Often, the problem with weight loss practice growth isn’t new leads coming into your practice — it is converting those leads into satisfied, loyal patients.

Lead conversion is a joint marketing and sales process that involves converting leads into paying customers.¹ Every lead is a potential new patient for your weight loss practice. The objective for you and your team is to achieve the highest possible conversion rate for your qualified leads. This enables you to effectively serve those who need your services and products, ensuring the viability and growth of your practice. While sometimes overlooked, improving your conversion rate can significantly boost the growth of your practice.

In the past, many physicians and their weight loss programs may have been the main “game in town.” However, with increased commercialized competition, GLP-1 medication demand, and health care consumerism, you must be deliberate in your efforts to create a new patient journey that resonates with your ideal patients and stands out from your competition.

How to Make Your Weight Loss Practice Stand Out

Innovation is the introduction of new things, ideas, or ways of doing things.² In the weight loss industry, innovation is the norm and has brought about many advances as well as some misleading promises. This is why you are so important — so you can make sense of it all through your experience and evidence-based knowledge.

While it may seem counterintuitive, one of the best ways to stand out is to follow the science and implement best practices, yet avoid doing what everyone else is doing. You can stand out by being different in ways such as: sharing your unique opinions online, having your team personally reach out to new leads (instead of relying solely on bots and AI), attracting new patients with e-books/content you have written answering the questions they ask the most, focusing on patient outcomes, sharing success stories, and involving your team in decision making for optimal innovation so you are providing the exact products and services your patients need and desire most.

Lead Conversion Strategies at Each Phase of Your New Patient Journey

Your new patient journey involves four phases which are outlined below. It is important to orchestrate these phases to ensure that you are attracting qualified leads, engaging and nurturing them effectively, converting ideal leads into paying patients, and creating outcomes that meet or exceed their expectations — All while trying not to overcomplicate the process and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

While the focus here is primarily on the top innovative strategies for the conversion phase of your new patient journey, it’s important to recognize that each phase plays a role in the growth of your weight loss practice. The four phases are outlined below along with top success strategies for each:

Attracting New Leads

In this initial phase, potential patients become aware of your services through your various marketing efforts. They learn about who you are, what you offer, and how you are uniquely qualified to help them overcome their struggle to lose weight. Top strategies for successful generation of new leads include the following:

• Outstanding Online Presence: With up to 83 percent of adults in the U.S. searching for health information online, it is imperative that you have an outstanding online presence.³ This requires a professional website that is easy to navigate, engaging social media accounts, and keyword rich blog content. This ensures that potential patients can easily find you and learn about your practice.
• Lead Capture: Having a 24/7 way to capture new leads allows you to have an abundance of new leads with specific preferred contact information to follow-up with. You can implement lead capture through online assessments, landing pages, contact us forms, and downloadable resources such as e-books or guides to better outcomes.
• Organic Marketing (i.e. social media, content marketing and SEO): Organic marketing is a no/low cost trustworthy way to attract new leads. These efforts boost your visibility online, allows you to leverage all content you create (blogs, videos, shorts, downloadable resources). Such efforts also establish you as an authority in the field of weight loss and provides a way for people to easily share your information with others.
• Word of Mouth/Referrals: A trusted recommendation from a family member, friend or physician can be a powerful way to attract new leads. This requires action on your part to encourage satisfied patients to share their positive experiences — something most patients are very happy to do.
• Paid Advertising: Investing in paid advertising such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads and YouTube Ads can increase your visibility to a broader audience. It is also a great way to drive traffic to your practice. Be sure to monitor your metrics to ensure a positive return on investment and appropriate allocation of funds.

Engaging and Nurturing Leads

The goal of engaging and nurturing your leads is to build trust and a relationship. Many new leads may still be in their investigation phase. So, you need to make sure you are the choice in front of them when they are ready to make a decision. Top strategies for engaging and nurturing leads include the following:

• Webinars: Hosting informative and interactive webinars allows you to engage with your current and potential new patients. This helps to build trust.
• Informative Content: Creating and sharing interesting content as videos, blogs, podcasts, and infographics helps educate your patients. It keeps them engaged and they will recognize you as their source for weight loss information and services.
• Regular Contact through Email Campaigns: Sending regular, targeted email campaigns helps to keep you top-of-mind when prospective patients decide on their choice of weight loss services and products.
• Follow-Up Calls: Personalized attention through follow-up calls also differentiates your practice and demonstrates care as you answer questions and provide them with the opportunity to schedule a consultation or learn more about your services.
• Personalized Communication: Using personalized communication — particularly text messaging — can be very effective in keeping your patients engaged and nurturing leads down their decision-making pathway.

Converting Leads

This is the very important phase where your potential patients decide to take the next step and commit to utilizing your services and products.

• Know Your Ideal Patients: Knowing what your ideal patients want most helps you to communicate effectively at each step of their patient journey.
• Create a Patient Pathway that Supports Lead Conversion: One of the biggest ways practitioners and their teams thwart their conversion rate is by putting barriers in place (making the process too difficult or unclear) throughout the new patient pathway. Balance automation with personalized interaction and review your pathway for necessary modifications at least annually. This increases their confidence and likelihood of conversion and follow-through.
• Leverage Patient Testimonials and Online Reviews: Showcase your positive patient testimonials and online reviews for added credibility and trust. This demonstrates the success of your program and encourages new leads to take the next step in becoming a patient.
• Provide Exceptional Customer Service: Knowing you care and what to expect every step of the way creates a positive and reassuring experience. This makes your patients feel valued and more inclined to commit to you and your program.
• Offer Flexible Payment Plans: Providing flexible payment plans as needed removes financial barriers for potential patients. It can also differentiate your program from another one in your area.
• Know Your Metrics: Monitor your conversion rates for advertising, lead to consult, and consult to commitment (medical and/or surgical). Reviewing your metrics at least monthly helps you to be proactive when it comes to identifying what is, and is not, working.

Turning Leads Into Satisfied Customers

Once you have earned their trust and they decide to utilize your services, it is time to follow through. Provide services and support to ensure that your new patients can meet or exceed their goals. A great way to do this is to under promise and over deliver.

Lead conversion is essential for the profitability, stability, and growth of your weight loss practice. By focusing on a few key strategies and monitoring your progress with metric measurement, you can optimize your budget and achieve success more quickly. Imagine the impact of increasing your lead conversion by 10 percent or more!

Source(s):

¹ https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/top-cro-experts-questions

² https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/innovation

³ https://evokad.com/health care-marketing-statistics-google/