The web is the best place to find medical practice clients online. Just consider the following figures:
The thing is, marketing in medicine requires a different approach. The reason is simple. Consumers feel practitioners should put human welfare before making money!
That’s why the best marketing strategy for medical practices is to provide credible information and educate. Over time, potential patients get familiar with you and patronise your business when they need help.
As you can see, people look for information (and reviews) on the web. Put yourself in front of them and they’ll become paying patients. And in this article, we’ll share our top 4 strategies for marketing in Australia’s medical niche.
But first, let’s talk about…
Why is Marketing for Medical Practices Different?
People don’t like it when medical businesses clearly put profit first. Your marketing needs to be helpful, valuable, and educational in order to appeal to people. Excessively commercial ads and content are seen as salesy pitches, a big no-no.
One thing people really want in the medical space is reliable info about health issues, practices, equipment, and case studies. Information sites like WebMD have a huge readership because they do just that; provide quality content on these topics.
As a medical practitioner, it pays to build an online image of being caring, responsible, and knowledgeable. Producing and distributing high-quality, factual content on a regular basis is one of the best ways to do that.
Now let’s get into 4 strategies that work well for medical practices!
1. Medical Content Marketing
Everything you write, publish or say is content marketing because it provides information and insights into your character, medical practice, and patient care.
An excellent digital marketing strategy creates an attractive image of healthcare services that invite people in without selling. It also leverages reviews and user-generated content to win potential patients over when they’re researching options.
You can demonstrate your authority and knowledge while expanding your reach and encouraging people to take the next step… All without selling directlfy. Just pull people into your marketing funnel or get them to come for a visit.
Common channels proven to work well for medical practitioners include…
1. Blogging
Source: Best Practice Medical
Blog posts work well because you can share helpful, in-depth information that people are actively searching for. This is perfect in the medical space; you get to show off your expertise and win trust.
If your post is SEO-optimised, you’re also likely to end up on Google’s first page. This can give you a flood of visitors who need the help you can provide based on your content.
2. Videos
Source: MedicalOne
Many people prefer watching videos to reading. You can present the same information used in blogs in videos formatted for YouTube and Google Search. Google owns YouTube, so videos are often easier to rank than posts.
3. Social Media
Social media posts drive consumers to the landing pages visitors can use to contact you. This is huge – and quality social media content keeps bringing in leads and traffic, even when you’re not working on it.
4. Email
Email marketing serves two purposes: keeping subscribers informed and keeping you in their minds so that they naturally think of you when a medical problem arises. You can share information about the following in a newsletter:
- The latest health threats
- New equipment
- Medical breakthroughs
- New blog posts or videos
2. A Conversion-Optimised Website
All online marketing efforts involve getting prospective clients to your medical website. That’s where you build enough trust and confidence for people to contact you.
The thing is… What really matters is the website; not where you’re getting prospective clients from. You can drive traffic from paid ads, SEO, Social Media… But if your website isn’t converting that traffic into leads and customers, it’s all for nothing.
That’s why having a conversion-optimised website is a strategy unto itself. Here are 5 elements you need to have (and maintain). With these, you can run traffic to your website and make money consistently!
1. Attractive, Updated Design
Source: doctorsofsouthmelbourne
Website design changes fast. If yours is dated, you look out of touch. A makeover is worth investing in because the fresh look will attract more traffic and keep visitors on your site longer, leading to more conversions and higher search engine rankings.
2. Clear, Consistent Contact Information
Source: Complete care doctors
Website design changes fast. If yours is dated, you look out of touch. A makeover is worth investing in because the fresh look will attract more traffic and keep visitors on your site longer, leading to more conversions and higher search engine rankings.
Website visitors need to be able to contact you fast without having to hunt for your contact details. Display your medical practice name, phone number, email address, and physical address on every website page.
The header, footer, and side margin are all good locations. A Contact Us button in the menu leading to a contact page containing your details is also standard.
3. Calls to Action
Source: Dr Terrence Scamp
Your site needs to ask people to do something. If it doesn’t, they won’t know what to do. Examples of calls to action:
- Call us for more information
- Sign up to a free check-up
- Come in today and get a free tub of toothpaste
Make sure your website has clear calls to action that let people know what you want from them!
4. Landing Pages
Source: doctorsofsouthmelbourne
Have a landing page for each medical condition you treat or service you offer. Content marketing drives visitors to these landing pages, guiding content consumers to your contact information.
5. Easy Navigation
Source: myhealth
Visitors click away to another site when they can’t easily find what they’re looking for — value good navigation over imaginative design.
- Place your menu in a top navigation bar or in the upper right corner.
- Give commonly visited pages like About, Contact Us, and Blog menu priority.
- Use clickable submenus in drop-downs.
- Make your search box user-friendly.
- Use alt tags for all clickable images.
Consider having good mobile navigation before desktop design.
6. Mobile-First Design
Most searchers today are on mobile. Your website developer may sometimes need to choose between the best mobile or desktop display designs. Go with mobile-first unless your target audience profile clearly shows your people prefer desktop.
7. Fast Loading
Your site must load in less than one second. In site load times, every fraction of a second over a one-second wait costs you increasing numbers of lost visitors. This is especially true on mobile. Using single-site hosting and cloud hosting boosts load times significantly.
SEO for Medical Practices
SEO for medical practices can be incredibly effective. Millions of Australians look for medical information daily; making yourself discoverable on Search, Maps, and other Google assets can drive hordes of perfect customers your way.
One of the main benefits with SEO is that it fits the medical space perfectly. Medical consumers don’t want to be sold to; they want to research and educate themselves. SEO lets them do exactly that… And since you appear on Search organically, not as an ad, you immediately appear trustworthy.
Local SEO
You can make yourself visible on local Google assets like Maps, Places, Reviews, etc. This is called “Local SEO”, and it’s a tactic that pays in medical niches. Let’s look at the statistics:
57% of patients start with an online search when making doctor appointments
Over 80% of visitors find larger health organisations
Here are proven local SEO methods you can use to make yourself easy to find:
- For local search, you can include location in your practice description, e.g. “Marysville dentist.”
- A Google My Business listing makes you more visible and drives traffic your way.
- Links in local publications tell Google your practice is trusted in your area, elevating rankings.
- Local landing pages with a map and clear directions to your practice are another Google trust signal.
4. Paid Ads, Retargeting, and Email Marketing
Paid ads aren’t as effective for medical practices as they are in other spaces. Yes; patients do overwhelmingly use Google to find and evaluate medical practices. But there are 2 problems…
- Customers take a long time to make a decision
- Customers don’t trust paid ads and aren’t in buy-now mode
That being said, paid ads absolutely can work in the medical space. You just have to look at them as a way to get people onto your website. Once they’re there, you can retarget and nurture them.
Retargeting is using Meta and Google code to save people who’ve visited your website as a custom audience. Once this happens, you can show this audience specific ads on Instagram, Google, Google Partner websites, etc.
This lets you keep showing new content and advertising to people who’ve engaged with your website. You can nurture your relationships with prospects and, over time, convert more of them into customers.
Another way to do the same thing is with email marketing. If you can get people to sign up to a newsletter, you can keep nurturing new connections until they trust you more. Then, you can close sales and convert leads.
5. Focus on a Core Audience
Source: Baby Steps
Only 28% of medical marketers report having a medical plan. Without it, they miss opportunities, lack consistency, and find effective organisation difficult.
The worst part? Without a marketing plan, a medical practice doesn’t know exactly who they’re targeting. This is problematic for two reasons.
First, medical patients and customers trust specialists; not generalists. They want someone who’s an expert at solving their problem. If you don’t know who you’re targeting, you can’t show that expertise.
The second problem is that it’s easy to market to a tight, narrowly defined audience. It’s a lot more expensive (and difficult) to position yourself as a jack-of-all-trades to a wide audience.
To define your group of prospective patients, list the following:
- Product or service they are interested in. More than one is ok.
- Demographics: Age, income, education, location, gender, and ethnicity
- Habits: What they read, watch on TV, information sources, preferred social media channels, politics, values, hobbies, and sports
- Behaviour: Best ways to establish trust, payment methods, how they found you, why they use your competition
- Pain points: What do they need help with, and what don’t they like
The insights you gain when you ID your audience increase content effectiveness, bringing down costs and increasing return on investment.
Marketing for Medical Practices is Becoming More Competitive
Digital marketing has been slow to catch on in the medical world. Still, savvy practitioners are making the most of it to reach an ever-growing number of people.
To wit, the average Megaphone Marketing client makes $11 for every $1 they invest in online advertising. That’s a massive return on ad spend figure, and one that can make a difference in just about any business.
Another benefit to working with us is that expert marketers handle advertising, content creation, posting, and more. As a client, you can focus on your best activities — treating and caring for your patients.
To see if we can help you scale your business with online marketing, book a free consultation (worth $1,200) today using the link in the image below.
