Chances are, you’re not the only kid on the block anymore — health care is a rapidly growing field that becomes more competitive every year. And that means you can’t simply build your medical practice and wait for patients to fall into your arms (or, well, walk through your doors — but you get the point).
Attracting new patients, retaining existing patients, gaining online visibility, and generating brand awareness require targeted, strategic efforts to market your brand to a wide audience. What are the best ways to market your medical practice? We have a few methods to help you get started.
1. Build Your Social Media Presence
Unlike in times past, when word-of-mouth referrals ruled the day, most of your potential and current patients are online these days. That means your practice needs to build a presence on relevant online platforms to find and attract new patients and stay engaged with current patients.
Marketing your medical practice on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn is an effective and cost-efficient way to promote your practice to a wide base. As of 2020, 3.96 billion people worldwide were on social media (for perspective, that’s roughly half of the world’s population).
Use your social pages to share high-quality content (like blog posts, videos, and infographics) that engages your audience and drives traffic to your website. Consistently posting news, tips, and relevant information allows you to maintain contact with potential and current patients and build a loyal brand following.
2. Publish Blogs
Publishing and maintaining a regular blog is an effective and cost-efficient way to promote your practice on search engines, drive traffic to your website, spread brand awareness, and build credibility as a thought leader in your field.
First and foremost, publishing blog content creates a valuable resource for new and current patients to learn more about your products and services. Helpful, relevant, and educational content also helps establish your brand as a thought leader in the field. Consistent blogging builds credibility and trustworthiness among patients browsing your site.
Secondly, publishing blog content that’s optimized for search engines (a technique called search engine optimization (SEO)) can help land your content top-of-page on Google, where potential patients are more likely to click on it. Google rewards well-organized, relevant and fresh content by positioning it higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) when visitors search for keywords related to your products and services.
Read through our guide to learn some of the important ranking factors that can improve your search engine rankings and make you more visible to your target audience:
7 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings
3. Send Emails
Email marketing has always been — and still is — one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to reach new and existing patients. Email marketing allows you to connect, share education, and stay in touch with prospective patients who have expressed an interest in your products or services. It also allows you to remain engaged with current patients by sending appointment reminders, special offers, relevant content, updates, health care tips and other useful information to your patient base.
Check out our helpful resource here:
Tips to Improve Your Health Care Email Marketing Campaigns
4. Update Your Website
In the digital age, your website is most likely the first impression a potential new patient will have of your brand. And it only takes a few seconds for new visitors to form an initial opinion about your website and brand. That’s why one of the best ways to market your practice is to design a website with the patient experience in mind.
What are the key criteria to keep in mind to ensure your website is making the right impression?
- Speed. Today’s consumers are used to instant gratification, and if your site speed isn’t up to par, visitors will leave to find a faster, more responsive website. As a bonus, site speed is an SEO ranking factor for Google search.
- Mobile responsiveness. Approximately half of all web traffic worldwide comes from mobile phones. Make sure your website is designed to be user-friendly to mobile visitors or risk losing out on valuable traffic. Like site speed, mobile-responsive design is a Google ranking factor.
- Organization. Make sure visitors can find the information they’re looking for and navigate your website with ease. If potential new patients can’t find the services you offer within a few seconds of landing on your site, they won’t wait around.
- Design. Make sure your website design is clean, aesthetically pleasing, and not too cluttered. Shoddy, out-of-date, and unattractive design and layout is a huge turn-off for website visitors.
- Messaging. Make sure your website content is clear, organized, easy to digest, chock-full of relevant information, and free of grammatical issues.
5. Seek Out Reviews and Testimonials
93% of consumers say that online reviews influence their purchasing decisions. And that influence falls on both sides of the spectrum: positive reviews can inspire consumers to spend 31% more on a brand…..but a negative review has convinced 94% of people to avoid a business.
Gaining and showcasing positive patient reviews and testimonials can increase your brand’s credibility, inspire trust in patients, and effectively promote the benefits of your products and services. You can leverage the power of reviews by encouraging satisfied patients to leave an online review, leave a review on social media, and refer your practice to family and friends.
Partner With NewGen Marketing to Market Your Medical Practice
The NewGen Marketing team has years of experience driving sales and business growth for industry-leading health care brands. We recognize the value of integrating multi-channel marketing campaigns with a proven acquisition and nurturing process that leads to patient conversions and treatments.
We provide broad-spectrum medical marketing services, including strategy and investment, analytics, paid media, social media, remarketing, content marketing, and acquisition and call centers. When you’re ready to hire a marketing agency who can drive more to your bottom line, contact NewGen Marketing for a free consultation.