The Pokemon Go craze is big and only looks to be getting bigger. Is this just a flash in the pan, and can you tap into it to build your practice?
The answer to both questions is probably yes.
First, for those who’ve been avoiding the whole business, what is Pokemon Go?
What is Pokemon Go?
It a free app that is available for most mobile phones created by the games companies Niantic and Nintendo. In a nutshell you “collect” Pokemon characters in the real world using your phone in order to collect points.
After downloading the app you choose a character and customise the gender, hair colour, clothes and a couple of other details. You then walk around in the real world with the app active on your phone.
As you move around you can see where characters are located by looking at the map in the app. When you get close to a character your phone’s camera comes on and the app superimposes a picture of the character on what your camera is looking at. You then get points for capturing the character.
So What?
If you’re anything like me, right about now you’re probably saying “Ho hum, so what? Just another social platform to waste my precious time…”.
However, don’t discount it just yet. What if there was a way to use this interest to attract people to your practice. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
Guess what, there is.
Using Lures.
You can purchase what are known as Lures to attract Pokemons in your area. When Pokemons come, so do the people playing Pokemon Go.
So if you have a shop attached to your practice you could use this to boost sales – run a special offer at the same time.
Or one of your staff members could be outside ready to hand out leaflets about your practice. Offer a discounted consultation at the same time and collect bookings. Even if no one comes into the practice itself, the exposure and increased foot traffic could be boosting your new patient numbers for weeks to come.
The great thing is these Lures are very affordable. US$100 gets you 14,500 Pokecoins (the Pokemon currency). A 30-minute Lure pack costs 680 Pokecoins. That means for about $140 Australian dollars you can get 84 hours worth of Lures. That works out at about $2 an hour.
What’s the Catch?
As far as I can see there isn’t one. It looks like the Lures only work if there are enough people in your area using the game to generate Pokemons, so maybe check out one of the online maps first. Apart from that you just have to set the Lures and wait and see.
What Are You Waiting For?
Is this a long-term new patient generation strategy? Definitely not. But used well this could give your practice a low cost, new patient boost. Give it a go now!
Pokemon, Pokemon Go and the Pokemon logo are all trademarks of Nintendo
