Digital Marketing Strategy for Doctors
Digital Marketing Strategy for Doctors – Today’s patients have a lot more options than the ones before the era of digital marketing for doctors and healthcare professionals. Before visiting the doctor they google for the reputation of the doctor. They try to read the reviews and even have a feel of the hospital they are about to visit. That is why it becomes the need of the hour to plan and budget marketing plan for doctors and healthcare practitioners to reach the new or returning patients in our geographical area.
Like all other businesses, hospitals and healthcare professional also need the right marketing strategy. The whole purpose of branding and Digital Marketing Strategy for doctors is to help the patient reach the right aid.
What is healthcare marketing?
Healthcare marketing is a specially designed strategy that can be used to reach potential patients by talking about your specialty. These strategies can be used for doctors, hospitals, health care professionals, health practitioner’s, healthcare marketing executive and clinics. It is a series of steps undertaken to outreach and communicate to bring on board new patients. Digital marketing for doctors is basically building trust. Although Digital Marketing Strategy for doctors is a mix of channels that require a mix of news, television, radio and outdoor ads. At the moment the digital marketing is the best way to reach out to customers.
Marketing for doctors if done in the right way can help:
- Help bring new customers on board
- Retain old and long-term customer
- Get to reach unexplored areas
- Organize things
- Saves Money
- Helps focus
The constantly changing healthcare industries require more focused digital marketing. Most of the time in house team is not able to do justice full stop you must think of hiring digital marketing agency so that they can bring out the best mix of Digital Marketing Strategy. It also happens to be their expertise and your peace of mind is assured. Healthcare marketing is an investment.
Marketing strategy for doctors and healthcare professionals includes:
1. Healthcare branding is a long term tool
When you build a strong brand that can be recognized amongst the crowd and also promote the purpose of your brand, it goes a long way. You may not reap immediate benefits but the cost per acquisition goes down to a great extent. Try to figure out the unique selling point about your hospital. Try to pamper and pay attention to your clients or patients as if they were your family. Healthcare branding works a lot on trust and this is how you can build it. You can also hire a branding agency that can help you bring things in place.
2. Check your presence on google
If we talk about five years back then only simple landing page was enough two to start digital marketing for doctors and health professionals. But now with the growing awareness amongst patients you need to have a website that not only depicts your our knowledge but also the facilities you provide. It should be a story of your past and the promises for the future for your patients. Think like a patient and see what would you search for before visiting a doctor. Now you know the right Digital Marketing Strategy for your own self. Also try to map your patients journey once he comes to your website.
3. Website is really important
Every doctor must get a responsive website which can adjust according to the device. This website should be search engine friendly. It should also have a clear call to action where the customer can leave a message. Try to use original pictures put in a lot of reviews of the clients that have already visited you.
4. Check the speed of your website
It is very important for you to check the speed of your website which can be done on google speed check. A website must not take more than 3 seconds to load. A slow website leads to increased bounce rate. Nobody has the patience so you can also use plugins to optimize your website for speed. Also ask the best digital marketing agency in your area to check other parameters. They have the knowledge and will help you to figure out the reasons your website is slow.
5. Above the fold experience
Make sure that your website leaves an excellent impression once it is uploaded. The above fold experience is what the client sees on the screen when the website uploads first. Your first impression is your last impression. Most of the patients take less than 5 seconds to decide whether they want to visit you or not. This is also called user experience.
6 . Optimize your website for the search engine
Make sure that google is able to find your website. You need to get it submitted and crawled. Also check the keywords by which you want your customers to find you. There are many parameters to check the on-page search engine optimization for your website. Try to hire a seo agency to help you with this.
SEO is a long term process. You need to be consistent. The right agency knows the trick. They will list the activities planned. They will also share the report at the end of the month. Difficult and short keywords with a lot of competition takes 7 to 8 months while others may take shorter time.
7. Paid advertisement on google
One of the best methods for marketing for doctors is paid advertisement on google. The results are instant. The budget is very flexible and so you can start with as small an amount as you wish. The return on investment is very high. There are 2 ways of ads on google. Search and display. Search ads work best for doctors. Display ads are more for hospitals or big brands. The strategy depends on your budget and area.
8. Social media pages
You can get started with social media marketing by posting pictures of health camps. Reviews given by patients are also a good strategy for doctors and healthcare professionals. You can also get creatives made by professional graphic designing company. These posts can be shared on your social media pages. There are so many platforms like Facebook, Instagram, twitter, Pinterest, reddit and many more. You can also go for paid marketing on social media. Similar to google ads, social media ads also require a strategy and budget.
9. Reviews are more than reviews
Patients want to cross check the experience others patients had. More than 55% of the people check google reviews before visiting. Patients leave a review only if they are extremely satisfied or dissatisfied. Do not hesitate to ask for a review since you will miss the opportunity of getting featured. Most of the doctors have a front end team or a personal assistant. Ask them to collect video reviews or written reviews. These reviews can be shared on social media as well and the website. So reviews work best for doctors’ marketing.
10. Reputation management
Not only does the final review matter but also the overall experience. Try to reach out to your patients and ask them to rate all the facilities on a scale of 1-10. You can take this as feedback and improve the areas that require improvement. This is also called reputation management for doctors, healthcare professionals and clinics.
11. Try omnichannel marketing
Doctors must not only stick to only digital media but also try newspaper, radio, television, outdoor activities. Even if opting for digital advertisement you must try a mix of all digital marketing tools available. The marketing agency that you are hiring should not only be a master of digital marketing but have a 360 degree solution for all your marketing requirements. There are so many modes of marketing and your clients are everywhere. You need to find the right mix. The digital marketing and branding agency can help you to find the right mix.
12. Stay updated
The doctor you need to stay updated with the latest techniques and knowledge in your own field. But we also suggest you share this knowledge with the world. Keep updating your blog and your social media platforms with the latest publications. Share the knowledge in a layman language.
Patients want to google everything and then visit a doctor. Try to make the most of it and share maximum knowledge that is relevant to your area of interest.
13. Review your strategy
Once the strategy is made, it needs to be reviewed every now and then. That is the duty of the marketing agency. They must come up with the latest updated plans to keep you ahead of the competition. At Antraajaal, we work with doctors, clinics and hospitals. Trust our experience and we will transform your brand. We will not only get you to reach new patients but also retain old ones.
Call us at 8558885844 to get started.