THE KICK ASS

MARKETER’S GUIDE TO

COVID-19 RECOVERY
MARKETING PLAN FOR
CLINICS

B Y H A N I A E L S O L H H O S S
ABOUT ME

Thank you for downloading this guide! My name

is Hania ElSolh Hoss and my mission is to offer

social, digital and content marketing strategies

that tell your brand story in the most targeted,

creative, and insights-driven way to drive your

digital growth.

I aim to provide proven and effective marketing

services to ensure your company remains

competitive now and in the future.

I specialize in strategy, creative, and digital

marketing across 15 industries. As a freelance

digital marketing consultant based in Dubai, I

have ten years experience managing the online

presence of brands like Nike, Mercedes Benz,

20th Century Fox, and Crocs.

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MARKETING PLAN FOR CLINICS 2
 Introduction

With more and more countries relaxing restrictions after the 3-month long COVID-19 lockdown, it’s
imperative that private clinics and healthcare practices have a well thought out marketing plan in
place that ensures not only the safety of patients, but employees as well.

The aim is to have an action plan that enables you to have both a safe and a profitable re-opening.

That’s why you should activate the below checklist once you are approved to start taking
appointments to make sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible.

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 Pre - Opening

qUse this COVID-19 recovery marketing plan if you do not have current marketing strategies in place
to deal with this crisis.

qWith all this free time, it would be wise to audit your pre-lockdown strategy and really dedicate time
to identifying what’s missing and what can be approved upon.

qReview our recommended COVID-recovery front desk/team talking points and scripts. Use them to
get your team on the same page about what to say to current and prospective patients.

After you’ve taken the time to assess your pre-COVID marketing activity and identify what needs
fixing, you must also prepare for the inevitable operational changes are coming your way once you
open up.

At this stage, you must identify what operational changes are coming you way and how you will kick
start your revenue streams. We’ve listed below some important aspects that require your immediate
attention and that will help you prepare for your post-COVID practice recovery.

Once you’ve made the decisions and formalized the plans, communicating the strategy with your
employees is vital. Make sure to share this information with your patients and potential patients as
well.

qDecide if you will extend your practice hours? Days? What will they be?

qDecide if you will add more hygiene hours, swap out a treatment room for an additional hygiene
room?

qDecide if you will charge a fee for no-shows or cancellations within a specified timeframe, or bill
through insurance if possible?

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q Begin to open up appointment blocks based on your updated hours, etc. TIP: Open up more new
patient appointment blocks so patients have more scheduling options. Your hygiene team can
change the coding in the operatory if that space is needed for SRP or another procedure.

q Identify the team member who is in charge of infection control in your office. Consider adding
“Infection Control Coordinator” to the end of this team member’s title. You will add the title update
to your practice website bio page and infection control page.

qOutline your practice’s current (non-COVID and COVID) infection control protocols. This outline
and information will be used to build your infection control page on your website.

qConsider adding a patient membership plan to help provide affordable access to care.

qAdd a Pay Online or Pay Bill link to the top of your website Home page. To do this, contact your
payment gateway processor and request a link to add to your website. Then, provide that link to
your website manager or marketing firm to add. Add this same link to the financial page on your
website.

qConsider adding an online scheduling feature to your website for new and current patients to
schedule dental hygiene appointments. Some practice management and patient communication
systems offer online scheduling programs that integrate directly with your practice management
system. If your PMS does not offer a third-party integration option, explore other easy-to-use
platforms.

qAdd online patient forms to allow patients to complete their medical information digitally. This will
limit the amount of time the patient needs to spend in the office.

qPromote each of these features on your social media channels, via email, and on your website.

qReview your current patient referral program. Incentivize your patients and staff to refer new
patients to your practice. Promote the program and incentives on all of your marketing channels.

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qAssign a Scheduling Champion if you don’t already have a front desk team leader. Empower this
person to manage quality control (are all calls being returned in a timely manner? Is the team using
the talking points and script as outlined?) as you re-open and recover.

qCraft your practice messages and talking points about safety, infection control, sterilization, etc.
and review them with your entire staff, especially the front desk staff. These messages also can be
communicated through your marketing channels below. Write a script for your team to follow, and
train your team to follow it.

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 Opening

Website + Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

qAdd a COVID-19 update page if you have not already done so and include regular updates about the
status of your practice.

qUpdate the COVID-10 banner on your home page banner to “Read about what we are doing to keep
you safe and healthy” and link it to your infection control page.

qAdd an Infection Control page if you don’t already have one and update it with new infection control
protocols as they are mandated by the governing bodies. Continue to update this page as more
guidelines are announced.

qAdd a “Your Post-COVID Visit” page to your website to outline what patients can expect when they
visit your office. Acknowledge that the patient experience will be different. List each step of the
process (you will call prior to each appointment to assess the patient’s health, will patients call
upon arrival, wait in the car, you will call when ready to bring the patient into office, mask given,
screening questions asked, the temperature is taken, etc.). Also, include how you will look (Will you
be wearing protective gear before entering the operatory? What protective gear? Will your team be
wearing masks? What other factors will be different? The same?) Refer patients to this page prior to
their appointment.

qIf you offer online scheduling, send an appointment confirmation email and direct your patients to
your “Post-COVID Visit” page to review prior to their appointment.

qConsider adding a Navigation tab on your website titled “COVID-19” and list all of these pages
directly under that tab to make it easier for patients to find this information.

qAdd a direct message on your financial page about cancellations and no-shows. Include a direct
plea to provide at least 72-hours notice so that you can fill that appointment with a patient in need.

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qAdd a blog to your website if you have not already done so. Focus your blog topics on practice
sterilization, patient safety, infection control.

qRecord a short video of you discussing your practice’s commitment to keeping everyone safe. Post
it on your practice YouTube page and link to your website (Review our Right-now COVID Marketing
Plan Checklist for video ideas).

qWork with your SEO provider or marketing partner as you add pages and content to your website.
These experts will immediately optimize these pages so they show up during a Google search.

Google Pay-Per-Click Advertising

qRestart your Google PPC campaigns.

qReallocate your budget to include a campaign for “accepting new patients” and possibly
campaigns focused on search terms related to COVID-19 precautions.

qContinue your procedure-specific PPC campaigns that drive new patient acquisition.

qWork directly with your PPC provider or marketing partner to identify the best PPC strategy for you
as the COVID-19 recovery evolves.

qRemember to build a new landing page for each new advertising campaign. The landing page
should reflect the messaging from your ad. Your PPC provider or marketing partner should build
landing pages for you as part of your PPC program.

qTrack your ad campaign analytics regularly to determine ROI and decide if you need to increase
your budget or reallocate it to more effective campaigns.

Social Media

qUtilize your social media channels to communicate your post-COVID messages.

qUpdate your banner image with a re-opening-focused message. Highlight your commitment to
safety and to making dental care affordable.

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qPost a message about your re-opening progress and pin it to the top of your newsfeed.

qUpdate your practice hours.

qAdd links to your website sterilization, post-COVID visit, and financial pages to the Services tab on
your Facebook page.

qUpdate your practice About Us story with your commitment to keeping patients and staff safe after
COVID-19. Link these pages here, as well.

qContinue to post regular updates as your practice moves towards re-opening. Remember to
include photos and videos of you and your team to communicate your key messages.

qBoost targeted posts about your practice status as it gets closer to re-opening. We predict higher
conversion rates from boosted posts announcing that your practice is committed to the health and
safety of patients and staff and that you are accepting new patients.

qCreate a Facebook/Instagram PPC campaign that focuses on the message of “accepting new
patients.”

qTarget your boosted posts and PPC campaigns to reach the age demographic of your current
patients and within a 5- mile radius of your practice, depending on where your patients come from.

qTurn on Facebook Messenger to allow patients to message you directly. Add automated questions
and answers to provide information when you are not online. Set up message notifications so you
receive an update when someone messages your practice. Respond to each message quickly.

qPost photos and video messages from your team members telling patients they are excited to get
see them soon. COVID-19 updates and Simple doctor and team member photos and videos from
home are currently generating significant reach and engagement across all social media channels.

Local SEO: Business Listings + Google My Business (GMB)

qUpdate your practice Google My Business page. You will need a Gmail account for this.

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qKeep Emergency Dental Services as one of your practice categories, as you will need to see
patients as quickly as possible to help jumpstart production.

qPost a COVID-19 update message inside your Google Posts. Each week, post a status update as
you get closer to reopening.

qSchedule an “event” inside your Google Posts with your practice re-opening date.

qRemove the COVID-19-related messaging to your business description. Replace with your
commitment to safety and infection control.

qChange your actual practice hours and days to reflect your new practice schedule.

qRemove the “temporarily closed” message.

qAdd a link to your practice’s COVID-19 web page, if you haven’t already done so. Keep the link to
your teledoc web page, if you plan to continue offering this service.

qAdd your practice Infection Control content to the Services section.

qSubmit your new hours and days open to your third-party business directories platform.

Reviews and Reputation Management

qRestart your proactive pre-COVID review request campaign.

qChange the review request verbiage back to your original content for both email and texts.

qMonitor all of your reviews.

qRespond to all reviews, including negative reviews, in a timely manner, because Google has stated
in its review guidelines that responding to reviews helps your local search ranking.

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Calls, Emails and Texts

qIdentify the messaging and communications strategy you will utilize to reactivate and
communicate with patients.

qBegin calling your priority patient list and rescheduled patients.

qUse the scripted talking points you created to talk with patients.

qSend an immediate email about your practice reopening on a specific date, per state guidelines,
and outline the initial changes/messages you can at that time. This is an email you can write now
and add any specifics after the announcement.

qSend one all-patient email update per week to update them on how you are progressing towards
re-opening. Announce the timeline, reassure patients they are safe to come back, communicate
that you are making dental care affordable, outline the convenient hours and days so they don’t
have to take off of work.

qAdd your updated cancellation/no-show policy to your appointment reminder email. Explain how
valuable each appointment is to every patient who needs to be seen.

qText short updates when appropriate.

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