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Urgent Care Marketing Ideas

Urgent Care Marketing Ideas & Strategy

Results Driven Urgent Care Marketing Ideas & Strategy – Complete Online Marketing System $799/mon, Includes Free SEO Focused Website

How much budget and resources should be allocated to your Online Marketing? $1000/mon, $5000 per month? Some experts will provide 1 percent to 6 percent of the total revenue as the answer. Many clinics spend dozens of hours each month working with their Ad agencies, SEO specialists, website gurus, software vendors, web designers, social media consultants, reputation management, Email marketing providers, and online advertising. Spending numerous hours of clinic staff time, and thousands of dollars of clinic revenue, on a Trial & Error – hoping that their strategy will produce two results:

1) Increase in new patients
2) Improvement in patient engagement

They no longer have to go through this Trial & Error expensive exercise. PatientGain.com has solved this problem for you. Patient acquisition costs can be anywhere from $8 to $27 per new patient in most US areas. As new conditions in Healthcare drive more walk-in clinics and practices to open, your competition for acquiring and retaining patients grows.

Effective Online Marketing for Urgent Care

An effective web strategy is vital for increasing the number of patients who walk in to your clinic. Effective software, years of digital marketing experience, and deep urgent care & walk-in clinic understanding generates new patients. PatientGain.com is the leader in providing online patient acquisition solutions to urgent care, walk-in clinics, and primary care practices thanks to its comprehensive software platform and years of experience in the healthcare industry.

Top 10 Medical Marketing KPI’s – Key Performance Indicators

Many Practice Managers Often Confuse Medical Practice’s Objectives and Goals with Medical Marketing KPIs and Healthcare KPIs & Metrics

Goals and Objectives for your medical practice can be as follows: (these are examples)

  1. Increase daily patient count at location in Palo Alto California by 20 patients per day in the next 12 months 
  2. Increase patient satisfaction by 30% at location in Palo Alto California in the next 12 months
  3. Reduce patient acquisition costs by 10% at location in Palo Alto California in the next 6 months 

10 Most Important Medical Marketing KPIs 

In order to achieve these goals, objectives or desired business results, the practice manager or medical director of a practice has to typically consider “how”  to achieve these desired goals. Next step to select medical marketing software,medical marketing vendors, service providers and medical marketing consultants for these various tasks.  Sometime the practice manager or medical director has enough resources like an internal staff who can oversee these initiatives and provide status to the practice manager or medical director.  Once the practice manager or medical director has established a medical marketing strategy, he or she has to come up with KPIs to measure ongoing progress and success of each area.

Working with hundreds of healthcare clinics, PatientGain.com has established that there are 10 key KPIs for your medical marketing strategy.  These are built into you PatientGain.com’s Medical Marketing Dashboards.

Most Important KPIs. There are many – actually hundreds of ways to measure what happens online to promote your practice/clinic. Some of them are simply “noise”- We recommend the follow as a best practice.

  1. Actual Patient Count – no one will question you if your actual patient count increases
  2. Number of phone calls – 73 percent of patients still want to “call you” 
  3. Appointment requests/inquiries – Using apps on Facebook and your mobile site allow patients to request an appointment
  4. Local SEO Rankings – Extremely important to optimize Google, Yelp and Facebook business pates
  5. Organic SEO Rankings
  6. Online Advertising & PPC Data & Metrics
  7. Engagement Data – Social Media – Facebook Posts
  8. Mobile Engagement Data
  9. Emails Marketing 
  10. Non-Social Engagement 

Your Patients Are Online. They Are on Facebook, Google, Mobile, Email, Blogs and Your Mobile Website! Use PatientGain.com’s Apps to Push Content to All Mediums. 

4 Good Examples of Medical SEO for Urgent Care Clinics

Search Engine Optimization – SEO For Urgent Care Centers produces excellent results for hundreds of Urgent Care Clinics, from coast to coast. 

Example 1 – Medical SEO for a patient searching for “Urgent Care Davie FL” 

Example 2 – Medical SEO for a patient searching for “Urgent Care Near Me OKC” 

Example 3 – Medical SEO for a patient searching for “DOT physical exams narberth pa” 

Example 4 – Medical SEO for a patient searching for “pediatric urgent care orlando” 

Comprehensive Urgent Care Digital Marketing Solution VS Patchwork Solution

To ensure your clinic stays ahead of your local competition, you need a comprehensive online solution that’s actively generating new patients, improving your ability to convert prospect patients, and effectively engaging your current and past patients. Piecing together multiple apps and tools from different vendors to make your own system, and designing your own online marketing strategy, isn’t going to produce the results you need. Patchwork solutions are costly, ineffective, and don’t give you the competitive advantage you need to be successful. At PatientGain.com, we’ve designed our cloud-based software platform to create a comprehensive online presence for healthcare practices. Our solution has helped clinics across the US increase their patient generation and reduce their patient acquisition costs.

Three Levels of Online Marketing Adoption By Clinics

PatientGain.com’s Urgent Care Solution is built to be used by business users and healthcare staff, not techies. With a user-friendly interface and easy to use tools, business owners are able to effortlessly manage and track their efforts online. Regardless of your background with technology it’s straightforward and effective. From patient acquisition features such as your website, Facebook business apps, or appointment scheduling, to your patient engagement applications such as email campaign management, PatientGain.com’s consolidates all you need into one integrated platform. Clinic owners no longer need to transfer data, coordinate strategies, or create integrations between different platforms to be successful online. PatientGain.com’s turnkey solution combines over 20 apps into one system, improving your clinic’s results online while saving you time and money.

4 Important Components of a Marketing Plan for Your Medical Practice & Clinic

Traditionally, marketing experts tell us that there are 4 key components of your Medical Marketing Plan.

  1. The Product or Service – This will be service offerings for your medical practice. For example, if you an Urgent Care clinic, do you offer service to patients based on 12 major categories. Examples will be Onsite X-ray, DOT Physical exams, Lab-test results, Ports Physicals, Simple Fracture treatment, Travel medicine, Immunizations etc.  If you are MedSpa / Esthetic based practice, you may want to define your product/service strategy based on competition and availability of your staff’s credentials.  For example, if you want to offer “CoolSculpting”, you will need to make an investment in purchasing this technology and then training of your staff. So each medical service you offer has a cost associated with it, and of course there could be tangible benefits for your medical practice. So your marketing plan must have a focus on which “services” you are going to offer. And each service deserves its SWOT analysis.
  2. The Price of the Service – In many cases, this is driven by the insurance company payouts to you. But there are certain procedures that are not covered by the insurance payments. There are additional strategies available to you here. Each patient can be divided into 3 main categories.
    1. PPO or Full Insurance – These insurance plans pay fixed amount for each procedure for in-network vs out-of-network procedures.
    2. Self-Pay Patients – Patient pays directly to the provider – you have leverage to provide better service than your competitors and charge more.
    3. High-Deductible plans – In this case, as an example,  patients typically have to pay initial $4000-$10000 out of their pockets.  After ta patient has spent these amounts on deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance, then the medical insurance  plan pays 100% of the costs of covered benefits.  Many patients consider that first $4000-$10000 as something that have to “shop” for prices, hence you have an opportunity to apply your own marketing strategy on how to attract these patients to your practice.
  3. The Place or Location of Service – For most parts, healthcare delivery system in USA and Canada is very local. Telemedicine can change this in the future, but for now patients typically go to a “local” provider. This is evidenced by 2000% plus increase in Google searches for “Urgent care near me”  or   “Sleep Apnea doctor near me”  or hundreds of other variations based on mobile patients searching for services “near” a patient. So your Place or Location matters.
  4. The Promotion(marketing) or Advertising of Service – This is one area, where you have true leverage to dominate your medical field. Your medical plan must include the promotion of your service.  There are generally 2 main sub-areas for promotion of medical services:
    1. Offline Promotions – Traditional marketing – includes newspapers, yellow pages, billboards,  referrals from peers, networking with other providers and suppliers.
    2. Online Promotions – This refers to digital marketing and digital advertising to acquire more patients and retain existing patient base.

    PatientGain.com’s GOLD Package is focused on your digital marketing & advertising for your medical practice. 

Your Content Is the Single Most Important Factor in Your Online Success. 8 Reasons Why Content Is Important. 

1. Content defines your brand.
2. Content expresses you who are, how you conduct your business.
3. Content is read by the Search Engines – and this results in GOOD or POOR rankings – You should NEVER copy content from another site.  Checking ideas from other websites is OK, but copying content is like shooting yourself in the foot.
4. Content can make your marketing flourish.
5. Content can make your advertising irresistible.
6. Social media loves GOOD content.
7. Email marketing with good quality content will give you higher open-rates.
8. Best of all – Patients LOVE Useful content.

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.
Example 1:
https://www.facebook.com/Columbiaclinic82nd/app/915074398624904/
Example 2:
https://www.facebook.com/AFCUrgentCareCentennial/app/915074398624904/

Medical Marketing App No 2.  Allow Patients Who Are On Facebook To Request An Appointment
Example 1:
https://www.facebook.com/Columbiaclinic82nd/app/915074398624904/
Example 2:
https://www.facebook.com/FrancisMedEsthetics/app/1541825292544365/

Medical Marketing App No 3.  Allow Patients Who Are On Facebook To See Your Promotions and Redeem a Promotion
Example 1:
https://www.facebook.com/FrancisMedEsthetics/app/182873295081640/
Example 2:
https://www.facebook.com/Columbiaclinic82nd/app/182873295081640/

Medical Marketing App No 4.  Use Facebook Posting App For Doctors & Medical Practices, To Post Unlimited Posts – Content Provided to Doctors and Medical Practices
Example 1:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Columbiaclinic82nd/posts/?ref=page_internal
Example 2:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/FrancisMedEsthetics/posts/?ref=page_internal

PatientGain.com’s apps can be embedded in existing websites or PatientGain.com can create cutting edge conversion and mobile websites for your clinic. We have created and A/B Tested numerous designs, landing page strategies, lead capture applications, and conversion tools, ensuring that customers who utilize our complete platform have a state-of-the-art presence online.

PatientGain.com has solved the problem of effective patient generation for Urgent Care businesses across the US. With years of experience in the healthcare industry, and a history of thousands of successful campaigns, PatientGain.com has become an expert in online marketing for urgent care clinics.

If you’d like to learn more, click here for a presentation and prepare to be amazed to learn what PatientGain.com can do for your business.

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.

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

  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.

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:

  1. Google search advertsing
  2. Facebook display ads
  3. SEO / Search Engine Optimizations
  4. Website conversion techniques to improve the actual patients generation from your website
  5. Advertising on Instagram
  6. Email marketing
  7. SMS/Text based marketing
  8. Display advertising

PatientGain.com is a certified premier google partner for healthcare.

To learn about Website Strategies and Website Examples for Doctors & Medical Clinics, please go here.

To learn about How Much Do Doctors Spend On Advertising, please go here.

To learn about Search Engine Optimization for Doctors & Medical Clinics, please go here.

To learn about Pay Per Click PPC Advertising for Doctors & Medical Clinics, please go here.

To learn about Content Marketing Strategies for Doctors & Medical Clinics, please go here.

To learn about GOLD Package Marketing for Doctors & Medical Clinics, please go here.

Facebook Posting App for Doctors & Medical Practices