As the medical industry continues to expand, more and more doctors and medical practices are turning to digital marketing to expand their reach and connect with new customers.
Benefits of Inbound Marketing for Doctors & Health Professionals
Digital marketing for medical practices has become an increasingly important component of the overall marketing strategy. If you are a doctor, you need to be familiar with the different digital inbound marketing strategies and how to use them.
Digital marketing helps doctors reach potential patients through a variety of digital channels—such as social media, email marketing, social media, local directories, and medical review websites.
However, doctors and medical practices have a unique challenge when it comes to digital marketing. Their job is to help people feel better, not to market their services. Medical professionals must be careful to make sure they’re using inbound marketing effectively without being overly aggressive and salesy.
One of the ways doctors can promote their business without being too pushy can be done using inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing is the process of attracting customers through establishing a quality online presence, valuable content, engagement, and social media. Instead of relying on paid ads and pushy sales techniques, inbound marketing focuses on providing value for your patients through high-quality content that’s helpful, informative, and easy to find.
There are many benefits to digital and inbound marketing for doctors, but perhaps the most obvious is its cost-effectiveness. Because a doctor’s primary target audience is likely to be patients, digital marketing is far more affordable than traditional advertising tactics, such as radio or print campaigns.
Another great benefit is using digital marketing is that it can be extremely targeted and easy to measure. This way, you can see what’s working and what’s not.
If you use social media you can clearly measure how many users follow your accounts and how many engage with your feeds. You can also see how many go to your website after reading your posts on Facebook and other social sites.
Using Google Analytics you can find out how patients find you, how long they stay on your website, and how they engage with your business.
So if you want to stay in control of your marketing and be able to measure and analyze the results, nothing beats digital marketing, especially if it’s done correctly.
Benefits Of Digital Marketing for Healthcare Professionals
As digital marketing becomes increasingly popular among businesses and individuals alike, there are a number of benefits that doctors can enjoy by simply using this channel to reach potential patients. By tapping into the tremendous power of digital marketing, doctors can not only build their medical practices but also grow their businesses—all while improving both the quality of their patient care and the overall experience of their services.
- Show expertise and build authority
Digital marketing can help doctors build business authority and brand recognition using social media, email marketing, and online reviews. Doctors can also create content that is relevant and informative to potential patients looking for medical advice online.
Inbound marketing can strengthen your brand as more people recognize your name and trust your medical expertise. Digital marketing can help you develop a name recognition that is synonymous with quality care in your area. - Generate more leads and patients
New patients are more likely to sign up for appointments online. By using digital marketing strategies, doctors can reach a wider range of patients than through traditional channels like magazine and radio advertisements. - Gain brand recognition
Brand recognition increases as more people recognize your name and trust your medical expertise. Digital marketing can help you develop a name recognition that is synonymous with quality care in your area. - Build better patient relations
Digital marketing can dramatically improve the doctor-patient relationship by enabling a more personal interaction between physicians and their patients. By connecting with patients one-on-one via email or social media, doctors can build trust and rapport with their patients, helping them to feel more comfortable in the office setting.
Top Marketing Strategies For Doctors
So what are the top SEO and marketing strategies for doctors and healthcare professionals that work the best?
Below are the top 5 digital healthcare marketing strategies that provide the best results.
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1. Develop a strong online presence
Many customers go to the internet to research companies before they make a purchase, and if you don’t have a website, they may not trust your business.
If you’re serious about growing your medical business, it’s important to invest in a high-quality professional medical website that builds trust with your clients. Your website should show who you are and what areas of medicine you specialize in. It should also include social proof elements like testimonials, awards, and accolades.
Other useful information a medical website should include are answers to the most popular questions, details about insurance, as well as patient forms that can be printed and filled out prior to the first visit.
A website is one of the most important tools for a doctor in terms of marketing and patient outreach. It’s critical to have a website that’s attractive, informative, easy to navigate and loads fast regardless of what device patients are using to access it.
The medical website must also be secure and well-maintained to ensure all the information is up-to-date and accurate.
Related: If you’re looking for inspiration. Here is a list of high-quality health and wellness website design examples.
Medical Website Design Actionable Tips:
- Create a website that loads fast and looks beautiful on all devices.
- Use high-quality photos
- Make your text easy to read and skim
- Ensure your website is easy to navigate.
- Show the most important information “above the fold.”
- Keep your homepage free of clutter.
- Make your contact information easy to find.
For more tips on how to improve your website, check out this post from OrbitMedia: 27 Research-Backed Web Design Tips: How to Design a Website That Works.
2. Use SEO to grow organic traffic to your medical website
Search engine optimization is essential for the success of any online business, but it’s especially important for medical practitioners. By using SEO you can make sure your website appears at the top results when people are the type of services you provide.
If your website is not optimized for the search engines, it does not matter how good your medical website is and how much useful information it contains – it will not be found by anyone. Optimizing the website for your medical practice will help you get higher rankings in the search engines, which will increase the traffic to your website resulting in more patients finding you online.
Common SEO strategies include finding the right keywords, performing on-page and off-page SEO, and creating high-quality content that answers questions people are asking.
Medical SEO Marketing Actionable Tips:
- Choose keywords your ideal client uses to search for the type of services you offer
- Write for humans first and search engines second
- Write high-quality content that answers questions
- Optimize your page Titles and Meta description
- Use short URLs that include main keywords you want the page to rank
- Perform on-page optimization. Include keywords in titles, meta tags, H1-H6 tags, alt tags, etc.
- Build links to and from different pages on your website.
3. Invest time in social media
Social media is a powerful tool for doctors looking to build their medical practice and expand their reach in their community. When used correctly, social media can help increase your patient base, build trust, and help you build a strong online presence.
Medical professionals can use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to connect with potential and current patients and promote their medical practice.
One excellent example of using social media is the use of Instagram by plastic surgeons to showcase their work. Social media can also be used to inject some personality into your brand.
Here is an excellent example of using Instagram for plastic surgery practice.
Because Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest are visual social networks, they can be excellent channels for sharing visual content. Other social media like Facebook and Linked can be used by doctors to show their expertise, build a professional network on LinkedIn, and share company news and latest achievements.
Medical Social Media Actionable Tips:
- Keep your posts interesting and engaging
- Stay active and interact with your followers
- Post at different times and measure the engagement and performance
- Use appropriate hashtags
- Learn about each platform and decide which you should focus on.
- Create visual content that grabs people’s attention
- Try different formats to see what is getting more traction.
- Review analytics and analyze the results to see what’s working.
4. Pay Attention to Local SEO.
Set Up a Google business profile.
Google Business Profile is a free service that allows you to create and manage a Google listing for your business on Google.com, Maps, and Google+ Local.
A Google Business Profile helps you get targeted awareness for your business, drive leads, and improve your visibility.
Google Business Profile enhances your business’ search visibility and gives you more credibility with potential customers. You can provide contact information, photos, patient testimonials, company news, and hours you’re open all in one place.
It can be a powerful tool for attracting patients who are looking for medical services in their area.
And it can be a huge boost to your ranking on the search engine results pages if you get everything set up correctly.
Listing and optimizing your Google Business Profile has several big advantages, including the ability for medical practices to show the range of services they offer, display patient testimonials and provide other essential information people can use to decide if they want to schedule an appointment. Doctors can also use the platform to engage with potential and existing customers.
Google is constantly working on improving the service and trying to make listings more interactive and useful for both businesses and customers who want to learn more about the businesses in their area.
Bonus: List your medical practice in health-related directories
Another great way to build your reputation and increase your reach is to list your practice in a number of medical directories that specifically target health professionals.
Top medical directories include:
Just as with Google Business Profile there are numerous benefits of being listed in one of these medical directories. You can reach and offer information to patients you might not typically reach. You can improve your website SEO by providing a link back to your website.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that when something changes, you need to make sure to update this information in every directory to ensure everything is up-to-date and accurate.
Medical Local SEO Actionable Tips:
- Complete every section of your Google Business Profile
- Choose the right categories for your business
- Ensure all the information is accurate and up-to-date
- Post quality photos of your business
- Encourage your patients to write testimonials
- Add products and services with detailed descriptions
- Setup Q&A Section and answer people’s questions
5. Use email marketing to improve patient communication
Email marketing is another extremely effective way to reach patients, grow their customer base, and build their reputation. It allows medical businesses to stay in touch with their patients and update them about the latest changes and services.
Email marketing allows businesses to send out targeted messages to their patients, which can lead to improved customer relationships and better engagement.
The benefits of using email marketing for health professionals include:
• Increase in demand for services by asking patients to share newsletters
• Improved customer experience and satisfaction
• Stronger patient relationships by encouraging direct communication
• A better understanding of your customers
• Build credibility and trust
• Establish authority and show expertise
• Increase organic traffic to your website using embedded links.
Email Marketing Actionable Tips:
- Include newsletter signup forms on your website
- Personalize your emails
- Always put the patient first.
- Experiment and test email subjects lines to increase click-through rates
- Include CTA buttons and links in every email
- Measure the results including open rates, clicks, and engagements.
- Use free email management companies such as MailerLite, MailChimp or ConstantContact to manage your lists and automate your campaigns.
6. Importance of Mobile Marketing for Doctors
Mobile marketing is one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools for spreading the word about your business.
The way mobile marketing and mobile advertising is being used by businesses is changing. The ability to advertise via mobile has grown exponentially as the number of devices has grown.
This has made it a powerful tool for many doctors and healthcare professionals to reach customers in ways they never could before.
Keeping in touch with the patients is essential for keeping them informed about any changes in their health, as well as making sure that appointments are coordinated and that any medication scheduled is taken on time.
Every medical website needs to have a clearly visible phone number where potential patients can reach out and ask questions or schedule appointments. Because many patients use their phones to browse the web, the phone number online should be linked and clickable so users can quickly dial the phone with a touch of a button. Using mobile marketing for doctors can have many advantages over other traditional methods, especially when it comes to communication.
These small but very important mobile marketing considerations can help doctors market and grow their online presence and reach more patients.
Conclusion
As you can see digital marketing can be a powerful tool for any medical professional who wants to use it to increase brand engagement and drive new patients to their practices. Now, more than ever, doctors need to think about how they can use digital channels to connect with their patients to improve communication and trust.
By using these inbound marketing strategies doctors can gain trust and credibility, increase new patient signups, show their medical expertise, and generate more revenue from existing patients.
