“90 percent of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 14 percent trust advertisements.”

Because the above statement is correct—or at least it accurately portrays consumer behavior—healthcare practices’ marketing efforts must be placed: on referrals and patient testimonials.

However, getting patient referrals or positive patient reviews is more than just sending a link. The real answer: getting patients to click that link to refer a friend. So how do we do it? For starters, we get to know who our patients are so we may more effectively connect with them.

One way of gaining valuable insight into not only patients, but also practice strengths and weaknesses, is with Solutionreach’s Analytics tool; think of it as the nucleus of your practice. Every day, Analytics will give your practice insight into the numbers, the services you’re performing, your patients, and more. It is this “inside” knowledge of your practice that can make the acquisition of new patients a little (or a lot) easier. Instead of guessing or acting on a hunch, practices can feel confident about where their attentions have or have not been placed.

For example, a dental practice may see they have a large number of teeth-whitening patients. As a result, they may send a targeted message to those patients offering them an incentive discount for the procedure, should they refer a friend.

In addition to better patient targeting, SR Analytics can also help practices focus their efforts in a timely manner. For example, if a dermatology office notices December seems to be a particularly slow month, they may bolster efforts in a new way to encourage traffic during that time.

Essentially, this tool is like having a fly on the wall; never again will a practice have to guess what their patient base seeks. And by knowing exactly who your patients are, you can more effectively reach out to them, making them more likely to recommend your services to friends and family.