Whether you have a new practice or have been avoiding marketing online previously, it’s time to take advantage of internet marketing. Marketing your practice in today’s digital marketplace may seem overwhelming, but there are a few simple things you can do to get started.
Create a Professional Website
Digital marketing for medical professionals is crucial in today’s healthcare marketplace. Your website is often a patient’s first impression of your practice, and it introduces your brand to them.
Whether you're an orthopedic surgeon or a cosmetic surgery center, prospective patients are on the internet every day looking for the elective procedures that you offer. Thus, your website should be top priority.
It should be professional, easy to navigate and help answer patients questions that include both detailed clinical information about your services and non clinical information such as pricing policy and what to bring on a first visit.
Effective SEO (search engine optimization) will help drive traffic to your site.
Help Patients By Answering More Questions
Educate patients through Blogs and Videos. Prospective patients are looking for information about their condition and treatment options. Keep them interested in your medical practice by providing fresh, relevant blog posts consistently.
You can answer common patient questions, review the advantages of your surgery, or let patients know what to expect about a particular condition or treatment option.
Video is a powerful tool, so you many want to try a vlog. Instead of writing an article, record a video and upload that to your website. You can also post it on your Youtube channel and even share on it on Twitter and Facebook.
Utilize Google AdWords
Adwords allows a practice to target the right patients. With the correct setup, Adwords allows you to show ads only to those who search for terms you select. This is important because it means you avoid non targeted advertising expenditure. You are therefore only talking to prospective patients interested in your service.
Creating paid search campaigns in Google with specific keyword phrases like “knee replacement surgeon East Melbourne” would yield a higher return on investment, than “orthopaedic surgeon Melbourne” as the former is more specific and implies greater intent.
You can also send the click through searcher direct to a landing page for specific searches. This leads to better engagement as you are talking to a visitor only about what they want to hear.
Get Social With Content
The power of social networking sites, you can build audiences, attract prospective patients, and get people talking about your practice.
Share stories. Use patient case studies that answer concerns and addresses questions prospective patients may not have thought about. Use images of your practice and staff, interesting facts about your area of care.
Posting videos or going Live will help your posts be shown to a broader audience.
The most important thing to remember is that your content should be about the patient not about you.
Consistency is key and while a single blog post or occasional social post is better than nothing, it won't lead to a surge of new patients. Content Marketing should be at least weekly.
Great content is the gift that keeps on giving. Content that is valuable will overtime a social post that also appears in your blog will continue to have visits, likes and shares.
The right posts will lead to new patients sharing and increase traffic. Whether it be via Google or Facebook, well structured and valuable content is still king.
It’s a digital world now, and you need to part of it. Your Practice Online can help you with your e-marketing strategies so you can focus on your patients.
Contact Mark Ryan - Call 1300 880 230 or contact us by filling the form here.