Busy gastroenterologists and practice administrators need simple, proven ways to attract new patients and increase revenue.
Both traditional media, such as TV, radio and print, along with digital media, can be effective tools, if used correctly.
Digital marketing media is trending more heavily these days because digital advertising and marketing techniques are flexible in terms of targeting specific audience demographics, making it easier to reach the patients who need your services.
Using digital marketing means you can target specific types of patients using a variety of platforms.
Local SEO for Physicians
Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) if vital for any practice. When a potential patient searches online, it’s important for your practice to show up at or near the top of the search results.
Google gives search engine users general search results and results pegged on a map that shows the area near the searcher’s location. We can help your practice rise to the top of the list for patients in your geographical area through using a combination of paid ads and local SEO. To expand your practice’s reach, you can invest in SEO assistance that will increase your practice’s visibility in organic searches as well.
Paid Search for Your Practice
With an increase in the number of gastroenterology clinics available to the public, competition has become more intense. To stay competitive, one effective strategy is to use paid advertising.
Today’s marketing strategies use a more specific approach in order to attract, reach and convert a targeted audience most in need of your services.
While it is possible to devise a marketing plan on your own, we can offer professional assistance that will yield much more profitable results and ultimately represent a cost savings.
Here are some of the ways we can help you plan an effective marketing campaign:
Social Media: Social media platforms appeal to different audiences for different reasons. We can help you direct your messages through the appropriate channels.
Google Ads (Pay-Per-Click): These ads target web visitors based on their search history.
Re-targeting: This technology tracks web visitors’ history and displays reminders about your practice in key locations on websites visited after yours
Social Media Management for Your Clinic
To get the most out of social media, your practice needs a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and/or YouTube, where patients can share media content. You can also use paid social media advertising, a currently popular marketing tool.
Paid social media ads have the extra advantage of providing the buyer with data regarding the number of people who viewed or clicked on your content. You’ll see user metrics, your site’s social interaction history and reviews.
Managing Reviews of Your Practice
Your most satisfied patients’ reviews will help promote your practice while lessening the impact of any negative reviews.
To garner the best reviews, you need to interact regularly with the people on your list, promptly answering their questions, addressing their needs and replying to their messages. Also, follow up on their service experience feedback. With open and interactive communications, happy patients will be pleased to give your practice a glowing review.
To reduce negative reviews, follow-up with patients after their visits. By keeping the conversation going, you’ll encourage patients to build a community of like-minded patients who will let others know of their preference for your practice. Keep them engaged and active.
Both positive and negative reviews can remain on the internet indefinitely. There’s a well-known saying: “The internet doesn’t forget.”
Diligently work to manage your reputation by maximizing the best reviews and keeping negative comments to a minimum.
How can you contribute to this goal and manage your reputation?
Reputation management is directed at gauging the level of customer satisfaction with your service. You’ll be able to attend to an unsatisfied patient immediately, before they post a comment registering their displeasure with your services.
You’ll also be aware of satisfied patients’ sentiments, enabling you to request and encourage their positive reviews on your digital platforms.
A series of positive reviews will boost your organic search listings and give prospective patients confidence in your services.
Content Marketing
Inspiring and authentic content will increase your success. When you put together web pages, address web visitors’ concerns and answer their questions.
To develop content that resonates, knowing and understanding your audience will lead to created content that will be noted and shared. If your topic and your clinic get a lot of social media traction and website traffic, your message will spread on its own, at no or minimal cost.
Website Elements To Include
To drive traffic to your practice’s website, you will need relevant and optimized content. For example, you should include details about your practice: location, hours, specializations, credentials, special policies, insurance coverage information.
You should also offer general information about the specialized field of gastroenterology and basic information about symptoms, diagnostics and treatments that may be used.
On each page of your website, be sure to include a call to action, letting the web visitor know what to do should they want to contact you about setting an appointment and/or receiving additional information. Plainly and obviously list your contact information. If you have an online booking system, display links to it prominently and frequently throughout your website.
In summary, take full advantage of the power of digital marketing by establishing a social media presence, consider paid advertising, investing in SEO research, encouraging positive patient reviews and designing a functional, attractive and information-packed website.
The healthcare industry continues to move toward using digital marketing techniques to attract new patients.
But a great deal of potential for effective marketing remains untapped by medical professionals. A relatively small number of the more than 10,000 dermatologists currently practicing today take full advantage of online options.
Dermatologists who do venture into digital marketing have a decided advantage over those whose presence online is virtually invisible or nonexistent.
If you’d like to place your practice in the forefront, appealing to new patients seeking care while updating current patients with practice news, there are some key principles that can help you make the most of the time invested.
Digital marketing can benefit small, medium and large practices that are longtime, established practices or newly opened medical offices. With the continued popularity of social media, digital marketing has become an essential part of patient communications. As consumer behavior changes, marketplace providers need to shift strategy as well. A good digital marketing plan can expand the scope and reach of your practice’s advertising efforts at a modest cost.
We can help you navigate the development and launch of a digital marketing campaign or help you improve and enhance your current marketing plan.
Marketing Plan for your Dermatology Practice
Here are 10 Steps to an Effective Dermatology Digital Marketing Plan
# 1: Decide On In-House Or Outsourced Assistance
Before you dive into the details, you need to decide whether to create your plan on your own and come up with an in-house strategy or whether you would prefer to let marketing professionals take the lead.
Both options have their upsides and downsides. Creating an in-house plan will be less expensive. If you decide to outsource your plan to a professional team of marketing experts, there will be additional cost but also additional benefit. Marketing professionals have the experience and expertise to guide your plan to success.
Before making this key decision, there are a few things to consider:
Will your plan include a website, a search engine optimization strategy, paid online advertising, reputation management and social media marketing?
Do you have a team on your staff ready to create and carry out these marketing initiatives? Or would you be better off enlisting the help of professionals to handle these responsibilities?
If you decide to go with a digital marketing company, you need to find an appropriate fit. We can help you with all the aforementioned strategies and more. Contact us to discuss how Officite.com can help you craft a marketing plan that works for your unique practice.
# 2: Define Your Plan
Before deciding on specific strategies, it is imperative to clearly identify the goals of your digital marketing plan. Marketing goals can include raising brand awareness, generating high-quality leads, growing thought leadership, increasing value for your patients and empowering practice partners to become brand ambassadors.
Decide which goals are short-term and long-term. Once you have identified your objectives, it’s time to begin developing a detailed plan. Determine which communication channels will best serve your brand. And figure out which metrics to use to track your progress and effectiveness. This will help you establish benchmarks which will guide your efforts during future marketing campaigns.
Some tips to help you get started:
Define what makes your practice unique / identify your unique selling point
Who is your target market in this marketing effort?
What are some of the benefits and services you offer patients?
How will you promote your services?
What methods and channels will you use?
How much are you willing to invest?
# 3: Set Up Your Website
A dermatology practice website is the basic foundation for your online marketing efforts. Your website is the online version of your clinic. This platform sets the tone for your practice, communicates a first impression for new patients and gives established patients a reliable source of new information. It can also provide patients with a convenient option for bill payment or provide a quick, easy way to schedule appointments.
# 4: Maximize Social Media Reach
Much of your target audience is likely very actively engaged with social media. Different social media platforms are favored by different demographic groups. Determine which channels are most used by your audience and create a robust presence on the channels most likely to reach your target audience. Offer relatable content and include calls to action. Social media management requires consistent time and attention. The best way to keep your social media posts relevant and engaging is to have dedicated social media managers keeping your posts and interactions fresh. Though social media accounts are free, keeping them interesting enough to draw frequent attention has a cost that is often a worthwhile investment.
# 5: Make Public Relations Pay Off
Public relations tactics allow you to promote your practice through platforms and people who are trusted sources of information and opinion. By getting the seal of approval from arbiters of public opinion, you lend your practice increased credibility. High profile media outlets, from the internet to print, radio and TV, can reinforce positive images of your practice.
Social media influencers and key opinion leaders can enhance your practice’s reputation and public persona through online conversations and reviews that are often shared and spread exponentially to a broader audience.
# 6: Raise Your Profile Outside Of Your Area
To widen your reach beyond your local area, a strategy that bolsters reputation, social media is key as a cost-effective way to increase visibility. Traditional methods also work. Consider seeking attention through professional associations and journals and their online counterparts. And participation in panel discussions and university-sponsored roundtables is also recommended.
# 7: Embrace Mobile-Friendly Technology
Nearly everyone carries a smartphone these days. Making your ventures into digital technology compatible with smartphones and tablets is one way to make information about your practice hassle-free and easy to find. Your patients will appreciate the convenience and ease of booking appointments, finding answers to their dermatological questions, reviewing their medical records or paying their bill on their phone or tablet. Look into making your electronic presence mobile-friendly.
# 8: Leverage Search Engine Optimization
Use keywords and other techniques to make your practice’s website pop up at or close to the top of search results on search engines such as Google or Bing. When you have a prominent presence via organic searches, you’ll get more page visits, more interest in your practice and more patients following through with calls and appointments.
# 9: Use Targeted Ads
Paid targeted ads from Google and Facebook are also effective advertising strategies. The inclusion of paid online ads is highly recommended for dermatology marketing plans.
# 10: Develop A Custom Strategy For Your Practice
While some good marketing principles work universally for nearly every dermatology practice, your marketing plan should be custom-tailored to fit the specific needs of your patients and potential patients. There is no “one size fits all” model for a surefire marketing plan. Each practice has unique qualities, specializations and philosophies that must be taken into account when designing a marketing strategy. Every patient population is also distinctly different. To get optimal results, define your brand, listen to your patients and use a mix of online and traditional media to create a successful, recognizable and respected brand.
Before digital communication became commonplace, traditional marketing practices included the production of flyers, brochures, posters and newspaper inserts.
These are all examples of content marketing.
Digital communications adds blog posts, social media messaging, discussion forums and message boards, e-books, e-newsletters, webinars, websites, videos, podcasts and more to that list.
The growing list of content marketing options gives dermatologists more ways to reach existing patients and potential new patients with information, educational material, calls to action and brand maximization.
The 5 basic rules for dermatology content marketing
Identify your patients’ needs and keep your messaging relevant to those needs. Don’t drift off into too much background about your practice; keep it relevant to your patients.
Do stay relatable and conversational and don’t get too technical or boring. Phrase your content in ways that people can relate to easily; use people-oriented narratives, while remaining authoritative and professional. Concentrate more on patient experience than on scientific data.
Take the focus off of self-promotion. Engage with your audience, build relationships and trust, present unbiased information and let your audience decide for themselves to use your practice.
Be patient. Benefits of content marketing likely won’t be immediate. It takes time to grow a loyal following. In the meantime, keep coming up with fresh content.
Go for sustainable marketing efforts. Become a reliable, timely source of information. Update content often. Through consistency, you’ll win more visitors.
Dermatology Marketing: Digital Marketing and Social Media
Use both evergreen content and time-sensitive content for optimized engagement
Evergreen content
What is evergreen content? It simply means ever-relevant content – it doesn’t age, lose value, or become outdated.
The information will continue to be accurate, interesting and valuable to readers over time.
For example, how-to articles that address a concern can contain “evergreen content,” such as the top 5 signs of acne, supported with general tips and advice, case studies and statistics.
Your dermatology website should include some evergreen content so that it will serve as a reliable source of information for your patients. Over the long-term, evergreen content may draw in new patients through backlinks, SEO and lead generation.
What are the benefits of time-sensitive content?
Relevance and engagement are two things that time-sensitive content delivers. Some examples:
Seasonal—content related to holidays or weather, special occasions such as Mother’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s Day
News—New products and treatments, groundbreaking research
Trending—Celebrity styles, viral videos, other relevant trends
Below are some reasons time-sensitive content works well:
Great short-term results. An article or social media post announcing a medical breakthrough would attract high traffic volume for a short time and could go viral.
Social media maximization. Social media users typically discuss the present and the immediate future. Your time-sensitive content could dominate conversations while a topic is hot.
Audience loyalty. A regular supply of fresh, trending topics will keep audiences coming back to the website or blog. Be creative, be current, and your audience will grow. Time-sensitive content will help keep your page relevant, especially if it is added consistently.
Search Engine Optimization. Google has a preference for fresh, original content and websites that are frequently updated. Use time-sensitive content to boost your visibility in searches.
The key is to find the perfect balance
The ideal dermatology content marketing plan has both evergreen and time-sensitive content. The line between both types may blur from time to time, but you can hire us to help you plan your content calendar. Here is a simple example: If you post a blog or an article discussing derma fillers, it is considered evergreen content since it may be relevant for many years. On the other hand, talking about the top 25 celebrities who have used derma fillers is an example of a time-sensitive topic.
Always refresh your content with updates
Consistency is key in content marketing. Post regular updates to your blog and website content to keep articles relevant. When groundbreaking scientific research, product launches, or other events render your content outdated, change it and post something more timely. For blogs and other dated articles, add a note of when it was updated and summarize what changed. Regular updates provide the benefit of increasing the content’s freshness factor, which improves search rankings.
Some time-sensitive content can be made relevant again with a few quick updates. This is especially true of holiday articles and videos. An article on allergens and impurities in cheap Halloween makeup can be just as valuable next October as it was last year. Add a little new information and turn it into a current post, updated for this year.
Re-use highly engaging content
Who says recycling doesn’t apply to content marketing? You can definitely recycle old content without an update. But remember to share links.
For example, you could post new information about this year’s deals on holiday treatment specials while linking to last year’s post about similar deals. A new, current article can include links to old posts that provide background information.
If you want to bring old content back to life, either add updates or share links. Google will see two pages with identical blocks of text and regard them as duplicate content. The older page will drop in search ranking, and the new page will probably never rank well.
In conclusion, to attract patients with content marketing, remember to stay focused on patient needs, use both time-sensitive and evergreen content, be consistent and be patient.
Before digital communication became commonplace, traditional marketing practices included the production of flyers, brochures, posters and newspaper inserts.
These are all examples of content marketing.
Digital communications adds blog posts, social media messaging, discussion forums and message boards, e-books, e-newsletters, webinars, websites, videos, podcasts and more to that list.
The growing list of content marketing options gives dermatologists more ways to reach existing patients and potential new patients with information, educational material, calls to action and brand maximization.
The 5 basic rules for dermatology content marketing
Identify your patients’ needs and keep your messaging relevant to those needs. Don’t drift off into too much background about your practice; keep it relevant to your patients.
Do stay relatable and conversational and don’t get too technical or boring. Phrase your content in ways that people can relate to easily; use people-oriented narratives, while remaining authoritative and professional. Concentrate more on patient experience than on scientific data.
Take the focus off of self-promotion. Engage with your audience, build relationships and trust, present unbiased information and let your audience decide for themselves to use your practice.
Be patient. Benefits of content marketing likely won’t be immediate. It takes time to grow a loyal following. In the meantime, keep coming up with fresh content.
Go for sustainable marketing efforts. Become a reliable, timely source of information. Update content often. Through consistency, you’ll win more visitors.
Dermatology Marketing: Digital Marketing and Social Media
Use both evergreen content and time-sensitive content for optimized engagement
Evergreen content
What is evergreen content? It simply means ever-relevant content – it doesn’t age, lose value, or become outdated.
The information will continue to be accurate, interesting and valuable to readers over time.
For example, how-to articles that address a concern can contain “evergreen content,” such as the top 5 signs of acne, supported with general tips and advice, case studies and statistics.
Your dermatology website should include some evergreen content so that it will serve as a reliable source of information for your patients. Over the long-term, evergreen content may draw in new patients through backlinks, SEO and lead generation.
What are the benefits of time-sensitive content?
Relevance and engagement are two things that time-sensitive content delivers. Some examples:
Seasonal—content related to holidays or weather, special occasions such as Mother’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s Day
News—New products and treatments, groundbreaking research
Trending—Celebrity styles, viral videos, other relevant trends
Below are some reasons time-sensitive content works well:
Great short-term results. An article or social media post announcing a medical breakthrough would attract high traffic volume for a short time and could go viral.
Social media maximization. Social media users typically discuss the present and the immediate future. Your time-sensitive content could dominate conversations while a topic is hot.
Audience loyalty. A regular supply of fresh, trending topics will keep audiences coming back to the website or blog. Be creative, be current, and your audience will grow. Time-sensitive content will help keep your page relevant, especially if it is added consistently.
Search Engine Optimization. Google has a preference for fresh, original content and websites that are frequently updated. Use time-sensitive content to boost your visibility in searches.
The key is to find the perfect balance
The ideal dermatology content marketing plan has both evergreen and time-sensitive content. The line between both types may blur from time to time, but you can hire us to help you plan your content calendar. Here is a simple example: If you post a blog or an article discussing derma fillers, it is considered evergreen content since it may be relevant for many years. On the other hand, talking about the top 25 celebrities who have used derma fillers is an example of a time-sensitive topic.
Always refresh your content with updates
Consistency is key in content marketing. Post regular updates to your blog and website content to keep articles relevant. When groundbreaking scientific research, product launches, or other events render your content outdated, change it and post something more timely. For blogs and other dated articles, add a note of when it was updated and summarize what changed. Regular updates provide the benefit of increasing the content’s freshness factor, which improves search rankings.
Some time-sensitive content can be made relevant again with a few quick updates. This is especially true of holiday articles and videos. An article on allergens and impurities in cheap Halloween makeup can be just as valuable next October as it was last year. Add a little new information and turn it into a current post, updated for this year.
Re-use highly engaging content
Who says recycling doesn’t apply to content marketing? You can definitely recycle old content without an update. But remember to share links.
For example, you could post new information about this year’s deals on holiday treatment specials while linking to last year’s post about similar deals. A new, current article can include links to old posts that provide background information.
If you want to bring old content back to life, either add updates or share links. Google will see two pages with identical blocks of text and regard them as duplicate content. The older page will drop in search ranking, and the new page will probably never rank well.
In conclusion, to attract patients with content marketing, remember to stay focused on patient needs, use both time-sensitive and evergreen content, be consistent and be patient.
Have you stopped to think about how your business is doing and if your marketing strategies are working? The wonder of marketing is you can change tactics to adapt to changing business environments. In this article, we will look at several ways to enrich your podiatry marketing strategies and get the results — and new patients — that you’re looking for.
Digital Marketing For Your Podiatry Practice
Foot Care 101 on Social Media
Many patients are missing out on the benefits of podiatry services. Some may even be unaware that there are doctors who specialize in foot issues. The quickest way to get the word out and connect with potential patients is to create a presence on the social media platforms where those patients hang out every day. Start by setting up your pages, then start thinking about the engaging content you will put out to attract more followers. Keep it informative and engaging. When you post the kind of content that people are looking for, then more people will look for it. (And more will find it.)
Incentivize Online Reviews
Some patients can be shy when it comes to leaving reviews on your page. But missing out on those reviews can be a lost opportunity to help grow your practice, especially when a good patient only has good things to say. One way to encourage people to leave online reviews is to incentivize them. For example, offer discounts or other premiums to new patients who leave reviews. Offer loyal patients free foot care products or something else related to your practice when they write their first reviews.
Communicate on Social Media & Other Messaging Apps
Phone numbers are well and fine, but some prefer conversing on social messaging apps. To keep up with the times, open your messages to inquiries on social media platforms where you have a presence. You can even use this as part of your marketing strategies to be proactive and message your clients about ongoing promotions or even to send them periodic reminders to keep up their podiatric health.
Cultivate an Iconic Aesthetic
Admit it: some medical clinics can appear stale and boring with their all-white walls. Instead of being classy and minimalist, they wind up looking like the million other clinics following the same aesthetic. The same can be said for social media pages. To distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack, try to add some personality to your social media pages and web design. Maintain a distinctive, consistent color palette. Display your logo prominently. Something so that when patients see your pages, they will instantly know who they are looking at. It will help to establish your brand and separate you from the crowd.
Veer Away From Boring Ads
Google ads already appear dull, but you can be creative and witty to make it NOT boring. Think of thumb-stopping ads that will not only cause people to talk but will drive them to check out who is the mastermind behind the ad – YOU.
Take a look at this witty job application done in the form of a Google ad. The person behind the ad ended up getting interviews because of his marketing strategy!
If your podiatry practice accepts only cash, check, or card, but not other forms of payment like bank transfer or eWallets or bitcoin, you may be seen as not forward-thinking. Change that. Get set up to accept ALL forms of payment and attract patients who prefer to pay in nontraditional methods. In the long run, it’s an investment in the future of your practice and will pay for itself many times over.
Segment Your Patient Base
While each patient is different, you may still be able to create categories that will provide you with a focus for your marketing strategies. For example, you can create marketing segments based upon condition or age group. Then you can offer service packages that are tailor-fitted to the needs of each of those groups.
SEO Gets You Found Online
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential element of digital marketing. It’s one of the surest ways to appear on local search results and drive traffic to your site. Make sure to work with experts who know how to optimize your website, so you will get found when local patients search on Google or other search engines for the services you offer. Take advantage of these strategies to direct more potential clients to discover your podiatry practice.
Get Help With Your Medical Marketing
A successful podiatry practice is a business. And that business does not just rely on the doctor’s skills but also on good marketing strategies. If you’re not confident in running a marketing campaign for your office, we suggest that you employ the help of a marketing agency to ensure that you are working towards a goal that promises a good return on investment.
More than just the tips shared above, marketing experts can help you orchestrate a plan using different techniques, including content marketing, email marketing, word of mouth, social media marketing, and online reputation management, amongst others. Should you wish, traditional forms of marketing may be explored as well.
Setting up a medical website for your practice is one of the best and most practical ways to spread the word about your services. With the world shifting more and more towards digital every day, having an online presence helps keep you from getting left behind. While the Boomers may still be asking their friends for doctor referrals, Millennials and Gen Z-ers lean a lot more heavily on search engines or social media when searching for a doctor. Your practice, as a business, needs to show up in their searches to stay relevant and keep growing.
Whether you’ve already set up your practice’s website or are still in the process of putting it up, observe these best practices to make sure that you get the most out of your online presence.
Why Set Up A Website For Your Practice?
First off, you might be wondering why you should even invest in a website when you can just put up a page on social media. A website adds formality to your business profile and also gives you more control over the information you present online and how it’s presented.
Consider it your digital calling card; a well-designed medical website is your brand ambassador, and it can provide a preview of the experience that patients can expect at your clinic.
But there are ways to set up your website that will help you get the most out of it. Observe the following best practices to make sure that your website is doing all it can.
Best Practices For Medical Website Design
Simple and Clean Design
A clean and straightforward website design has a universal appeal to all site visitors. More than just “looking good,” potential patients should be able to know, at first glance, what your practice is all about.
These should be some of your considerations:
Color scheme—Avoid loud, bright colors. Consider, instead, cool, muted shades.
Theme—Come up with a theme for some of the other design elements and keep them consistent throughout the site. Research current trends and update your theme as needed to keep the site looking fresh, but not so much as to confuse your practice’s brand.
Header Images and Text—Think of the images and information you want to display on your homepage and make sure that they are accurate and on point.
Icons and Font—Part of what makes a design cohesive includes the small elements that may often be overlooked. You should use icons from the same set design and font from the same set type.
User-Friendly
Make sure that your website is intuitive and well-organized. Avoid having blocks of texts that the reader needs to scour through, making it difficult for them to find the information they need.
An excellent medical website has information arranged logically, with easy navigation between pages that are related to one another. It also considers common behaviors of potential patients when navigating a medical website.
Below are the practices you can apply for a user-friendly site:
A centralized menu with the major categories a patient would ask about. Common headers include:
About The Doctor / Clinic
Information about the Doctor’s Specialization
Services
FAQs
Contact Information or Appointment System
Add subsections to these categoriesto further break down the information and make it more digestible to the readers.
A call to action at the end of every pagequickly directs patients to other pages that might be of interest.
Mobile Responsive
Many web searchers now spend a large chunk of their online time on their mobile devices, so it is essential to make sure that your website is optimized for mobile web browsing. Your website may function well on a desktop, but the design and format can be skewed on mobile devices making it difficult to navigate. It’s an issue that can annoy users and possibly cause you to lose potential patients.
Talk to your web designer to make sure that your site is coded to function great on every device.
Complete and Accurate Information
People go to your website to get information about you, your practice, and the services you offer. As a medical practitioner, there are critical pieces of information you need to have on your website. Those include:
Your schedule and contact details—Site visitors should be able to easily find the schedules and contact information for all offices.
Information about your specialization and services offered—Have the complete details of your services up on the site so potential patients know you provide the services they are looking for. You’ll avoid wasting time for both patients and staff.
FAQs—Many patients rely on the internet before they go on a doctor consultation and may go through a medical site’s FAQs to find out more about their condition. Be as transparent as possible in your FAQs.
Minimize the Medical Jargon
Medical terms can be daunting to patients. Imagine how stressful it can be to worry about a possible medical condition while trying to comprehend unfamiliar medical and scientific terms without the assistance of a professional. Use everyday language whenever possible to make your site friendly and understandable to all visitors.
Need To Consult For Your Medical Website Design?
The digital-savvy doctor may want to try his or her hand at designing a medical website. But to get the best results, for both your practice and your patients, you should consult with professional web developers. They have the experience and the know-how to help you grow your business’ online presence.
As a cardiologist, if you want to grow your practice, word of mouth alone, and even referrals, isn’t going to cut it anymore. You need to find a way to get found online and to make an impression so that you stand apart from other cardiologists and other practices in your area. To show them that you are different.
By employing the following proven cardiology marketing strategies, you can make that impression, attract more patients, and achieve your practice’s business goals.
The below strategies have been tested by healthcare services worldwide, and have been proven to produce exceptional results. Every tip is essential. Make sure you read to the end. You’ll thank us later.
10 Marketing Tips To Grow Your Cardiology Practice
1) Master Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Local SEO is a proven means of improving your visibility on Google and your practice’s online presence. Once you master the process of generating relevant keywords based on your environment, your content will start to attract potential patients to your website and your practice.
While it takes a little time to achieve optimal results, researching relevant keywords, and fine-tuning your content will help your website climb higher and higher in search results. As a result, you’ll get found by more potential patients in your area and see an uptick in the number of new patients that walk in your office door.
It’s a long-term strategy that doesn’t produce results overnight, but it is a necessary one to ensure the success of your practice.
2) Utilize Social Media Platforms
Social media platforms help you reach a broader audience quickly, all for free. As the Internet evolved, social media became an integral part of it because of the number of people within the system. If you want to create awareness about your brand, you need to leverage all the advantages of social media platforms such as Facebook.
You must understand the peculiar features of each social media platform when creating awareness. Facebook has the largest audience, Instagram is more image-focused, and Twitter functions differently from both. Each has a slightly different audience. You need to recognize the opportunity that each one offers you and leverage them accordingly.
3) Optimize Your Website For Mobile
As the web has evolved, so have its users; visitors to your site demand more than they did even a couple of years ago. They expect a seamless, effortless experience and you need to make sure your website offers what they expect. If they have an experience on your website that isn’t optimal, users will expect a sub-optimal experience at your office as well. This is where you can lose patients before they even contact your office.
Make sure your website is highly responsive and just as easy to use on mobile devices as it is on a computer, as more and more people use their devices to go online. By staying on top of technological developments, such as the emergence of mobile browsing, you will not only speak to potential patients in the way that they want to be spoken to, but you will also reach more of them.
4) Use Google Ads & Social Ads To Generate Leads
Using Facebook ads manager and Google paid search ads can help you target potential patients and reach them immediately. Your Google ads work like SEO, only, where Organic SEO is a long-term strategy, paid Google ads provide instant (albeit short-term) results. You can even structure your Google ads based on geographical areas, to make sure that you are optimizing the efficacy of your ad spend.
Facebook paid ads manager uses your patients’ profiles to accurately target your ideal audience and then presents your ads directly in their feed, all but assuring that they get seen.
5) Generate New Patient Reviews
When patients are looking for a cardiologist, they want to know that the doctor they choose is a qualified healthcare professional. Reputation matters. And these days, patients are just as likely to trust online reviews as individual recommendations when it comes to picking a new doctor. That is why online reviews are so important.
There are many places where you can gather online reviews — such as WebMD, Google, and other trusted sites. But it is key that you connect these sites to your website so that reviews generated there show up on your site, and vice-versa. In general, the more reviews that show up online, the more potential patients will feel they can trust you. And the more likely you are to earn their trust, the more likely you will be to earn their business.
6) Leverage Email Marketing
Send out free health tips, current heart health-related news stories, and newsletters and updates to patients. It can not only help you check up on your patients, but can also create awareness of your services and establish your cardiology practice as one that is genuinely concerned about its patients’ health.
7) Create Consistent Online Content For Your Patients
Cardiology marketing works best when you regularly create and post consistent, relevant online content. Some topics that you can address include speaking to some of the common cardiology challenges that patients face or providing advice on how patients can live a healthier and more fulfilled life.
It can be difficult to come up with topics and relevant content, but setting and maintaining a regular schedule can help you stay top of mind among cardiologists. Think ahead about what you want to talk about, and then stick to the schedule.
8) Attract Patients With Video Medical Marketing
This is one of the most effective marketing strategies that you can use to promote your cardiology clinic. Getting your physicians to create video content can help improve reputation management and increase the confidence that patients have concerning your cardiology practice.
Visual content engages more senses and, therefore, is better comprehended and retained by potential patients than text or images alone. You can post a video on YouTube and, from there, you can import it into your other online venues, including your website and Facebook page, to reach even more potential viewers.
9) Track Your Performance
Your cardiology marketing plan can only be effective if it’s based on solid research and you know your goals. Make sure that you use relevant, accurate data when drafting your plan and make sure you know what you want to achieve.
But that’s just the start. Make sure you track your data so you know whether or not your plan is doing what it was created to do. You can use Google Data Studio or CRM to track the potential patients’ journey through the sales funnel, from awareness to conversion. Use the numbers to make tweaks and improve your marketing campaigns.
10) Employ Marketing Experts
Mastering cardiology marketing practices can be complicated, which is why it’s important to secure the services of marketing experts. These professionals can not only save you time and headaches but will also create more effective campaigns.
Just like you, they are professionals who know the strategies, techniques, and how to employ them to get you the best results and attract local patients who need the services that you provide.
You handle the patient care, let the marketing experts handle the marketing.
Bottom Line
Follow these proven cardiology marketing tips to set yourself apart from other cardiologists in your area and start attracting the new patients that your practice needs.
Sure, some are easy to employ, and you or your office staff can do those yourselves. But remember, just like you are the expert in heart health, cardiology marketing professionals are the experts in how to get you found. Trust them to know how to most effectively use the above techniques and get you the best results for your practice.
While marketing, itself, has existed for centuries, recent advances in technology have spurred the development of more advanced forms of marketing strategies. Unfortunately, the medical industry, as innovative as it is, is one of the industries that has been slow to adopt these new strategies. Specialties like cardiology are no exception. In this article, we’ll share some tips on how you, as a cardiologist, can start modernizing your business approach and develop your digital marketing plan.
Start Your Cardiology Marketing Plan
Conduct a Business Review
Start by looking at your practice’s business history. Conduct a comprehensive review to start to understand how your business has performed the past few years or so. Your office staff can help you gather data including sales, reviews, and website ad performance (if that information is available).
This will not only give you a grasp of how your cardiology practice has been performing but can provide a performance benchmark when making marketing decisions moving forward.
Look at the Industry Landscape
Medical advancements move quickly. As a cardiologist, you keep abreast of the latest updates in the medical community by reading articles from the latest medical journals, scholarly publications, and global organizations like the World Health Organization so you can give your patients the best advice and treatment.
For healthcare industry updates you should keep up with news from The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and updates from your local medical associations.
Make sure to pay attention to marketing trends and forecasts. It’s important to look at your practice holistically — as both a service provider and a business — for your marketing plans to succeed.
What are Your Competitors Doing?
Take a look at how your peers conduct cardiology practice marketing. Does it seem like their business is doing as well as yours? Better? What are they doing with their website? Are they present on social media? Do they implement SEO (search engine optimization) or run paid online ads?
Gathering info on competitors’ online and offline marketing activities can help you get more ideas that you can implement to make a better plan for your practice.
Set Your Goals
After reviewing your business performance, the industry landscape, and your competitors’ activities, it’s time to set your goals and articulate where you want to take your practice. Below are some goals that you may want to consider:
Increase brand awareness — Do you feel like not enough people know about your cardiology practice?
Manage reputation — Do you have a good reputation within the community? How do you want potential clients to perceive your practice?
Increase lead generation
Grow social media clout
Increase website traffic
Do not limit yourself to just these recommendations. And when forming your business objectives, make sure to follow the SMART principle (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) to help you focus your plan and get you set up for success.
Know Your Audience
Roy H. Williams, the best-selling author and marketing consultant known for his Wizard of Ads trilogy, said that “The first step in exceeding what your customer expects is to know their expectations.”
As a cardiologist, you might think that all patients have the same expectations from your specialty. But many factors can affect how your patients look at your practice, including:
Socioeconomic class. Depending on the community or hospital where your practice is located, you might be catering to a specific segment that can (or cannot) afford the cost of your services.
Age group. Marketing for pediatric cardiologists is targeted toward a different audience than marketing for other cardiologists. Also, if your practice focuses on treating certain heart conditions, your marketing should be targeted at the populations where those conditions appear most.
Diseases and Conditions. As mentioned above, some practices have built their reputation for successfully handling unique medical cases. If you have made something similar for your practice, talk about that expertise to attract a niche audience.
Behaviors. You might need the help of marketing experts or a marketing agency to get reliable consumer behavior data to help shape your strategies. The kinds of behaviors that need to be looked at include:
Social media habits and behavior
Perceptions of cardiologists
Where they obtain their medical information
Habits when it comes to doctor consultation
Identify Strategies Appropriate for Your Business Goals
Once you have compiled the information above, you are ready to work on the marketing strategy.
Your marketing strategy is the umbrella under which everything digital-related falls and will help determine the actionable steps you will be performing and implementing to achieve your goal.
If you are looking at driving brand awareness to attract new patients and customers, start with website development and search engine optimization.
Maybe you discovered that online listings for your cardiology practice are less than flattering. This is where you can apply reputation management techniques.
There are many ways to experiment with your strategies if you are bold and are willing to think outside the box.
Craft The Perfect Cardiology Practice Marketing Plan
“There’s always going to be something that either disrupts the market or intervenes into the best-laid plans. With that being said, all good marketers have to be prepared to pivot. We’re not just creative people, but we’re analytical people. I think using those faculties to be able to not just pivot but even, perhaps, in this state of things, as they’re today, we’re ready to disrupt going forward.”
Think long-term if you want to survive and thrive. To kickstart your marketing plan, reach out to our team of marketing experts. We can assist you in growing your business.
“I’ve seen a lot more people overextend themselves with an activity that they were not trained to do. I’ve seen many more stress fractures and a lot more just overall joint irritation, tendon irritation… That’s what COVID-19 has brought about: people who usually are not active and they have more time on their hands, and they’re trying to be healthier.”
Apart from strenuous workouts, injuries also happen in the most mundane situations. John Keeling, an orthopedic surgeon in Chevy Chase, Md, shares of his patients
“They’re going around with either stocking or bare feet, and in haste to get to the next meeting, they bump into the furniture.”
However, when these things happen, if the pain is manageable, most people just ignore it and wait for the swelling to subside. Many doctors would agree that this behavior can cause more damage than good, so there is the constant battle to inform people of the importance of seeing a podiatrist.
To help disseminate this important information (and promote your podiatry practice) you should develop a podiatry marketing strategy.
In this article, we’ll share with you some of the best ways to market your practice and spread the word about foot health.
Podiatry Marketing Guide
Content Marketing: Share Some Foot Facts
With people stuck on their screens, consuming content almost 24/7, now is the perfect time to capture the attention of potential patients with eye-catching content about foot health that’s not just entertaining but informative, as well. It’s a great opportunity to speak to those who are not aware of podiatrists or who are neglecting their check-ups, and seeing this content might remind them of the importance of foot health.
Word Of Mouth is Powerful
People are now more discerning than ever with the people they spend time with, especially since the pandemic has limited personal interactions. As a medical practitioner, try to build a rapport with your patients. When it comes naturally to you, you’ll forget it’s a marketing strategy; you’ll simply be connecting while still building patient loyalty.
Nurture your patient relationships because, when the time comes, those patients will be the ones recommending you to their friends and family, acting as an ambassador for your practice and helping you grow your patient base.
Optimize Your Podiatry Website
Almost everything is a Google search away. According to Pi Datametrics, Google search volumes from January to April 2020 increased across nearly all categories compared to the same period in 2019. So now is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of this ever-increasing online activity. You never know how much you are missing whenever your website does not appear in local search results.
Start by reviewing the content on your website and updating all the information as necessary. Next, find time to consult with friends and patients to get their honest feedback on your web design. You can use it to improve your user interface. Then employ the services of a web marketing expert to apply Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies and help your site show up higher in local search results.
Online Consultations
How many podiatrists do you know to offer online consultations? Probably not many. Adding this in-demand service is your chance not just to increase your online presence and build your reputation, but also to provide something that your competitors are not.
You can conduct online consultations for minor cases like ankle and heel pain and other issues that can be assessed via video. Anyone with a fast internet connection can have free access to video platforms like Google Meet and Zoom, making it an excellent way to grow your practice and gain new patients.
Value-Adding Engagements
People cooped up at home are longing to try out new things. You can use this to your advantage by engaging your current clients and potential patients in enriching activities like an online foot exercise class. You can also hold a short seminar on care tips that they can do at home in the case of a minor injury.
Promoting on Social Media
As you’ve seen in the first half of the guide, podiatry marketing isn’t all about traditional forms. The digital space lets you be more creative as you practice marketing.
You may roll your eyes and think that everyone is doing it. But the real question is, “Are they doing it right?” If you scour through Facebook, you will find a lot of neglected medical pages. They usually start with potential, releasing regular content, until they just stop updating the page and leave it for weeks or months.
If you include social media as part of your marketing strategy, you need to be committed to it for it to succeed.
Create your page and include the necessary information about your business: contact information, bio, locations, etc. Write your business profile, and if you are up for it, make it sound engaging, witty even.
Once you’ve set up the basics, you can get started with creating content. If you cannot create the graphics and visuals yourself, then we suggest that you hire a community manager who can develop content for you and manage your posts. If you genuinely want to be involved, you can leave the photos and videos to your community manager and just focus on the occasional check-in post or even private message inquiries.
Here are some content suggestions you can put up as you grow your social media page:
Photo of your clinic
A list of your services
A promo
Patient reviews
It’s good to plan your content ahead of time and post on a regular schedule. This will help you stay top-of-mind for patients and potential patients, even when your clinic is closed.
Apart from engagement, an active social media account helps build your online reputation. The content you put out—the online reviews, the customer service—can all positively contribute to your image.
The investment in your community manager can provide exponential returns in the form of a consistent trickle of new patients seeking an appointment.
Make sure to activate that “connect with us” button, or have your phone number visible on the page and encourage your audience to interact with you directly.
Other Ways to Maximize Digital Marketing for Podiatry Practices
By now, you should have a good idea of the structure of your podiatry marketing plan. We just covered the tip of the iceberg with social media, and there are still many more ways to go about digital marketing.
For example, search engine optimization SEO can be maximized further by connecting your website to a blog. This way, you can diversify the number of topics associated with your practice and even further improve your chances of showing up in search results.
A bit old school but still effective, you may also try implementing email marketing for past patients with an email database.
Grow Your Podiatry Practice Now
Now that we have shared some of the most cost-effective ways to utilize social media platforms for your podiatry marketing strategies, you see how valuable an online presence can be and the opportunity it presents your practice during this difficult time. While the current pandemic is nothing to be thankful for, you, as a podiatrist, can make use of the most accessible marketing efforts online to educate people on proper foot care and, in the process, grow your practice.
Competition for patients didn’t use to be as difficult as it is today. Gone are the days where it’s just you and maybe two other competitors vying for the attention of new patients. With the medical industry fueled by consistent technological advancement, competition is fiercer than ever, and medical practitioners have to employ the best medical marketing strategies to keep their practices growing.
“Health Marketing is a multidisciplinary area of public health practice. This innovative approach draws from traditional marketing theories and principles and adds science-based strategies to prevention, health promotion, and health protection. Drawing from fields such as marketing, communication, and public health promotion, health marketing provides a framework of theories, strategies, and techniques that can be used to guide work in public health research, interventions, and communication campaigns.”
But it’s not just the doctors who need them. The whole industry, including healthcare providers, medical equipment manufacturers, pharmacies, and other healthcare services, employ health marketing strategies to ensure the longevity of their respective businesses.
Medical Marketing Service
Marketing, as mentioned above, draws knowledge from beyond the medical field, particularly in communications. As such, doctors may not have the full skill set required to market their medical services. For this reason, consulting with a medical marketing service provides a whole host of benefits.
A medical marketing service can be an agency or an individual professional who specializes in medical marketing. Many of these services will give you 360° services to cover all your marketing needs. Some samples of the services they offer include:
Social Media Campaigns (including setting up your Facebook profile)
SEO Optimization
The range of services may be overwhelming at first, so it’s best to consult with a marketing expert to determine the strategies that will work best for your practice.
Marketing Strategies For Your Medical Profession
As with many things, coming up with a marketing plan for your practice or institution needs time and patience, as there is a process to determine the most efficient strategies to be implemented.
In your first meeting with a marketing professional, they will assess your current business status and marketing practices. Be prepared to answer questions about the following:
Ongoing marketing efforts such as your website, running online ads, and other online content
Your business goals
The main message you want your audience to take away
The budget you are willing to spend
Business details such as location, services, price range, the profile of current clientele
Target audience details such as socio-economic segment, age group, specific medical conditions you treat, among others
There is no need to worry if you do not have all this information immediately during the first meeting. The marketing expert will help you identify the missing factors before developing the plan.
Next comes the identification of business goals. Are you looking to get more clients? Rebrand? Are you seeking help to address a crisis or a persisting issue? The plans need to be clear, as the strategies will be tailor-made to accomplish the objectives.
To help you think about the services you think you might need, let’s define the different strategies a medical marketing service can offer, as mentioned above.
Digital Marketing is an umbrella term that includes a mix of relevant online tools and platforms for the most effective marketing campaign. As shared in CoFounder Magazine.
No matter the industry, no matter the business model, every business can benefit from investing in digital marketing. There are many correct ways to invest in your business. Still, digital marketing is one of those overarching solutions that will help your entire organization grow and succeed.
Some tools include:
Content Marketing—Content marketing can help you gain and grow a loyal audience with educational content that provides value to your potential patients and adds to the overall brand experience. More than just giving product information, you equip patients with valuable insights that only you can provide, engaging readers and keeping them coming back for more details.
Reputation Management—You found out that your practice is often compared to your competitor and that your target audience sees no clear distinction between you. Through rep management, you can shape the public’s perceptions about your brand.
Medical website design—If you still don’t have a website or if your website isn’t bringing customer leads as you anticipated, marketing experts can help you fix your site—from tweaking the design to adding and optimizing content—to help you get the most out of your online investment.
Social Media Campaigns—Having a presence on social media, especially on Facebook, is a necessary piece of any digital marketing strategy. It helps you quickly reach a broad audience and can be one of the quickest ways to generate new leads. Depending on your goal, you can have engagement campaigns and growth campaigns to increase your page followers and engage with your audience.
SEO Optimization—As defined by Google, SEO optimization is the process of making your site better for search engines so that you show up in local search results. After you’ve improved your design and user experience, you can now work on optimizing your content to help you improve your search rankings.
Know the Most Effective Marketing Strategy For Your Practice
When coupled with all the responsibilities of being a doctor, developing a marketing campaign from scratch can be a daunting task. To ensure that your marketing plan is right for your business, we recommend that you consult with a medical marketing professional to help you promote and grow your medical practice.
