Medical Advertising For Doctors

This is the same system used by the top medical clinics in USA and Canada – from coast-to-coast.

Executing a successful patient acquisition strategy online requires much more than a website. In order to increase your clinic’s patient count, you need intelligent software behind your website, and an online advertising strategy that has been proven to be successful for top healthcare clinics across the US. PatientGain apps are hosted in the cloud on world-class high performance servers in the USA. There is no software to install or setup fees, no long term contracts and awesome support.

Ethical Medical Advertising

Many doctors question if it is ethical to advertise. Some focus on patient referrals only, while others have taken some small steps to promote their practice. Most doctors are not sure if advertising, and specially online advertising or marketing, will produce results for their practice. Some doctors have created a website for their practice, and others have worked to acquire limited traffic to their website. However, these limited efforts simply don’t produce results, and as a result thousands of practices across the country struggle to fill their calendar.

But they don’t have to.

A large number of doctors’ offices aren’t able to acquire the patients they need to keep their practice in good financial health due to a lack of an effective online advertising strategy. Some practices have taken some of the first steps by getting a website, but they lack the tools and strategy to drive visitors to them online.

Luckily, PatientGain has developed a solution to the problem of patient acquisition, and has helped clinics and practices across the US drastically improve their patient generation and patient communication. Patient acquisition costs can be anywhere from $8 to $27 per new patient in most US areas, and if your practice is located in a competitive area, your costs can be even higher. Patient acquisition does not have to be a confusing and unknown area for doctors. By looking at leading clinics and medical practices, you can better understand how your practice should design your patient acquisition strategy.

Physicians and practice owners have vastly differing levels of promotional experience and sophistication but most fall into one of the following three areas:

Three Levels of Online Advertising and Marketing Adoption By Doctors’ Offices

No.1 Beginner Level

Marketing and advertising are considered as an after-thought that can be managed by staff members like the front office staff or administrators. The general viewpoint of doctors’ offices at this level is that with any kind of basic or free website, new patients looking for their services will be automatically directed to them via Google, Bing, Yahoo, or other online search channels. However, this perception is far removed from the reality of their situation. Without a strategy and software tools, these practices won’t be able to be seen by potential patients online, or convert the few visitors that find them.

Reputation Management is very important for you medical practice. It is included in the GOLD package.

No. 2 Intermediate Level

Practices at this level have reached acceptable average daily patient counts. They have a clinic admin working with a local web-designer, and have put up a nice looking website, but there is no focus on online success and building a strategy to drive new patients every day. These doctors hope that because they’ve worked with a contractor to build a website, it naturally result in steady and predictable patient generation and clinic growth. Some of these practices may be doing some online advertising on Google, trying email marketing, or have put up a Facebook page for their business. This is a good starting point, but most practices don’t execute these strategies at an effective level, where they are creating growth in their patient counts. The internet is where your competition acquires their new patients, and to ensure that your practice remains competitive you need an online marketing approach that is effective. To protect your business’s health, your practice need more than a website; you need a partner with healthcare marketing expertise, intelligent software, and a comprehensive online strategy for your practice.

A beautiful and attractive website is a given, but you also need an Intelligent Responsive Website also. It is very important for your medical practice. It is included in the GOLD package.

No 3. Optimized Level

Doctors and practices at this level understand that online strategy is by far the #1 method to grow patient volumes, and build their business’s profitability. Driving patients to your door, and out-performing the competition on the internet, requires a depth of online marketing expertise, effective software, and a profound understanding of medical practice operations. Clinics and doctors often have to enlist outside help in order to execute an effective online strategy, but the combination of skills, knowledge, and tools necessary to do so is found among very few marketing or advertising companies. However, healthcare industry leaders, with a single and multi-location clinics, use PatientGain’s Healthcare Platform to drive their clinics’ growth. PatientGain’s software enables medical practices to painlessly acquire new patients, effectively communicate and engage with their patients, and grow their business, with HIPAA compliance. PatientGain provides a BAA for your medical practice.

PatientGain has run thousands of online campaigns for patient acquisition and patient engagement for medical practices with typical patient acquisition costs anywhere from $8 to $27 per new patient in most US areas.

Cloud based HIPAA compliant software is simple to use and easy to manage.

Free responsive medical website is always included with GOLD Package. Month-to-month contracts – Cancel anytime.

Results From Online SEO For Primary Care Physician

Review of a real customer. Location is east coast – mid-level competition. Doctor Jones has been in practice for the last 13 years. Her focus has been Primary Care, Internal Medicine and general wellness with focus on Diabetic patients. However, since last 3 years, multiple clinics have opened within her 5 mile radius. In addition, two Urgent Care clinics have also impacted her business. In the past all she had to do was to advertise in local yellow pages, few referral practices and business had grown due to her excellent focus on patient care. Due to competition, her average patient count had steadily decreased from 30 patients a day to 22.

In this case, Doctor Jones had to focus on new patient acquisition. She search online for “online advertising for doctors” and found PatientGain.com as the first organic listing on Google. She signed up for PatientGain.com’s GOLD Service for $799/mon. The results have been as follows:

Nov 2016 – Go live with new website, along with 20 apps embedded in the new Medical Marketing website. 135 phone calls received in the first month. 116 unique phone calls.

Dec 2016 – 434 phone calls received in the 2nd month. 388 unique phone calls.

Jan 2017 – 621 phone calls received in the 3rd month. 534 unique phone calls.

Feb 2017 – 518 phone calls received in the 4th month. 419 unique phone calls.

Mar 2017 – 599 phone calls received in the 5th month. 450 unique phone calls.

Apr 2017 – 697 phone calls received in the 6th month. 541 unique phone calls.

May 2017 – 801 phone calls received in the 7th month. 643 unique phone calls.

By the end of 7th month, Doctor Jones had achieved her target of 30 patients per day. Mission accomplished.

6 Steps for Online Success For Clinics

Step No 1.

As medical practitioners, we have to realize that patient behavior is changing. Patients are now looking for medical services online. 88 percent of patients search online for medical services and clinic information. Even 47 percent of existing patients look for additional, related services online on your own website or your competitor’s websites. So you must be present on the Web. 60 percent to 72 percent of patients look for your services, check your online reviews, using a mobile device. Make sure that you have website that is focused on Mobile Marketing for doctors. Here are many examples of great ( and free Mobile, responsive and intelligent) websites. Once your medical practice is online, there are 5 additional important areas to cover.

Step No 2.

In US, approximately, 78 percent of the time, your patients are going to use Google search engine to look for medical related services, reviews and other information. So your first step is have a top notch Google presence. Other places are important also, like Facebook, Yahoo, Bing etc. But start with Google. There are 6 important aspects of Google presence.

Google Local Listing for your medical practice
Google Maps, verified listing
Google Reviews rankings
Google Posts
Google Organic results
Google Paid Search

Each of these should be addressed by your online strategy for your medical practice. Many doctors and practice managers think that having a nice looking website will suffice. Unfortunately it is no longer enough to have a nice website and a Facebook page.

Each of the above mentioned 6 important aspects of Google presence require attention to detail, time and commitment, not to mention financial investment.

Step No 3.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization for Doctors & Medical Practices can be defined in many ways. To provide you with a high level guidance, these 5 areas are most important:

A. Google Local Listing for your medical practice

Create a Google account
Add you clinic’s accurate information – Name, address are the most important information – Phone should be checked.
If your practice’s information is incorrect, you will have correct it
You may have to claim your listing also.
In certain cases you may have duplicate listings, these should be resolved.
There are dozens of other Local directories – They should be checked and updated. But Google, Facebook, Yelp, Yahoo/bing are the most important ones. Start with these.

B. Google Maps, verified listing

Create a Google account
Add you clinic’s accurate information in the Maps
If your practice’s information is in correct, you will have correct it – sometime the Map Pin is Inaccurate
You may have to claim your Map listing also.
In certain cases you may have duplicate listings, these should be resolved.
There are many of other map based directories – They should be checked and updated. But Google, Map Quest, Apple Map are the most important.

C. Google Reviews rankings

Create a Google account
Check you reviews and ratings
If your practice’s reviews are 4.5 and over 100 reviews on Google, then you are doing well. If less than this, you will need to focus on this area.
Other important review sites are Yelp, Facebook and HealthGrades. But start with Google.

D. Google Posts

Posting on Google is a new way to share relevant, fresh content with the people who are searching for you. Use images, videos and even animated GIFs to engage your audience, and add inline links to drive traffic to specific content. This enhanced format allows searchers to hear directly from the primary source — you — and complements existing results from across the web. One important note the Google Posts expire every week. You have to post every week.

E. Google Organic results

Your content on your website is the most important factor on your website. Content refers to your text, headings, sub-headings, main paragraph, images, videos, blogs etc. Your website must contain non-copied, non-plagiarized content.

Step No 4.

Every year, billions of dollars are spent on online advertising. Very broadly, online advertising can be divided into 2 main categories:

Display advertising
Search advertising

As a doctor and a medical practice manager, both of these are important for you. You can acquire new patients using both of these mediums.

Display Advertising

Display advertising is a type of online advertising that comes in several forms, including banner ads, rich media and more. Unlike text-based ads, display advertising relies on elements such as images, audio and video to communicate an advertising message. For example, if your potential patient is on Facebook and has recently clicked on or watched a video related to Breast Augmentation medical procedure and treatment, ads related this subject can be displayed to the potential patients. This is an example of display ads.

Search Advertising

Search advertising is very common. Every time you are on Google and type a search term, lets say “Urgent Care near me”, Google search engine will usually display ads on the top of the web page. In the middle, there is a map, reviews and business listings, and at the bottom, there are organic or free search results. The advertisers pay a fee to display their ads in the top area. If a user clicks on any of the ads, the advertiser pays a fee for each “Click” This is called Pay-Per-Click advertising. For medical practices and doctors, this is very effective and creates excellent ROI. Google PPC ads produce excellent results, however it is complex and requires a professional to manage your campaign.

Step No 5.

Reviews marketing is another emerging area. Online reviews are impacting decisions of your prospect patients dramatically. This is one area that will make your medical clinic shine or impact negatively more than any other strategy. In fact it should not be a marketing strategy, it should be a necessity.

There are 4 ways to acquire positive reviews, and at the same time, minimize negative reviews. So your marketing strategy should be to minimize any negative reviews, and maximize positive reviews.

4 Ways to acquire online reviews

Using Texting/SMS apps. A text is sent to a patient asking for feedback after a visit.
Using Email apps. An Email is sent to a patient asking for feedback after a visit.
Using an iPad in the lobby. A patient is asked to provide feedback right after the visit.
Using Social Media or your Website. An app can be added to your business page on Facebook or your website, asking patients to provide feedback.

There is no quick and foolproof way do this “quickly”. There are pros and cons for each approach. Google and Yelp understand that businesses are striving to acquire more positive reviews and “bury” negative feedback, their algorithms are aware of SMS requests for reviews – and they are blocking reviews posted using SMS originated requests. Having an iPad in the lobby can cause block of IP Address and so on.

Step No 6.

Social Media Marketing is another very important aspect of your marketing. Your potential and existing are hanging around on Facebook. You have to make it easy for them to do business with you. Here are 5 steps.

5 Steps for Facebook Success for Doctors & Medical Practices

Create Facebook Business Page for your medical practice.
Optimize FacebookBusiness Page for your medical practice.
Add apps to your FacebookBusiness Page for your medical practice. For example, add Contact Us app, add Appointment Requests app, add Promotions app.
Add content to your FacebookBusiness Page for your medical practice
Advertise your FacebookBusiness Page for your medical practice on Facebook – There are multiple ways to promote your FacebookBusiness Page for your medical practice. You can hire a professional ( recommended ) or do it yourself. Professionals who are certified advertising professionals will produce better results for you.

Summary for Online Success For Doctors

These 6 steps are proven to add value for hundreds of medical practices. There are many other steps you can take to further improve your strategy. Monthly Email Marketing is another strategy, among many others. Contact us so we can help you and view details GOLD package here.

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