The fast-paced technological landscape can make implementing an effective marketing strategy feel like shooting at a moving target. That’s why doctors tend to favor traditional marketing tactics like word-of-mouth, but there’s a huge opportunity with digital marketing that’s the now and future of healthcare marketing. Some of the most effective marketing materials include:
Having a website
About 85% of the households in the U.S. having a broadband internet subscription, it’s easy to see why you need a digital space. Having a professional, engaging, and intuitive website legitimizes your business and adds to your credibility. By having a website, you have control over your brand’s perception as you can tell your own story. A good website should have details, such as your contact details, employees’ details and their qualifications, patient forms such as appointment schedules, and a chat plugin. Also, don’t neglect your website design – it should be responsive, clean, and user-friendly.
Social media marketing
Social media platforms provide you with an opportunity to interact with patients or your target audience in a fun and engaging manner. They also enable you to increase your brand awareness. Use quality images whenever possible and link the social media content back to your website. Always respond professionally and ask those with medical issues to either contact you privately or schedule an appointment.
Content marketing
Creating rich and patient-driven content is key to promoting your medical practice and building an online presence. Include published well-researched and referenced content on your blog, medical journal, or newsletter. The content should also be created with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind to garner organic search traffic. This means that the content should be skimmable, adequately organized with clear and descriptive headings, and contain keywords that are relevant to your target audience. Doing so will boost your practice’s search engine rankings, which can help to funnel more prospective patients to your practice website.
Video Marketing
You could also add a human touch to your content by creating short video content for common queries. These don’t have to be too “sales-ey” but could simply help to educate patients on conditions, treatments, or even how to make an appointment with your office.
Print media
For your online marketing campaign to be effective, you need to complement it with print media such as brochures and postcards. Traditional marketing tactics are not dead, and they can be quite effective when used correctly.
Email marketing
Although this form of marketing is not as personal as some of the others, it can be highly effective, especially if you have a large mailing list. You can use email marketing to send appointment reminders, special offers, or educational content. This marketing form is best suited to reenergize inactive patients and get them back in your office.
Google Business (Formerly known as Google My Business)
Google Business is a free business listing service provided by Google. Getting your business listed on Google Business can increase your visibility on Maps and Search, which can help you attract potential patients. Google auto-generates business listings based on information from your website and other online sources. So, your practice may already have a Google Business. If you do, claim the listing and update the information to ensure it is accurate. If your practice doesn’t yet have a Google Business, create one from scratch, verify your business, and set qor update your business information. Soon, your listing will appear in local search engine results and on Google Maps, displaying your business name, location, phone number, services, and other contact information. Yelp also hosts business listings, so consider claiming or creating a listing there.
