Any form of marketing that employs electronic media and devices can be considered digital marketing. In the broader digital marketing industry, experts craft specialized messages and measure their impact over time by leveraging different channels that target specific points of a user’s journey online.
Healthcare digital marketing is no different from other types of digital marketing campaigns that focus on people who use their phones, tablet, or PC.
When you sign up for Officite to manage your digital marketing campaigns, you gain the advantage of strategy and technology. In addition, you’ll also gain access to exclusive marketing tools and experts who can help you establish a game plan to exceed your practice goals.
Digital marketing uses a variety of channels and materials, including social media posts, Facebook ads, SEO, display ads, and video marketing.
Digital marketing is frequently contrasted with “traditional marketing” techniques such as magazine advertisements, billboards, and even direct mail. Yet, oddly, television is typically grouped with conventional marketing.
Did you know that daily Internet usage among Americans exceeds 75%?
In addition, 43% of Americans go online multiple times per day, and 26% are online “almost constantly.”
These numbers are even more significant for mobile internet users. For example, 89% of Americans go online at least once per day, and 31% are online nearly continuously.
Doctors must use digital marketing for healthcare professionals by building a trusted brand online and striving to create an excellent patient experience for users. Excellent patient experience on your website and social media channels will attract even more patients, and will allow you to test different channels to see which ones work best for your patients, their families, and all those associated with their care.
A healthcare digital marketing strategy enables you to utilize various digital channels like email marketing, search engine optimization, PPC, and Facebook ads. In addition, a powerful strategy allows you to connect with existing patients and attract new ones through optimized content delivery, advertising, social media engagement, and reputation management.
These digital marketing channels help your medical practice create a warm and welcoming brand online with exceptional patient education and convenient services like online patient booking and scheduling.
Leverage the Internet to Build Your Medical Practice’s Reputation and Attract More Patients
Avoid costly errors in establishing your medical practice’s healthcare marketing strategy. Instead, begin your healthcare marketing strategy with best-in-class tools and the guidance of growth consultants who work with healthcare providers in different fields and know your needs at every campaign phase.
The State of Healthcare Marketing in 2023
In a healthcare marketing report by the Harvard Business Review, HBR reiterated that healthcare systems, in general, need to start looking at and understanding patients as consumers to communicate effectively with them, online.
The most significant factor is that patients now have more options in seeking care today than twenty years ago. Therefore, medical practices need to form a strategy centered on the following significant points:
1. How do patients make decisions related to selecting their healthcare providers?
2. What motivates patients to contact medical practices to ask for more information or schedule appointments?
3. Why, how, and where do patients communicate with medical practitioners?
Today, 44% of Americans have an active subscription to Amazon Prime, ironically putting Amazon Prime at the top when utilizing user behavior on the Internet.
A medical practice will benefit significantly from understanding, designing for, and meeting patient preferences online. The process begins by establishing the right metrics and leveraging the correct data.
Officite offers doctors the opportunity to begin collecting actual patient/user behavior on their website through our suite of healthcare digital marketing solutions. Healthcare digital marketing goes beyond patient satisfaction metrics.
Patient satisfaction metrics alone do not suffice. Instead, healthcare practitioners must look at what consumers are doing online and align their digital healthcare marketing strategy to meet patients where they are on the Internet and provide the information they need.
Transform Your Medical Practice on the Internet Starting Today
Effective digital healthcare marketing involves many moving parts and it is easy to get lost in the process without an experienced partner. Officite offers a suite of healthcare marketing solutions that are HIPAA-compliant and are geared toward transforming medical practices on the internet.
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Digital Healthcare Marketing Blueprint
Like any other system, digital healthcare marketing has many smaller systems that you can use to achieve your marketing goals. Let’s take a look at the blueprint of a contemporary digital marketing strategy for healthcare providers and medical practices in various disciplines, and see how these techniques and channels may help you reach your goals while maximizing your healthcare marketing budget.
Build and Optimize Your Website with Medical Web Design
Medical web design is the process of improving a website’s structure and organization to better fit the preferences and demands of patients. Consider medical web design as a user-centered approach for redesigning and upgrading your present website.
Ultimately, no two medical offices are the same. A pediatrician’s office, for example, may contain postnatal care posters, but a sports medicine clinic may display images of well-known sports heroes, motivational materials, and maybe physical models relating to sports-related ailments.
A successful medical office should always be designed with their patient population in mind.
In the same way that your medical office serves as the heart of your practice, your website is the central hub for your digital presence. And similarly, it is important to consider your pages layout so it becomes an essential resource for your patients.
With a solid medical design, your website can serve as a platform for establishing your medical practice’s identity and empowering patients with the ability to access vital information and get things done.
Optimized medical web design enables new patients to learn all about your medical services and initiate the steps to obtain care. Consider incorporating a medical website that can also have payment gateway features that allow old and new patients to update their accounts.
Additionally, a feature-rich medical website can help old and new patients to receive event or news updates and answers to common questions.
However, designing your medical website can be daunting. It takes countless hours to hard-code HTML and CSS. Even with the help of a website builder, you may need to commit dozens of hours monthly to optimize your website.
It’s unlikely for medical practitioners to take on the role as a part-time webmaster unless they have some experience in coding and web design. Therefore, it’s vital to first sign up for a platform that offers optimized web design options for your medical practice, so you won’t have to learn everything from scratch.
Get Search Engine Optimization for Doctors
Finding a doctor can be done in several ways, but patients now use the Internet more than ever to locate suitable and independent medical providers.
Within seconds of entering a keyword or phrase into a search engine, patients can now see dozens (if not hundreds) of potential choices for doctors. SEO is the most effective way to ensure that your website appears at the top of relevant search results and organically attract more visitors.
By organically, we mean that your website will appear at the forefront of initial search results without display ads. There’s no contradiction between running ads and using SEO: you generate traffic from both channels, and your medical practice will thrive from both efforts.
Search engines are continually crawling the web for fresh and updated content.
For example, when someone searches for a particular subject, such as “doctors,” the system compiles the results and assigns each page a ranking. So it’s possible to get millions of results with a broad search, but you might only get a few thousand from a narrow one.
The content and tags on your website provide hints as to the nature of the information and its applicability to the search. For example, a value called “domain authority” is assigned to every website, and the higher the value, the higher the website will appear in search engine results. Of course, external factors, such as links from other websites, also play a role.
If your website only appears on the second or third page of search results, that’s not good enough. You must appear on the first page of search results, ideally in the top three spots. The top results receive more clicks and gain from the advantages of good medical website SEO.
Enhance Patient Experience with Medical Marketing Technologies
The medical industry thrives on patient communication and care. Therefore, your website must provide the opportunity to showcase your medical practice and actively engage previous and new patients in meaningful ways.
You can accomplish this while focusing on your healthcare marketing goals with medical marketing technologies.
Medical marketing technologies grew plenty from two decades ago, and we can confidently say that these technologies increase not just patient satisfaction but they also bridge the gap between patients and doctors quite easily. By enriching the online experience and by providing endless conveniences to patients looking to connect with a doctor to ask questions and schedule an appointment.
The sheer number of patient communication touchpoints is staggering and may result in many missed opportunities to address feedback, or foster patient satisfaction. Loyalty and patient satisfaction are frequently contingent upon a healthcare provider’s communication skills. Healthcare marketing technologies help your medical practice communicate better on the Internet, where everyone is looking for a healthcare provider.
A telehealth platform provides increased patient security while providing seamless video conferencing capabilities, administrative and billing tools, and website integration. The pandemic showed the medical industry how vital the Internet is for the availability and continuity of care. As the demand for telehealth services continues, it’s best to refine your website’s telehealth offerings this year.
A doctor portal simplifies different processes and centralizes communication between doctors and patients. A dedicated doctor portal allows you to manage appointments, monitor website performance, and perform other tasks efficiently within a single hub.
Automate Patient Scheduling
Online booking for doctors offers a simple interface for patients to schedule an appointment with their doctors. In addition, an online booking solution is easy to customize and allows doctors to book more appointments with patients online. Whether the traffic is coming from display ads, social media, or SEO efforts, the impact would be positive: patients can schedule appointments with a press of a button, and your staff will have an easier time monitoring and tracking these appointments from your medical office.
As healthcare consumers demand greater access and convenience, brand loyalty is declining. Patients who were once loyal to a particular organization or independent medical practice will transition to doctors to receive the desired experience. Many patients have already made a change.
More than 1/3 of patients have switched healthcare providers in the past two years, citing a lack of accessibility as the primary reason for the change.
How can independent medical practices prevent more attrition in the coming years?
One straightforward solution is improving access and convenience in the digital realm. For example, adding online booking for doctors typically results in greater patient satisfaction, putting your independent medical practice in the same sandbox as older competitors.
Online scheduling easily accomplishes both objectives.
If your independent medical practice does not offer online patient booking, it is time to add an online doctor booking to your website and social media profiles.
This fundamental healthcare marketing feature offers immediate patient satisfaction. Nearly 75% of patients would choose a doctor offering this feature online.
The transition to online scheduling provides your practice with a competitive advantage and relieves your front office personnel of administrative duties. As a result, your team can concentrate on patient visits and requests with fewer schedule-related duties.
Online booking for doctors stands as a critical differentiator. Online scheduling can help increase long-term practice growth and new patient acquisition.
Patient convenience is a huge priority for today’s busy patients. In addition to insurance coverage, patients rank convenience as the most influential factor when selecting a healthcare provider.
Since setting an appointment with a doctor is frequently a patient’s first interaction with a medical office, it is essential to provide a streamlined, reasonable process that leaves a positive impression.
When patients have the option to schedule appointments online, they can do so at their convenience without having to contact your scheduler or front desk during business hours. Online scheduling can also assist you in converting new visitors to patients when your phone line is busy, or your medical office is closed.
Digital Reputation Management for Doctors
When consumers are seeking a specialist or a certain physician, they often look them up online first. At present, well over 69% of patients conduct local business searches monthly or even more often. This is all while 94% of patients rely on online patient reviews before calling to schedule an appointment.
Doctors who ignore their internet reputations or don’t know how to manage them risk losing valued patients. And in today’s digital marketing environment, patient acquisition is everything. As a result, digital reputation management serves as a considerable part of the patient acquisition process.
The data is clear: independent medical practitioners cannot afford not to have medical online reviews management.
Monitoring, maintaining, and enhancing a doctor’s or medical practice’s internet reputation are the pillars of digital reputation management for doctors.
Your internet profiles must be managed, and any unfavorable information posted about your medical practice must be monitored, reviewed, and, if possible, removed.
As we’ve already established, patients conduct their homework on doctors online before scheduling an appointment. As a result, a doctor’s ability to gain new patients is strongly influenced by their internet reputation.
Poor online reputation can result in a loss of patients. Therefore, doctors must keep up with their internet reputations on Yelp, Google, and Healthgrades. Patients should be encouraged to post reviews, and any complaints should be addressed immediately. Without consistent digital reputation management, complaints may be left unsolved for weeks or months, and who knows what impact those reviews would have already had on your medical practice.
Implementing a crisis management strategy during unfavorable events is also integral to medical reputation management.
When a doctor takes the time to manage their online reputation, they can be assured that their patients will find only positive, up-to-date information from the doctor.
The doctor’s ability to gain new patients and keep the ones they already have can be negatively affected. Patients are doing more research online before choosing a physician. To choose a physician, they research their options online.
A doctor’s positive online reputation influences patient decision-making. So you can expect more calls and more appointments once you set the gears of digital reputation management into motion.
Independent medical practitioners must build credibility and trust with the public via ratings and reviews.
Bad digital feedback about doctors can still be addressed. Instead of looking away from these negative reviews (or lack of feedback online), you can start taking steps to start building a better-looking online reputation.
The process initially may involve handling unfavorable feedback or responding to incorrect information posted online.
The spread of false or damaging information might harm a doctor’s reputation and ability to gain new patients.
Reputation management helps medical professionals mitigate the effects of negative publicity.
When you watch your internet reputation, you can be assured that everything is as it should be. It’s pretty annoying when a practice’s website has out-of-date material that could waste a patient’s time.
Overall, a good internet reputation is crucial to the success of any organization, and the medical profession is no exception. A solid reputation may bring in new clients, keep the ones they already have happy, and help your medical practice expand amidst the recession.
Running PPC Ads and Facebook Ads
Medical clinics have successfully used Facebook ads to attract new patients and book more appointments. Advertising on their extensive network, which includes Instagram, enables you to reach potential new patients based on their location, platform activities, and demographic.
Instagram and Facebook ads typically appear in the user’s newsfeed while perusing other content. However, these ads can also be displayed in other locations. These ads can be videos, GIFs, or images matched with compelling copy.
Facebook has many advantages for medical offices looking to attract new patients and book appointments. Facebook advertising is highly visual and engaging and remains an excellent method to capture the attention of potential patients by offering and telling captivating stories through ads.
Using this “push” promotion technique, you can introduce yourself to a broader audience of potential patients.
Using Google ads allows independent medical practitioners to target audiences interested in medical services. Google Ads also allow advertisers to track whether or not people click on the ad or not.
Google Ads is as simple and effective as it gets.
Google’s PPC (or Pay-Per-Click) ads appear above organic results, so if you’re starting with SEO, you don’t have to worry about boosting your patient acquisition efforts in the first few weeks or months.
PPC ad spend is under your control and can be adjusted as you see fit. PPC advertising can be budgeted for, and the total cost is under your control. In addition, pay-per-click advertising gives you control over where your messages appear. This means that PPC can be used to create highly focused marketing programs.
PPC shows your adverts to the right people at the appropriate time. PPC can generate traffic, sales, and patients rapidly. You can quickly increase patient acquisition rates by using pay-per-click advertising.
PPC helps you get more visitors online for less money and in less time.
Return on investment is the holy grail of any marketing effort. However, regarding increasing your return on investment, PPC is one of the most effective marketing strategies.
PPC and SEO go hand in hand and can rapidly generate conversions from targeted visitors to your website or landing page with its help.
Some patients favor organic search, while others like ads. Combining SEO with PPC ensures you cover all bases. Therefore, displaying paid and organic search results indicates that your content is more relevant than your competitors.
Key Takeaways
In today’s digital age, digital marketing has become a vital tool for growing medical practices and enhancing their reputation. Just like other industries, healthcare professionals can leverage various digital channels to connect with patients and provide exceptional experiences and care. Here are 10 key takeaways from this article:
1. Understanding Digital Marketing: Digital marketing encompasses various electronic media and devices, allowing healthcare professionals to reach patients through multiple online channels. Digital marketing surpasses traditional methods like magazine ads and billboards, allowing you to reach a broader and more engaged audience. With over 75% of Americans using the internet daily, leveraging digital marketing becomes crucial to meet patient preferences and expectations.
2. Officite Advantage: Officite offers a blend of strategy, technology, and expert assistance to help you excel in digital marketing, giving you access to marketing tools and professionals to surpass your practice goals.
3. Diverse Strategy & Channels: Implement a healthcare digital marketing strategy, incorporating email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and Facebook ads to connect with patients and boost your online reputation. Utilize a mix of digital marketing tools, including social media, Facebook ads, SEO, display ads, and video marketing, to engage with patients across different platforms.
4. Website Optimization: Medical web design plays a pivotal role in creating an informative, patient-centered website that offers essential information and enables easy interactions.
5. SEO for Visibility: Employ search engine optimization (SEO) to improve your website’s visibility in search results, attracting organic traffic and potential patients.
6. Enhancing Patient Experience: Utilize medical marketing technologies to engage patients, provide seamless telehealth services, and centralize communication between doctors and patients.
7. Streamline Appointments: Implement online patient scheduling for convenience and patient satisfaction, catering to patients’ needs and preferences.
8. Reputation Management: Manage your online reputation by encouraging patient reviews, addressing negative feedback, and leveraging reputation management tools to build credibility. Focus on creating a trusted online brand and exceptional patient experience through your website and social media presence to attract and retain patients.
9. PPC and Facebook Ads: Leverage Facebook and Google ads to target and engage potential patients, offering a visual and engaging way to showcase your services.
10. Continuous Improvement: Keep optimizing your digital marketing strategies, analyze performance metrics, and refine your approaches for better results.
In today’s healthcare landscape, mastering digital marketing is essential to thrive and expand your medical practice. Embrace these strategies to enhance your reputation, attract new patients, and build a strong online presence that resonates with modern healthcare consumers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a medical website different from a regular website?
A digital healthcare marketing website is specifically designed to promote healthcare products, services, and information. It may have a dedicated section or page for healthcare-related content, such as articles, blogs, and medical research, which a regular website may not have.
Digital healthcare marketing websites must comply with healthcare regulations such as HIPAA, FDA, and other industry-specific regulations. This means that the website must be designed to protect patient privacy, ensure security, and provide accurate and truthful information.
Digital healthcare marketing websites must provide a positive user experience, especially for patients who are seeking health-related information or services.
The website should be easy to navigate, have a clear and concise message, and provide useful information to the user. A digital healthcare marketing website should have a clear call-to-action (CTA) that encourages the user to act, such as making an appointment, requesting more information, or subscribing to a newsletter. The CTA should be prominently displayed and designed to drive conversions.
More and more people are accessing websites on their mobile devices, which means that a digital healthcare marketing website must be optimized for mobile devices. This includes having a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes, fast loading times, and mobile-friendly content.
What’s an example of a healthcare regulation that a digital healthcare marketing website must comply with?
One example of a healthcare regulation that digital healthcare marketing websites must comply with is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States. HIPAA is a federal law that sets national standards for protecting individuals’ medical records and other personal health information (PHI).
Under HIPAA, digital healthcare marketing websites must ensure that any PHI they collect and store is kept confidential and secure. They must implement appropriate technical, physical, and administrative safeguards to protect PHI from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
For example, if a digital healthcare marketing website collects personal health information from patients, such as their name, address, medical history, or insurance information, it must have measures in place to ensure that this information is protected. This may include using secure servers, encryption, firewalls, and other security technologies.
In addition, if the website is used to facilitate healthcare transactions, such as scheduling appointments or processing insurance claims, it must comply with HIPAA regulations related to electronic transactions and code sets.
Failure to comply with HIPAA regulations can result in significant penalties and fines, as well as damage to the organization’s reputation. Therefore, it is essential for digital healthcare marketing websites to have a robust HIPAA compliance program in place to protect patients’ privacy and ensure regulatory compliance.
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and how can it grow my practice?
The focus of medical website SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to improve the visibility and ranking of a medical website in SERPs. Medical SEO involves optimizing the website’s content, structure, and other factors to make it more attractive to search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
The goal of medical website SEO is to increase the website’s visibility, traffic, and conversions by ranking higher in relevant search engine results. This is important for medical websites because it can help attract more patients, increase brand awareness, and establish the website as a trusted source of medical information.
How can email marketing help retain and attract patients to my practice?
Email marketing is a powerful tool for medical websites to engage with their audience, build relationships, and promote their products and services. The first step is to build an email list of subscribers who have opted-in to receive emails from the medical website. This can be done through website sign-ups, newsletter subscriptions, or other lead generation tactics.
Once the email list is established, it is important to define the target audience and segment the list based on demographics, interests, or behavior. This allows for more targeted and personalized email campaigns. The content of the emails should be engaging, informative, and relevant to the target audience.
This can include healthcare tips, news, promotions, or educational content. The emails should be visually appealing, with a clear and concise message, and a call-to-action that encourages the recipient to act.
The emails should be scheduled and sent at appropriate intervals, such as weekly or monthly, to avoid overwhelming the recipients. The email campaigns should be analyzed and optimized based on open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. This allows for continuous improvement and better engagement with the target audience.
How does Officite stand out from similar services?
With so many options, picking a website provider can feel overwhelming. So, why not go with the one trusted by leading healthcare associations? Officite’s services have helped thousands increase their reach with a profitable website. We’re proud to have helped these practices expand & retain their patient base, while lightening their staff’s workload.
What should I, or my staff, do to get started leveraging digital marketing tools?
Your time is valuable, so leave the heavy lifting to the experts at Officite. All we need from you is information about your practice and its goals, and we’ll provide you with everything necessary to establish an online presence that seamlessly grows your practice and patient base.
How much do your services cost? Are any contracts required?
Our plans are designed to exceed your practice’s goals while staying within your budget. Starting at just $69/month, rest assured you never have to worry about long-term contracts or hidden fees.
I already have a new website. Why do I need a new one?
75% of visitors determine a practice’s credibility through their website design. Answering “yes” or “maybe” to the following means it’s time for a new site:
- Do you want to attract more profitable patients?
- Does your practice need more 5-star reviews?
- Do your patients need easier access to online booking, secure forms, and educational resources?
