The medical marketplace is changing. A changing marketplace holds implications for any industry, but particularly for the medical industry. The following are ways that you can adapt your online medical marketing strategies to be on top of the current marketplace and ensure that you're reaching people in the best and most effective ways.
1. Raise your online profile.
Using search engine optimization, or SEO, you can engineer your web pages to contain specific words and phrases that will raise your website in the rankings. This makes your site more likely to come up as a result for searches of those words and phrases. SEO is more cost effective but takes more time. The quick way to get visibility is pay-per-click advertising or PPC. PPC charges you based on the number of times your link is clicked, leading to an increasing charge as your site gains more traffic. PPC will get you views quickly but is less cost effective as time goes on. Balancing these two strategies (SEO and PPC) at the right times will allow you to maximize the usefulness of the search engine marketing field.
2. Start a blog.
A blog packed with useful information, comparisons of treatments and helpful tips to reduce chronic issues like allergies and so on goes over well with your clients and also helps you avoid some appointments that are unnecessary since patients will now know alternatives to the doctor for things like allergies. This will, in addition to giving your patients a place to interact with you online, boost your online profile even more. Using specific blog posts you can target problem areas with your SEO, and bring yourself up even higher in the search results. The online marketing potential of that much visibility is huge.
3. Establish a social media presence.
Social media is hugely valuable, offering a place to engage and interact with clients, as well as a marketing platform that touches some of the largest online communities in the world today. Of course, it has to be done in a specific way for medical offices. Engaging in social media could involve updates from your office, as well as dates and times for immunizations, tips for travel health and so on. You could ask people about their experiences with medical staff and what they want to see more of, and even have debates about happenings in the healthcare community. Just be sure that patients are aware that this social media interaction isn't the place to discuss their medical issues, and let them know that by joining a social media page some of their information will be visible to other followers of the medical office page.
4. Use email marketing effectively.
Email marketing is versatile and reliable, assuming that you are using a solution that offers high deliverability. Be it newsletters or reminders, announcements or social emails celebrating an employee, your messages will help you build a rapport with your patients and engage them by offering one more avenue where they can read about you and make decisions on their own terms.
5. Gather and use tracking data.
Gathering tracking data from emails, social media, and even surveys will provide you with valuable information that will help you match your marketing to the subgroups within your client group. Matching the right marketing means that fewer patients will ignore emails and other messages that have no relevance to them. Stay relevant to patients and they'll pay attention when you send them something.
These tips aren't the only ones, but they will help you improve your relationship with your patients and reach out to new ones. You will also be able to gather referrals from old clients due to your overwhelmingly good customer service experience. Check out how marketing automation can make these experiences easier.
