Handling New Patient Leads: When to Call a Lead

People are increasingly relying on the Internet to find the answers they need when it comes to services, especially with healthcare and medical services. When they’re curious about whether they have a cold or flu, they first go online and search symptoms.

People are increasingly relying on the Internet to find the answers they need when it comes to services, especially with healthcare and medical services. When they’re curious about whether they have a cold or flu, they first go online and search symptoms. When they want to set up an appointment with a medical office, people are going online to find the perfect fit for their schedule and wallet. This is why it is so important for medical offices to have a strong process set up that gets people landing on their website.

Being able to capture those new patient leads can mean the difference of a well thought out marketing campaign that is money well spent and a marketing plan that is a complete mess and you just throwing away money daily. Before you begin trying to capture patient leads, there are some things you need to understand about the leads coming to your website. Then, from there, you can begin creating a solid plan to make sure they stay on your website and use your services.

New Patient Leads: The Different Types of Lead Persona

For the most part, there are going to be two different types of new patient leads coming to your website:

• One of the most common leads that will be coming to your website are often the leads looking for information. They are going in to research symptoms, procedures, and other health care information that is very important to them. Having the right kind of information available on your website is crucial.
• The other common lead that will come to your website is going to be the patient that already has the answers she needs and is now ready to set up an appointment. Instead of providing even more information for this patient lead, you want to be in contact with this lead ASAP.

Your website must cater to these two leads for the best results. This can be achieved easily with the right kind of lead funnel being implemented on your website for both types, because the two are seeking out completely different kinds of information. So, what kinds of resources should you be utilizing to successfully draw in these potential patients?

New Patient Leads: Lead Nurturing With Content

When it comes to the new patient leads seeking out more information for their research, you want to provide content that gives all of the right answers. That means creating content that leads can download such as free eBooks or white papers as well as content they can instantly read and view such as blog posts, infographics, and simple website content.

This type of content creation for your leads is known as Top of the Funnel content because you’re answering questions and starting to instill loyalty and trust between you and the lead. Your information is helping them make a decision and you want to make sure that the content is branded so they know you are the right choice when they’re ready to make an appointment.

This also means having different “tiers” of content that can be used. All leads within this category are going to be looking for the same thing, but some of them are going to be at different levels of their research. You need to be able to have information that is both basic and complex, allowing you to show your thought leadership in your practice.

1. Answer their questions while they are in research mode (blogs, eBooks)
2. Provide content that convinces them you are the best choice (case studies)
3. Compel them to call or request an appointment (free consult)

Calling New Patient Leads For Appointments

Once you’ve gone beyond offering content to your lead and are ready to contact them, you need to be immediately ready with a system that knows when to call or reach out to the lead. This is especially true for leads that come to your website and already know they want to book an appointment. There is marketing software, like HubSpot, that can alert your staff of new patient leads as soon as they send in a form through the website. From there, your staff can quickly reply back to the request by either (or ideally, doing both) calling or emailing the lead.

This needs to be a process that is seamless, easy, and fast. Waiting around for notifications and then putting them off will only mean possibly losing the lead or developing a gap of communication between the you of two. That means the staff should understand there is a policy with a minimum number of times they will reach out to the lead, whether it’s with five calls and emails, or whatever numbers you find works.

• A Kellogg study on Lead Response Management (LRM) revealed the odds of connecting with a lead increases by 100 times if attempted within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes. And the odds of converting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes increases by 21 times.

There is actually software available that can make this process a seamless as possible. Companies like Speak2Leads have developed systems that simplify the process of connecting with your leads. Here’s how the Speak2Leads system makes connecting with your leads simple and successful:

1. A potential patient fills out a form on your website, requesting an appointment. 
2. The Speak2Leads software automatically calls your office within seconds. The best time to connect with a lead is as soon as they fill out a form.
3. When your office answers the software then automatically calls the lead on the phone number they provided just seconds ago. 

Combining inbound marketing and a powerful lead calling system like Speak2Leads can substantially increase your success in generating and closing new patient leads.

Photo credit: Alan Cleaver