Finding Audiology Marketing Success on Autopilot

By Brad Stewart

This article is a part of the September/October 2021, Volume 33, Number 5, Audiology Today issue.

How much time does your staff spend licking envelopes to hand-mail letters to your patients? How much energy and effort does your team put into managing patient follow-ups, recalls, end-of-warranty check-ups, and tested-not-treated (TNT) follow-ups? 

Are there gaps that exist in your patient follow-up systems that could be letting prospects and current patients slip out of your practice and into your competitors’ practices?

What if you could automate your database lifecycle marketing, using just the tools that are already included with many of today’s most popular office management systems (OMSs) and without putting in daily effort to manage your patient lifecycle marketing? 

Lifecycle marketing in our profession refers to ongoing marketing and messaging (mailers, newsletters, email updates, patient appreciation events, etc.) that a hearing-care practice conducts to keep its patients and prospects engaged with the practice and to keep the business top of mind.

This has been one of my biggest areas of focus as an audiology private-practice owner during the past seven years. That’s why I’m so pleased that several of the most popular OMSs now allow businesses, such as audiology private practices, to automate their most important patient interactions. 

What Is Marketing Automation?

You might or might not be familiar with the concept of marketing automation (FIGURE 1). Today’s technology allows businesses to create systems that will follow up with, nurture, and communicate to clients and prospects, without the need for business owners and managers to lift a finger.