According to a Physicians Practice survey, more than half of physicians say they wish they worked fewer hours per week. In such a demanding profession, simply meeting your main objective of treating patients can feel overwhelming. However, for a private practice, it is also crucial to prioritize your marketing plan to grow your business.
In this blog, we explain key marketing strategies even a busy doctor can incorporate into their business plan to attract new patients.
Build an Optimized Website for Local Search
To reach prospective patients in the digital age, healthcare practices must be found online through search engine optimization (SEO). This includes designing a mobile-friendly website with individual pages for each service and prominently featuring patient testimonials.
An optimized website can improve rankings in local search, a ranking system in Google for businesses within a geographical region. Patients are looking for the best providers in their area and they are more likely to book an appointment if you rank highly amongst nearby competition. A study by BrightLocal reveals that local and organic search traffic delivers a greater return on investment than any other marketing channels.
Investing in local search optimization is time well spent when it comes to boosting your bottom line. If you’re unsure how to start building your new practice website, turn to the PatientPop practice growth platform.
Take Control of Your Online Reputation
If your online reputation is in jeopardy, you might be driving patients away from your practice. Given the resources of healthcare and business listings on third-party websites, patients are actively searching for more information about you and your practice.
That is why it is important to claim your online profiles and actively manage reviews. Set aside some time to build out listings on directories like WebMD, Healthgrades, and Vitals. Add pictures that show off your practice and confirm the office address, hours, and contact information.
Reviews also indicate to patients what their experience at your practice might be like. Encourage current patients who are satisfied with your services to leave a positive online review. And if a patient shares a poor experience at your practice, be sure to respond to the negative review promptly.
Increase Your Online Presence with Paid Search
Once your practice’s information is available online, boost its visibility with paid search marketing. This Google advertising strategy allows you to choose keywords that are relevant to your practice and place custom bids for how much you are willing to pay.
The great thing about paid search marketing for healthcare is that once you’ve found your keywords, Google does the rest of the work for you. The search engine determines your ad rank and accelerates your practice to the top of search engine results. Unlike organic SEO, which can take weeks or months to generate results, paid search starts working immediately.
For the busy doctor, this is a relatively hands-off strategy with a high payoff. Start with a few keywords and small bids to see initial results, and then refresh your paid search strategy every so often to ensure it reaches prospective patients you want to attract.
Paid Search Marketing: What It Is & How It Can Get You to the Top of Search
Get Active on Social Media
To learn more about a healthcare provider, patients might turn to social media. That’s right — social media isn’t just for millennials. But, it is a great way to attract and engage them with your practice.
Creating Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ accounts offers another avenue for prospective patients to discover your practice. While this can be a more time-consuming strategy to implement on your own, designate a member of your office staff to be the social media lead. Be sure to a create a social media policy for your practice brand and ensure you’re always following HIPAA regulations before posting.
Despite the feeling that physicians are already overworked, taking time to strategize healthcare marketing can increase the profitability of your practice. Use these tips to establish and maintain your online presence so you can get back to doing what you do best.
Looking for more resources to guide your healthcare marketing strategy? Download the whitepaper 2018 Healthcare Marketing Trends for Providers.
