How digital marketing is important for medical practitioners and doctors?

The third most common activity on the internet today is searching for a healthcare provider or healthcare related information. This means that marketing for your medical practice is even more important in today’s competitive and digital environment. If you want to remain relevant you must meet your patients where they are — ONLINE! An effective and current digital medical marketing, branding, medical SEO and social media strategy is CRITICAL to stay ahead of the competition.

Marketing a medical practice is critical for a steady flow of new patients. And your patients turn to online search and social media to find a healthcare provider. Will they find you? And if they do, will they like what they see?

Practicing good medicine alone is not enough in the digital age.

In the super competitive world of healthcare today, your medical practice marketing strategy must stand out. Online visibility and presence are critical.

Additionally, your patients are not reading magazines in your waiting room. They are scrolling on social media and searching online to pass the time and that’s where you MUST be.

Quick tips for an engaging digital marketing strategy for doctors

1. Build a website & put it on TOP of Google

This is perhaps the most important piece of medical practice marketing. Let’s face it, if patients want to find a doctor, they GOOGLE it. So, if you are not coming up on the top of Google search results, they will not find you. Your medical practice needs an online home, somewhere you can be found by current and potential patients. So the very first step is build a website and make it search engine optimized.

2. Email marketing and patient newsletters

Once you have treated your patient, do you stay in touch with them? When it comes to medical practice marketing, often the best source of future patients can be current patients. They are already familiar with your brand and trust you and can be a great source of new referrals. This is why it’s so important to keep your practice “on their radar” with relevant and engaging communication. We recommend building your list with Mailchimp and email newsletters are an efficient and cost-effective way to do this.

3. Social Media for Healthcare Providers

Social media marketing for doctors is essential to ensure your practice is connected to the current social sharing networks where your patients are. Just 53% of medical practices even had a Facebook page, with an even lesser percentage maintaining an active presence. Instagram, Twitter – even less. On social media, consistency is key! First you need to build the patient audience for each page; “fans” for Facebook and “followers” for Instagram. That said, no offense to the office manager or your spouse who is “handling” Facebook, but you need to post DAILY content that is both relevant and engaging. Also, content that shows the real YOU; don’t be afraid to put yourself out there a bit.

4. Active marketing

Active marketing is when someone proactively puts something into the marketplace in such a way that all but guarantees a reaction or response. This is often called direct response marketing.

An example would be Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC). You would conduct keyword research to identify what group of words are relevant to your medical specialty are being searched on Google. You then have an ad show up at the top of Google search, increasing your chance that someone will click.

For example, someone types “best cardiologist darwin.” You have a Google PPC campaign set up to trigger your ad to show at the top of the search results. This is a proactive and targeted medical advertising strategy. You literally Pay Per Click. And it is the BEST way to get your phone ringing now.

5. Begin a blog

A regularly updated blog connected to your medical practice website provides many opportunities to address the needs and interests of your audience. This is also the place for content marketing, a type of writing that helps build your personal brand and show who you are. Some suggestions for topics include your specialty, trends, and patient stories.