Yes.
End of blog post.
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Tempting though it is to write a blog post of only 1 word, I thought a little expansion might be in order!
In my experience Facebook and Twitter are great at engaging with potential new patients and will often result in a direct conversion to new patient, however for me the magic happens when everything becomes connected… so, what do I mean by everything?
Everything means:
- Social Media
- Your Blog
- Your Website
Each step down this ‘conversion funnel’ moves the patient one step closer to becoming a patient, once they visit the website (after chatting on Facebook etc) they can see you, your practice, find out more about you and take action.
Cool, so we know we need to have ‘everything’ connected, but there are 2 categories of prospective patient that visit your website:
- YES – ready to go and will call or book online
- NO – they will ‘bounce’ straight off the website
- MAYBE – these are the by far the biggest group of people and it is to this group that email is so powerful
Email marketing allows a prospective patient to take a small step towards being a patient, a step that is safe and risk free – so how do we get their email address? Hand out something useful, relevant and free. A free guide to looking after their kid’s teeth, a guide to all the various ortho systems out there… anything that will mean something to the prospective patient and demonstrate that you care… BUT, they will need to give you their email address in order to get this guide!
Then you can send them a series of gentle emails over the following days, helping them to trust you and take the next step… to contact you directly.
I’ve seen this work over and over, and how do I know? Well, I add a little piece of code to each link back to the dentist’s website from the email, so I can see explicitly how many of those emails drive patients to the practice website, then what they do there.
You need to ensure that emails are not too frequent (about every 3 days) and that each one is genuinely useful to the recipient.
It’s also then possible to link your blog in to this email list and send a broadcast email everytime you write a blog post (and if you are reading this via email that’s exactly what I’ve done) – all done automatically… I love automating things!
Here are a few tips for setting up an email campaign:
- Offer something free and truly useful on your website in exchange for an email address
- Start the email title series with the same words so recipients can easily recognise that an email is from you e.g. XYZ Dental Practice
- Send the first email (with the guide) straight away
- Give the option to unsubscribe from every email with clear instructions
- Remind people on emails how you got their address e.g. ‘You are receiving this as you subscribed on <<
>’ - Don’t try to sell, simply inform so much that the temptation to buy is overwhelming
- Be genuine and write in a personal style
- Keep email subjects engaging and inspiring so that people open them
Setting up an email system like this in the practice is pretty simple, I recommend Aweber as they have a low cost solution for around £12 per month ($19).
I strongly suggest you get started with an email program at the practice soon, you’ll see some great results if you do I’m sure. I’ve also set up an Aweber Email Marketing Training Guide which you can purchase from my website for £45, this includes everything you need to set up an Aweber email campaign