Digital Marketing has always been about connecting with your audience in the right place and at the right time. Today, that means you need to meet them where they are already spending time on the internet.
There was a time when developing and implementing marketing campaigns meant running ads on radio and placing print ads in newspapers. However, as the world moves toward a digital marketplace, practices are expanding their reach through digital marketing tactics.
Many physicians have told that they do not need digital marketing.
My practice is already seeing as many patients as we can handle.” or “What’s the point of us having a website?”
The reality is always the same. Finally, the easiest question to answer, Yes, your practice needs a website.
In today’s digital landscape there is a great opportunity for healthcare providers to use digital marketing to educate, inspire, motivate, and engage their patients. Unfortunately the healthcare industry is almost two years behind other industries in adopting and leveraging social and online in their marketing efforts.
It is now more important than ever for medical professionals and physicians to keep up with online marketing. Having a presence online via a website, social media presence, and various online marketing initiatives are crucial.
Major hospitals and the healthcare industry, in general, is rapidly expanding, possibly leaving your small practice in the dust.
How can you stop this? The answer is Digital Marketing.
It may seem like a daunting task, to create a new and effective marketing campaign to reach your prospective patients. But because of the internet and today’s technology, it is easier than ever to reach new and existing patients online.
Let’s look at a couple of reasons:
1. Yes, You need a Website:
In today’s digital landscape every Physician and /or group practice needs a website. With over 60% of patients looking for a Doctor now turning to the web first, it is vital that a practice have a website. Without a website you either miss those patients immediately or look less professional by comparison. A good site makes your service offerings easier to find, increasing the likelihood of a positive match with the patient. Prospective clients have come to us frustrated after losing a cutting edge procedure patient to a facility that is 2 hours away.
Why didn’t the patient call us? Because the other facility was positioned for that service when the patient searched for it. A well put together website allows a practice to position offerings where they need to be seen.
2. Increase Your Reach
A healthcare facility can amplify who they reach quickly with a solid digital marketing plan. With search engine optimization, social media and mobile marketing tactics, your business will be seen by a broader and more diverse audience in a faster and more effective manner. This allows Physicians the ability to increase the preferred patients vs taking any patient that walks through the door.
As mentioned above, more than 60% of prospective patients are using the internet to search for a provider. These outlets are proving to be a necessity rather than accessory to marketing plans. Always remember if you don’t control your digital footprint, someone else will control it for you.
3. Personalized Messaging
Building on the Inbound approach, digital marketing is allowing physicians to be more personal in approach with the type of message that is sent to or used to attract patients. This all comes back to one thing; Data. With so much data available to the healthcare industry, marketers are turning to digital tactics to better reach and target the right prospective patients. Data including demographics, age and even behavioral information are giving marketing teams a much clearer picture of how to reach the preferred patients. The end result? Happier patients and happier physicians. Transparency is key.
4. Measuring Efforts
Just as the healthcare industry is big on data, digital marketing is as well. This allows for the marketing team to optimize the plan and yield better results at a day’s notice.
There is a reason the phone book has decreased in size drastically and the delivery driver no longer knocks on your door to ask you how many you would like. They know if they did, the circulation would decrease drastically and in some cases cause the phone book to disappear. If you are reading this and still have a phone book listing, back down to the smallest listing and move your budget to the internet. You will have more transparency and will quickly see the impact from the moving of this budget.
5. Closing
When it comes to the advantages of moving your business to a more structured digital marketing plan, If a healthcare practice and the healthcare industry fully adapt a digital strategy, it has the potential to increase their reach and effectively bring in the more optimal person for their practice. Increasingly, the Internet based world and catering to patients in it will continue to grow.
Final Thoughts
It is the right time to take the practice into next step by integrating with digital marketing. It is never ending or does get affected by inflation. There are lots of opportunities ahead and it is the perfect moment to learn digital marketing for individuals to implement digital strategies for better practice.
Contact us today to learn more about how digital marketing can get your practice noticed. We can help you market your practice to prospective patients.