How important is Digital Marketing for Medical Practice’s overall Business Growth?
Technological advancement is like a fast-rolling snow ball falling off a never-ending steep hill, the size of the ball increasing with the speed. The only difference is that where the ball falls down, technology is lifting this world upwards, metaphorically.
Consumer buying behavior has changed, they have excess information present around them. They can now compare their purchase/post-purchase experience with their peers. More so, they now have access to more options therefore they can make an educated choice about their needs.
Add technological advancement to this trend, where at one place it makes the survival of every business easy, at other end it makes thriving (with profits) much difficult. Reason being, everyone has the same information, same options available – only the ones with that extra creative bone can shine through!
Patient Consumerism and Healthcare IT Industry
This is true for the Healthcare IT sector as well. Patients expect to be treated like customers of medical service. What I mean is that where once patients were dependent on a doctor to soothe their illness, patients now want the doctor to realize that they are “chosen” amongst the competition. This expectation makes it difficult for healthcare providers to delight their patients at all fronts.
For healthcare providers and medical practices to shine through they require advance technology, expert doctors, efficient automated systems and their presence where their audience can see them i.e., online.
You see hospitals/Medical practices these days advertising their services, highlighting their doctor’s professional/academic experience to catch patients’ attention. Promoting ads over Facebook and creating impressive websites. All this is relatively new and proves the shifting dynamics of Healthcare IT industry. Now the question arises,
How can you being a Medical Practice make sure that your audience (patients) is aware of your services?
Inform your audience about your services, remind them about their experience with your Medical Practice, get them to attest their delight and then verify their experience through other patient testimonials.
There are many steps a Medical Practice can take for their business growth through digital marketing:
Get an Exclusive Website made for your Medical Practice
A website these days is your digital shop. For Medical Practices it opens up many opportunities, from getting patients to schedule appointments, inquire about doctors or services to enabling personalized patient registration with medical/financial records. It can help rank your practice on google engine based on SEO, making sure the name of your practice comes up anytime a patient searches for a service you are offering.
What will it cost?
Having a personalized website is the first step towards building your digital brand identity. Keeping it up to date and making sure you add resources to catch readers attention, along with being responsive can help strength your overall business equity.
Get the website/social media content Search Engine Optimized
Creating digital web pages is simple, what’s tough is to get them your patient’s due attention. For that you need to make sure that your website content as well as the content (your digital media manager is posting) over other social channels is all search engine optimized, meaning that it contains heavily search keywords.
This is where SEO comes in, at its most fundamental level, search engine optimization works because search algorithms are looking to match the intent behind a user’s search query to relevant results. For example, if a potential patient is searching for a “primary care physician near me,” the algorithm will show them results for physicians or medical practices in the patient’s area.
Therefore, medical practices hoping to get in front of potential patients must match the content of their websites to what users are searching for. The best way to do this is through content based on relevant keywords that potential patients are searching for.
These keyword phrases have the dual benefit of 1) reaching patients who are closer to making a decision about their healthcare and 2) being less competitive than more general keywords. Your website’s credibility is also enhanced when other websites link back to your content or users share your webpages on social media.
How does SEO work?
Source: wpforms.com/digital-marketing-statistics/
You are just one step away from getting your “Digital Marketing E-Book”
How important is Digital Marketing for medical practice’s overall business growth?
Prompt Social Media Management
Creating social media accounts and then hiring dedicated resources to create channel specific campaigns can further strength your brand identity. You need to realize that different types/profession of people are present at different channels. You can either target a niche e.g. patients of certain profession/background or promote a generic campaign catering to all.
Why should you run paid campaigns?
Proactive Reputation Management
Press releases, webinars, live stories or online sessions can all be used to boost your brand reputation. It is always advisable to be present and have a voice/opinion whenever a calamity occurs e.g., when Covid 19 came many Medical Practices started promoting prevention ways, doctors started posting videos to educate audience about symptom management etc. People resonate well when the content is relevant and this should be used to build a positive brand reputation.
Customized Digital Marketing Campaigns
Planning and then running customized digital marketing campaigns can increase your chances of being seen by your audience. It will not only help educated your patients about what your Medical Practice is capable of but will entice them with attractive CTAs (call to actions). Having recurring campaigns with new content/design always hits off enabling higher chances of converting your audience to patients.
Systematic Content Marketing
Another promising way of getting your Medical Practice noticed and your brand “seen” is through selecting your content topics wisely as per “topics in demand”. If done well you can market your expertise through your content and make it clear that you Medical Practice values its patients and keeps them first.
Being consistent helps establish healthy relationship with your prospective and existing patients. When you patients see you taking interest in what they value, they start looking at you for valuable source of advice and guidance. This helps translate your prospective patients to current patients, increasing patient trust in your Medical Services.
The age of digitization require that Medical Practices not just offer their services through physical healthcare but through virtual Medical Care services as well. Such Medical Practices can only gain their patients trust in their services if they stay active on digital mediums, with relevant and recurring content pieces, systematic campaigns and an active connectivity interface between patients and doctors.
AltuMED provides exclusive Practice Growth and Digital Marketing services for Medical Practices. Download “AltuMED Digital Marketing Services” Brochure for details or contact us to learn more.
Subscribe to Our Newsletter!
Subscribe to Our Newsletter!
Enter Your Email Address. We Promise We Won't Spam You