Growing your clinic is key to succeeding. To do this, you can’t be passive about it. Your competitors will be using marketing strategies to expand their healthcare business, and you’ll have to be active to keep up.
Read on to understand how healthcare growth agencies help clinics and the benefits of using one. But first, let’s go through what a healthcare growth agency is and the different types.
What is a healthcare growth agency?
A healthcare growth agency works with clinics and healthcare brands to grow their businesses through marketing.
The agency will work closely with the clinic to find a strategy that works well for them. Using digital and other marketing methods, they will generate more new patient enquiries and conversions for the clinic while getting their client’s name out there.
Growth may mean different things for different healthcare businesses. It may mean signing up more patients for high-value treatments, opening a new clinic in a new location, attracting patients to new treatments, or more patients in general, regardless of the treatment.
Growth marketing differs from traditional marketing because the results are much more rapid. You may be investing more than you would with other forms of marketing, but you would expect to see a better return on your investment.
This type of marketing relies on testing to perfect the strategy. A healthcare growth agency should have enough experience to know the most effective way to grow your clinic.
Types of healthcare growth agencies
There are different types, and they each work with different growth strategies.
#1 Growth marketing
These agencies focus on growing clinics by generating new patient enquiries.
They use paid media, such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads etc., to get results.
These agencies have a great understanding of digital channels and plenty of experience. An agency like this will be able to create a bespoke paid media mix for your clinic and use their knowledge to get the most out of the campaigns and ads that are running.
#2 Growth strategy consulting
Growth strategy consultants tend to work with larger healthcare businesses to assist them in scaling their growth programs up from one or two to multiple channels.
These consultants initially focus on minor areas before scaling up into a demand generation program by adding more channels, including offline through different media such as TV ads, Radio ads or billboards.
#3 Growth hacking
Growth hacking agencies combine marketing, engineering, design and analytical skills to help healthcare businesses quickly grow their patient base or revenue.
They will use their network of bloggers and influencers on social media and other contacts to grow the clinic by increasing its exposure to a broader audience. These agencies are better suited to large healthcare businesses with bigger budgets.
The benefits of using a healthcare growth agency
Growing a clinic is not for the faint-hearted. There are many aspects to the marketing strategies needed, and it can be overwhelming for someone who, while trying to run their clinic, see patients, and oversee staff, is also trying to market it.
Hiring a healthcare growth agency for a clinic is a fast way of taking off the strain of trying to do it all. This way, the clinic can receive more new patient enquiries and, therefore, have the chance to sign up more patients, which will help practitioners reach their personal and professional goals.
At Ignite, we provide personalised support to each of our clients. They are assigned an Account Manager who will talk them through all the processes, offer training to the practice staff, and keep them updated on the campaigns.
We have years of experience working with healthcare businesses, and it’s our job to get you the best return on your investment possible and help you reach your goals. We work closely with our clients and believe these relationships speak volumes regarding our great results.
Here are the 8 benefits of using a healthcare growth agency
#1 Personalised training
Your healthcare growth agency should offer you and your staff relevant training to ensure your follow-up and in-person procedures with your new patient enquiries are as efficient and effective as possible.
At Ignite, we provide our clients with training to help reception staff follow up with new patient enquiries successfully.
The training includes which methods they should be using to get in touch with the prospective patients, what they should be saying during the conversations, and what they shouldn’t be saying.
The training helps our clients convert the enquiries and help them get prospective patients booked in for consultations.
#2 Support throughout
Agencies should provide consistent support to clinics throughout. This doesn’t just mean support until the new patient enquiries start coming in – a common trend with many agencies.
In fact, many of Ignite’s clients have complained that previous agencies left them high and dry after getting them their leads.
This resulted in low conversion rates due to a lack of understanding of how new enquiries should be handled, where prospective patients are in the funnel, and what they should say to get them booked in for a consultation.
Unlike these agencies, Ignite Growth will be there every step of the way. Not only with our training for reception staff.
We also give practitioners tips on converting leads into patients, and we will stay in touch with clinics constantly to see how, together, we can improve.
#3 Dedicated Account Manager
Account managers look after their clients and are their primary point of contact. Any doubts the client has will be directed to the Account Manager.
There should be effective communication where the Account Manager communicates with the rest of the team and the client.
At Ignite, each clinic is assigned an Account Manager. This person will walk the client through the process and communicate how the campaign is going so they are always kept in the loop.
They are also the person who will evaluate how well the campaign is going and asses the advertising regularly with the Campaign Manager in order to make improvements where necessary.
#4 Dedicated Campaign Manager
Campaign managers are trained in setting up, publishing and optimising campaigns to create the most effective campaigns to bring in new patient enquiries.
We assign each client their own Campaign Manager. This means more dedicated time to each campaign and efficiently optimised campaigns.
Our campaign managers work closely with our account managers to provide our clients with updated information.
#5 Thorough communication
Communication is vital for a prosperous relationship between a healthcare growth agency and its client.
As previously mentioned, the Account Manager maintains strong contact with the client.
The agency team should also have excellent communication between members too. This is often visible in the information the Account Manager relays from the Campaign Manager.
If you find your Account Manager is struggling to keep you up to date with your campaigns, that is a signal that there is a breakdown in communication.
At Ignite, we pride ourselves on our excellent communication. Check out our Success Stories, where many of our clients chat about how they value our quick and efficient response rate.
#6 Realistic goals
Many agencies offer their clients unrealistic results as a sales tactic. They will hook you on promising amazing results in just a couple of weeks. This usually leads to client dissatisfaction later when they can’t follow through on their promises.
Some can get you lots of new patient enquiries, but they could be low-quality that aren’t likely to convert, or you had to undervalue your treatments and offer high discounts to get those leads.
Finding an agency that provides its clients with realistic goals and data to back those goals up is vital – without undervaluing what you have to offer. We strive to find the perfect high-quality patients for your treatments, and we don’t believe you need to offer discounts to get them.
#7 Return on investment (ROI)
The key to measuring a campaign’s success is determining the return on investment (ROI). The job of a healthcare growth agency is to get the best ROI possible.
Campaign Managers will work tirelessly in trying to increase the ROI of each campaign. They should be experts in their field that stay up-to-date with new rules, regulations and algorithms that each platform constantly inputs.
#8 Predictability
Growth agencies can’t guarantee results, but they should be able to tell you the results they expect to see. They should have benchmarks for the type of campaigns they run and keep a close eye on them to ensure success.
After all, while we can make predictions, each campaign is different, with different elements affecting them.
At Ignite, we work using data-driven results. From running over 300 campaigns just for open days alone and working with hundreds of clinics on monthly campaigns over the past few years, we have a pretty good idea of what we can expect from each campaign, helping us to offer the most accurate prediction possible.
How can a healthcare growth agency help your clinic?
Using a healthcare growth agency will help the clinic guide new patients, through the stages of their healthcare journey.
The agency will work to attract healthcare consumers and generate new patient enquiries. These will be sent to the clinic or practice, and with the proper training from the agency, the frontline staff will be able to qualify and book in those leads that are most likely to turn into new patients.
With the support of the growth agency, the clinic should receive a higher intake of patients, especially high-value patients.
The idea is to keep these patients engaged so they form a bond with the practice and will return for any future treatments.
Increasing the number of high-value patients will give those at the practice more flexibility to do the treatments they want.
This has an incredibly positive impact on their personal lives too.
How to find the right growth agency for your clinic?
The healthcare industry is a unique niche. You can’t hire any old growth agency and expect great results.
You need an agency that understands your audience and knows how to reach them effectively. Healthcare growth agencies have insider knowledge into these types of businesses which is invaluable in marketing. They know what works and what doesn’t.
It’s essential to find an agency that analyses the results from each campaign while proving they have a history of getting fantastic results from campaigns. They should be able to show off all their amazing work.
The right growth agency will be able to predict the results from the campaign, they should work closely with you and your team, and they should be consistently tweaking and optimising the campaigns while keeping you updated.
After all, you’re investing money into your clinic through this agency; you should expect a return on your investment.
Checklist to find the right healthcare growth agency for your clinic:
- Proven results
- Positive testimonials
- Personalised service
- Experience
- Realistic goals
For more great content, head on to our blog and video series, or you can visit us on YouTube.
If you’re interested in finding out how Ignite Growth can help you grow your clinic, book a FREE Growth Strategy call with our friendly experts.
Additional Resources:
Why is healthcare marketing important?
What’s the difference between a growth agency and an advertising agency?
