Improving your skills as a surgeon or general physician is certainly important, but marketing them is equally important too. With people not knowing the services you offer, how will they avail of them? Marketing is a conscious practice that takes a certain level of skill and resources. Once you get the hang of them, you’ll see your practice elevating itself to new heights. Wondering how to market your medical practice and reap the benefits? Read our article to know more!
There are many strategies that can help you market your medical practice and establish a wider network of patients.
Have A Well-Customized Website
With everything being on the web, it’s necessary to make your online presence felt. You must’ve used or come across the phrase “just Google it” no matter what the situation was. If your service is not on the web, then the chances of people knowing about your services are less. To remedy this, you need a well-built website that lists all your services, testimonials, accomplishments, etc. You should also include things that enhance the credibility of your practice, like awards or milestones. Essentially anything beneficial that can attract attention is an element that should go up on your website.
Building a professional, well-customized website is a big step since you need to consider several factors. But, think of it as an investment with a high ROI. It’ll give you a slight edge over the competition in your local area and you’ll be able to attract more patients to your specialty than traditional modes. Plus, building a medical website is simpler than you think!
Many things have to be kept in mind while setting up a website since it has to be ranked higher on result pages. If the search engine lists your website on the 2nd or 3rd section of the result page, the chances of your practice going unnoticed are high. Keep reading to better understand the value of SEO and how it answers the ‘how to market your medical practice’ dilemma in an easy way.
Use SEO-Friendly Practices
Many people are turning to Google to search for local physicians. Gone are the days when people used the yellow pages directory to search for anything. And if you want your practice to be visible, you need to employ SEO-friendly methods. For those who are new to the concept, SEO (search engine optimization) is a strategy used to optimize a business’ website to make it land on the front page of the search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more business. It generates a higher amount of clicks onto your site, which in turn increases the probability of people booking an appointment. Here are a few SEO-related points you can utilize –
Make Sure It’s Mobile-Friendly
While designing your website, you need to keep in mind its accessibility on different devices. Not everyone will use a laptop or desktop to search for information. Does your website run effectively on tabs and mobile phones? Does it take longer to load?
Add Informative Blogs
Adding quality content via informative blogs is a great strategy for your website to rank higher. Here your blogs will contain content that’s aimed towards subjects that your audience will be interested in reading. For example, write about technological innovations of the healthcare industry, how to live a healthy life, or about any upcoming medical events. Adding FAQs at the end of each blog is a healthy method of gaining organic traffic to your blog and your website.
Run Paid Search Campaigns
Paid search is a marketing strategy where a business pays search engines to advertise its website on the result page. This not only helps in ranking but also drives a better stream of traffic to your website. This strategy is useful especially when you’ve just created a website and want to put the word out there about your services.
Although this method takes time to bloom, the ROI your practice will receive will be tremendous. You’ll have to employ an SEO specialist for this job, but it’s much cheaper than traditional advertising. Also, SEO has a long life span. That means you won’t have to worry about your practice being lost in a sea of searches. When implemented well, you’ll always see a constant flow of organic traffic.
Start A Patient Referral Program
If you’re looking for innovative ways on how to market your medical practice, then try starting patient referral programs. The whole idea of the program is to reward existing patients for their referrals to their friends, family, or colleagues. Simple as that! Hearing that your practice has quality and is reliable from someone they know increases the likelihood of people visiting you. Take it as free advertising!
A patient referral program requires proper planning. You’ll have to think about the type of referral system. Whether you want to make it tier-based or an “all or none” program – it’s dependent on you. There are many ways to approach this, so take your time and select what’s best for you.
Try Your Hand At Email Marketing
As a physician, you’ll always strive to improve patient experience and communication. When a patient leaves your clinic, they need to feel that it’s a place worthy to be referred to and visited again for future services. But how do you maintain that communication and leave a long-lasting experience after they leave your clinic? Email marketing is a great way to do that. You can send them reminders about their appointment dates via email, but also, send newsletters, health tips, upcoming events to their inbox. Any material that’ll give them that personal touch will help. This will set you apart from other practitioners, in turn helping you enhance patient experience and communication.
Around 40% of Indian consumers prefer being contacted by brands via email marketing. They prefer content that’s customized to their interests rather than promotions. Your practice is nothing short of a brand! Remember this point while you’re planning your email marketing strategy.
Use Social Media To Your Advantage
If you haven’t cashed on the power of social media, you might want to do that as quickly as possible. Social media is more than just a platform to post quirky stories or pictures. It’s a space where you can engage with your audience and connect with other practitioners as well. Use Facebook and Instagram to share stories, polls, any upcoming events, promotions on your services, and more. LinkedIn is another great platform that’ll help you to connect and network with like-minded medical professionals. Have your target audience in mind and see which social media platform suits you best. However, if you choose to promote your practice on multiple platforms, ensure that you’ve got sufficient bandwidth to handle them.
Participate In Health Fairs
Health fairs are a great place to establish connections with new practitioners and develop opportunities for promotion. Set up a booth and offer free screenings – something as simple as free blood screenings will do. Talk about a few of your services to potential patients, be cordial in promoting yourself, and try to establish a connection from the beginning. Make sure you keep up with upcoming medical events across the country; these are excellent platforms to network with other professionals and market yourself to those who attend.
Knowing how to market your medical practice the right way will help in reaching out to your patients more efficiently.
Conclusion
We hope you were able to learn a bit or two from our article on how to market your medical practice. Employing these strategies is not hard, but they sure require some practice to see the results. Always remember that engagement and communication are key for a successful practice. To engage better with your patients, try our ImmunifyMe app. You can access your patient’s health records, have video consultations, and safely store transactions in our e-wallet.
FAQs On How To Market Your Medical Practice
How Do I Advertise My Medical Practice?
You can use the following strategies to advertise your medical practice:
- Have a well-customized website
- Use SEO-friendly practices
- Start a patient referral program
- Use email marketing to strengthen patient communication
- Use social media
- Participate in health fairs
Why Is Social Media Important For Doctors?
Social media is a great platform for the promotion of services, posting upcoming events, and engaging with your audience. Also, you’re able to connect with other like-minded professionals from the healthcare industry and widen your network.
Should Doctors Have Websites?
Yes! By posting relevant information on it, you’re increasing the credibility of services and help from a marketing standpoint. Referrals also become easier since existing patients can refer your website to potential patients.
