Whether you’re a brand-new medical practice or you’ve been practicing medicine for years, you know that marketing is essential to attract new patients. Marketing for doctors doesn’t have to be difficult, however, with so many options, busy appointment books and limited time it can be hard to know where to start and more importantly, how to track your return on investment.
There are many great marketing strategies that doctors can use to reach new patients and grow their businesses. In this blog post, we’ll share eight of our proven medical marketing strategies that will help promote your medical clinic or medical practice and bring in more patients. Keep reading to learn more!
1. Develop targeted medical marketing campaigns
Developing targeted marketing campaigns and outlining your ideal new patient is the first step to promoting your medical practice. When we meet with new clients, we do an onboarding brief which covers the basics like what makes you unique? What types of patients do you typically see? Does your practice specialize in a certain medical condition or medical specialty?
As we think through some of the things that make your medical clinic or practice different from others, we will uncover how to highlight those differences to potential patients through effective marketing.
For example, if you’re a medical practice that specializes in primary medical care for adults over the age of 50, think about ways to promote yourself as an expert medical provider among other primary care providers for this demographic.
Once you have determined your target audience, the next step is developing high-quality marketing assets to deploy in your digital marketing campaigns on Google and social media platforms. This could include a new approach to how you write your content, updating your team’s photography or even producing a new video specifically focused on introducing yourself to new patients. Hiring a professional agency to focus on the proper segmenting and audience buildout (age, gender, demographic area, interest, and more) will build a solid foundation to start with.
If you have an existing email list or customer data base, we can develop what’s called a “look-a-like audience” to target similar demographics and interests of your current patients. A look-a-like audience is a great digital marketing tool for healthcare practices.
2. Have a well-designed website for your medical practice
Updating your medical practice’s website is another crucial step in medical practice marketing. Not only should it act as an online extension of your medical office, but it should also be optimized for mobile devices so that potential patients can easily access important medical information about your services on the go.
When someone is looking for a new doctor, or they need to find a new medical clinic, what do they do? Most people turn to the internet for information. A well-designed website can be a great patient acquisition tool and is key in helping potential patients decide whether or not to choose your clinic or practice.
When it comes to website design, most people think about the layout and how the pages will look. However, there are other important factors to consider when creating a website, such as including video and images of staff and doctors. This can help create a more personal connection with visitors and make them feel like they are visiting a real clinic or office.
“An overwhelming majority of people (94%) report watching explainer videos to learn more about a product or service, with 84% saying that swayed them to make a purchase or decision.” HubSpot’s Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2022.
In addition, well-designed websites should be easy to navigate, so that visitors can find the information they need quickly and easily. By keeping these things in mind, you can create a website that is not only visually appealing but also functionally efficient.
3. Make use of your Google Business Profile and online directories
Local search is the most important tool available when it comes to being found by new patients. When medical practices claim and optimize their Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) they are more likely to appear on Google’s local search results and Google Maps.
If you have not claimed your medical clinic’s existing business profile, go to https://www.google.com/business/ where you can complete the medical practice information claim process.
Each doctor in your practice should also have his or her own Google Business Profile to increase your healthcare marketing efforts.
Keeping your Google Business Profile optimized requires an ongoing strategy of posting fresh images and content that your patients will find informative and helpful. Google rewards fresh content. If you don’t have the time or expertise to professionally manage your Google Business Profile, then talk to us about our Google Business Profile management packages. They are extremely affordable and keep your GBP page polished and professional.
In addition to updating medical practice information on medical practice listings, make sure that your medical office is listed on medical directories like WebMD, Health Grades, Yelp! and other online medical listings.
4. Invest in search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of getting traffic to your website by ranking highly in search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
It can be difficult to attract new patients to your medical practice, but with the right SEO strategy, you can be at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). Here are some tips to help you get started.
First, make sure your website is properly optimized for search engines. Use keywords and phrases in your titles, headings, and throughout your website content.
Make sure your SERP titles and descriptions are optimized using your keywords. 71% of marketers say using strategic keywords was their number one strategy for SEO.
Additionally, make sure your website is mobile-friendly; according to Google, 61% of mobile users are more likely to contact a business if the site is easy to use on their device.
You should also consider investing in paid advertising; Google AdWords can help you reach new patients who are searching for medical services in your area. With the right SEO strategy, you can increase your rankings over time and build a solid online presence.
At this point in the article, we realize this is a large amount of technical data and strategy. We find that it’s difficult for one person to manage all of this effectively. That’s where our agency comes in.
We have attractive monthly packages specifically designed for the unique nature of medical practice marketing. Reach out for your FREE marketing audit and let us show you areas of new opportunity. Now on to point number five!
5. Create informative medical blog posts and share them on social media platforms and even your own podcast!
Medical practices can also increase their online visibility by creating and distributing informative blog posts on medical topics.
This will not only strengthen your brand as an authority in the medical field but will also drive traffic back to the website, which helps improve search engine rankings because you are creating backlinks and providing new and relevant content for Google’s search engine. This is a key component in the SEO strategy discussed above. Make sure to include hashtags when you share these posts on social media so that they are more likely to be seen.
Develop a complete content strategy using your blogs to provide educational and informative content for your patients, then using snippets from the blogs on social media, Google Business profile posts, and LinkedIn to create a holistic approach to creating new content for search engines to crawl.
For a more aggressive and professional approach, consider launching your own podcast. Recording professional audio is easy and once you record the content, our team gets to work on the show notes, artwork, graphics and even publishing your podcast on Apple, Google and other popular networks. A great way to get your education into the hands of new patients and colleagues in an easy-to-digest format.
6. Make it easy for patients to book appointments online or over the phone
An important component of any medical website is the patient appointment booking form. This allows patients to schedule appointments with your office directly from your website.
Online booking and appointment systems are becoming increasingly popular among patients, as they offer a convenient way to book appointments without having to call the clinic or doctor’s office. If your clinic or doctor’s office does not yet offer this service, you may be missing out on potential patients who would prefer to book online.
We often see medical practices and clinics have a “make an appointment ” button on their website that is actually a “contact us” form. This can be frustrating or confusing to the user, so make sure your website buttons are descriptive of the form they open.
7. Use videos to educate patients about you, your staff, and the services you offer
Are you looking for a way to make your medical practice more engaging for your patients? If so, consider using videos to highlight what you do. Videos can help patients get a better understanding of your services, and they can be a great way to show off your practice, expertise and staff. Plus, they can be a fun addition to your website or social media page because no other format makes a connection like video.
Videos can be a very useful tool to connect with prospective patients. Videos can help create a more personal connection with potential patients, and they can also be used to educate viewers about the services you offer. This helps you establish your brand as an authority in the medical field, which will draw people to your medical practice website who are searching for specific services that you provide.
Here are some ways that you can use videos on your website to better engage with visitors:
- Highlight and personalize the physicians in your practice
- Highlight specific staff members and their contributions to the practice
- Introduce patients to your medical practice and office environment
- Provide a tour of your clinic or office
- Share why you got into medicine, your passions, specific services you offer, and what a new patient can expect on their first visit
By using videos, you can show potential patients what makes your medical practice unique and why they should choose you. If you’re looking to improve your online presence, be sure to include videos on your website.
8. Develop a strategy to consistently request Google reviews, and respond to those reviews
As a business, you know the importance of online reviews. A recent study found that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. What’s more, nearly half of those surveyed said they would not even consider using a business if it had no online reviews.
So, what can medical practices and clinics do to address this issue?
First, you’ll need to make sure you provide an excellent patient experience.
Second, you’ll need a review strategy that encourages and makes it easy for your patients to leave reviews.
Third, you’ll need a plan for responding to any online reviews your practice may receive.
This means either your staff members will have to proactively reach out to patients and ask them to leave a review, or you can hire a medical marketing agency like Ten Peaks Media to automate the review process and monitor and respond to reviews.
Getting consistent reviews for your medical practice is an important marketing tool and ranking score for local search results. Whichever method you choose, develop a strategy and stick to it!
Next steps for marketing your medical clinic
If you’re looking for help implementing some or all of these medical marketing strategies, don’t hesitate to reach out to a trusted medical marketing agency. By partnering with an experienced team, you can focus on what you do best—providing quality healthcare services—while they take care of the marketing side and help bring in more patients. Which strategy are you most excited to try first?
Tell Us: We want to hear from you. Ask your questions and we will make sure to cover the answers in one of our next upcoming blogs.
