8 Key Medical Marketing Strategies Used By The Top Healthcare Practices in USA & Canada
There are many aspects to running a buoyant and successful healthcare medical practice. One aspect is evident, any practice that markets its services effectively and provides a valuable service with a great positive attitude for its patients, will never be short of customers.
8 Key Healthcare Marketing Strategies
No 1. Attractive & Conversion Website – Should be designed for conversion and SEO. With landing pages for every service. ( Read more.. )
No 2. Inspiring and Useful Content for existing and potential patients – Unique and non-plagiarized content written for your patients, with images and examples. ( Read more… )
No 3. High Quality Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Understanding Google’s secret algorithm is not a trivial task. It takes years of experience, deep medical industry knowledge. ( Read more… )
No 4. Online Advertising – Google, Facebook & others – Online advertising is a must for those medical practices, who want to dominate online in their respective area. Anatomy of online advertising for doctors reveals that Google PPC for Medical Practices has the most attractive ROI. ( Read more… )
No 5. Monthly Email Marketing – Imagine, Every Month a Professional Email Newsletter is Created For You!!! 12 Newsletters Per Year and 6 Seasonal Newsletters Targeting Your Existing and New Patients!! ( Read more… )
No 6. Facebook and Google – Social Media Engagement Using Apps & Posts – Content based on your services and promotions has the best results for Facebook and Google Posts. ( Read more… )
No 7. Mobile Apps and Mobile Strategy – Review of 162 online campaigns reveals that 72 percent of the patients are searching for medical services on a mobile device. ( Read more… )
No 8. Positive Online Reviews Strategy – 78 Percent of patients searching for medical services consider online reviews before making an appointment with a medical services provider – Use the review apps to acquire positive reviews and minimize negative reviews. ( Read more… )
12 Most Important SEO Ranking Factors for Medical Healthcare Websites’s Google SEO
Over 78 to 81 percent of your online success is tied to Google search, PPC, maps, listings and posts. This data is collected from hundreds of successful healthcare clinics across the the USA and Canada. SEO is very important part of your success. Google search is the most accurate search engine.
1. Website Pages Accessible and Readable by Google (verifiable)
2. Content of the website – Unique and non-plagiarized
3. Relevancy score – How pertinent is the information on the website compared to the “category” of the website – Every website has a “category” in Google’s index
3. Domain Age, URL and Authority
4. Mobile Optimizations
5. Content Optimizations for Images, Videos and Text based content
6. Technical Structure of the Website
7. Business Information accurate and matches on Google Business page, Facebook business page and Yelp business page
8. HTTPS pages
9. User experience
10. Links and references inbound and outbound
11. Social Signals
12. Page speed and AMP
Example of An Attractive & Functional Website For a Medical Practice.
Healthcare Advertising VS Healthcare Marketing
Many healthcare professionals confuse Healthcare Advertising with Healthcare Marketing.
Advertising is just ONE of the many “things”, “programs” or “techniques” launched to achieve a successful Marketing Program. So Medical advertising is one, but very important part of Medical Marketing for a practice. For example if you are a pediatric physician with focus on urgent care for children, and your goal is to acquire more patients, you may want to “market” your practice in 20 mile radius for potential parents of patients who may seek Pediatric Urgent Care. For this effort you would typically have many things to do :
Step 1: Sign for the building
Step 2: Business cards
Step 3: Doctor’s bio printed and promoted to local primary care physicians
Step 4: Providing free “meet-and-greet” for parents of potential pediatric patients
Step 5: Collaboration with local schools for “low-cost” physicals for school athletes
Step 6: Mail drop in 5 mile radius using USPS mail and flyers for parents of potential pediatric patients
Step 7: Networking with other local businesses close to your own location
Step 8: Using social media campaigns
Step 9: Making the lobby of the clinic a pleasing place for parents of potential pediatric patients and for children
Step 10: Referral program to market using existing for parents of potential pediatric patients
Step 11: Launching your online strategy to market your practice
Step 12: Offline advertising offline for your healthcare practice
Step 13: Online Advertising for your healthcare practice
Healthcare Advertising Defined
Advertising for doctors can be offline or online. Offline advertising for doctors refers to Billboards, Newspapers, Paper Yellow Pages, Ads in Cinemas, Radio Ads.
Online Advertising for doctors refers to advertising focused on internet based mediums. For example:
- Google search advertising
- Facebook display ads
- SEO / Search Engine Optimizations
- Website conversion techniques to improve the actual patients generation from your website
- Advertising on Instagram
- Email marketing
- SMS/Text based marketing
- Display advertising
Healthcare Advertising VS Healthcare Marketing
Many healthcare professionals confuse Healthcare Advertising with Healthcare Marketing.
Advertising is just ONE of the many “things”, “programs” or “techniques” launched to achieve a successful Marketing Program. So Medical advertising is one, but very important part of Medical Marketing for a practice. For example if you are a pediatric physician with focus on urgent care for children, and your goal is to acquire more patients, you may want to “market” your practice in 20 mile radius for potential parents of patients who may seek Pediatric Urgent Care. For this effort you would typically have many things to do :
Step 1: Sign for the building
Step 2: Business cards
Step 3: Doctor’s bio printed and promoted to local primary care physicians
Step 4: Providing free “meet-and-greet” for parents of potential pediatric patients
Step 5: Collaboration with local schools for “low-cost” physicals for school athletes
Step 6: Mail drop in 5 mile radius using USPS mail and flyers for parents of potential pediatric patients
Step 7: Networking with other local businesses close to your own location
Step 8: Using social media campaigns
Step 9: Making the lobby of the clinic a pleasing place for parents of potential pediatric patients and for children
Step 10: Referral program to market using existing for parents of potential pediatric patients
Step 11: Launching your online strategy to market your practice
Step 12: Offline advertising offline for your healthcare practice
Step 13: Online Advertising for your healthcare practice
Healthcare Advertising Defined
Advertising for doctors can be offline or online. Offline advertising for doctors refers to Billboards, Newspapers, Paper Yellow Pages, Ads in Cinemas, Radio Ads.
Online Advertising for doctors refers to advertising focused on internet based mediums. For example:
- Google search advertsing
- Facebook display ads
- SEO / Search Engine Optimizations
- Website conversion techniques to improve the actual patients generation from your website
- Advertising on Instagram
- Email marketing
- SMS/Text based marketing
- Display advertising
4 Key Apps For Facebook Marketing For Doctors and Healthcare Medical Practices
These apps have been used by hundreds of successful healthcare providers.
Medical Marketing App No 1. Acquire Positive Reviews From Patients Who Have Already Liked You.
Medical Marketing App No 2. Allow Patients Who Are On Facebook To Request An Appointment
Medical Marketing App No 3. Allow Patients Who Are On Facebook To See Your Promotions and Redeem a Promotion
Medical Marketing App No 4. Use Facebook Posting App For Doctors & Medical Practices
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.
To learn about What is the Foundation of Medical SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Doctors
To learn about How SEO Works For Doctors Websites, this is a good starting page.
To learn about Short-cut SEO for Medical Practices, this is a good starting page.
To learn about Pricing and cost of SEO services for medical practices, this is a good starting page.
To learn about How Much Do Doctors Spend On Advertising?
To learn about Medical SEO Voice Search Optimization For Doctors (BERT)
To learn about Local Medical SEO For Doctors
To learn about Mobile SEO For Medical Websites
To learn about Zero-Click SEO for Doctors & Medical Practices
To learn about Benefits Of Medical SEO Marketing
To learn about Key Items For SEO Evaluation of Medical Websites
To learn about Avoid Risky Plans – Use Proven Medical Marketing Strategies
To learn about Medical Marketing Using Emotionally Compelling Offline Media
To learn about Pre Launch Medical Marketing Checklist for Doctors
To learn about Medical SEO vs. Medical Advertising – Which One Is Better?
To learn about Is Your Medical Website Design “Future Proof”?