Is it time to improve your marketing plan?
Looking for ways to get more patients for your medical practice?
If you’re having trouble getting new patients, it may be time to learn a few new medical marketing strategies. Patients don’t just appear out of thin air, so it’s important that you’re being proactive when it comes time to market your healthcare company.
Luckily, there are some great things you can do to make sure you’re getting more new patient leads.
Below are the 6 best medical marketing strategies that you need to know about to attract new patients.
1. Your Website and Blog Matters
There are a lot of different medical marketing strategies. However, it’s hard to beat the value you can get by building a great website, and along with it, an excellent information-filled blog.
It’s important that you create a great website and blog and use the power of search engine optimization (SEO) if you’re trying to attract new patients. Make sure you use an attractive design and layout that tells patients everything they need to know about your practice. Your website should not be considered a ‘set it and forget it’ property. You should keep it up to date and run regular audits to ensure your plugins are updated and to keep up with design styles.
Aside from your blog and your homepage, you should also have an About page, a Contact page, and a Services page. Your contact information should be available throughout your site. If you have the available staff, you might want to consider a live chat system, as well. Providing your potential patients with someone to quickly answer their questions provides a ton of value.
When creating your blog, consider what questions your patients may ask. Then, based on your expertise, post blog content that answers these question and helps patients with any issues they’re facing. You should also make sure to pay attention to SEO and optimize each blog post for keywords that your patients will be searching for.
By taking the time to perfect your blog, website, and SEO, you’ll have the best chance possible of gaining new patients who are searching for services on Google and other search engines.
2. Connect With Patients on Social Media
Social media marketing is also very effective and is a great way to attract new patients. It’s also an excellent tool for building stronger connections with your current clients.
If you don’t already have social media profiles for your company or practice, you need to claim them. Create your social media accounts and start adding updates regularly.
Social media is a great avenue for offering special discounts, posting videos to help patients understand a certain kind of procedure, or for letting patients get to know members of your staff a little bit better. Make sure that you’re not just promoting on social media. Instead, work to build a personal connection with the people who are most interested in your services.
While it can take some effort to keep up with social media, the results can be well worth it in the end. If it sounds a little daunting to you, don’t worry. You don’t have to sign up for every single social media platform at once.
Start with a couple of different platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, and then begin using more platforms as you get more comfortable. Keep in mind that you don’t need to be on every social network. You only need to be on those that your patients/potential patients are active on.
3. PPC and Paid Advertising
Pay per click (PPC) advertising campaigns can also be a great way to attract new patients to your business. While SEO is unbeatable at creating long-term results for your business, PPC can be great for getting new patients quickly, if used correctly.
Using a PPC advertising platform such as Google AdWords will allow you to easily target your ideal patient. You’ll be able to get them to your website exactly when they are looking for the services you offer. You’ll be able to target users based on what keywords they’re searching for, their demographics and geographic location, and many other factors.
As a result, PPC can be very effective in getting new patients to your business and is one of the best medical marketing strategies you should be using. Like every marketing channel, you should do your research and plan it out.
4. Word of Mouth Marketing Works
The above methods are all great for getting new patients. However, there’s no denying the effectiveness of good old-fashioned word of mouth marketing. Luckily, there are many ways to make use of word of mouth marketing these days.
Testimonials are one way to use word of mouth to your advantage. If you aren’t collecting and displaying patient testimonials on your website, you should.
If you have social media followers, consider reaching out to your followers and see if any patients would like to give a testimonial. Once you have a few testimonials, display them on your website for any prospective patients to see.
You should also encourage patients to give reviews on Facebook, Google, Yelp, and other online directory websites. Each of these sites allows users to review businesses. Many potential patients look at these before making a decision. If you’re going to utilize this tactic, you’ll need to monitor these channels and respond to comments, especially any negative ones you receive.
Finally, another great way to use word of mouth marketing is to offer discounts to current patients if they refer new patients to you. Referral marketing has a high conversion rate and is something every business should be doing.
5. Email Marketing is Still Effective
Email marketing is also a very valuable way to get new patients and is one of the best medical marketing strategies out there. Email marketing can be great for attracting brand new patients, as well as encouraging repeat visitors.
Despite the rise of social media, email is still one of the most effective medical marketing strategies, for people of all ages. It also offers a great return on investment
It’s important that you start collecting email addresses when new patients come in for a visit. You may also choose to have an email signup on your website and offer special tips if they join.
Email is great for linking to blog content or offering other useful tips to patients and potential clients. Consider using your email list to offer special promotions or discounts.
6. Don’t Forget Mobile Marketing
More people are using mobile devices such as phones and tablets these days than ever before.
The truth is, many patients will never even access your website or your social media pages using a desktop or laptop computer. Instead, they will be viewing your website on a small screen while on the go.
For this reason, it’s important that your website is optimized for mobile and still looks amazing on small screens. The best way to do this is to make sure that your website is using a responsive design.
The increasing amount of mobile users allows for new ways to market to potential patients. Get creative and look for ways to market to them, such as SMS message marketing campaigns.
Succeed With Medical Marketing Strategies
If you’re ready to get more patients to your practice, you need to be making use of the medical marketing strategies listed above. You don’t need to everything at once. Start with your website and work your way down our list. Some of these strategies will work better for some practices than others, so don’t get discouraged and give up.
Looking for help marketing your healthcare organization in the digital space? Contact us today to learn more about what Engaged Digital Marketing can do for you.
