Finding clients for a medical practice is not easy. It is even harder in 2020 than it was years ago. Changing customer expectations, HIPAA restrictions and other changes have complicated the healthcare marketing process.
Fortunately, it is not impossible to find new patients. However, you need to understand the best healthcare marketing strategies. Whether you’re a dentist, dietician, optician, gynecologist, or physical therapist, it takes a lot of effort and “thinking-outta-the-box” to consistently find and attract clients to your business.
This harsh reality is what drives many out of the profession or to work for large HMOs. This attitude is sad, but it makes sense. After all, if you cannot find patients to work with, what’s the point of staying in a business?
But your healthcare practice doesn’t have to end like that. You can do a lot to make your business more successful by marketing more effectively.
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The Secrets to Successful Healthcare Marketing
I know you’ve probably read a lot of posts – with headlines similar to this – that ended up not providing you with anything useful.
But I assure you this won’t be like that.
Just keep reading to find out how you can attract patients to your medical practice.
Establish a strong social presence everywhere
Did you know that health and wellness facts are amongst the list of things people don’t really know much about?
For example, an average human doesn’t even know that you burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
Now, imagine that you’re constantly providing this sort of fact checks and other health-related tips on your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. How many “hey doc, I have this issue. What can I do” do you think you’ll get in your DM and comment sections?
Just think about it!
Invest heavily in local SEO
You can use local SEO to spread the word about your business to people doing local searches around you. Often times, when people have a special kind of medical issue, Google is the first place they go.
Once there, they search for causes/solutions to their problems. Once they get these answers, they then search for professionals offering this solution around them, e.g., “dentists near me.”
If you’ve done your local listing and SEO, your business will be automatically be shown to these searchers.
Another tip to this effect is that you can also use local SEO to attract patients from neighboring towns and cities even though you don’t have a physical presence there.
Using a virtual online business address, you can implement a local SEO strategy for multiple cities and towns around you so that when potential clients search for, say, “optician near me” in that area, you’ll be amongst the list of responses displayed to them.
Join industry-relevant groups and forums
Nowadays, there are groups on Facebook, Whatsapp, and other social channels where people ask and provide industry-specific questions and answers.
By being present in these groups and providing people with timely solutions to their pain points, you can strike conversations with them, build relationships, and even invite them over to your office for free consultations.
From there, you can nurture them into repeat clients.
Alternatively to social groups, you can also adopt the same approach discussed above in online forums like Quora, Reddit, Pinterest, Stack Exchange, etc.
Give out and give back
Spread the word about your practice by offering patients brochures, pens, free consultation and check-ups, and fridge magnets.
Alternatively, you can target your volunteer efforts to attract the most relevant patients. If you’re a primary-care doctor, volunteer for a sports team at a local high school; if you’re an orthopedic surgeon, conduct safe exercise seminars at your local YMCA; if you’re an oncologist, attend nearby cancer walks to answer questions.
Become the expert people trust
Showing people that they can trust you is another great way to find and bring them to your business.
How do you do this? You wonder!
Blogging, blogging, and blogging!
Blogging is the act of creating useful content that addresses particular subjects in a specific industry.
Let’s say you’re a dentist; you can earn the trust of people seeking dental assistance by creating multiple blog posts on dental-related subjects.
Once you create these posts, you can either publish them on your site or take them to sites where you know your target audience likes to visit.
When creating this post, you can also use an effective keyword research tool to find out what the keywords people seeking dental help love to enter into the search engine search bar.
Encourage word-of-mouth marketing
Word-of-mouth is another great way to reach new patients. This has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to find new clients in any industry, even in the digital age. You need to make sure that your patients are sharing information about your practice to help you get more customers.
Effective Healthcare Marketing Takes Preparation
There are a lot of things that you can do to reach more patients. The healthcare marketing tips listed above should help you considerably.