In the age of digital marketing, there are many strategies worth exploring when it comes to promoting health care practices and professionals. Whether you are a physician or a health care business owner, it is recommended to explore modern ways of promoting your practice in order to stay ahead of competitors and attract more patients.
When it comes to awareness and engagement with potential patients, the best way to do it is to ensure your practice is listed everywhere so that you can remain top of mind and drive more traffic and conversion to your practice.
Below are some effective ways to make your practice stand out online:
1. Set-up a website for your practice
Creating a website that will serve as the main hub for your services and products is the first step to attracting more potential patients. Through a well-designed website, your target audience will gain better information and understanding of your expertise and will be a convenient and accessible platform to connect with you for all their health care needs.
Depending on your budget and marketing goals, there are a lot of ways to go about it. You can either hire professionals to set up a visually-appealing, engaging and informative website or you can also use cost-efficient programs such as WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Moonfruit, IM Creator, Airsquare, and others that beginners utilize to put together an effective website that is easily optimized to help it get found across the web on all devices. For audiologists for example, you can check out audiology websites to learn more about what local competitors are doing before setting up your own page.
2. Work on your Search Engine Optimization
Once your site is up and running, you now have to make sure that it appears on search engines to attract organic visitors. Be sure to discuss this with your web designer or use one of the services above since all of their offerings are search engine friendly templates. Through SEO or Search engine optimization you can identify a few key elements or words to make sure the search engines rank your website for relevant keyword searches.
3. Produce value-adding and educational content
Aside from promoting your services and contact information or other relevant details on your website and other pages, it is best to also build credibility by producing content that is value-adding for your potential patients. Depending on your field of expertise as a health care practitioner, you can post engaging and educational articles, videos, or infographics that will help build trust and loyalty among your target audience. Doing so will also help improve your SEO by driving long-term traffic from the search engines to your website overtime.
The goal should be being able to answer questions that patients are repeatedly asking about your field. For example, if you are a pediatrician, most of your patients are probably searching for questions like “what vitamins are recommended for toddlers?” or “how often should I schedule pedia check ups for my kids?” By addressing these concerns on your website, you will help in providing insights into the practice and associate yourself as an expert in the field.
4. Setup a Local Listing with Google+
In order to optimize the location of your practice for local searches in the search engines, you can also set up a Google+ Page to enlist your practice. The first step is to list your practice name, address, website, the category of your practice, operational hours, and contact details. Then, you may also upload selected photos that accurately depict your practice as well. Through this listing, your target audience and past clients can review your practice. The more positive reviews you have will lead to more visibility for your practice’s Google+ Page.
Always be mindful of the overall patient experience since getting negative reviews will also affect your listing on Google+.
5. Utilize digital word of mouth and referral marketing
Because of social media pages and communities, word of mouth and recommendations are stronger than ever. It helps to build a powerful and positive connection with your patients so that they can be active ambassadors of your practice whenever other people ask them for feedback about you.
You can also go the extra mile by empowering your patients to evaluate their experience with your practice by sending online surveys after their visit or by having a feedback form on your website. By taking your patient’s feedback into consideration, you are helping them become a part of the development of your organization, making them feel involved and that their feedback is being heard.
6. Maximize social media channels
Since most of your target audience are now online, social media can be such a powerful tool in promoting your health care practice. To complement your website, you can also set up a Facebook or Instagram page, Twitter account, and other relevant platforms where you can consistently connect and update your patients about new developments and announcements from your business. You can use these pages to create informative and educational content as well that will help building and strengthening your credibility in the field.
Interact with your audience regularly and make sure that they feel heard through the comment section or direct messages. This way, they will build a stronger affinity towards your practice as well.