When a patient is looking for a health care professional, one of the first things they do is ask their friends and family members if they can refer someone. That is because health care is a personal concern for millions, and every patient feels empowered by their health care choices when they are working with a professional that they are comfortable with. More and more of today's patients are getting that empowerment through patient testimonials online and offline. This is why if you don't use testimonials in your marketing efforts, your practice or health care business doesn't have a leading edge. Read on to discover the power of patient testimonials today. Why Do Patient Testimonials Work?Patient testimonials have always worked in health care because choosing a health care practitioner that is a good fit is a top priority for every American. Everyone wants a "good doctor" or the dentist that meets every stress and concern of the patient. Today's health care professional has an upper hand in beating their competition because they have the online world at their fingertips. Patient testimonials work because this online portal offers an additional chance for potential new patients to research health care practitioners that will be a good fit. A shiny new website is a good idea, and when you start your website it is an excellent starting point for your practice. But your potential patients are asking questions like, "do they listen?" and "how are they with prescription refills?" Most websites can't offer that personal touch that patients are looking for. So, many patients today are turning online for testimonials and reviews. If your advertising efforts do not include authentic patient testimonials, you are behind your competition. The numbers don't lie. Online customer testimonials currently account for about 89 percent of content marketing effectiveness. And 38 percent of consumers say they need online reviews before they make a purchase decision. Online reviews help businesses like Ultimate Medical Academy thrive and get an edge on their competition. Patient Testimonials Sell Health CareThe bottom line to solve the best marketing equation out there is to have something that other people want to buy. If you can meet a need, then your business will thrive. That works whether you are selling computers or dental care. When patients go online to check out your business, they are looking for real-life experiences. If you can offer that through patient testimonials, then you will be more likely to make a sale with a new patient than if you didn't have them. Patient testimonials sell your business because they bring the human element to your website or Facebook page. And it is that human element that is the next best thing to bedside manner in health care. Patients just want to know that you care before they book that first consultation. That's the power of patient testimonials that send that message for you with very little work. Testimonials Build CredibilityPotential new patients in any health care facility are always a little nervous before their first meeting. Health care appointments can be scary. And with the rise in medical errors and health care disasters, new patients have a right to be nervous. When you build a website that offers a human element through patient testimonials, you are offering new patients that credibility statement. Testimonials Offer Affordable BenefitsYou can offer new patients the benefits of your health care business testimonials, and it is a very inexpensive way to advertise. You want your new patients to not just buy from you, but also trust you because you offer something that other health care practitioners don't. There's no way for new customers to know what they are getting if they don't know what other patients have gotten. The best way to do that is to offer testimonials that spell out these benefits clearly. You can do this at little to no cost by simply asking every patient that leaves your office to put a review up on Facebook or social media. Not everybody will, but even if one in 5 patients does this, you are going to have a nice stack of reviews that offer benefits to other new patients within a few weeks. Testimonials Need to Be AuthenticYou want your testimonials to be authentic, as that is the only way to translate your message to the masses. If every review is glowing, that may cast doubt on your practice. So don't make the mistake of buying reviews. Simply ask every current patient to post one, and within a few months, you will have a neat and organic method of advertising your human element to the world. Start with your website that is easy to use and navigate. If you haven't already done so, learn about the power of choosing a health care friendly domain name that gets your business off the ground. Incentivize Current PatientsOne marketing strategy that you can use is to utilize your existing patients for testimonials, in a way that both retains your current clients and also leads to new ones. Give your current patients an incentive to offer testimonials and reviews for you. This is where an email marketing list may come in handy. Send out bi-monthly emails to your current patient list and ask them to leave a review for you. Offer them a free service or product, or a discount on their next visit, if they leave you a Facebook review or online testimonial. Another way you can seek testimonials is to hand out surveys to existing patients when they check in for their appointment. Just give them a very quick survey to complete for a discount on their visit. Ask open-ended questions that will only take a few minutes to complete. Make sure you ask their permission to use it in your business. Most patients will be happy to do so, and sometimes even patients like to see their own voices repeated in testimonials. It makes them feel credible too, and like they've chosen a good health care practitioner. Testimonials Improve Your BusinessIt goes without saying that testimonials improve your business, that is why most businesses want to have as many of them as they can. But it is an easy point to forget when you are working on your marketing plan. When you are getting patient testimonials, ask them to be honest and be sure that you offer the right kinds of questions for them so that you can make improvements. You may lose patients through reviews if patients are saying things about you that could make you or your business look bad. So these reviews offer you the advantage of knowing where your business can improve. If for example, you don't offer prescription refills by phone, you may not know this is a contentious point for your patients if you don't give them the opportunity to say so. Once a patient has left a review that lets you know what needs to be fixed, you can also publicly make a statement to let your audience know that this is no longer a concern for new patients. When your business improves through these tweaks, you will get more customers and more new patients. Consider testimonials as intelligence gathering. The information you will receive is the power to change and become better than you already were. Never Stop Collecting TestimonialsOnce you start collecting testimonials, you will get a lot within time, but you should never stop asking for them. This is because your business is always growing, and can always benefit from new patients. But more importantly, your business will always benefit from being improved through the feedback of current patients. At the same time, if you have testimonials online, you build an organic campaign that you never need to keep funneling money into. As long as your list of testimonials grows, you are letting the world know that you are a thriving business that can offer every health care benefit to every new patient on the market. Empower Your Business with TestimonialsIt is estimated that approximately 90 percent of consumers are influenced by testimonials and reviews online. And as many as 80 percent of today's customers are going online before making appointments with potential new business or professional. If you don't have patient testimonials online, that means that new patients are looking at the reviews of other professionals and are more likely to book with them, than you. The numbers are inarguable. You can get a leg up on your competition by adding testimonials to your website and social media platforms for very little money today. Add them today, have new patients tomorrow. Start your health care business today with the ultimate SEO guide in your corner, and be sure you are adding testimonials to your marketing plan.
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