by Marlee Ward on July 14, 2010
Healthcare Marketing:
Does your website have compelling content?
So you’ve hired a web developer to create a fantastic website for your medical practice, and now they want you to provide them with the content for your site. So, what kind of content should you put on your medical practice’s Web site?
First, define your website’s purpose.
Generating content for your medical practice’s website can be a daunting task so the best place to start is by defining the purpose of your website. Your website should be used as a platform for communicating with your patients, marketing your medical practice, and building your professional reputation. Keeping this in mind, the content of your website should accurately reflect your brand and speak to your target audience. Your goal should be to connect with your prospective patients to establish relationships with while distinguishing yourself from your competition, and develop your reputation in your market.
Provide patient education resources.
Since your website is a platform for communicating with your patients, you should also include reliable patient education resources on your site. Patient education resources can be purchased, so don’t worry about having to write them yourself, but take the time to frame your patient education resources so that they reflect the practices of your medical practice. Incorporate how your practice handles particular treatments for common diagnosis or explain common procedures as will be experienced in your office.
Promote your key products and services.
You should also use your medical website to promote and describe your key products and services. Advertise elective procedures, minimally-invasive treatments, or specialty procedures that you offer. Be sure to keep your branding model in mind when writing about these services. You want to set yourself apart from your competition and give your patients a compelling reason to choose you.
Be a reliable resource.
Today, patients are looking for medical services that they can trust. When you provide patients with reliable health care information they become well-informed patients and this will improve your physician-patient relationship. The most effective way to do this is by writing a medical practice blog that focuses on your practice area or any niche that you are comfortable writing about. Blogs also allow you to actually engage prospective patients while providing the added benefit of improving your search engine ranking. Writing a blog successfully requires a substantial time commitment, but you can find specialty services to help you develop content if necessary. Ultimately, if done correctly a blog can prove to be a win-win healthcare marketing strategy for your medical practice.
Improve the efficiency of your office.
Your website can improve the efficiency of your office by providing general information and answers to routine questions. Use your site to post printable patient forms that can be filled out prior to the patient’s appointment and reduce paperwork to be filled out at the appointment. Also, post office hours, maps and directions, answers to frequently asked questions, staff biographies and credentials, links to insurance providers, and information about what patients should bring on their first visit.
Create a “patient experience.”
Remember your website may be the first step in your “patient experience” for some of your clients. Use your site to appeal to the tastes, attitudes and sensibilities of your target audience. Make sure your website provides the type of “patient experience” you want to be known for and is supported by the “patient experience” in your office; these “experiences” must be consistent to generate positive word-of-mouth advertising by your patients.
If you still can’t seem to generate the content you need after implementing this advice or simply don’t have the time to do it yourself, Rx MD Marketing Solutions can do it for you! Contact us today for more information.
photo credit: FindYourSearch
by Marlee Ward on June 30, 2010
Okay, so having read Part I on applying Guerrilla Marketing Strategies to your medical practice, now let’s discuss modern, effective – and inexpensive – ways physicians can market their practices.
It should be no surprise to you that the single most inexpensive and effective method for marketing your medical practice is to focus on internal marketing and referral generation.
Internal Marketing & referral building are not modern tools per se, but they are VERY effective and 100% FREE. Your focus on internal marketing should be based on developing a phenomenal level of customer service. I notice that physicians have a difficult time looking at their patients as customers and seeing their practices as a business…but they are.
Most importantly, you cannot fail to recognize that people recall and share bad experiences with their physician just as they would with their bank, a hotel stay or restaurant experience. The best way to keep your current patients loyal to you, AND to generate referrals is by providing superior service within your practice and by creating incentives and tools for patients to use to spread the word about your practice. This can be accomplished within your medical office, using social networks, or by creating a rewards program for patients.
The way to approach internal marketing in your medical practice is the same as you would with and external marketing approach. Create a plan and establish a culture within your medical practice that prides itself on service. This means that you will need to implement some employee training on how to handle phone calls, how to welcome patients into reception, and how to handle conflicts and complaints. Essentially, you need to make your employees ambassadors of your medical practice. Talk to them about educating their own circles of influence about your medical practice and give them the knowledge and tools they need to do so effectively.
Another phenomenally inexpensive (but time-consuming) and effective healthcare marketing tactic is using Internet marketing tools.
The Internet is the single most cost effect method of advertising for medical practices if done correctly. There are a great number of ways to market on the Internet from using social media tools to actual online advertising, all of which are very effective in converting prospective patients into paying patients.
Surprisingly, medical professionals under-utilize the Internet significantly. Many medical practices and physicians don’t even have a website, yet at the most basic level every single medical practice, clinic, or solo practitioner should have a website.
This is especially true because developing professional search-engine-friendly medical websites is easier than ever before. Many web hosting companies will provide you with free web site design software that includes easy to use templates so that virtually anyone can create a website.
When choosing a website consider running off of a blog platform or have a blog linked to your static website. If you can commit to blogging actively or hiring someone to blog for your medical practice, because blogging is an inexpensive but time-consuming Guerrilla Marketing tactic that will help you build relationships with your target market while improving your ranking in Google’s organic search engine listings. Blogging is a very specific Guerrilla Marketing technique that requires effort and dedication, so it is not for everyone, but having a website whether it’s a blog or standard “static” website is an essential Guerrilla marketing tool.
Lastly, medical providers can achieve excellent results marketing on a shoestring by hosting open houses and mini healthcare seminars. Open houses and healthcare seminars are very effective ways to market any healthcare organization. Although relatively inexpensive to carry out, there is a cost involved in promoting the event itself (depending on the methods of promotion you select). Regardless of that fact, giving a seminar or holding an open house allows you to demonstrate to your target patients the kind of care you offer while giving you a one-on-one opportunity to network with patients or potential referral sources. If you are personable and informative you will be sure to attract patients to your practice this way.
For more resources on how to implement these tactics in your practice, contact us at 866-672-9797 today!
photo credit: Photos8.com
by Marlee Ward on June 22, 2010
Healthcare Marketing – Guerrilla Style
Gorilla-sized Guerrilla Marketing!
I recently gave in an interview with Physicians Practice Magazine about ways doctors can use “guerrilla marketing” tactics to improve the profitability of their medical practices, and the interviewer posed an interesting question.
She asked “Are traditional marketing methods just no longer working?” We didn’t have the time to fully cover the answer to that question in detail so I wanted to cover it here. But first, let’s define “guerrilla marketing.”
Guerrilla marketing is a term coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson is his book Guerilla Marketing. Initially guerrilla marketing was perceived as the use of inexpensive unorthodox promotional activities to attract customers and build small business. Now, the term has become descriptive for most any non-traditional marketing method.
Well, what is “guerrilla marketing” as applied to the health care industry?
Well, as applied to the health care industry guerrilla marketing is simply:
- listening to what your prospective patients want
- integrating multiple tactics at once to communicate with your patients
- finding ways to reach your prospective patients that are cost effective
- being flexible and creative in your marketing strategies by acting quickly on opportunities to connect with your prospective patients and outshine your competition
- being committed to marketing as a part of your practice management strategy and not just an attempt at advertising to “get your name out there”
So, are traditional healthcare marketing campaigns obsolete?
First of all, the healthcare industry is changing rapidly and physicians must become more aware of how they are perceived in the marketplace. It is becoming more and more evident that healthcare may become consumer-driven. This will require that practice owners find ways to effectively communicate their value to the patients they want to attract to their practices, and one magazine ad or billboard just won’t cut it. Physicians need a healthcare marketing strategy.
Secondly, successful healthcare marketing is relationship based. That is, establishing relationships that provide value to your target market is essential to building your patient base. People are so over advertised to that they are looking for authenticity. They want to spend their money and resources with people and companies that they can trust. This move towards relationship marketing has been on the horizon for some time, but the explosion of social media use has accelerated the demand and effectiveness of building relationships with your target market.
So although traditional advertising and marketing strategies are not obsolete, they are becoming less effective than in the past. Traditional marketing and advertising campaigns are usually about interrupting your prospective patient and saying “hey look at me, choose me, you want me.” People have learned how to block these kinds of communications out of their mind. Guerrilla marketing or non-traditional marketing says “What do you need? I can meet your need & and I can help you because…”
Guerrilla marketing cannot stand alone. You need traditional methods to support a guerrilla strategy. Today, traditional marketing is integrated to support guerrilla marketing strategies.
To learn more about specific guerrilla marketing strategies you can use to build your medical practice or healthcare organization, check back for Part II: Modern, Effective, and Cheap Ways to Market Your Medical Practice.
Need help developing a healthcare marketing strategy today? Call 888-672-9797 for a free consultation today!
photo credit: Eric Kilby
