Health and Finance explain that when marketing your medical practice, it’s helpful to begin by establishing what your goals are, and how these will benefit your patients or clients. When drawing up your marketing goals, start by establishing your skills, your target audience, and how your skills will benefit your audience.
As a medical practitioner, you have the opportunity to provide both online and offline sources of information for your patients. This will help you to inform your clients as well as develop your reputation as an excellent healthcare provider. Although marketing might feel new to medical practitioners, there are some excellent online examples of how healthcare providers have used marketing techniques to become sought after service providers.
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Create a responsive website
When it comes to setting up an informative website, the Mayo Clinic is familiar to a great many online viewers. This website offers information on a range of health care subjects. As a result, the hospital has an excellent reputation and well known around the world.
Although this website is part of a large hospital, both smaller practices and individual practitioners set up informative websites in order to create an online presence. In fact, establishing a great online presence is one of the best ways to improve patient loyalty and patient retention.
Psychotherapy practice Harley Therapy in London provides a guideline to clients’ questions or difficulties. A quick Internet search will guide clients to this site. A warm approach and informative content encourages clients to explore the site and develop trust in the expertise of online practitioners. A call to action button enables clients to set appointments online.
While working on your website, keep it responsive. A responsive website adjusts well to mobile phone use and is simple and easy to navigate on a small screen.
As an individual practitioner it is equally possible to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Google Researchers explored the digital journey to wellness and found that “84% of patients use both online and offline sources for research”. Mobile phones, online videos, websites, blogs, magazine and newspaper articles all play a role in selecting a healthcare provider. Patients watch videos or seek out information in order to understand complex medical symptoms or procedures.
Sharing knowledge via newspaper articles assists clients with establishing who is an expert in the field.
A professional blog enables contact with digital online users.
By drawing on patients’ stories, needs and experiences and sharing information online, medical practitioners are able to build community relationships that make a very real contribution to healthcare.
When working online, remember to keep your content clear and concise. Web users are impatient, so engaging readers by providing easily understandable information. Format your text so that site viewers will be able to scan the content and engage with what interests them most.
When viewers engage with your site, you’ll increase your search engine rankings. Keep your site relevant in order to turn viewers into clients.
This will increase both the quality and ranking of your website or blog.
If you want to get your message out there, start a social media campaign. Storify presents examples of the excellent social media marketing campaign, Carilion Clinic started the #YESMAMM campaign in order to create awareness about breast cancer.
This campaign answered questions about breast cancer as well as drove traffic to their website. The company also used their twitter marketing campaign to encourage members of the public to make an appointment for health care tests at their clinics.
This campaign used social media platforms Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook to promote a health awareness campaign. Remember to use #hashtags to attract attention to your campaign. By focusing your hashtags on a symptom, you are often able to gather a researcher’s attention.
Clients thinking of approaching a medical practice are often anxious. Medical procedures often feel complicated and patients feel uncertain. Placing us or our loved ones under the authority of an expert can feel scary. In addition, patients wish to understand more about the process they will be going through, the feelings involved and how complicated medical procedures take place.
Including stories of those who have been through a medical procedure adds a human touch to a blog or website. It approaches medicine from an empathic perspective – through the eyes of the client. Sharing patients’ stories help to reduce a client’s fears.
By sharing patient stories and how treatment has impacted upon their lives, you’ll be able to provide experiences that encourage your clients to take care of their health or motivate them to seek treatment when needed.
Assist your patients to create clear, simple and easy to read stories that will keep your viewers engaged. Use effective headings and subheadings will ensure that your viewers are given the information they need at a single glance. This will place your information on a hierarchy, so that you’ll be assured that most important information gets read first.
Build backlinks
The work doesn’t stop when you’ve created your content. You’ll want to start building backlinks to gain authority for your site and start ranking higher up on Google.
Google looks at how many times you’ve been linked to, and where from, when calculating how valuable your content and website will be to potential searchers.
There are a few ways to build links to your content. You could, for example, reach out to people who’ve linked to similar things. Another great way to do get your content in front of the eyes of potential linkers is through social media.
Engage with journalists, bloggers and influencers who cover medical subjects and you could earn yourself some valuable organic links.
Use practice related keywords when setting up your accounts so that you attract the followers you’d like most. You can then engage with your followers online as often as you can. This will enable you to reach out and develop relationships with potential clients. This way, you will attract many loyal followers.
Offer community talks or workshops
If you would like to work towards improving community health while still making a name for yourself as a professional, you might wish to offer talks in your community. These talks could rage from nutrition and healthy lifestyle to specific health related diseases such as diabetes. Community members could be encouraged to go for screening tests should they recognize early warning signs of disease. Create attractive brochures to hand out at the event.
Email marketing enables you to create a conversation with your clients about health. You are probably familiar with the questions asked during the day. Use your email database to inform your clients on a monthly or even a weekly newsletter. In this example, a psychotherapist shares information about how to manage stress.
You could use your newsletter to share announcements such as workshops or screening times in your practice. You could also remind your patients of the best times to schedule a checkup.
Data shows that email is a preferred form of communication. Harvard Health sends out regular emails sharing complex information in a format that is easy to understand.
However, small practices such as Ivy Grove Surgery also use emails and newsletters to connect and share with patients.
When sending emails, keep your content simple and easy to understand. You can use subheadings so that your reader can scan your page. Quotes can break up your information. You can add a link to your blog for curious clients.
Keep your newsletter friendly! This way your newsletter will feel like a conversation and your readers will look forward to your next installment. Relevant content that is warm and positive will deepen your relationship with your clients.
Use Google Places
By adding your page to Google places, clients are able to see your location. This increases trust, as well as enables them to find contact information quickly. Google Places enables a patient to find out how to visit you as well as find out patient reviews. As you can add photos or images to your site, your clients will able to view your offices as well.
Once you are registered with Google Places, you can link your website to your page. This can increase your exposure. You remain completely in control of the information shared on your page, and you will be able to edit your details.
Create a mobile app
Marc Schenker explains that we are moving into a new era in medical care, where mobile apps give patients more control over medical decisions. By using apps, patients are able to take a more active role in their healthcare. In addition, patients are often more honest when recording information in a medical app, encouraging responsibility towards health.
When it comes to mobile apps, Aungst and colleagues share that medical practitioners are increasingly using mobile devices for clinical practice. This makes sense as a mobile app would help to manage appointments, provide information for patients and send push notification reminders.
Patients are also increasingly using mobile apps to find information or make bookings. Google Research shows that 21% of bookings are made by means of computer or mobile app. Mobile device users are far more likely to schedule an appointment with a medical provider. Mobile phones are a patient’s constant companion. Phones are private and personal, easily accessible and on hand at any time.
A mobile app can be used to:
Create efficient appointments and bookings.
Schedule your patients’ appointments using your mobile app. You can use the app for scheduling patient reminders or asking them to confirm appointments. This will help you avoid last minute cancellations. You’ll also be able to assist your patients to schedule appointments such as routine checkups or scheduled screenings. This will keep your practice efficient and ensure your patients get the care they need.
Offer information
By sharing information online (such as when to take medicines, new treatments or the importance of regular screening for hidden diseases, you will be able to keep your patients informed and in good health. By placing information on your mobile app, your patients will never feel confused or out of touch.
If you have patients with chronic diseases, you can keep them informed of the latest developments in healthcare. Information on lifestyle related diseases, the importance of early interventions, or new updates on treatment plans can be placed on your app. With information at their fingertips, patients will be more informed about when to take medication, how often they would need to screen for lifestyle related illnesses or how to take care of their health.
Healthcare information enables patients to understand complex medical procedures. It may also encourage patients to seek treatment when they need it, offering an early diagnosis, sometimes with lifesaving results.
Some tips for building your app
AppInstitute offers up easy templates for your mobile app. This takes the hard work out of building an app. There are no worries about how to ensure your users are able to navigate the app, or the distance needed between keys in order to ensure effective use. We also ensure your icons are easily understandable.
Incorporate your brand: With a no fuss, no hastle app, you are free to incorporate your images, logos and designs into your mobile app. This will help your app to feel familiar to your patients. If your patients recognize the colours, designs or images associated with your practice, it will help them to feel safe, and as though they have come to the right place. Your mobile app will then become an extension of your practice, and your patients will feel as though they can keep ‘in touch’.
Add your content
This will keep your app unique. When thinking of your content, explore the questions your patients frequently ask you in your practice. This could be when to come in for screenings, or how to take medication. You could also add health tips or lifestyle guides to motivate your patients to maintain their health.
A mobile app creates the opportunity to load content about serious symptoms so that your patients can come in for an early diagnosis. You could also share the importance of rapid treatment plans so that your patients don’t ignore symptoms.
Ask for feedback
Once you have created your mobile app, ask friends or family for feedback. Find out how the app has helped, which features have been most positive, and any new content you could add to ensure your patients receive the medical care they need.
Be willing to make changes
Once your app is finalized, take your patients experiences into account. Feedback will assist you to keep adjusting your app in order to enhance your user experience. Encourage your patients to share questions and present common themes on your app.
These tips will assist you to create an app, which is valuable to your patients. . An app that is both helpful and informative will improve your patients’ experiences and enable you to add value to their lives.
Summary
There are a range of different marketing techniques you can use as a medical professional in order to reach your clients. As patients move into a digital age and begin to both monitor and research their health, creating an online presence will enable you to both share information and build your practice.
By sharing your knowledge, you are also introducing yourself to potential clients. By combining your knowledge with your marketing campaign, you will be able to improve the communities you work within as well as increase your reputation as a medical professional. This will enable your business to flourish.
As an experienced professional, you will be able to get the most out of sharing your experiences as well as by sharing your patients stories. In addition, a mobile app will enable you to reach out to your clients, establishing meaningful relationships and providing health care information that adds value to their lives. As a medical practitioner, you’ll be able to use your mobile app to save you time and provide prompt results.
Once you’ve established your digital marketing campaign, remember to analyze your results. By exploring elements of your campaign that work for you, you will be able to increase your effectiveness. Continual adjustments or improvements will assist you with increasing your strengths in areas that work for you. This will help you to stay ahead of the competition.
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