While the need for allergy specialists is nothing new, the field has become more specialized, and there are more options for allergy clinics than ever before. Likewise, the number of allergy sufferers is also increasing, according to the CDC. A 2013 survey discovered that since the late 1990s, the percentage of children with allergies, specifically food allergies, has increased by 50 percent. In terms of eczema and skin allergies, the increase is nearly 70 percent across the same time period.
An increase in allergy specialists has led to competition since patients now have the luxury of being choosy about their care. Increased competition means that allergy clinic owners have a growing need to market themselves in a way that entices people to become new patients. This can be achieved through marketing, and, in our digital age, digital marketing is often the way to go.
Local SEO for allergy practices
When you’re running a medical practice, unless you have a narrow specialty, your potential patients are going to be local. This means that when potential patients search for allergists, you want your practice to be at the top of the returned results. The most efficient way to achieve this is through a combination of local search engine optimization (SEO) and paid ads.
There is also a wider range of SEO that covers the nation, but it’s a bit more complicated. Utilizing national SEO will give your practice a wider reach. That said, the return on your investment could be worth it.
Paid searches for allergy practices
In addition to more clinics, there has also been an increase in marketing for allergy clinics. For the clinics themselves, this means that their paid advertising efforts are more likely to lead to a larger client base.
To have effective marketing in the current atmosphere, it’s more important than ever that your clinic hires a professional marketer. If you decide to market yourself, it’s vital that you research how to do it properly. Any failure to correctly entice your target audience could leave you wasting time and money—both of which are valuable to your business.
Three techniques for marketing for allergy clinics include:
- Google AdWords. Also referred to as Pay-Per-Click. This type of marketing ensures your content reaches your patients when they search for your keywords.
- Re-targeting. This is the process where cookies track devices of potential clients that viewed your website and provide them with reminders of what they saw while they were there.
- Social media marketing. Businesses that utilize social media marketing are 10 times more likely to have visitors interested in their product because of its targeted nature.
The importance of social media marketing for allergy practices
Investing in social media marketing is essential for medical practices, particularly allergists. By sharing content on social media, you’re easily able to increase your client base. Now that paid social media advertising is popular, you can promote any content you upload to your Facebook and provide your business with demographic-based exposure.
Once you pay for advertising, you can then get a look at the number of people who show interest in your content in real-time. In order to best fit your practice’s needs, you’ll want your digital marketing (i.e., social media marketing) to be aimed directly at your local community. After you develop a loyal following, they can act as your voice by telling new clients about your business and, if you receive unfair bad reviews, disputing their content.
To achieve this level of loyalty, you’ll need to interact with your client base often. This means you’ll want to answer their questions and needs promptly. You’ll also want to respond to their experience feedback.
Other helpful marketing tips include:
- Focus your campaigns on informing rather than selling. For instance, rather than selling a new decongestant, use your platform(s) to educate people about congestion. Chances are, the product will sell itself.
- Don’t just focus on healing or seasonal issues; focus on your patient’s whole well-being year-round.
- Consider using a pulsed marketing effort. If you bombard your patients with constant messaging, they’re likely to become numb to it. If you run campaigns in chunks of time rather than non-stop, you have the opportunity to reinvigorate your client base each time you start a new campaign.