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Most practices don't wake up one day and realize they're making marketing mistakes. It happens slowly. A form nobody's filled out in a few weeks. Fewer calls than usual. A competitor's name coming up more often than it used to. Here are five signs it's already happening at yours. Are Patients Finding You Before They Ever Call? A growing number of patients are asking AI tools like ChatGPT or Google's AI to answer a health question before they ever type your name into a search bar. AI Overviews are now answering roughly half the questions patients used to click through to read, and the number of people searching this way is climbing fast. If your practice isn't part of what...

There's a new first stop in the patient journey, and for a lot of practices, it's happening without them ever knowing it. Are Your Patients Even Using Google Anymore? More often, they're not. A growing share of people now rely on AI tools instead of a traditional search engine when they have a health question. Most healthcare-related searches today trigger an AI-generated answer instead of a list of websites, and more than half of patients say they'd rather ask an AI tool first. That's a different starting line than the one most practices are marketing to. What Happens When an AI Tool Answers the Question Instead of You? A patient asks a health question. The AI tool gives them an...

Healthcare marketing conversations almost always center on acquisition. How do we get more new patients? How do we rank higher in local search? How do we increase appointment volume? These are the right questions. But they're incomplete ones. I've worked with organizations investing heavily in new patient acquisition while losing existing patients to disengagement, poor follow-up, or a competitor down the road. They're spending on the front door while the back door stays open. What Is the Real Cost of Losing Existing Patients? Higher than most organizations want to calculate. It costs an estimated five to seven times more to acquire a new patient than to retain an existing one. A modest improvement in retention rate has an outsized effect...