $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2008!

Email marketing can involve new patient acquisition, lead nurturing, patient reactivation and retention, and of course increased treatment acceptance, which means that there are a lot of processes and services are potentially involved.


Many practices choose to have their administrative staff handle their email marketing in house. If you do, here are some considerations to help get the most out of your communication with your patients:

• Strategy & Research
• Promotional Planning (do you have a calendar of events?)
• Copy Writing & Content Development (content provides value so don’t let it be an after thought)
• List Growth & Community Building (are you sure that all new patients are added to your list?)
• List Segmentation (how can you segment your list to better target your messages?)
• Cross-channel Integration (do your emails connect to your website and blog?)

If the list above encompasses more than you’re doing, this may be a strong indicator that you’re under-utilizing this lucrative channel. It may be time to reevaluate your process or get some additional training so you can get your systems running in top form. 


If you are interested in a recommendation for an email marketing training course, email me at sarah@npressnewsletter.com and I can help you find a program that suits your needs.


- Sarah Nelson 
sarah@npressnewsletter.com 

Email Marketing - try it today!

No matter what type of practice you have, you should be collecting your patient's email addresses. Simply add the prompt to your new patient information form, medical history sheet, or ask them directly during your initial phone call. If you start doing this, you'll open the doors to inexpensive ways to stay connected with your patients and educate them about your products and services.

Once you've collected a few emails, you can use a service like T-Link or Mail Chimp to send special announcements and promotional emails. These services will protect patient confidentiality by keeping the lists private.

Before you get started with email marketing, here are a few things you should know:

* Not all of your patients will want to hear from you. If they receive an unwanted email from you, make it easy for them to get off your mailing list. Most email services will have an unsubscribe feature that allows them to select out automatically. If yours does not, and the patient calls your office to be removed from the list, do it right away. Unwanted email can be really irritating to those patients with busy jobs and schedules.

* Have a reason to send an email. There's a saying that if you have nothing to say, you shouldn't be advertising. Make sure when you do email your patients you are saying something new, engaging, or interesting. If you send emails everyday, you'll notice that people will tend to ignore them. Try to send them only when you have something cool and exciting going on or something to offer.

* DON'T SHOUT! Using all caps in email headlines is the equivalent to yelling your message in your patients face.

There are tons of ways to use email to market to your patients without spending a ton of money. If you have some success stories or ideas, please share them here!

- Sarah Nelson
Sarah is the President and founder of Npress. She works with health care providers who struggle with marketing and attracting new patients. Npress makes patient newsletters that are customized to look like they are straight from the doctor's desk! Check them out at: http://www.npressnewsletter.com