The New Year is a great time for hearing care practices to reflect on their patient and prospect marketing strategy. In this blog, we'll discuss the hearing care marketing trends to take advantage of in the New Year. These strategies will increase your appointment rates and return on investment (ROI).
Target Patients with Automated Triggers
Automation will be a dominating strategy in the New Year. Automated triggers allow your practice to set up campaigns and forget about them. Messages target patients at the right time with the right message based on their actions. Leaving you and your staff members more time to focus on other practice goals.
Automation is all powered by your patient data and CRM integrations. Data collected for each patient tracks the milestones they reach in their care. At each milestone customized direct mail sends out.
Trigger campaigns can be set up for various milestones including:
- Tested Not Sold - Target patients who have their hearing tested but did not purchase a hearing aid. These triggers are great for reminding hearing care patients to act and convert to making a purchase.
- Annual Follow-ups - Touchpoints sent out each year to push patients into the offices. These triggers include annual check-ups, birthday cards, and warranty expiration.
- Device Upgrade Letters - Help hearing care practices track the progression of patients’ devices. This trigger allows you to build rapport with patients over the years as you can take them on a hearing aid journey from one to five years with opportunities to upgrade in between.
- Life Event Triggers - Identify and reach potential patients with messages specific to important life events. New mover campaigns target individuals that are 65 and older who are moving into your market. This is a great way to inform them of your location and offers. Age-in triggers target prospects that are aging into the 65 plus category. This direct mail includes messaging about getting started on their hearing health journey.
- In-market Campaigns - Allow you to target prospects living in the same neighborhood as your patients. Gain new patients by marketing to them with the following messaging examples: “Your neighbor uses ‘practice name” or “One of your neighbors made their hearing health a priority at ‘practice name.’” Use in-market triggers to gain practice credibility. These messages comfort prospects in knowing that their neighbors trust your brand.
Consistent Direct Marketing Builds Brand Interaction
Consistent direct marketing helps foster meaningful interactions between your brand and patients. To do this you’ll want to determine your patient’s ideal mail frequency. Once you have this established, you can create a balanced marketing schedule for the year.
Layer newsletters into your direct marketing mix to build brand reputation. Newsletters keep patients informed on new doctors, locations, device advancements, and educational articles. These touchpoints keep your brand top of mind so that patients chose you when they need service.
Hearing care practices that use consistent marketing achieve better results than those with inconsistent marketing. A recent BlueWing case study shows that practices with consistent marketing every month average a 386% ROI (refer to the chart below). While practices with sporadic, inconsistent marketing only see a 74.62% ROI. Email us to download the full case study.
Relevant Content Increases Appointments
Patients are more likely to engage when they receive messaging relevant to them. Gearing content based on seasonality or personal needs will increase your appointment rates.
Direct marketing creates more engagement when it is specific to a patient's care. With the help of patient data, you can send accurate messages that align with the patients' care and hearing needs. Get more personal with your messaging by sending trade-in offers to those with aging devices, new hearing aid offers to those whom you know need a hearing aid but have not yet purchased one, hearing screenings for those who are looking to maintain their hearing health, and so on. Content that matches the patient’s stage of care will perform better than that of random messaging that does not relate to their needs. For instance, you would not want to send an upgrade letter to someone who does not wear a hearing aid.
Seasonal content can also be a helpful way to get patients excited about their health. For example, at the start of the year, focus your messaging on hearing health to match with the timeliness of New Year’s Resolutions. Use content, including copy and imagery, that reminds patients to make their hearing health a priority in the New Year.
Another opportunity comes from nationally recognized celebrations. For example, May is recognized as Better Hearing Month. Capitalize on this knowledge by creating a campaign around it. You can utilize seasonal marketing throughout the whole year based on seasons, holidays, or even trends.
Start the New Year with BlueWing’s Experts
Set your hearing care practice up for success. Consistent automated marketing will help you schedule more appointments and sell more units. Let BlueWing help your practice increase ROI and patient retention. Contact us today!
By: Brad Dodson