Every business is looking for an edge in the world of digital marketing and the medical industry is no different. If your website is instrumental in turning just a few people into lifetime patients, it will have more than justified the investment. That’s what makes digital marketing for doctors so valuable and getting the right advice so paramount.
But the right advice for one office might not work at all for another. Perhaps one doctor has had their website running for 10 years and employs a full-time digital marketing pro to oversee it. Another office has a professional consultant on retainer. These offices are in the position to do advanced work in digital marketing, from technical SEO on the back end to paid ad campaigns on the front end.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that you’re with a relatively small office. You’re doing well and have a steady flow of patients. The practice’s website is either fairly new or recently updated, but you don’t have anyone on staff that’s specifically employed to deal with it. You’ve made use of outside consulting, but more on a one-off basis than a sustained retainer agreement.
Basically, there are 2-3 people in the office who at least know something about digital marketing and you make do the best you can. With that in mind, here are 6 low-cost tips that any office, regardless of limitations, can take to improve their digital marketing footprint.
Tip #1: Get listed in Google My Business.
The most important area you have to win in digital is having accurate information about your practice immediately presented when a local person enters “doctor near me” or some equivalent phrase into a search engine on their mobile device. Make sure your office has a Google My Business listing and that the information—from the phone number to the office hours—is accurate.
Tip #2: Invest in content.
The investment is more about time, but it’s imperative that you make your site a valued resource for patients. Write up blog posts on how to deal with basic medical problems. You know what they are because they’re the questions you and your staff are most frequently asked about.
Even if you created a FAQ page and gave each question a brief answer, take some time to write out a 300-500 word piece of content and create a separate landing page. You’ll get an SEO boost and your site will be seen as more vibrant.
Tip #3: Know your end-game.
Understand clearly what you want people to do when they come to your site. The idea is that they call or fill out a “contact us” form. The more realistic goal is for them to sign up for a newsletter so you can keep in touch and keep your practice at the top of mind for when they need to make a call.
Tip #4: Review your CTAs.
The CTAs are your Call-To-Action’s and they are directly connected to the point above about knowing your end-game. These are the ways you ask people to take a desired action. In medicine, you know your patients don’t do what they’re supposed to unless you directly instruct them on what that is. It’s no different here.
Tip #5: Have a follow-up plan.
We’ll keep this one simple—if you ask people to sign up for a newsletter, know what you want that newsletter to be about and how often it will run. Otherwise, you’ll let the e-mail addresses go to waste.
Tip #6: Track your progress.
Read more here about how you can use all the information Google Analytics has about how people interact with your website (this would be an example of a Call-To-Action). You can adjust your strategies based on the insights you find there.
Contributor: Brown Bag Marketing
Founded in 2002, Brown Bag Marketing is a privately held, integrated Atlanta digital marketing agency specializing in end-to-end B2B and B2C marketing services. We pride ourselves in being a sensible, no-nonsense partner for brands that are serious about differentiating their products or services from their competitors online.
Thinking like a client is the path we take. We create engaging content and experiences that connect brands to customers to drive business goals. Contact us