With so many healthcare regulations to follow and so much time taken up by clinical work, how do you market your medical practice? One solution is to work with a marketing agency familiar with the medical landscape.
At Growth99, we specialize in marketing efforts for medical practices like yours. Here are our best strategies for success.
Why Is Marketing Important for Your Medical Practice?
How do patients know about your practice? How do they figure out if your practice meets their needs? And how do they decide to come back for future services?
You have to communicate with them!
Outside of a face-to-face setting like an appointment, marketing is the best way to reach these people. Digital marketing enables you to reach an audience online, where you can bring awareness to your practice and attract prospective patients.
With digital marketing efforts, you can differentiate yourself from competitors who don’t have strong marketing efforts or digital presence. You can also tailor your messaging based on unique services that set you apart from other clinics. This allows your team to better communicate with your target audience.
These efforts can be especially helpful for private clinics, as patients might not find private practices as easily in listings like insurance directories.
How Can You Ensure Compliance with Healthcare Regulations?
While your team may understand healthcare regulations front and back, does your digital marketing partner? Finding an agency well-versed in them is critical to creating a compliant online presence.
At Growth99, we take legal compliance seriously. Because we specialize in marketing for medical practices, we can help you navigate these parameters when planning your marketing efforts.
When executing campaigns for our clients, we’ve kept the following regulatory requirements at the forefront of our strategy:
- HIPAA regulations
- FDA requirements
- FTC requirements
- Anti-kickback laws
- Stark Law
View our industry Specialities directory for more information.
8 Marketing Strategies in Healthcare
What are the most effective digital marketing strategies for a medical practice? While some factors like your specialty and location play a role, these are our top eight recommendations.
1. Verify Your Google Business Profile
Verify your Google Business Profile so that accurate information about your clinic shows up in relevant searches. You can add details like phone number, location, and hours of operation to make it easy for new patients to contact you.
Here’s some data that sheds light on the growth of health-related searches over time:
- In 2003, medical informatics researchers published an estimate that people searched for health-related information online at least 6.75 million times a day, making up around 4.5% of total searches.
- With today’s estimated daily Google search volume of 8.5 billion, that percentage translates to over 300 million health-related searches a day.
The takeaway? Clearly, people want to access health information online. Make it easy for them to meet you there by claiming your online footprint.
2. Build a User-Friendly Website
Your website is one of your best digital tools for communicating. Make your website easy to navigate so users can find the information they want. To do this, you might:
- Invest in design so the website looks professional.
- Increase site navigation with drop-down menus.
- Audit content to make sure everything is accurate.
- Decrease waiting time with higher loading speeds.
Learn more about the website services we offer.
3. Prioritize SEO, Including Local SEO
When it comes to teaching patients about medical issues, you want to be the authoritative voice—not Google. But we know patients are already going to search engines with their questions. So why not meet them there?
By investing in SEO strategies for your website, you can rank in search listings so that potential patients see your clinic and your resources when they search for health information. This gets your content in front of a searching audience and allows you to build trust with them.
Local SEO is powerful for specific locations, such as offices or clinics. When patients want to find a doctor, they will use locations to find someone in their area. If you show up, they’re more likely to visit you.
Explore Growth99’s SEO services.
4. Consistently Post on Your Blog (Education + Health Tips)
One way to increase your SEO rankings is to maintain a blog on your website. This drives rankings and also drives traffic to your site. The more people who visit your site, the more potential relationships you can develop.
Blog content is also a great way to establish trust and authority. You can offer meaningful education and health tips to showcase your value and expertise.
5. Maintain a Presence on Social Media (organic + paid)
Social media increases practice visibility and patient engagement. Depending on your intended audience, you may post on platforms such as:
- TikTok
- YouTube
You can use both organic posts and paid social media ads to promote content to potential patients. On social media, ads don’t have to be sales pitches. You pay to show your content to people who don’t follow your account. This brings awareness to your clinic, even if you aren’t pitching specific services.
Get help with our social media manager feature.
6. Cultivate Trust with Patient Reviews
Patient reviews offer credible and authentic evaluations of your services. If one patient has a good experience, it builds trust with other potential patients seeking your service, making it a powerful marketing tool.
Because of the personal nature of medical care, getting patient reviews can be more difficult than in other fields. Offering patients a chance to provide you with feedback, both positive and negative, can help. If they trust that you are listening to their needs, they’re more likely to provide insights.
Once you have reviews, work with our review and testimonial builder to showcase them.
7. Use Appointment Reminders
One of the best marketing strategies is a positive user experience. You make your patients’ lives better with great healthcare—why not do it with easy appointment logistics, too?
A customer relationship management (CRM) system can send automated email or SMS appointment reminders. This helps patients keep track of their appointments and helps you keep your schedule on track.
Learn more about what a CRM tool can do for you.
8. Explore Personalized Strategies
Beyond basic good practices in marketing, a personalized approach will get you the most return on your investment. Consider what your patients need and what your communication strong suits are. Data—such as website and social media analytics—can show you what tools are most effective.
You can also try out other marketing strategies specific to your needs. Video content might resonate with your audience. Dermatologists, for instance, have had great success with video content on social media. Dr. Shah has an impressive 18 million followers on TikTok.
Email marketing might work better for your patients. Learn more about how to use emails to grow your reach.
Put These Strategies in Action with Growth99
You can market a medical practice in a variety of ways. Digital marketing tools are a great place to start.
See any strategies you like? Partner with Growth99 to put them into action. Explore our full list of products and services to build a personalized marketing campaign.
