Let’s get tactical, shall we?

Today I am sharing a method you can use to attract 30+ high-quality leads to your medical or dental practice.

This isn’t expensive, nor is it complicated. In fact, it’s a simple, proven 4-step system that can transform your practice starting this week.

Step 1 – Establish Your Offer

To start, you need an offer. And by “offer” I mean a special deal that prompts people to action.

“Hey, come see us!” <<< This isn’t an offer.

Does that mean drop your prices and lose all your profits? No way. I want you to be extremely profitable.

You may need to increase your prices so you can be more aggressive in your offers.

Whatever the case, create a compelling offer and put it into action. No need to wait for a certain time of year, for holiday time, or for your anniversary. Get started now.

What types of offers work well? These include:

• Dollar amount off the price of procedure/treatment
• Percentage off the price of procedure/treatment
• Buy One, Get One Free or 1/2 Off (for your retail products – glasses, contacts, etc)
• Promoting payment options – As low as $99/month for qualified patients
• Bring a friend and save an additional $X off

Step 2 – Create Your Offer Page

Once you have your offer in place, you need a place to showcase it online. This is called a landing page.

Your landing page should be a concise page on the web that explains your offer.

It should also have a call to action, including a contact form with a place to put name, phone number and email address.

This page need not be long. Please do not use long paragraphs and hundreds (or thousands) of words.

The goal is to convey the value of the offer and compel someone to take action.

How do you do this? The best way is through a bulleted list that highlights the benefits of the offer.

Remember, the benefit is what someone gets out of your service. You may have heard that the most popular question in your buyer’s mind is “What’s In It For Me?” Explaining benefits answers that question.

Here’s an example – “We offer our free screening consultation because it’s important that you know your options and if you’re a good candidate before you make a decision, and that’s why we do this at no cost to you.”

Here’s another – “We have affordable payment options because many patients want to fit their procedures into their monthly budgets, so we now have payment options that can be lower than your cell phone bill to make XYZ Procedure more affordable for you.”

Step 3 – Promoting Your Offer Using Facebook Ads

Now that you have an offer and a place where people can take advantage of it, we need to get your target audience to that page.

The best cost-effective and accurate way to do this? Facebook ads.

Facebook ads is the perfect tool to get your message in front of your ideal audience at an affordable price. Facebook has the user base (almost 2 billion people) and the targeting capailities to reach whoever you want with pinpoint accuracy.

To get started, visit facebook.com/business/. Click the “Create Ad” button.

You will have many choices for your objectives on the ad. For this particular ad I’m explaining to you today, set your objective to “Website Clicks.”

You will need to input a few other pieces of information as follows:

• Geographic Targeting – Choose between 5- and 10-mile radius of your practice, depending on your geographic reach. You can also target based on zip code. (If you don’t know where your patients are coming from, pull 12 months of patient records, sort by zip code, total each zip code, and plot on a map. Then you know your most profitable zip codes.)
• Age Range – Select the appropriate age range for your offer.
• Other Demographic Indicators – You can also target by other demographics. If you have an offer for your child’s first dental exam, target moms of young children. If you have a special promo for community heroes, target police/fire/emts. You get the idea.

In the actual ad, explain your offer to get people to click to your landing page.

You will also want to include a compelling image in the ad. Try not to use a picture that is clearly from a stock photo site. People know when they are looking at a blatant stock image and they easily overlook it.

Rather, take an image of an actual patient in your practice going through an exam (make SURE you have then sign a media release!), or an image of some of your team members smiling and enjoying their day. Experiment with different images.

Budget – Set your budget at a mere $20 per day. This will typically produce 1-2 leads per day, on autopilot, which can result in 30+ leads per month for your dental or medical practice each month.

Step 4 – Close the Sale and Fulfill the Service

When someone completes the form on your website, you will immediately be alerted via email that you have a new lead.

Now all you have to do is make sure that lead gets into your office, and then treat that person like you would any other new patient.

You can use this script to book the appointment:

“Hey there, this is <YOUR NAME> from <YOUR PRACTICE>.

I saw that you sent in your information for our special offer of <EXPLAIN THE OFFER>.

I’m calling to answer any questions you have and schedule your appointment/exam/free consultation. We have availability tomorrow morning at X time or the following afternoon at Y time. Whch works better for your schedule?”

It doesn’t need to be any more difficult than that.

The Math (Why This Works So Well)

Why is this such an awesome system? The numbers are quite favorable to you. Let’s do some quick math, using a “worst-case scenario” that can still make you a ton of money.

Let’s say you’re a LASIK surgeon who charges $4000 per procedure.

Now, assume you’re generating leads at $20 each, which is on the high end. Let’s also say you don’t have great sales people, so those leads are only closing at 10%, which is on the low end.

That means you need 10 leads to get a patient. $20/lead x 10 leads = $200 cost on a $4000 procedure. That’s a 20x ROI.

Put another way, you made $4000 off 10 leads. $4000/10 = $400. Meaning you spent $20 per lead, but you made $400.

However you want to track the math, it works in your favor. And remember, this is worst case scenario. I have clients all over the country beating these numbers.

(I don’t publish my clients’ information on blogs like this, but I’m happy to discuss more specific results with you in a one–on-one setting.)

Your Next Step

I’ve seen this simple system work time and time again for my clients, and I want it to go to work for you too.

To help you reach success, I want you to apply for your free strategy session with me or one of my team members. You can do this by clicking the button below.

During this session, we will discuss your practice needs and goals, what you’re doing for your marketing now, and what kind of compelling offer we can create in your market to make this 4-step system work for you.

The call will only be about 30 minutes long, if that. I want to respect your time and mine.

If you like the plan we create for you and would like some help getting started, I am going to offer you one of the few available spaces in my FB Patient Leads Program.

If it’s a good fit for both of us, I know you will love working together to grow your new patient numbers and make more money in the coming year.

Click the button to complete the form below, and we’ll talk to you soon!

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There’s so much misinformation going around about reviews. Where you need them, why, how to get them, etc.

Some of these myths can be downright detrimental to your practice’s reputation and long-term success.

So let’s set the record straight. When it comes to your reviews on sites that matter – Google, Facebook, HealthGrades and so on, these are some of the biggest lies you’re being sold.

Myth 1: “I don’t really need to worry about negative reviews.”

This literally happened to a practice I consulted:

A patient was scheduled for a cataract surgery, referred from her optometrist to the surgeon. The patient went online to check out the practice website and online listings.

The patient called back to cancel surgery because she saw negative reviews of the client on Google.

This should cause you to pause. We aren’t talking hypothetical. This is a real patient with real money who canceled her surgery due to bad online reviews.

And when we dig deeper to look at the details, it gets even more disturbing.

A. This patient was referred from her trusted optometrist, but negative reviews from strangers caused her to cancel.

B. The practice had positive reviews as well, but nowhere near enough to create confidence to overcome the negative ones. Had the practice presented 120 5-star reviews and 3 negative reviews, the story would have ended differently.

C. This is a cataract patient. We know based on research that younger age groups tend to trust online reviews more. So if a cataract-aged patient put this much stock into online reviews, image what your patients in the 20-50 year-old range are doing.

Negative reviews have real effects on your bottom line. And if you aren’t doing something to generate more positive reviews, you’re a sitting duck, waiting for the next unreasonable patient or competitor who leaves you a negative review.

Myth 2: “People don’t put much stock in online reviews from strangers.”

If the anecdote in the last myth didn’t convince you, let’s look at the data.

88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. (Source)

This number continues to climb, year over year. And the number of people who say the don’t trust online reviews continues to drop.

And here’s another fun fact for you: 57% of consumers say they will visit a local business website after reading a positive review.

So not only do people trust online reviews, the positive reviews actually lead them to take engagement action via that business’s website the majority of the time.

Myth 3: “If I do a great job for my patients, that will naturally translate into awesome reviews.”

This should be the case. In a perfect world, it would be.

But we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a busy one.

People have 7,000 things going on at all times. And as much as patients say they love you and appreciate what you’ve done, once they’re out your front door…

They’re on to the next thing. Trekking to the grocery store. B-lining for happy hour. Picking up the kids from school. Meandering back to the office.

Once your practice is out of sight, you’re also out of mind.

And the chances of a patient making it over to your Google or Yelp or HealthGrades page to leave you that 5-star dissertation they promised? You already know how likely they are to do that. And you aren’t holding your breath.

In Conclusion

Reviews are vitally important when it comes to earning trust of new patients. In addition, if you don’t take control of your reviews and simplify the process so patients can quickly and easily leave them for you, the chance of getting the level of positive reviews you need is slim.

Put a system in place to attract more positive reviews. And engage as many patients as you can to leave you a review. Also make sure you’re receiving alerts of negative reviews so you can address them in a timely manner.

If you’re interested in a proven, successful shortcut for these tasks, most of our clients use this tool to simplify their lives and 10x their 5-star reviews – letsreview.us.

Whatever direction you take, make sure you have a plan in place to generate new, authentic reviews from patients.

It’s 10:04, and her appointment was supposed to start almost 20 minutes ago.

You were hoping she was just running late, but when your counselor tried to give her a call…. Straight to voicemail.

This doesn’t make sense. Her notes say, “Patient sounds pretty excited.” Not sure exactly what that means, but it definitely sounds positive.

On top of that, one of your schedulers called yesterday to confirm. Plus, she has the auto-text confirmation that goes out from your reminder software.

Even with all that effort….

The money spent to generate the lead… The time spent to confirm the appointment…. It happened.

You were NO-SHOWED.

Gosh, I hate no-shows. And I know I’m not alone.

You work so hard to generate leads and get potential patients interested in your services. Many of the folks who call or send in their info actually WILL book an appointment or free consultation.

But then it comes to getting these same folks to show up to their appointments, and there’s always drop-off.

Even if you have a great follow-up plan, even if you speak directly to the person the day before her consult, you still end up with costly no-shows.

We pretend that people forget their appointments.

But how is that possible?

You call patients before their appointments. You send emails.

You even have software for the sole purpose of sending reminder messages.

My point is this: people don’t forget their appointments. So what happens?

Jane Doe skips her appointment because it’s not a priority. Simple as that.

“Something else came up…”

“I was running behind and couldn’t make it…”

“Must have slipped my mind…”

Whatever the excuse, the REAL reason… is lack of priority.

So how can you solve it?

Get ’Em Excited!

We prioritize things we’re excited about:

My son’s first soccer game.

A big client meeting.

Date night Friday with my wife.

I’m excited about these events. Inherently, that makes them priorities.

Excitement grows as Jane nears her appointment with you, but another “energy” is working against you:

It’s the contrasting force of uncertainty.

She’s excited after scheduling, but immediately regret starts to set in. This is a kind of ‘buyer’s remorse’ that’s rooted in ambiguity and uncertainty.

“I don’t know what to expect…”

“What if it’s more expensive than I think it is?”

“Can I trust these people?”

Thoughts and feelings and emotions come pouring in and creating resistance.

Hence the reason we encourage you to get new leads to come in as soon as possible, same day even. Otherwise they’ll talk themselves right out of the consultation.

And that’s what you see happen with no-shows.

You spend all this time making sure they “remember” when that’s not even the problem.

In fact, too many reminders without adding value may actually create more no-shows than it prevents.

“Stop bugging me, I know I have an appointment.”

The trick is to build positive anticipation so people get as excited about their appointments as they are about an upcoming vacation.

Here are 4 strategies for doing exactly that, centered around a concept I call “Lead Incubation.”

Lead Incubation — Priming the Pump for Kept Appointments

Merriam-Webster defines the term “incubation” as “to keep (something) in the proper conditions for development.”

I’ve dubbed this concept “lead incubation” since that’s exactly what you must do with people who schedule appointments with you.

You will end up delivering so much value and creating such excitement and momentum that it will compel your lead to keep the appointment she set in the first place.

Here we go.

Jane Doe visits your site, clicks around, and fills out your contact form to schedule an appointment.

Now: how do you make sure she shows up?

1. Reinforce the Decision to Schedule as Fast as Possible

I mean literally, within SECONDS.

Jane just clicked the “send” button on your contact form. She felt that little burst of dopamine we all get right after an action toward a purchase (test driving a car, looking at new houses, etc). You know the feeling.

But it’s a fleeting feeling of positivity. She quickly starts second-guessing, hoping she made the right decision.

Jane has just taken a huge step into the unknown by scheduling the appointment.

Yes, that probably sounds ridiculous to you because you do these consults every day. But to new patients, it can be a scary deal.

Jane needs someone to say, “Yes, yes! You made a great choice!”

How might you do this?

Thank her — with a video — on the thank-you page of your website.

The thank-you page of your website is where Jane (and anyone else) is sent on your website after she completes your web form. It typically says something generic and weak, “Thanks for your submission. We’ll contact you soon to confirm!”

BORING. And a total waste of valuable page.

Here’s the thing — your thank-you page is one of the most under-utilized pages on your website. It’s treated as a throw-away page, when it can actually be put to good use. So let’s do that.

Take this perfect opportunity to deliver an “attaboy” in an engaging, personalized way — through video.

I’m talking about a video of you, speaking into the camera, covering these bullets:

• Gratefulness — Thank you for choosing us.
• Excitement — We’re happy to meet you, and we’re excited to help you enjoy your life without the hassles of glasses and contacts / enjoy life with a better smile / whatever the benefit is that you are selling.
• Next Steps — One of my team members will reach out to you to confirm your appointment time and answer any preliminary questions you may have.
• Patient Advocate — You have your own patient advocate who will be available to you should you need anything!
• Thanks again — Thanks again for choosing , and we’ll see you soon!

There’s no ‘right way’ to do a thank-you video, as long as you’re hitting these points. The goal is to make it genuine, to make a personal connection with the lead.

Here’s an example I made for you. I shot it on my iPhone6+, which is great for shooting in HD and perfect for this.

I’m no pro on camera. So if you’re concerned about how slick and professional you’ll look, get that worry out of your head.

The goal here is to come across and genuine and sincere above anything else.

Bonus Tips

• Can’t do a video? Write your “thank you” message in text and add an image of your signature to it, almost like an opening letter.
• If you can combine the thank-you page message with an automated email that Jane receives, that increases the power of this messaging.
• Add more context to help the lead understand exactly what to expect: You can mention on the thank-you page letter to “Check your email now, because we just sent over the forms for your consultation. Don’t worry, it’s only 2 forms that take less than 10 minutes to fill out, AND you can do it all online for your convenience. Be sure to check your spam filter for the email, and please add us to your ‘safe senders’ list so we don’t end up in that pesky spam filter ever again!”

2. Make a Human Connection as Quickly as Possible

Yes, you have reminder software. Yes, you have automated emails. You probably even have a way to text Jane from your system.

But none of that takes the place of an authentic, voice-to-voice human connection.

The reason you see more no-shows than you did 10 years ago is due in part to the rise in leads coming from the web vs. inbound phone calls.

While convenient, the web is impersonal and lacks the level of commitment that you get with in-person or even phone interactions.

How do you overcome that?

Call Jane as quickly as you can. I mean within minutes.

Don’t get her? Leave a message and try again this afternoon and again tomorrow.

Once you connect with Jane on the phone, build rapport, and get her excited, you reduce the risk of no-show.

If you are skipping this step — if you are only emailing your web leads and never calling them — you are flushing money down the toilet. PICK UP THE PHONE AND USE IT.

3. Be as ‘Everywhere’ as Possible

Think about a time you were shopping for a new car.

Ever get your sights set on a certain model car, and then it seems like you start to see that particular model all over the road?

And you could swear this particular car used to be a rare sighting to you, but you now see them everywhere you go.

This is due to a couple of psychological processes: selective attention and cognitive bias.

(I’m not traversing the “psychology of selling” rabbit holes in this article — we’ll save those for another essay, or perhaps a book).

Long story short — the major car manufacturers aren’t waging a conspiracy against you. There’s not actually a campaign to showcase new 6-Series BMWs all around you on your daily commute. It just feels that way.

But what if we were able to create the type of perception around Jane’s decision to book an appointment with you?

It may sound wild, but follow me on this.

Let’s say Jane books her consultation, and all of a sudden, she starts to see more articles and stories about LASIK that make her feel good about her decision.

How great would that be? It would be awesome, if only it was possible.

With retargeting, it can be done.

(Don’t know what retargeting is? Here’s a quick definition on wikipedia.)

HOW can you do this?

It starts by adding a retargeting pixel to your thank-you page.

That way, anyone who gets there will start to see the retargeting ads in their Facebook feeds and on banner ads around the internet.

You may be wondering, “What type of messaging should I use on my retargeting banners?”

Well, we don’t need a sales message since Jane already committed to come in. But how about some great patient testimonials talking about their amazing experiences with you?

Sprinkle in some “Why LASIK is so popular” and “LASIK is the best investment of my life” articles and VOILA! You’re leveraging Facebook and the entire internet to positively reinforce Jane’s choice.

This is ninja-level marketing.

4. Play Your Trump Card if at All Possible (hint: YOU)

I almost didn’t include this because most people won’t do it, even though it would work insanely well. But my hope is you’re one of the few exceptions who will give it a try.

The Trump card I’m talking about is you — YOU, Doc — calling Jane yourself the day before her consultation.

Now, maybe you already call patients the evening following their procedures to make sure they are doing well.

This is excellent because it feels special, and it’s delightful and surprising to the patient. If you already do this, I don’t have to tell you — patients love it.

So how impactful might it be to call/text new patients the day prior to their consultations?

It could make a real difference in your no-shows.

Is it more work for you? Meh, about 2 minutes per patient. 120 seconds stands between you and a potential $X,000 procedure.

And let’s be honest — most people screen their calls anyway, so you’ll leave more voicemails than anything else.

Not sure what to say? Here you go: “John, this is Dr. X. I see you’re coming in tomorrow for a consultation with us. Really looking forward to seeing you. on my team should have sent directions to our office, give her a call if you have any questions. See you tomorrow!”

I talked about the importance of a personal connection in point #2. But a personal connection with you — the esteemed expert — that’s next-level impact.

Try it with your scheduled consults for a week and see what happens. I bet you see a drop in no-shows that makes the few minutes a day you spend making these calls well worth it.

Time to get started

Those are the 4 steps of lead incubation to reduce your no-shows.

Nothing here is particularly complicated. But if you need help setting up your thank-you page or the retargeting, give me a shout.

Use these strategies to create excitement around the new patients coming into your practice, and cut down your no-shows as a result.

Don’t wait — get started this week!

In my last article, I shared the many exciting benefits of Facebook’s new broadcasting platform, Facebook Live.

(In case you missed it, you can find that article here. Read that before you read this.)

So if you’re ready to get started with your first Facebook Live broadcast (and why wouldn’t you be? It’s awesome!), I’ve included a step-by-step tutorial along with some tips to make your Facebook Live experience as fruitful as possible.

Before we get into how to do Facebook Live, here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

(And remember — each time you go live, you’ll end up with a recorded video asset you can use to promote your practice after the fact).

5 Ideas for Using Facebook Live

1. Touring your office — For example, a LASIK surgeon could give a tour of your LASIK suite, explain the lasers, explain the amount of time it takes, etc. (Since you can flip between front-facing and rear-facing cameras on Facebook Live, you can show your face while you talk, then show video of the laser with the click of a button.)
2. Weekly segments (like a TV show) — Do a weekly ‘Lunch n Learn’ or ‘Coffee with the Doctor’ segment, where at the same time each week (1p on Thursday, for instance), you log on and start answering questions.
3. Broadcast from an event — like a local health fair or 5k. Invite people to come to your booth for a free screening, to pick up giveaway items or register to win a raffle.
4. When you launch a new promo — Go on Facebook Live to share a new promotion you are launching, particularly if there’s a community or charity tie-in. You can discuss why you chose a certain charity, what it means to you, and how you plan to support it.
5. To announce the winner of a giveaway — Giving a free treatment or procedure to a soldier for 4th of July? Selecting the winning nominee from your Mother’s Day social media promotion? Announce the winner on Facebook Live, and tease the broadcast for several days prior to make sure people know to tune in!

Alright, so now that you have a few ideas of how to use this platform, let’s talk about how practically to pull this off.

The 5 W’s of Facebook Live

Facebook Live is incredibly easy to use with minimal equipment or expertise. Let’s talk about the 5 W’s of a successful broadcast.

Who? YOU, of course! Facebook Live doesn’t require a professional on-screen persona. You just have to be real, open and honest with your followers.

Relax, have fun, be yourself. Pretend you’re having a Facetime conversation with your children or grandkids.

Want to have someone join you on camera? That’s fine too. A patient or another staff member would be a great ‘co-host’ for your broadcast.

What? In preparation for your first broadcast, let’s get the pieces of equipment you need:

• iPhone (or comparable smart phone device) with Facebook app on it
• Tripod (here’s an affordable one on Amazon that will fit most smart phones)

Aaaaaand that’s it. Doesn’t get much easier than that.

Where? You’ll want to find an area to shoot your Facebook Live broadcast that has minimal noise or distraction.

Your office, an exam lane or even one of your procedure suites (when not in use) would be great options.

When? There’s debate whether during the day or in the evening is more ideal for a medical-oriented broadcast. And like anything else, it can depend on your market.

Our recommendation: Try both. Do a ‘Lunch Break with the Doc’ and see how that goes. Then try an evening broadcast, which you can do from your home office if you like. See what kind of engagement you get with both.

Why? Surely you aren’t still asking that question. Scroll up and read, or go back and read the last article. Now let’s go!

And finally… THE HOW.

Here’s how you activate Facebook Live on your account!

 

 

BOOM! You’re rocking. In fact, here’s an example I made just for you:

So now you know how to use Facebook live and some ideas for how to leverage it. Get out your phone and do your first Facebook live this week.

Questions? Give me a shout, I’m happy to help!