As a dermatologist, you know all too well that your field is one of the most competitive in all of medicine. You also know all too well that med school didn’t train you to be a marketer, especially with the digital world constantly in a state of flux. Here are 4 marketing ideas for dermatology that can boost your online presence and generate more leads from your website.
Use local media
This is especially true for those offices in smaller markets. A lot of local newspapers are desperate for content and getting a Q-and-A with a local medical provider is golden for a stringer trying to drum up a story idea.
An article about you in the local paper’s digital edition is valuable enough on its own, but you can also leverage it on your own website. Link back to it. Quote from it. Make sure that every person who comes to your site knows that you’re a respected professional that the local community relies on.
Use social media
You probably already have pages for your practice up on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and other major social platforms. If you don’t, that’s something to begin right away.
If social media isn’t your “thing,” don’t worry—is there someone in your family that’s always posting and retweeting? Ask them to help you get set up .
Then get to work on posting. Videos are a great tool to post on social media. They show that you are both professional and relatable, and they aren’t hard to produce. The camera features on cellphones and laptops produce a quality that’s more than acceptable for social platforms. Furthermore, they only need to be a few minutes long.
So don’t worry about producing a dermatology documentary. Just film some clips talking about common issues in the field, or even just taking people on a tour of the office. The purpose is to raise your name recognition and get people comfortable with you.
Increase speed and mobility
Your website must run fast and it must be easy to use on a mobile device. If you’re just starting to build your website, you’re in good shape. Make sure you emphasize this to whomever you hire to put up the site.
When the website is in the developmental stage, have friends and family access it on their phones and see what kind of feedback you get. As time goes on, use Google’s Page Speed Insights tool to continually test speed.
If you’ve already built your site and are now seeing that it’s not mobile-friendly or that it’s slow, don’t worry. Yes, the best time to address these issues would have been at launch. But the second best time is right now. Reach out to a professional developer for help.
Set up Google My Business
Finally, make sure you set up a Google My Business (GMB) listing. This is an essential first step to getting ranking for terms like “dermatologist near me,” or anything else where Google and other search engines must infer your location.
That means the location must be completely accurate. As in, if you’re in Suite 21 in your office complex, the GMB listing better not say Suite 22. Or if your street number is 232, it better not be juxtaposed into 223. Eventually, users report that the information is not accurate and Google replaces you with people who have their information precisely accurate across all public directories.
Good digital marketing in any field is an ongoing process and a competitive arena like dermatology is certainly no different. These ideas will get you started.