Do you run a medical billing business and want to boost income? If YES, here are 10 guaranteed ways to get clients for your medical billing business for free.
Attracting customer is no easy feat especially if the niche you are into is not so broad. however, with the right effort, you can do it effectively.
In order to succeed as a self-employed medical biller, you will need to build and maintain successful relationships with medical practitioners in need of top-notch billing services. Even though the idea of soliciting medical professionals may come across as quite a challenge, marketing however is a very integral part of business for any entrepreneur.
Here are some tips on how you can get clients for your medical billing business.
10 Sure Ways to Get Clients for a Medical Billing Business
1. Research the local market
First and foremost, you will need to determine if your local market is already saturated with similar operations. According to Electronic Medical Billing Network of America, for every 1,000 doctors in your area, two or three will greatly need your services at any given time so you will have to gauge the amount of opportunity that exist in your locality.
2. Referral is everything (but don’t be afraid to reach out)
At a point in your business, you will be new and without any clients. You should think of this industry as a professional schoolyard and you are new.
You have to put your name out there and show people who you are and what you’re made of. A lot of the main connections that you will make will come from your past clients, however, if you don’t have any client now, you will have to make the first move and reach out to clients.
You should have a clear idea of who your exact market is and then focus your efforts towards that market. If you thought this business was a niche, you have to consider the different medical “niches” that you can go after, too.
You should contact various associations and introduce yourself and what you can do. You will need something substantial to prove your worth, too. This is where you can get creative and think of the things that you can provide because you’re new.
3. Become an expert in medical billing for a specialty
Instead of focusing on all niches in the medical billing field, you can instead develop a billing niche for a specialty, such as mental health providers, urgent care centers, dentists, occupational and physical therapists, and others.
If you narrow your focus down by specializing in a particular field, you will be able to build a reputation for offering high-quality medical billing services in that particular field. If you are able to do this correctly, your company will appear to be more attractive to medical professionals in that specialty because they will assume that you are more knowledgeable about their specific billing needs.
4. Familiarize yourself with the local medical community
Whenever the opportunity appears, you should try your best to network with medical professionals. These opportunities can include seminars, conferences, health fairs, luncheons and other events. The more actively you build network with medical professionals, the more opportunity you will have to meet potential clients.
You can also consider joining committees and attending community events, including nonprofit events that medical professionals may frequent. These events may include cancer support organizations or other nonprofits focusing on various diseases and illnesses.
5. Take Your Activities Online
You should use some keyword research and find out if people in your area (or in your district or country) are actively searching for a keyword that shows buyer intent for your services and then from there build a website.
In today’s world, even the simplest things are things people search for, and it’s better if you appear out of nowhere in their search results than not appear at all. Ensure to use proper SEO on your site to make the best out of your campaigns and consistently try to rank for the first page of the SERP.
You can also start a social media campaign and produce relevant content that you think doctors will like, it might be a way of reaching out. If it gets shared, you’ll have started the lead generation process without even having had your material in front of the person making decisions.
6. Develop professional marketing materials, and get them in the hands of potential billing clients
Your medical billing company’s marketing materials should include a brochure and business cards. Having a website is also a necessity because it will help to increase your outreach and your clients can easily contact you anytime they want.
Mail marketing materials to prospects or deliver them in person, asking to speak to the person or office manager who makes decisions regarding the practice’s billing services. Follow up your visit or phone call with another phone call in a day or two.
7. Try cold calling
A lot of people are not very fond of cold calling not only because it is demanding in terms of time and resources but because it also requires particular workforce to execute. However, you should not look down on this method of getting new clients.
Don’t just limit yourself to cold calls, rather, you should use available technology to increase your reach. By now you would already be familiar with the tremendous effects of email campaigns that are properly run, so use the ones at your disposal.
8. Advertise your business as much as you can
Ads in newspapers and local medical publications is a very good place to start. Advertise in medical or dental practice magazines and any other local newsletter or magazine frequently read by doctors and medical office professionals.
Draw attention to your ad with special offers or introductory rates for new clients. You can also use social media to target health practitioner who may be interested in what you do. The main point here is that you should advertise as much as your budget allows you to.
9. Connect with people as much as you can
Even though this may seem obvious, but there should be a constant effort in your marketing activities. Just like most business niches out there, this one has a lot of competition. Add value and character to all your marketing efforts, determine your edge, and work relentlessly to outclass your competition.
There are a lot of benefits from focusing on a specific niche, yet, you must not forget that no matter how lucrative a niche can be, there is still a lot of adapting and tweaking to get your message across.
With a proper marketing and strategic plan in place, the determination to make the appropriate connections, and a little imagination, you will be scoring a lot of leads in no time at all.
10. Know what your competition is doing and do it better
You have to bear in mind that you are in an open market and that there are people competing with you for customers, and as such, you have to stay competitive with other local medical billing companies; familiarize yourself with their rates and specializations, if any.
Find out what their strengths are so that you can emulate it and also find out their weaknesses so that you can capitalize on it to increase your customer base. Consider asking clients to complete surveys to determine what services they are most and least happy with. Take survey results seriously; improve upon procedures or policies that may be lacking for client practices.