Top 5 Practice Marketing Tactics We Saw in 2021
The end of the year is a great time for reflection. When it comes to your practice’s marketing goals, taking stock of what worked and what didn’t throughout the previous year can be helpful as you start to plan your strategy for 2022.
As we look back on 2021, we can recall several marketing tactics that worked especially well for our clients across multiple channels. In this post, we’ll cover the 5 most effective marketing strategies we saw and how your practice can leverage them.
1. Host an “Out-of-Office” Event
You may already know that in-office events are a great way to build relationships with your patient audience and book more appointments, but have you ever tried hosting a hearing event outside of your office? Performing free hearing evaluations at places like schools or senior centers can help you get in front of new audience groups that could benefit from your services.
Many people who struggle with hearing loss are often unaware of the symptoms or may hesitate to seek treatment. Out-of-office events provide opportunities to meet these groups in a new setting and provide education on the importance of hearing care. It’s a great way to connect with your local community and expose potential new patients to hearing technology and the services you offer.
2. Combine Facebook Ads with Direct Mail Campaigns
Combining direct mail with a Facebook Ad campaign is a great example of print and digital marketing efforts working in harmony. In 2021, many of our clients that utilized Facebook Ads with direct mail campaigns saw tremendous uplift. Each tactic can target your audience based on zip code, which means you can create cohesive branding that appears in both your audiences’ Facebook feeds and physical mailboxes. The combined strategy can help raise brand awareness, boost engagement with your audience and help you book more appointments.
The great news is that you can take advantage of this strategy without doubling your efforts. Replicating the same content across both channels is not only effective at reinforcing your message but also helps streamline the content creation process.
3. Automate Review Generation
Your practice’s reputation is an essential component of marketing, and review generation is a great strategy for gathering social proof and building trust in your brand. Online reviews can also give you a true understanding of how patients view your business while helping you gain ratings on platforms such as Google, Facebook, Yelp and more.
Our monthly review generation services integrate with common office management software to help streamline the process for gathering patient feedback. Our system sends an immediate follow-up email with a link to all of your third-party review sites and examples of other positive reviews you’ve received. Doing so helps provide satisfied patients with opportunities to share their feedback while saving you time in your workflow.
4. Use an “Open House” Direct Mail Strategy
As we mentioned earlier, hosting events can be a great way to boost booked appointments and build relationships within your community. However, events are a commitment and your practice might not always have the time and resources necessary to host one.
An alternative option is to run an “Open House” invitation via direct mail. This is where you provide a select date range where patients can book an appointment for an incentive (such as a technology demo or hearing aid cleaning). This helps create a sense of urgency without the stress of arranging the additional staff, food and other logistics needed for a full-day event. It’s a great way to fill open appointment times, maximize your office hours and nurture relationships with your patient audiences.
5. Add an Online Scheduler to a Pay-Per-Click Landing Page
Studies have shown that 70% of users prefer online scheduling availability when booking healthcare appointments, which means it’s crucial to provide that option for your patients. Giving patients the ability to book their appointments online not only helps fill your calendar but also frees up your front desk.
Throughout the year, we saw a lot of online scheduling success with landing pages. If your office uses Blueprint or Sycle, we can embed a scheduling form to a Google Ad landing page. This makes it easy for patients searching for your services online to convert, and gives you the ability to track calls from that page in our reporting dashboard.
The Bottom Line
Having a strong understanding of marketing trends and best practices is helpful when determining which strategies to pursue, however, every hearing practice is unique. Your practice’s success could look different depending on what tactics resonate the most with your audience. If you’re for guidance with your marketing in 2022, our experts are happy to help. Book a free consultation with us here to learn more.