6 Marketing Best Practices for Ketamine Clinics

Starting a new ketamine clinic is a great way to serve patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression. However, it comes with many challenges. Growth starts with having a strategy on attracting new patients.

Here are 6 best practices for attracting ideal patients for your ketamine clinic. 

Create a Webchat

A webchat system allows users to communicate with your organization on your site in real time, and setting up a webchat platform is easy and affordable. A webchat platform can take visitors already on your site and convert them to qualified leads. Webchats can be configured to automatically alert staff to engage in live chat or to have predetermined answers based on prompts. 

Another benefit of using webchat is that unlike running ad campaigns through Google or social media networks, no money is spent on ads to drive engagement. Most webchats are very affordable and scalable, regardless of the amount of traffic on your website.

Optimize Google My Business Profile

Once a potential patient discovers your organization, chances are they’ll be doing their homework. In their research phase, it is vital to appear as professional and welcoming as possible. Manage your online presence across the Google platform by creating and maintaining a Google My Business profile. A well-managed profile includes up-to-date business hours and address, as well as high-resolution clinic photos. We recommend welcoming photos of ownership and front-desk staff, as well as treatment rooms and your waiting room.

Adding service descriptions with photos can also increase GMB authority. Repurposing content from your website keeps things simple and helps build consistency for your brand across the web.

Leverage Video

Leveraging video is a core growth pillar for many successful ketamine clinics because it helps to tell the story of ketamine infusion therapy, intramuscular ketamine, or esketamine.

Professionally produced video dispels myths about ketamine, and it helps to give context to the story of ketamine infusion therapy and how it helps treat mental illness. Animated “how-to” and “how this works” videos are also extremely helpful. We are several years away from reaching mass adoption of alternative treatments such as ketamine for mental illness. Until then, video content can educate and attract potential patients.

Qualify Your Leads

Once running video ads, it is important to qualify leads. Carefully consider the questions being asked in your lead generation process. For instance, individuals who view a video ad can be directed to a squeeze page with a short survey. Here you can ask about previous types of treatment, number of prescribed antidepressant medications, how long a depressive episode has been, and more. 

The more information you gather in the lead generation process, the easier it will be to connect with this future patient when you pick up the phone and speak with them. You can reference all of their answers in your call. 

Have the Right Patient Enrollment Team 

Once video captures a prospect’s interest and a squeeze page captures the lead, it’s time to make contact. Here is where the handoff between attraction (marketing) and enrollment (sales) takes place. When answering the phone, people make a judgment within the first couple of seconds. The main question your prospect is asking is: Can this person help me? 

Most inquiries come from individuals desperately seeking help. They may be confused or uncertain about what you do. A patient enrollment team serves a critical role in helping this person. Demonstrating empathy in a caring and tactful way builds trust and increases the likelihood a potential client will commit to treatment—and show up to their appointment.

Measure Results

Measuring marketing efforts is a must. Start by identifying key performance indicators (KPIs). In the case of lead generation for a medical clinic, the focus should be money spent on marketing, number of leads generated, number of consultations, and number of new patients. 

Let’s say, for example, you spent $1,000 on running ads that generated 50 leads. From those 50 leads, 20 agreed to an appointment, and from those 20 appointments, 7 became patients. Breaking these numbers down, the cost per lead was $20. Cost per appointment was $50. Finally, cost per acquisition was $143. Therefore, if an average ketamine case generates $2,000 for a practice, $143 must be spent to produce $2,000 in revenue.

These metrics can be broken down further to include cost per meaningful conversation, cost per shown appointment, and more. Paying attention to this area will help you to budget and scale your marketing efforts. Knowing your acquisition cost is a significant advantage. 

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Growing a ketamine practice takes great, detailed focus. Implementing these 6 best growth and marketing practices can put you on a path toward helping those most vulnerable in your community. 

Scott Theaman is CEO and founder of Beyond Marketing.