Month: May 2021

Before now, most healthcare providers, including cardiologists and cardiology practices, have been dependent on traditional marketing to generate new patient leads. But with the advent of digital marketing, cardiology practices can now reach patients and potential patients, even beyond their local areas.

Benefits Of Cardiology Marketing

While cardiology marketing’s end goal is to grow your patient base and increase revenue for your office, when coupled with the right strategies, cardiologists may see many other benefits as well. Including the following:

Cardiology Marketing Helps To Increase Your Brand Awareness

Developing a strong brand awareness for your healthcare center helps you stay top-of-mind when potential patients think of places to get heart care.  Staying top-of-mind, especially with local searchers, can lead to more online inquiries, more phone calls, and ultimately should improve conversion numbers for your cardiology clinic, which translates to an increase in income/revenue.

Cardiology Practice Marketing Focuses On Your Target Audience

Cardiology marketing experts know how to implement the most effective strategies for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), and other attention-attracting methods to ensure that your prospective clients are directed to your healthcare organization. 

These professionals know how to research the highest performing keywords, to find the ones that speak most directly to the patients that you are trying to reach, and how to infuse these keywords into your content. This way you show up higher in results for the right kinds of searches and help your cardiology practice be easily located online by the people who are most likely to convert. 

Maintain Your Cardiology Practice’s Online Reputation

To get new patients into your medical practice, physicians need to maintain a solid online reputation. Reputation Management software and strategies can help you regularly assess and address how your practice shows up online.

You can use this software to constantly monitor mentions of your practice online, so you can respond to reviews and highlight the most positive mentions on your website, to reinforce your brand. You can also use these tools to collect more reviews (and more positive reviews). This software can also help you make sure that your practice contact information is consistent everywhere it shows up online to avoid confusing potential patients.

Reach Out To A Larger Local Audience

With an efficient and effective cardiology marketing plan, you can reach out to a larger circle of patients, edging out your competitors in the cardiology specialty field.

For example, local SEO helps you direct more local searches to your practice’s website, getting you seen by more potential patients who have very real potential for conversion. 

Cardiology Marketing Strategies

Practice Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When a potential patient searches online (e.g., heart clinic around me), your cardiology care center has to show at the top of the search of Google whether it is within the Google Search or just on Google Maps. The best results can only be achieved with a combination of both local SEO and paid advertising.

·        Organic SEO

Organic SEO is, as the name would imply, a natural way to make your way to the top of search results. Strategies for making your way to the top include researching and implementing relevant keywords and including them in your website’s content. When search engines, such as Google, crawl the web looking for relevant content, they will find your site and rank it higher. It’s an essential part of your long-term strategy. But for proper implementation, Organic SEO requires skills that only experts can provide. 

While Organic SEO is highly trustworthy, it takes some time to build, so you should not expect to see results right away. If you want to see immediate results, you also need to make PPC a part of your search marketing mix.

·        Paid Ads For Your Cardiology Practice

Organic SEO will raise your cardiology practice’s search ranking over time, but Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising will get you to the top of search results immediately. 

It works like this: your practice negotiates prices for desired cardiology- and heart health-related keywords for which you want to be found in searches. When those words are searched for in your local area, your ad appears at the top of the search results. You only pay that negotiated amount when your ad is clicked on.

You set a budget for your ad and, when that budget runs out, your ad stops running. It’s a great way to guarantee immediate visibility for your cardiology clinic to potential patients in your area. And, when used in tandem with Organic SEO, is a potent tool for reaching out to those patients.

Social Media Marketing For Your Cardiology Practice

In cardiology practice marketing, an investment in social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube helps you reach large numbers of potential patients. It also provides the opportunity for you to have direct interactions with them and build a relationship before they even set foot in your office.

Social media marketing can also give you insight into the type of content that interests your prospects. And this will allow you to move them into your marketing funnel quickly. 

By creating engaging posts, promptly answering questions, addressing their needs/wants, reply to their messages, and following up on their feedback, social media marketing will allow you to build a community of potential heart patients that you can use to build relationships and grow your patient base. Ensure you are always coming up with new posts to keep visitors engaged. As time goes on, these visitors will turn into a community and can develop the potential to direct new referrals to your healthcare business.

Reputation Management In Your Cardiology Practice

The Internet has made it easier than ever for patients to provide immediate feedback that can be seen by the whole world. And both good and bad reviews are open to the public in digital marketing. So what can you do to maintain your cardiology care center’s good reputation?

Make it easier for patients to leave reviews for your practice online. The more reviews you gather, the more good reviews you are likely to collect. And, when you do receive good reviews, post those immediately to your website and social media pages. Get the word out.

Of course, not every review will be positive. And when you do receive a negative review, be quick with follow-up. Patients will feel they are heard, and you demonstrate to potential patients that you are listening. It may also allow you to fix the issues and help you earn a new, positive review from the same previously dissatisfied patient.

You should also employ the services of a reputation management team. They can help you generate more of those positive reviews that your practice feeds off of. And they can also help you keep your online information consistent, to improve the quality of potential patients’ online interactions and, therefore, their satisfaction.

Positive reviews will enhance the level of trust in your business and generate more leads (potential patients or clients) for your business.

Content Marketing For Your Cardiology Practice

Content marketing is the practice of adding information and messaging to your site to help draw the attention of potential patients. When you push out the right content, your clients feel understood and safe with you.

But how do you push out great content? Study your target audience to understand what they want and how they want it. With this, you will be able to come up with ultra-specific content directed directly at your audience. When you push out unique and valuable content, people are more likely to share it, which can generate more prospects for you and your cardiology practice.

Practice Website Conversion Optimization

When your cardiology practice goes digital, your website will serve as your care center’s home on the internet. This website should contain all the information needed to convert a prospective patient into a patient.

But to convert prospects into patients requires a compelling call-to-action on your website to tell your prospective clients what to do and give them a simple way to contact your clinic and make an appointment. So a call-to-action should be a part of your site design. And you should include a call-to-action button on every page of your website.

However, you have to be very clear with your buttons and put them at strategic locations to maximize conversions, e.g., booking an appointment, making a call, etc. No client should be looking for the button to click when they are ready to reach out to you.

These buttons are the bridge between your investment in medical practice marketing as a cardiologist and making a profit. A professional medical marketing agency will have the skills and tools needed to make sure that these elements are correctly implemented and help you make the most of your investment.

Conclusion

Marketing Experts will employ different strategies, including SEO, pay-per-click (PPC), website conversion, cost per click (CPC), etc., to attract the right audience into your business. These agencies are what doctors like you employ to help handle their marketing efforts. Approach one today when you are ready and give your healthcare marketing the attention it deserves.

Attracting and converting new patients online is essential to sustaining and growing your gastroenterology practice. This is why you need to employ all the latest digital marketing techniques and tools to help you get found. The right gastroenterology marketing techniques can also help you retain your existing patients.

Read this article to discover 10 proven tips for digital marketing techniques that you can use to help your gastroenterology practice grow and thrive.

1. Leverage Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms can be a powerful tool to help you increase awareness of your medical clinic and the services you provide. By posting the kind of information that people in your local area are searching for, you can generate great leads for your gastroenterology practice and reach out to prospective patients who know nothing about your services.

And with about 2.45 billion Facebook users worldwide, you can almost always find active users in your local area.

2. Invest In Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) uses keywords and other relevant techniques to help your content rank higher in Google search results and attract the types of patients whose health conditions require your expert services. This way, when potential patients search for your gastroenterology practice around their vicinity, your name appears in a more visible position, which generates more traffic to your website and, ideally, more appointments.

While organic search results require some time to achieve maximum results, they require no payment and generate a high degree of trust in people who are performing relevant searches.

3. Use Paid Advertising Strategies

Social media ads from platforms such as Google and Facebook go beyond merely creating online presence and awareness under digital marketing. As a paid strategy, it gets your gastroenterology practice to show on people’s screens.

Pay Per Click (PPC) is a paid SEO option that gets you instantly to the top of local search results for contracted keywords. You negotiate a price for keywords you want to appear for and, when someone in your local area searches for that contracted keyword, you appear at the top of the results. You only pay when a searcher clicks on your link.

While PPC is not free, results are instant and the return on your investment is very good, with a typical return around 2:1. As your digital marketing company, Officite can help you optimize your strategy.

4. Practice Online Video Marketing

Because videos are a multisensory tool, they are highly engaging and memorable and should be an integral part of your marketing strategy. You can use videos to introduce and humanize yourself and your staff. Provide engaging content that will educate patients and put them at ease about your practice, certain procedures, and more.

And as YouTube is the second-most-popular search engine on the Internet, it is another powerful tool that you have at your disposal. Take it seriously.

5. Get A Fully Responsive Website Design

While having a website is an important part of your digital marketing for your gastroenterology practice, your website design needs to be built with your patient in mind by ensuring that all relevant information is easily accessible on any device.

As more and more people are using their mobile devices to access the web, your site needs to be accessible and fully functional on whatever device your potential patients are using. It should be coded to adapt to smaller screen sizes and still retain full functionality. Otherwise, you risk losing a large portion of people who do find your site.

Officite’s modern websites are coded to be fully mobile responsive. So when your potential patients find your site, they will be able to find all the information they need quickly and easily. And you’ll have a better chance of converting searchers into patients.

6. Update Your Digital Content Regularly

To generate consistent traffic to your website, Facebook, Twitter, or other places where you’re online, you need to make sure that you update content regularly. By doing so, you will keep visitors coming back to see what is new. Those repeat visits not only engage the visitors themselves but also demonstrate relevance to search engines, who will then rank you higher in search results.

Those higher rankings will generate more visitors, which will push you higher yet. It’s a cycle that feeds into itself in the best possible way.

7. Contact Patients After Their Appointments

Contacting patients after their appointment can make a big difference. When you take the time to reach out to your patient, it demonstrates that you care. It’s a simple act that can help generate positive word-of-mouth and produce even more leads for your gastro practice.

8. Study Successful Gastroenterologists Near You

When you study good gastroenterology practitioners around your area, it will allow you to look into the digital marketing strategies that they use and help you gain the necessary information about your local market. 

Check out their website, ads, and PPC; their ranking on Google, and customer reviews. Doing so can help you identify gaps in your own marketing plan and focus your improvement efforts.

9. Encourage Your Patients To Write Reviews

Reviews go a long way in determining your credibility and expertise to your website visitors and can have a major effect on your SEO. And they can also help you track your performance and attract patients. Create and promote a platform where patients can review your practice, and encourage every patient to leave their reviews.

There are Review Management tools available that alert you whenever a new review is posted. You can then take the best of those reviews and post them directly to your website to showcase the best and help you build your online reputation.

10. Build Your Email List

Email marketing is an essential aspect of digital marketing that can help take your practice to the next level. Consistently reaching out to patients in this way can help you keep your practice top of mind for when they need gastroenterology services.

Bottom Line

As technology and the Internet have evolved, so has Gastroenterology marketing. If you want to be noticed as a gastroenterology practitioner, it’s important to evolve with the times and invest in building your online presence.

Officite creates modern, professional medical websites and digital design services that are trusted by more than 8000 medical practitioners and a wide range of professional associations, including the ASGE. To find out more about how Officite can help you market your gastroenterology practice, CLICK HERE.

Every medical practice benefits from marketing; it’s how you set yourself apart from others who offer similar services. A well-crafted dermatology marketing plan can not only expose you to new patients but could also increase your credibility so those new patients decide to use your services.

In this article, we will discuss some dermatology marketing ideas and strategies that you can employ to draw the attention (and business) of new patients in your area.

1. Improve Website Usability

Your website is most likely your potential patients’ first impression of your dermatology practice. Since people typically form their opinion within the first 15 seconds, make sure your website makes a good first impression by including the following features:

Make it accessible across different platforms

More and more people are using their mobile phones to access the internet more and more often. Research has found that people spend 33% of all media time on smartphones, including 80% of social media. This trend is making it more and more essential that your website is compatible with both platforms.

Make sure that, when having your dermatology website designed, it is responsive for when the website is accessed through a computer or for when it is accessed through a mobile phone. Scaled up or down, your website should be coded to be able to tell which platform it is being accessed on and work seamlessly on either one.

The website has an intuitive design

Your dermatology website is your patients’ primary resource tool to learn about what you do. It should allow users to learn more about your dermatology practice’s services and treatments, book an appointment and be able to contact you with ease. If the patient cannot do that themselves and needs assistance, that means your website design needs improvement.

You may also want to consider prioritizing your landing page design with your target audience in mind. When you consider your ideal audience’s interests and behavior, the patient’s experience with your website will be more pleasant.

Ensure that it is functional and quick to use

When new patients are referred to your dermatology website but cannot use it because it is down, they may leave and go to a competitors’ dermatology practice. For that reason, you and your team should be prepared to fix any bugs, quickly resolve system failures, and carefully plan system downtimes and maintenance to ensure minimal interruption. 

2. Invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a trustworthy way to drive organic or unpaid traffic to your dermatology website. At a foundational level, your website should already be including keywords and be optimized to increase the likelihood it will be seen upon searching. With SEO, your website will rank higher than other dermatology practices if the Google algorithm determines your content relevant.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your medical practice appear higher in search results than other dermatology practices. 75% of people making an internet search never go past the first page of search results. While, for best results, you should employ the services of an SEO expert, there are a few things you can do yourself to improve your ranking.

An important aspect of your dermatology marketing ideas deals with content creation. To grow your practice, you need to create original and relevant content. This is not only limited to blog posts, but also informative videos and other forms of content.

Create Interesting and Relevant Blog Posts

To optimize your website, you need to create original and relevant blog posts about your dermatology practice. As much as possible, these blog posts should have specific keywords; in this case, keywords related to the field of dermatology and your dermatology clinic. SEO and keywords enable posts to be associated with your website and practice. By using keywords, the Google algorithm will recognize your website content as relevant, pushing your website higher in search results.

Since blog posts are relatively easy to make, you can publish these regularly. For instance, your posts can be about skin-related concerns such as skincare and skin cancer. Since the longer a user spends with a post can boost SEO, you can increase the amount of time that readers spend with your posts by adding media, such as videos and before and after pictures.

Educate your Patients through Videos

Through video content, you can give potential patients a glimpse of your dermatology services and the treatments you offer. You can answer Frequently Asked Questions on topics including cosmetic dermatology, cosmetic procedures, skin care, skin cancer, or anything else related to your practice.

These videos may keep patients (and potential patients) coming back to use them as resource tools. This will not only improve your SEO but also engage users and can increase the likelihood that they will come into your office to use your services.

For example, a potential patient who is hesitant to get a dermatology procedure done can refer to a video to get an idea of what that procedure entails. The video has the potential of easing their mind not only about the procedure but also of your skills, which may lead to them becoming a new patient.

Creating and publishing informative videos not only increases your credibility as a dermatologist but also greatly contributes to your dermatology marketing by encouraging organic growth through sharing.

Rank higher with Pay per Click (PPC) Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) enables you to reach the top of the search results instantly. PPC ads work by paying Google an agreed-upon amount every time someone clicks a link. Google then puts your advertisement in an optimal position. While (unlike organic SEO) PPC requires an up-front payment, the return on your investment is generally very good, often bringing in $2 for every $1 you spend.

3. Expand your Dermatology Marketing Ideas Through Social Media Accounts

Social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, provide additional tools and proven strategies that you can use to widen your reach and expand your market when marketing your dermatology practice.

Use Social Media to Drive Your Optimized Content

One advantage of using social media is that you can share different content formats under a single platform. On Facebook, for example, you can share text posts, photos, and videos related to your dermatology practice.

For video content, consider using YouTube as part of your digital marketing strategy. YouTube (which is owned by Google) is the second-largest search engine on the web. Take advantage of this by publishing informative content, not just about your clinic, but also on the field of dermatology itself and other healthcare topics, to improve your credibility.

Customize Content Using Data and Analytics

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram give you access to user data and analytics that you can use to personalize content to stay relevant to the needs and interests of current and target patients. This information not only lets you learn more about your audience but also helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your dermatology marketing ideas and strategies so you can make data-driven decisions to adjust accordingly.

4. Pay Attention to Your Online and Offline Reputation

Prioritize Word of Mouth Referrals

Studies show that 92% of all people trust recommendations from family and friends, making word-of-mouth the most effective marketing tool available, online or off. But the rise of the internet and online reviews is gaining popularity and credibility when it comes to how patients choose providers.

Your online reputation cannot be ignored.

Engage With Online Reviews

With the shift towards the digital space, 88% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. These can help attract and convert new patients.

Online reviews can also boost your ranking in search results. Collecting good reviews will not only reflect well on your Google Business Listing but can also help you rank higher in search results. So if you’re just starting your marketing campaign, you have to come up with ways to get online reviews. Several tools can help you, including services offered by reputable, established digital marketing companies such as Officite.

5. Stay Consistent and Updated Everywhere

Crafting And Managing Your Dermatology Marketing Ideas

Developing your dermatology marketing ideas with your team and/or marketing agency is a continual process. Aside from planning, you need to constantly monitor performance and update and improve your marketing strategies accordingly.

Your dermatology marketing ideas should be grounded in your practice’s business goals and content should be consistent with your practice’s brand or aesthetic to help patients recognize your practice as a credible source for dermatology services.

Standardize Your Business Information

Having consistent business information, including name, address, and phone number (NAP), is another way to boost your online presence. Inconsistent information may confuse patients and possibly even lower your ranking in search results.

All of your social media platforms and Google Business Listing should have the same NAP listed. This also follows for your doctor and staff contact information. That way, you make it easier for new patients to contact your office and easier for them to schedule an appointment.

To improve your Google business listing, don’t forget to regularly update necessary information about your clinic/office (e.g. operating hours, a short description of your available services and treatments, link to your social media and website), and include photos for the user’s easy reference.

Summing it all up

To grow your dermatology practice, you should use proven marketing techniques for your marketing campaign. These include:

• Improving your website
• Using search engine optimization and keywords
• Building your online presence through social media
• Monitoring your practice’s reputation
• Updating platforms and content

Officite is a digital medical marketing company that is trusted by more than 8000 practices and multiple national associations. Working with an organization like Officite, which has proven experience using the tools and methods outlined in this article, can help your dermatology practice grow and thrive in a competitive market.

For more information, CLICK HERE to schedule a call with an Officite Website Advisor.

As the world moves deeper into the “digital age,” healthcare professionals who have not yet built a website for their practice will find themselves falling behind.  For doctors, physicians, and other healthcare providers, an investment in your medical website is essential to growing your practice.

But just having “a website” for your medical practice isn’t enough anymore. Users, and the Internet itself, have become too evolved for a basic page or two to make a difference. A truly modern website should be designed around functionality and grounded in the user experience. Paired with the appropriate marketing strategies and techniques, your medical website will stand out. It will not only help you raise your profile but also improve your practice’s online reputation. When more people get exposed to your website, you’ll attract more potential patients who will schedule appointments, which will ultimately benefit your practice.

Having a Modern Design for Your Medical Website

Frequently, the first exposure that potential patients have to your practice is through your website. Since a lot is riding on that first impression, there are a few things you should do to make sure that your site makes a positive one.

Keeping your Website Design On-Trend

Your website design should not only be custom to your branding as a medical practice, but it should also follow current design trends. It’s a good way to make your website appear timely and also helps set your practice apart from your competitors.

Using a Central Content Management System

To improve the user experience, your website content should be consistent across all platforms. Using a central content management system helps assure that when a potential patient searches for the name of your clinic, one of your doctors, or anything else associated with your practice, there are no discrepancies in how you show up. This consistency makes it easier for potential patients to find you online and also improves web search performance — bringing you higher up in search results. 

Regularly Updating Content

When visitors know that you might have something new to share, they will keep coming back to check-in. That is why it’s important to add and update your website content regularly.

Posting the latest healthcare news as it relates to your practice and your patients is one strategy that can be very effective. You can also highlight your knowledge by creating your blog posts, or sourcing articles from trusted medical associations. It allows patients to use your medical website as a resource tool, which helps you improve your online presence and further establish your specialty in the medical field.

If you know how to use the right keywords to do some basic search engine optimization (SEO), regularly publishing relevant content can provide a big lift to your website’s search engine ranking.

Protected and Streamlined Medical Information

Healthcare information is sensitive and needs safeguards, following privacy laws and standards to avoid the risks of data leaks and breaches. These are some measures your medical practice needs to ensure data privacy and security.

SSL Certificates

Ensuring that your website has a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) guarantees that all information passed between the web server and the browser remain encrypted and private.

ADA Compliant Procedures

ADA compliance refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design. This law prohibits discrimination against anybody who has a disability. It requires you to design your website to be useable by people who have any number of disabilities. 

Some of these accommodations may include using easier-to-read fonts, large font sizes, providing text transcripts for video and audio, alt tags for images, and other features. 

Patient-Friendly Features

Your website tools should anticipate and be customized for the needs of your patients. One of the key features of any medical website should be a patient portal. The patient portal serves as a single location where your patients can book appointments, fill out forms, access patient information, and perform other necessary tasks, and includes all necessary links, sites, and services.

These tools also help your website rank higher when searched online because the security measures that protect the flow of information on your website help the Google algorithm recognize your site as a legitimate, reliable medical practice resource.

Importance of Functionality

Every doctor’s website should be designed with the patient’s needs in mind. Here are some ways to improve your website’s functionality and, by extension, your patient’s online experience.

Mobile Responsive & Cross-Browser Compatibility

With the increasing ubiquity of mobile devices, your website needs to be able to adjust for the smaller screen sizes and touch functionality of smartphones, tablets, and similar devices. It should also be compatible with different browsers and be accessible for all. 

Easy to Navigate User Interface

Integral to your website’s design should be its usability. It needs to be easy to navigate with easy-to-find, easy-to-use menus and navigation. If potential patients can’t learn more about your services or locate the information they are looking for quickly and easily, they may get frustrated and leave your site. Therefore, your site should have intuitive features that provide your users with a seamless and stress-free experience.

Design & Function Works Together To Attract New Patients

Get Ranked Higher

With a modern design that works seamlessly and the backing of the appropriate marketing tools (such as SEO), your medical practice’s website should consistently appear towards the top of the search results. And when you include relevant content, people are more likely to keep coming back to your website instead of going to others. This relevancy helps your site rank higher not only on Google but on any search engine.

Improve Patient Conversion Rates

Your website’s goal is to attract more people because of its presentable and intuitive design and to make it easier for people to avail themselves of any services and information that they’re looking for. And when your patients can find what they need, that means that they can find you as well. And once they do, they are more likely to come through your office door.

Summing It All Up

It’s important to constantly innovate if you want your medical website to stand out from the rest.  When your website is uniquely designed to your brand and created with patient needs in mind, your medical practice will grow exponentially. Officite has the skills and the tools to help you take your medical website to the next level.

To learn more about our solutions and explore our design gallery, click here.