The start of the year can be a busy time for many small businesses, but also an important time to start the year off on the right foot. And, getting your marketing strategy in order to boost patient growth throughout the year is one of the many important things you should be focusing on. Today we want to take a look at 5 low-hanging fruits in your marketing strategy that are quick and easy to check off your list, and will help you attract new patients and keep your current ones!

5 Simple Marketing Actions to Take in Q1

Website Review

One thing that is really important to do frequently, is updating your website information. While it's best to regularly do this throughout the year, we especially encourage it to start off the year. When was the last time you updated photos? Have you had any new hires you need to update on your staff page? Have your hours changed? Can you implement online scheduling through your website? These are just a few ideas of pages you might be able to update on your website that may have gone untouched for a while. 

Update Social Media Photos

It's easy for social media content to get stagnant. But, consistently updating your header and profile photos helps keep your page interesting and drives traffic to your page. Take a look at your header and profile pictures. Are they dated? Do you have more recent photos that can take their place?

Beef Up Your Referral Program

Word of mouth referrals are an important part of growing your healthcare business. Because healthcare is such a personal experience, people trust the people they are closest with to give them advice on providers they have had good experiences with. Having a referral program will help encourage patients to share their experience with others and bring new patients into your practice for you, but if you aren't asking for referrals you probably won't get as many as you'd like. There are many ideas out there for incentives and how to build a referral program for your business. Take a look at a few of our ideas in this post. 

Send Your First Email

Growing your email list is something every small business should be doing, even your eyecare practice. You might be wondering what types of emails you would send your patients and how you should even get started. Having an email list of your patient base on hand allows you to easily promote things like trunk shows in your practice or other ongoing specials and promotions you might be running. If you have yet to send any emails to your patients, make it a goal to send one out this first quarter and gauge how it performs to see if it's a channel you want to continue to use in the future. 

Join a Local Business Group

Being active in your community is a great way to network and spread the word about your business. Plus, small businesses typically like to support other small business so it's likely that you'll grow partnerships with other business owners in the community and help support each other in many different ways. Perhaps there is a local dentist in your area that you could cross promote with. Being active in local business groups will open up doors to local sponsorship and volunteer opportunities that your practice can contribute to as well reaching a whole new audience of your community.

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