When thinking of growing Naturopathic, Functional or Integrative medicine practices usually the first thing everybody thinks of is adding more traffic to your existing website or maybe your social media platforms in order to generate more leads so there will be an increase in patients and revenue.

The BIG reality here is this is actually a backward way of looking at a solution to the real problem.

Understanding what it takes to get more traffic, starts with looking at the current online journey for new patients.

What is that journey like and how does it impact the behavior of your potential patient? Have you done a comprehensive analysis of your website and social media pages?

Who do they speak to? Why should you be their health care provider? Why should your way of solving their problems matter?

Just as we see the evolution of Functional Medicine, Naturopathic and Integrative medicine in the marketplace, the evolution of the potential patient must also be taken into consideration.

The patient journey has changed and hopefully so has your online marketing. But in most cases, doctors practicing natural medicine are not up to date with the technology, tools and how they work together to take your patient through a valuable experience. When a prospective patient reaches your website, finds you on social media, receives your emails you want them to be fans of yours so they are eager to work with you.

It takes multiple touch points to turn a prospect into a buyer, in your case a potential patient into a booked one. So think about all the ways you connect with a potential patient. Look to your online presence as a warming up of potentials and also a tool to nurture and convert.

Social media addiction and the current age of distraction have created a new breed of online information seeker and it’s not in what we would consider a functional forum for discussion but rather scattered searching everywhere for answers.

Information is instant and everywhere. People are on their phones looking to solve their life problems, including their biggest health issues!
This is all very useful information for someone that is marketing your practice.
If that is YOU, then take note. Lengthy boring or outdated articles, long lists of services and impersonal websites that act like a bad flyer from the early 2000s are not going to attract the type of people that are online looking for health information. Why? Because they want to find out what you can do for them right now. They don’t want to save your office number and call back in the morning and hope reception answers the phone, then answers their questions, gets them booked in a timely fashion and then they actually show up for the appointment! As a matter of fact they will keep searching for someone online that can give them what they are looking for.

This situation is all too common, you need to understand this problem in order to fix it

Based on the evolution of the patient’s journey we need to stop trying to force people to behave differently than they already do.

1.) If a patient calls and makes a booking over the phone and doesn’t show up, there is a strong chance your online patient journey is broken, you haven’t done well at nurturing that lead and you are possibly not attracting your ideal patients.

2.) If a potential patient goes through the right patient journey when they find you and are impressed they are much more likely to show up and be an amazing fit for your practice.

3.) You must nurture the patient through multiple connections using terminology they can relate too and with content they understand and that resonates with them. They will build a rapport with you, your medicine and your style before calling and that helps turn random potentials into ideal patients that are actually raving fans.

Fixing the current online journey you offer is easy.

• You need to ensure you are outlining your Ideal Patient carefully (this can change as your practice grows).
• Figuring out how your ideal patient speaks about themselves, their pain points, their frustrations will allow you to really connect deeply and build trust.
• When you create content for your patients whether it is articles or videos or emails you need to ensure you “speak” to them and them alone, as if they are in the room with you as you write. 

Breakdown false beliefs, build trust and create true connections then you can move onto creating a relationship.

Build relationships through video training, live videos on social media, and downloads to starter guides with email sequences to nurture them along.

Once you have those steps in place, then you add fuel to the fire- Traffic.

We like to use the analogy of a cheese sandwich addict. You can spend time and use all the tools you have in your toolbox as a practitioner for an ill patient that comes into your office, but if all they eat are cheese sandwiches on wonder bread, all the meal plans, mindset changes, nutrients, supplements, and whitespace recommendations etc… are useless.

The root cause of your problems with getting more traffic to your practice is to start by building the right healthy foundation for success just as you teach your patients to do with their health otherwise no matter how much traffic you send to your site and social media, you won’t convert your prospects into ideal patients.

If you would like to discuss how to improve your online patient journey click here.

Brandy Kinnear

Founder- Your Ideal Patients, Digital Marketing Strategist and Practice Development Specialist for Natural Medicine Doctors