How to create a medical practice holiday marketing plan that fills your schedule

The holiday season is here, which means many patients are busy preparing for their holidays and will tend to no show or cancel appointments made in advance. To prevent gaps in your appointments books, it’s time to implement a strategic medical practice holiday marketing plan that capitalizes on end-of-year opportunities. 

Here’s how to create an effective holiday marketing plan that works for your practice. 

Start by determining which services are most relevant and valuable during the holiday season. Flu shots and other vaccinations are a common example. September through the end of the year is flu season so it's important to vaccinate for flus during this time. Doing so will prevent unnecessary illness, hospitalization, and needless suffering. If a patient already had their flu shot, other vaccines can be offered to prevent shingles, pneumonia, or whichever they might be due to receive.

Preventive screenings are another example. You can share with patients that prevention is key to good health, as it's much more difficult to treat a problem once it shows up and much easier to prevent it.

Other common examples include:

Creating a content calendar is crucial for organizing your holiday marketing efforts.

Best practices include:

Example content calendar entry:

Develop messaging that resonates with patients during the holiday season by:

Email remains one of the most effective ways to reach patients. Consider these campaign ideas:

Here’s a sample email template to send out to patients:

Many patients spend more time on social media than checking their email inboxes — making social media a strategic way to engage patients and promote your services. Here are some ideas for posts:

Text messaging can be an effective way to reach patients quickly:

Here are some sample text messages: 

Make sure your website reflects your medical practice holiday marketing efforts:

Incentives are a strong way to motivate patients, so drive appointment bookings with special offers. Some ideas include:

Collaborate with other local businesses to cross-promote your offerings. Doing so adds convenience, since patients won't have to make a special trip for a service and disrupt their schedule for the day. You could:

Boost your reach with targeted paid marketing:

You can also optimize your practice website for local search. To ensure your practice appears in local results:

Remember to monitor the performance of your marketing efforts, so you can adjust your strategy on what’s working best. You may find it might not be worth investing more in a certain area that is not successful in increasing revenue. Here are ways you can track performance:

Tebra's EHR+ is an ONC-certified all-in-one platform built for independent practices with data and insights to help you grow. Learn more.

By implementing this medical practice holiday marketing plan, you can effectively drive appointments and keep your schedule full through the end of the year. Remember to start early, be consistent with your messaging, and focus on providing value to your patients during the busy holiday season so you can wrap up the year with a full schedule.