Introduction
If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either a physician or a medical student considering entering the field. Whether you’re planning to become a surgeon, anesthesiologist, or any type of doctor, you need to understand the basics of marketing to succeed in this competitive industry.
To ensure you have the necessary foundational knowledge to effectively market your practice online, we’ve put together a concise guide. Here we’re going to cover some of the basics of online marketing, including:
Why You Need To Market Your Practice Online
No matter where you look, you’ll see hundreds of physicians advertising their services. Many of these doctors are simply spamming social media with advertisements. While there’s nothing wrong with getting a few patients through social media, this tactic won’t generate enough revenue to sustain a practice.
If you’re interested in marketing your practice online, then you need to understand why you’re doing this and what you hope to achieve. Here are a few of the major reasons why you might use the internet to market your practice:
1. Increased Access To A Larger Audience
If you want to attract new patients to your practice, then you should consider marketing your practice online. With the growing popularity of social media, you can target a much larger audience than before. In fact, the number of patients you can reach through social media is almost unlimited.
Even if you only have hundreds of followers on your Instagram account, you can still promote your practice there. If you want to target an even larger audience, you can also use other social media platforms, like Twitter, to promote your practice.
The advantage of attracting an audience through social media is that you can engage with your patients on a more personal level. Instead of just pitching your services, you can show patients that you’re interested in what they have to say. This type of relationship will foster a greater connection and trust between you and your audience, potentially leading to greater engagement.
2. Better Ability To Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Marketing
One of the biggest challenges in marketing is figuring out which strategy is the most effective. Does social media work better than email marketing for attracting new patients? What about webinars versus YouTube videos? Fortunately, you can test and learn from each campaign separately. This way, you can be sure that you’re optimizing your efforts for the best results.
With most marketing strategies, you’ll see an effect after a short period of time. When you use digital marketing to market your practice, you’ll see a noticeable improvement in website traffic, leads, and eventually, revenue. This is why many doctors choose to use the internet to market their practice; they can see the effect of their efforts more quickly than they could with traditional methods.
3. Easier To Measure & Improve Results
Measuring the success of your marketing efforts is a lot easier when you use digital marketing than when you use traditional methods. You can track the results of your social media campaigns directly on your dashboards, and you can analyze the effectiveness of your emails almost instantly. This makes it a lot easier to determine which tactics worked and which ones didn’t, allowing you to adjust your strategy and increase your chances of success.
Even if you’re new to marketing, you’ll find it easy to start, measure, and track results with digital marketing. This is because of the many automation tools platforms like HubSpot offer. If you want to successfully market your practice online, then you need to consider these tools, which help you automate your efforts and optimize performance.
4. More Flexible
For many doctors, getting patients to come to their office for an appointment is one of the most challenging aspects of their job. While they may love their specialty and the thought of helping patients live longer and healthier lives, getting them to actually come in for a visit can be hard.
If you want to attract more patients to your practice, then you need to consider exploring online marketing. With the flexibility of the internet and social media, you can target potential patients in a way that was never possible before. You can even take advantage of online marketplaces like Google My Map, which let’s you target potential patients within a certain distance of your office.
If you want to successfully market your practice online, then you need to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile devices. As more and more people are shifting to using their phones for online shopping and searching for healthcare providers, it’s essential that your site is mobile-friendly. Otherwise, you’ll be limiting your audience, and potentially, your success.
How To Market Your Practice Online
Now that you’ve decided that online marketing is the way forward for your practice, how can you put this into action? Here are a few tips on how to market your practice online:
1. Build A Blog
Blogs are a great way to build authority and gain credibility among your audience. If you’re new to blogging, then start with a simple blog. Once you have a few entries under your belt, you can move onto something more complex. If you want to be taken seriously as a physician, then you need to be producing high-quality content regularly.
Make sure that your blogs are centered on interesting and unique content. If you can, get involved in a blog community – it will help you find like-minded bloggers who can help grow your audience and gain credibility with your target audience. The more you engage with your audience, the more they will believe in your expertise.
2. Use Social Media
Social media is one of the most effective tools you have for marketing, and it’s also a great place to interact with your audience. If you want to use social media to market your practice, then you need to consider creating profiles on the various platforms. You should have a professional Instagram account, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account to name a few.
Consumers are finding healthcare providers online, so you should be there too. Make sure that all of your social media accounts have a consistent and professional look. Post frequently on social media, and try to engage with your audience by sharing interesting articles, educational content, and anything else that will make them want more from your account. You can also use social media to follow and connect with other healthcare providers to exchange ideas.
3. Start A Social Club
If you want to have a successful practice, then you need to consider starting a social club. A social club is a group of individuals, typically healthcare providers, who come together to network, share ideas, and ultimately, promote each other’s practices and services. You can use groups like LinkedIn’s Physician Community to help you find other healthcare providers who share your passion for connecting with patients and potential patients.
If you want to start a social club for physicians, then there are a few things you should keep in mind. First, make sure that your memberships are valued and that you’re providing a good return on investment (ROI). Next, consider what makes you different from other clubs and groups. Does your club offer a specific focus on wellness issues or does it aim to provide a different perspective on healthcare?
If you can, find a way to make your social club distinct from other healthcare-related groups. For example, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) created the Health Care Marketing Council to promote and educate healthcare marketers about the value of marketing in healthcare.
Regardless of whether you decide to start a social club or join one, participating in social media and establishing an online presence is crucial for any physician who wants to succeed.