Even though paid ads have their purpose, businesses often want customers, or patients in this context, to find them because their reputation has made an impact in the field. If you have a mental health brand, learning how to get organic referrals involves creating an effective acquisition strategy that targets fellow providers.
With the power of the internet, it’s important to go beyond word-of-mouth marketing. Digital marketing gives you the opportunity to broaden your reach to be discovered by potential patients and referring providers alike. You can create a strategy that helps you organically acquire B2B patients and assist them in their overall wellness journey by working with their existing providers.
Read on to learn about why your mental health brand can benefit from a B2B patient acquisition strategy. We’ll also discuss what’s involved in one and examples of potential strategies to test out.
Why mental health brands need a B2B patient acquisition strategy
A B2B customer/patient acquisition strategy can help all types of brands. But it can be especially helpful for medical providers. Providers can face a few challenges that non-healthcare businesses don’t experience, including:
- Competition from other well-meaning, influential brands who want to help others
- Regulations to abide by for safety and security reasons, such as HIPAA compliance
- Barriers of trust to ensure expertise and transparency of medical concerns
Gaining organic referrals from other providers, as well as community organizations and partners, can provide many benefits for your long-term growth, such as a credible reputation and brand recognition.
B2B acquisition is a low-cost way to gain new patients. You’re also gaining high-quality leads who are likely to make an appointment because they are hearing about you from someone else they trust in the medical field.
Components of an effective patient acquisition strategy
When you’re trying to create a patient acquisition strategy, here are a few different components that you should consider including for the best results:
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Understanding your ideal referral partner
You want your marketing to target specific demographics for your specialized treatments. You want to make sure that your referral partners are the right fit as well.
Try to segment your acquisition efforts to prioritize specific partner referrals. As a mental health brand, it can be helpful to partner with providers who treat people with distressing circumstances. For example, a school nurse or a pediatric doctor who helps adolescents with chronic pain may be able to refer students to you.
Once you understand who you want to partner with, you can align your marketing strategy with their online preferences and relevant educational content.
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Building a referral-friendly online presence
If someone wants to refer someone to you, they want to feel confident that it will be an easy process. You want to have a site that’s easy to navigate, which may include a section specifically for providers referring a patient to you.
A provider wants to know that they can trust you with their patient. It’s important to be as transparent on your site as possible about your clinic’s approach and processes. A comprehensive FAQ page on your site can help them quickly learn the ins and outs of what you do.
Be sure that your team’s specialties and credentials are highlighted on the “About Us” or “Our Team” page. It’s a way for the referring partner to know that your clinic is qualified to help their patient’s specific needs.
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Using content to build trust with referral partners
Educational content can organically appeal to both potential patients and referral sources. You’re able to provide value to the reader while connecting the concern with your own treatments. When you’re specifically targeting potential referral partners, you can create quality, credible content that builds trust while establishing yourself as an authority in the mental health field.
Examples of types of content that can showcase your expertise are blog posts, white papers and case studies.
You can optimize your content for referral partners to find organically on search engines with keyword research and engaging CTAs (calls to action).
Examples of mental health content topics:
- Lesser-known symptoms of depression
- What to expect from cognitive behavioral therapy
- Evidence-backed coping mechanisms for anxiety
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Strengthening relationships with existing referral partners
Acquisition and retention of referral partners go hand in hand. An effective way of gaining new referral partners is by maintaining quality relationships with existing ones, as they can be the source of a referral to a fellow provider.
Use outreach strategies to keep your name in the mind of existing referral sources, such as through emails and networking events. You can regularly showcase your value to them through updated resources and patient stories to reaffirm their positive view on your brand.
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Tracking and measuring your acquisition efforts
Any effective strategy has to include continuous performance tracking to see what is hitting the mark and what isn’t.
You can monitor a variety of metrics over time to see how your acquisition efforts are going, such as conversion rate, readmission rates and patient lifetime value. This type of data can give you insight about referrals by seeing what part of the site is getting the most click-throughs and where the traffic is coming from, such as backlinks and other provider sites.
B2B patient acquisition strategy examples for mental health providers
If you’re not sure where to start on your patient referral acquisitions, here are a few ideas that could help get you the results you’re looking for:
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Referral partnerships with primary care providers
Many primary care physicians are the first people to recognize potential mental health challenges in a patient. They may even provide a diagnosis. You can partner with primary care providers so that you can have a two-way referral system. If you have a patient who is experiencing mental health challenges linked to physical concerns, such as chronic pain or gastrointestinal issues, you can refer them to the PCP.
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Employer and EAP partnerships
Work can put a mental strain on many employees. There could be stress from a difficult project or communication difficulties with co-workers. You can create partnerships with local employers and employee assistance program (EAP) providers to ensure that employees struggling with their mental health have a place to go for support.
You can form these partnerships by networking at job fairs in your area. You can also offer mental wellness workshops for employee training at local companies.
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Community-based acquisition strategy
A mental healthcare brand is a community resource that can help people in your area improve their quality of life. That’s why it can be helpful to turn to other community resources as a way to gain patient referrals. A few options include reaching out to:
- Schools
- Nonprofits
- Churches
- Local organizations or community centers
These community partnerships can help position you as a credible authority as a mental health provider while boosting your brand awareness.
BURG+CO. can help you create a patient acquisition strategy for organic referrals
Every sort of health brand prioritizes patient care, but B2B connections can also help your brand grow to help as many people as possible. If you’re trying to create an acquisition strategy that helps to broaden your referral network, BURG+CO. can offer helpful insight.
With our expertise in search engine optimization (SEO), we know how to reach potential referring providers and how to bolster your online presence as a reputable mental healthcare professional. We’ll be with you every step of the way. We can help to boost your patient acquisition through technical optimization, content creation, analytics and more.
Our team has years of experience in helping healthcare brands improve their digital presence to attract new patients and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more potential patients to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help.
Looking to elevate your healthcare marketing strategy? Reach out to our team for personalized insights and next steps.