How to Market Podiatry Practice 

Relying on Word of Mouth From Your Current Patients and a Fancy Neon Sign in Your Window Is Not Going to Be Enough to Maintain Your Current Patient Count.

A podiatry practice has as much competition as to any other field of medicine in today’s healthcare. To grow a podiatry practice’s patient count and overall business, it needs to engage in digital marketing, also known as online marketing. Relying on word of mouth from your current patients and a fancy neon sign in your window is not going to be enough to maintain your current patient count. To truly compete with competitors in your community, your podiatry practice needs a detailed, well-funded medical marketing plan that employs tried and true marketing strategies. The experts at PatientGain.com are staffed with professionals who have years of experience helping medical practices achieve their goals. Let our team work with you one on one to make sure you remain one of the top podiatry practices in your community!

What are online marketing strategies a podiatry practice can use to market their business?

While traditional or offline marketing can help some situations, digital marketing has taken the lead as a proven way to promote medical practices. Some proven online marketing strategies that podiatry practices have used include, but are not limited to:

• Pay Per Click Advertising
• Social Media Engagement
• Reputation Management
• Directory Listings

How can a podiatry practice use pay-per-click advertising to increase their patient count and promote a business?

Pay-per-click advertising, also known as search engine advertising, is very popular among podiatry practices. While it is an expensive marketing tactic, it is also very effective at reaching a target audience. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads appear as the first thing in the results when potential patients use a search engine. The results are highlighted as being paid results to let the users know they are ads.

The first step in developing an effective PPC campaign is to create a list of target keywords and phrases your potential patients use when searching for the services you provide. The most likely words need to be the keywords you bid on in your campaign. Target Keywords and Phrases are bid on by you and your competitors, and your ad will show if you win that bid. If someone clicks on an ad, you are charged per click, hence the term “Pay Per Click.” The budget you put behind your campaign will determine how many clicks you can receive in a day, but it also depends on what words you select. Broad, popular, and everyday words and short phrases that everyone uses tend to be more expensive than specific, unique, and long worded phrases.

PPC ads are great when you have just opened your podiatry practice or begin offering a new service. When new to the internet, the content associated with that site or that service needs time to build organic rankings to appear relevant to search results. PPC ads allow you to advertise that page in search results as it builds and gains SEO. Even when you have good SEO for a website or service page, consider keeping a PPC campaign. It can be compelling for a potential patient to see your site in paid ads, organic results, and in the next section: map results.

How can I get my podiatry practice to appear in map results using online directories? What directories should my healthcare business be listed in?

Often wedged between paid results and organic results are local results, also known as map results. When search engine users are looking for a business or service near their location, search engines will provide several relevant results on a map near their location. For example, if someone searches for Amusement Parks, it will not display Disneyworld, but rather amusement parks closer to them. (Unless they do live near that location.) So, if a search engine user searches for a podiatry practice or services that you offer at your location, you need to appear in those map results.

To appear on maps, you need a business listing in the major directories that supply business information to the major mapping apps and websites. These directories are Google, Yelp, Bing, and Foursquare. In many cases, you will need to verify your location with a phone call or a postcard sent to your physical location. Once a listing is created or claimed, ensure all of the information is correct. You will want all of these details to match your website and every claimed listing:

• Name
• Address (including any suite numbers)
• Website URL
• Phone Number
• Hours of Operation
• Services Offered

Once you have access to these listings, you can manage your reviews which leads to the next section: online reputation management.

How does online reputation management help my podiatry practice?

Managing your reviews and online reputation is critical to your success and to grow your practice. Potential patients will quickly skip your listing when they see a 1.8 overall review rating with a collection of different negative reviews. Even if you avoid negative reviews and maintain a high ranking, but with few reviews, competitors with a more robust review collection will have an advantage over you. A 4.8 overall review rating with 60 reviews will look more authoritative than a 5.0 overall review rating with three reviews. You need to continuously build a repository of good reviews to compete with competitors and counteract any random negative review you may have.

To access your reviews, you need to claim or create listings in the previous section’s major directories. Once verified, you will have access to reviews. Ideally, you should respond to all reviews. For positive reviews, thank them for their feedback. Negatives reviews should be approached carefully. Attempt to engage with them to solve the issue they had with your podiatry practice. You may not be able to convince them to add more stars to their review, but you will show potential patients that you take their satisfaction with your service seriously.

As for receiving reviews, it is often just a matter of asking them and making it easy to leave a review. After they visit your practice, send them a link asking for a review. Ideally, it should only take one click to reach the place for them to leave a review. The more clicks there are in the process, the fewer reviews you will receive. Not everyone will leave a review, but a consistent percentage will.

What social media channels should a podiatry practice create an account on to engage with patients?

Social media is becoming increasingly popular for medical practices to connect with their patients, which remains true with podiatry practices. Social media channels should not be seen as a way to plug your business every hour of every day. The best performing social medial channels will share health stories, news from the community, pictures from the podiatry practice, health tips, and sprinkle in some business promotions amongst the other posts. If your social media channel “Sells Itself” too much, it will be ignored. Create a posting schedule so you keep the content on these channels fresh, engaging, and informative.

Social media channels that many podiatry practices are on include:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

Some practices find these channels to be useful also, but are usually less critical than the ones mentioned above:

• Pinterest
• TikTok
• SnapChat
• YouTube

The experienced team at PatientGain.com is ready to help you promote and grow your business. Call today and let us show you what we have done for other podiatry practices across the country. We look forward to working with you and growing your business!

PatientGain.com is a proven new patient marketing solution, includes apps, websites, SEO, HIPAA compliance and account management.

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