Digital marketing is complicated enough on its own, but medical digital marketing requires an even more careful strategy. At Crystal Clear Digital Marketing, we’ve turned medical digital marketing into both a science and an art. There are many different steps that lead to a successful medical digital marketing strategy, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll zone in on four: web design, content, social media, and search engine optimization (SEO). These four areas can mean the difference between a website that soars through the search engine ranks and one that falls flat.
1. Web Design That Works
Before anything else, you want to build a website that can both catch anyone’s eye and function well enough to exceed your readers’ expectations. To do this, you’ll need to focus on a few key strategies:
- Creating an inviting design and careful color scheme
- Making sure your website is mobile-friendly
- Developing a responsive site
- Testing your site to ensure everything runs smoothly
Let’s look at each of these points a little more closely.
Creating an inviting design and careful color scheme involves a lot more than one might think. Does your practice follow a specific color scheme within your logo or overall design? If so, that should carry over onto your site. For example, a medical spa that leans towards the colors blue and white should aim to keep that trend going on each of their web pages. This is a simple way to gain brand recognition and loyalty.
The aesthetics of a strong website design are often subtle, but they can make all the difference in the world. For example, the general flow of your website should be simple and straightforward. Your menu, contact page, available services, and blog should all be easily noticeable. Make sure your readers will be able to pick them out from the second they land on your page.
Making sure your website is mobile-friendly is one of the most important factors when it comes to a successful medical digital marketing strategy. With the rapid growth of technology we’ve seen in the last five years alone, almost everyone has a smartphone with them at one point or another. This means that a huge percentage of your readers won’t be accessing your site from a computer, but from a mobile device like a tablet or phone.
This is why it’s absolutely essential to make sure your website can run smoothly on all platforms, mobile or otherwise. To add to that, you’ve probably also noticed that the most successful mobile versions of websites are set up differently than their desktop counterparts. You’ll want your own website to do the same thing. Otherwise, mobile users won’t be staying on your site for very long.
Developing a responsive site is exactly what it sounds like. You want your website to respond seamlessly to all the demands and inquiries a user makes. If someone clicks on the link to your contact page, it needs to actually lead there. There are few things that make a user click out of a site faster than broken links and an inflexible layout. Always make sure your website responds to your readers’ needs.
Testing your site falls into the same category as developing a responsive design. Testing your website for yourself is the most direct way to make sure that there are no broken links, your pages react appropriately to changes in resolution, and lays out everything in an easily accessible way.
2. Customized Content
Unique, engaging content is at the heart of any successful medical digital marketing strategy. There’s no denying the importance of the aesthetics and function of a website, but the words that are actually written on your pages will be what keeps potential patients on your site for longer periods of time, increasing the chances that they’ll make that first call to your office.
What Separates Good Content from Bad Content?
Unprofessional or poorly written content is almost as bad as having no content at all. On the other hand, all good content pieces have a few things in common. You want yours to be:
- Unique
- Entertaining
- Informative but concise
You can have the most eloquent content in the world, but if it’s duplicated or plagiarized, your search results will suffer. Search engines like Google know when the content on a website has been copied and pasted from another source. That’s why it’s vital that anything written on your website is completely original. It’s tempting to copy content from other sources to save yourself the work, but this will only hurt you in both the short and long run.
To put unique content on their sites without having to worry about writing it themselves, many doctors, medical spas, and practices trust a professional team of writers to do it for them. This is just one of the many services we offer at Crystal Clear. If you want the written word to come to life on your site, our content team can make it happen.
While you want your content to be original, you also want it to be engaging. As a medical professional, the content you put on your site will center around any number of aesthetic or medical services. When it comes to this type of subject material, it takes a lot of balance to make a page or blog post both informative and easy to understand.
You want your content to have elements of both, but you never want to veer too far into either area. If the writing isn’t informative enough, your readers may be confused as to what your services really are. On the other hand, visitors may quickly lose interest if the information they’re reading is too complicated. In other words, it’s all about balance.
3. Reach Out to More People with Social Media
If you’re not including social media in your medical digital marketing plan, you’re missing out on hundreds of opportunities to connect with current and potential patients. You can use any social media platform to spread the word about your practice (the more, the better), but at Crystal Clear, we focus our efforts on four:
- Facebook, the largest social media gathering spot in the world, is an obvious one. Facebook boasts almost 2 billion users across the world. There’s no getting around it—if you have a social media strategy, Facebook needs to be a vital part of it. You can use this platform to add updates about your practice, share news, link back to your website, and communicate directly with readers online.
- Twitter is one of the best ways to direct traffic directly back to specific blog posts on your website. With a catchy tagline and a beautiful image, you can grab your readers’ attention and easily encourage them to try to find out what your practice is all about. If you can do this, you can expect new patients to start flooding in.
- LinkedIn is just as important for businesses and medical practices as it is for job seekers. Simply put, LinkedIn is the go-to site for professionals looking to build their network or solidify their brand. If you want to boost your presence in the professional world, you need to keep an active LinkedIn account.
- Pinterest is surprisingly one of the most influential social media platforms in the world. Studies have shown that users who read about a product on Pinterest are more likely to become customers. The same applies to potential patients. With Pinterest, you can easily spread the word about the services you offer and get a growing following in return.
We understand that four social media sites can be a lot to juggle at once. That’s why we offer social media services at Crystal Clear. Leave the tweets and updates to us so you can focus on your practice.
4. What About SEO?
If there’s any constant to medical digital marketing, it’s that SEO will always, always be important. Effective SEO involves optimizing content with the right keywords and the right geographical location for your practice. Our content and SEO teams work closely together to help you rise through the rank in search engines. With the right combination of unique content and keyword usage, you can watch and enjoy as you reach the top of Google search results. This means more website visitors, which, in turn, translates into more patients.
Take Hold of Your Medical Digital Marketing Strategy with Crystal Clear
This is just a small glimpse into the services we provide to our clients at Crystal Clear Digital Marketing. If you’re ready to build a medical digital marketing plan with a team dedicated to helping you succeed, call us today!
