The Importance of Marketing in Healthcare
In the new age of healthcare, large hospitals and corporations are taking over the industry. Between their endless access to resources and their prominent reputations, many patients flock to these practices for notable surgeons and specialists. This has lead to many practices to reconsider their healthcare marketing strategy.
New practices have been thrown into this unique time in healthcare where everything is shifting and advancing at unprecedented speed. You may be wondering – how are newer practices expected to find success when the industry is being monopolized? The answer lies in exceptional patient care and the full utilization of modern marketing tactics.
So, you’ve just opened a new medical practice and you are searching for the next steps to bring your practice to success. Where do you begin? At NewGen Marketing, we follow a special approach to healthcare marketing to ensure all our practices experience growth. From website development to call center services, NewGen offers practices the helping hand they need to focus on providing the best possible patient care.
In this article, we will outline the different ways that your practice can utilize modern marketing. This can in turn increase patient acquisition and overall efficiency. NewGen believes in a 360-degree approach to marketing, meaning that practices reach patients through a variety of channels. Check out this guide on how to market your new healthcare practice with the proper techniques and tools.
Build Up a Website
A well-developed and modern website is absolutely essential for any healthcare practice. Without one, there isn’t a way to share information about your practice with potential leads. Additionally, it is important for new medical practices to create an online presence for a variety of marketing-related benefits. Studies have shown that websites are one of the leading forces in patient acquisition.
Have you heard of SEO?
On Google especially, it can be difficult to rank locally. Sometimes, you may even notice that your patients are having difficulty finding you online. Luckily, there is a solution to this. Search engine optimization or SEO, allows practices to use keywords to reach individuals who are searching for similar things. By optimizing your website to use keywords that are more relevant to your target demographic, perhaps local keywords, you will eventually see that your website is a marketing force.
Articles and webpages that utilize SEO see a significantly higher number of visitors than those that do not. One great way to incorporate SEO into your medical website is by the creation of blog content. These can be weekly uploads or more sporadic. The idea behind them is to use terms that your patient base might be searching for.
For example, if you own a physical therapy center, you might stick to terms relating to PT or related health conditions. By adding additional pages to your website, you can improve your ranking on search engines and provide your patients with trustworthy content.
In addition to language, it has become increasingly important to have a website that is easy to navigate. It also need to have a modern feel and buildout. A successful website will follow brand guidelines and provide patients with an easy channel to everything they need. This includes important documents, service descriptions, and contact information. At NewGen Marketing, our website development team understands the importance of a high-functioning website.
Utilize Google Business Reviews
Many individuals will find healthcare providers based on information and reviews from Google. This allows potential patients to see testimonials, ratings, and images of your facility. If you are wanting to attract these individuals, it is important to build out your Google business page to feature the best aspects of your practice. It may pay off here and on your website to hire a photographer to come in and snap some great images of your facility so that patients can have an inside look.
As potential patients use Google Business to explore their options for healthcare providers, they will deeply analyze the different businesses. They will first see which practice has the most ratings, and they will promptly believe that this is the most prominent practice in the area.
After this initial judgment, they will continue searching through the alternates and observe their websites and patient reviews. For this reason, it is necessary that your practice has a thorough Google Business page and actively encourages happy patients to share their experiences through a testimonial.
Make the Most of Your Social Media Presence
While this might come as a surprise, social media has become a huge marketing channel for healthcare providers. Between Facebook and Instagram, there are many growth opportunities. Generally, when approaching social media from a healthcare standpoint, you want to be seen as a reliable resource for news and other healthcare content. To accomplish this you must curate content that is both informative and interesting.
After all, patients aren’t necessarily on social media to read long-winded paragraphs about specific healthcare concerns. One way to avoid this is by using social media as an avenue to send patients to your other platforms, such as your website or other related links. This way, they are able to follow the marketing line, ideally ending up contacting your practice.
In addition to your social media feed, there are more ways to grow your patient base from social media. Many practices are using sponsored and boosted posts to increase the number of people who see their content.
By creating meaningful and engaging boosted content, you will see your Facebook and Instagram engagement drastically improve. It is also important to continuously monitor your social media platforms and respond to as many comments as possible so your social media followers trust you.
Prioritize Patient Relationships
Even with the most thorough, modern healthcare marketing approach, your practice will not find success if it doesn’t have a sincere and dedicated team of medical professionals. Aside from providing your patients with quality healthcare, they are expecting much more.
Patients are looking for consistent access to healthcare aspects such as documents and records, easy contact for prescription refills, and simple appointment scheduling. Better customer service means that your patients will feel more inclined to write testimonials and ratings. This will greatly improve the way your practice is perceived through potential patients’ eyes.
How Can NewGen Marketing Help?
Marketing your healthcare practice can be very difficult and it takes a specific approach to be done correctly. For this reason, seeking outside help can be a great way to build your business and see significant growth. We offer all the services that your new practice will need to find success, from social media management to call center services. Contact us today to learn more about our services.