Today’s healthcare consumer is vastly different than a few years ago. Just like many other industries, consumers expect a user experience that’s both innovative and digitally advanced. This means healthcare systems have had to evolve to offer more online services and communication efforts, which has allowed patients to find the best provider for their needs (instead of going to the closest option).
Even if you’re satisfied with your current patient count, continued success in your healthcare practice relies on a well-planned marketing strategy to keep your brand awareness alive and well (especially for those wanting to make a switch to a new practice).
Here are the best ways healthcare professionals like you can utilize digital marketing to grow your business.
Identify What Makes You Unique
It might seem obvious to you what sets your practice apart from other healthcare professionals, but the truth is consumers tend to put all of you in the same bucket. It’s up to you to showcase what makes you unique to build brand awareness. Doing this correctly will reduce your overall cost-per-acquisition and grow your business’s return on investment (ROI).
If you’re unsure what makes your healthcare brand unique, consider the experience you offer your patients. Ask yourself questions like:
- Are you geared toward serving families or seniors?
- Do you offer anything different than other practices in your space?
- Why would someone want to come to your business instead of others?
If you’re not sure how to answer these questions, a messaging strategy will help uncover what you need to know.
It might take a little time to see if your unique identifier works and resonates with your audience, but once you set a clear, consistent message about what makes you special, you’ll instantly see a difference in the patient count and quality of the customers you attract.
Make Sure Your Website is Where It Needs to Be
Back in the early 2000s, having a website in the healthcare field was a “nice to have.” Today, like any other industry, you need a website to prove your practice’s validity and give a “peek” into what you can provide patients.
So, what does a healthcare website need to have in today’s digital landscape? Here’s a short list of what’s necessary (but not limited to):
- A clear, easily accessible contact page with all the necessary information (address, phone number, contact form, links to forms, etc.)
- A list of services you provide
- Insurance information and any frequently asked questions (FAQs) with answers
- Website copy that clearly explains what makes you unique
- Clear steps for patients to pay their bills or schedule an appointment
- Anything else that could attract new patients (such as awards you have won)
- Testimonials from happy patients and ways for them to leave you positive reviews
- Solid site speed
- A website that is mobile responsive so they can research you on the go
While these are all important to include on your website, check your site’s analytics to ensure it’s meeting your patients’ expectations. Some metrics to review would be the site’s bounce rate, average session duration, and how many completed forms you receive.
Take Advantage of Organic SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool for getting your practice to the first search engine result page (SERPs). However, it’s a complex, long-term strategy you’ll need to start sooner than later.
Organic SEO involves adding optimal, competitive phrases and keywords to your website’s copy so search engines can better understand your website. This results in your website ranking for the proper, relevant, and pertinent healthcare-related search terms (such as the treatment you offer and conditions you specialize in).
To start, you will need to undergo keyword research to define the proper keywords and phrases to go after, and then you will need to place these keywords in all the necessary places strategically. Once everything is set, depending on how competitive these keywords are, you should see positive results from this effort over the coming months.
As we stated, it’s a long-term strategy but will pay off in the long run.
Position Yourself as an Industry Leader with a Blog
To further boost your organic SEO efforts, you could also make consistent blogging an ongoing marketing effort for your healthcare practice. Search engines like Google love new content, and the more content you have on your website, the more chances you’re giving your website to rank high on SERPs.
The biggest struggle with blogging is finding topics to write about. A great place to start is to write in a way that positions you as an industry expert. Not only will new or existing patients come to your website for answers to their questions, but this value-driven content is SEO gold!
For example, if you are a pediatrician and have found that parents consistently ask you the same questions about how to keep their kids healthy this summer, that is an excellent idea for a blog post.
After you publish this blog post, you can always tell parents that they can refer to your blog about this topic and to keep an eye out for new posts in the future. While parents review these posts, search engines have crawled this content and deemed it a top result when users search “how to keep my child healthy this summer.”
While this is a particular example, it should paint a picture of how your blog can quickly position you as an industry leader while also creating valuable digital content.
Still Need Help?
These are just some of the many ways you can utilize digital marketing to grow your healthcare business. Not sure where to start? Contact GreenMellen, and we will gladly create a custom roadmap to show you how you can be successful online.
