Marketing Strategies For Doctors Offices

Marketing Strategies & Software For Medical Clinics Costs $499/mon

Thousands of medical clinics, doctors struggle every day to fill their calendar with patients, but it does not have to be this way. Marketing for doctors can be divided into two main areas:

1.  Offline – Traditional Marketing

This includes bill boards, print media, placing an ad in local movie theatre to drive patients to your clinic. This type of marketing is on the decline, as more and more patients are online now.

2.  Online Digital Marketing

For doctors and medical clinics, this is constantly changing and covers 6 important areas. It requires constant technology changes, medical industry knowledge, HIPAA issues, and deep online marketing experience.

PatientGain.com, a healthcare specific software & marketing company has worked with thousands of advertising & promotional campaigns coast to coast. We have found that thousands of medical clinics, doctors struggle every day to fill their calendar with patients. Many doctors question if it is ethical to advertise. Some focus on referrals only. Some have taken small steps- Not sure if advertising and specially online advertising and marketing for doctors will produce results. Physicians and practice owners have vastly differing levels of promotional experience and sophistication which can be summarized as follows:

Level 1. Beginner/ Introductory Level

Marketing & Advertising is considered an unimportant priority, an  after-thought that can be managed by any clinic staff member from front office staff to clinic administrators. The general perception is that with any kind of basic, free web site presence, the applicable patient base will be auto-directed to the clinic via Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. – What could be simpler?

Level 2. Intermediate Level

The clinic has acceptable average daily patient counts. With a clinic admin person working with a local web – designer, a nice looking web site, but there is no focus on online success. Hoping that free Search Engine Optimizations (SEO) will naturally result in steady and predictable patient / clinic growth. Some online advertising – some optimizations.  Some Email Marketing – and a Facebook business page with no intelligence. Online marketing is how your competition is acquiring new patients – This is not a decision that should be taken lightly—after all, this is your image and reputation on the line.

Level 3. Optimized Level

Reality –  the clinic owner understands that online strategy is by far the #1 method to grow patient volumes and secure clinic profitability. Driving patients to your door and out-smarting the competition online requires a depth of online promotional expertise combined with a profound understanding of medical practice operations that very few marketing / advertising companies can provide. Example of this execution includes top performing brands.  Medical practices with more than 100 locations, dozen locations, to a single location use PatientGain.com’s Patient Advertising & Marketing Platform.

Thousands of medical clinics struggle every day to fill their calendar with patients.  They have a great location, dedicated professional medical staff, proper equipment, many hard earned certifications and qualifications. They also have a nice looking Website.  However what they lack is a sophisticated online marketing software and expertise. These days having a nice looking website is not enough to generate new patient clients. If your clinic needs to retain existing patients for repeat services and procedures, then you need additional strategies and intelligent software. PatientGain.com has 20+ applications designed just for this.  These applications are used by the TOP healthcare companies from coast to coast.

PatientGain.com Provides Additional Benefits for Medical Practice Marketing

Clinic owners, practice managers, dentists and doctors are often forced to work with multiple applications and incompatible online tools to help drive their business. There’s a lot to keep track of: website management, social media, Facebook, online advertising, website lead management, generating positive reviews, minimizing negative reviews, monthly email marketing, call tracking, online payments and much more… it can all be difficult to juggle. What’s more, where do you find the time to manage your efforts online while running your clinic effectively and treating your patients? PatientGain.com data shows you will save 21 to 44 hours a month ( on average 32 hours a month)  by using an Integrated Comprehensive Medical Practice Marketing system from PatientGain.com. At $47/hour, your average opportunity cost,  this is savings of $1527 per month, or $18K per year, per clinic. This does not include improvement in increased patient acquisition and patient referrals and patient engagement.

Example of a FREE Intelligent Website – Included with the GOLD Package.

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 $499/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. 

1. Google Local Listing for your medical practice
2. Google Maps, verified listing
3. Google Reviews rankings
4. Google Posts
5. Google Organic results
6. 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

1. Create a Google account
2. Add you clinic’s accurate information – Name, address are the most important information – Phone should be checked.
3. If your practice’s information is incorrect, you will have correct it
4. You may have to claim your listing also.
5. In certain cases you may have duplicate listings, these should be resolved.
6. 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

1. Create a Google account
2. Add you clinic’s accurate information in the Maps
3. If your practice’s information is in correct, you will have correct it – sometime the Map Pin is Inaccurate
4. You may have to claim your Map listing also.
5. In certain cases you may have duplicate listings, these should be resolved.
6. 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

1. Create a Google account
2. Check you reviews and ratings
3. 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.
4. 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:

1. Display advertising
2. 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.

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

1. Using SMS/Texting apps. A text is sent to a patient asking for feedback after a visit.
2. Using Email apps. An Email is sent to a patient asking for feedback after a visit.
3. Using an iPad in the lobby.  A patient  is asked to provide feedback right after the visit.
4. 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

1. Create Facebook Business Page for your medical practice.
2. Optimize FacebookBusiness Page for your medical practice.
3. Add apps to your FacebookBusiness Page for your medical practice. For example, add Contact Us app, add Appointment Requests app, add Promotions app.
4. Add content to your FacebookBusiness Page for your medical practice
5. 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.