There are a lot of metaphors used to describe marketing, but for many medical professionals, marketing for doctor’s offices can seem like you are adrift in a sea of never-ending advice. The suggestions of one so-called “marketing expert” may completely contradict those of another, and the sad reality is, many of these suggestions are actually just scare tactics to coerce you into buying a service.
So, when navigating marketing for doctor’s offices, who can you trust? At Crystal Clear, we have over 20 years in the marketing industry, and what we can tell you for sure is this – the practices that find the absolute best success do not piecemeal their digital marketing services and hire six different companies to manage the individual components of their digital marketing. Marketing for doctor’s offices should be entrusted to one company that does it all, and at Crystal Clear, we are that one company.
Spell CRM with SPC
Doctors, how does your practice currently handle your incoming leads and new patient opportunities? Do you have a system in place to manage those leads and does it work? The important thing to remember about your marketing is that it all it can do is bring the new patient opportunities to your door – it’s up to you and your internal processes to show them the way in. Crystal Clear’s cloud-based software, the Social Patient Center (SPC), is the only system in the aesthetic digital space that can track your phone calls and forms in real time and sort your opportunities into groups to help you target the right audiences.
When considering where most new patient opportunities are lost, most doctors are surprised to learn that it’s usually not because of any fault with the marketing itself – it’s within the internal processes that are in place at your practice. Although your digital marketing and digital presence are mission critical to the overall development and growth of your practice, these strategies can only go so far on their own.
Consider a baton race, where one teammate hands the baton off to another. This type of race requires flawless transition in order to gain the leading edge over the competitors, and any gaps in the hand-off can be detrimental to the results. The same goes for the handoff between your digital marketing and your internal processes; if your staff are inadequately trained and prepared, the fumble can lead to lost business for you and more business for your competitors. Taking advantage of this never-before-seen opportunity management software can change the game for your practice.
Medical Marketing Websites that Stand Out
Most everyone knows that they need a medical marketing website in order to navigate marketing for doctors’ offices, but it’s not enough to just have an active website floating around the Internet. A website without any strategy, plan, or thought put into it is like putting a house on the market without any windows, doors, or furnishings – people may glance at it as they pass by, but they certainly won’t go in or stay very long, even if it looks astonishing from the outside. If your website represents the walls of the house, then the other components of your marketing strategy are all the other features that make the house functional. These critical elements include:
Whether you have a grasp of what these are or not, they all work behind the scenes to make sure your medical marketing website actually shows up either close to or on the first page of Google. Although a killer design can absolutely make your website stand out from all the other billion websites, also take into consideration all of the components that work their magic behind the scenes to give you that extra boost ahead.
Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing for Doctors’ Offices
When it comes to making sure your website ranks on search engines, there are two different types of searches to take into account:
- Organic search refers to how your site performs when patients search for services in your area. If your site has been properly outfitted with search engine optimization for doctors’ offices, then over the course of about six months you should begin to see traction on Google.
- Paid search has to do with paid advertising on search engines. When you utilize search engines for personal use, you have probably noticed targeted ads related to your search that show up as the first few results. Investing in search engine marketing can help you float to the top more quickly than with organic search, but only until your ad time runs out.
Both SEO and SEM can help you gain more visibility from a search engine perspective, and Crystal Clear can help you figure out where to begin.
Email Marketing for Doctors’ Offices
Email marketing is still one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to get your promotions and events out there, yet it is still an underutilized component by many medical practices. Blasting an email campaign does not necessarily mean that you have to discount your services; in fact, many of the most successful practices utilize their email marketing to spotlight other things happening at the office such as:
- New staff/team members
- New procedures/treatments
- Events happening at the office
- Contents
- Facebook live events
- And more!
One of the best rules of thumb with email marketing is to track which emails get the most engagement, so the best way to begin is to try a few different campaigns and see what your audience is looking for.
Content Marketing for Doctors’ Offices
The design and aesthetics of your website are important, but we can’t overlook the actual pages themselves. Content is King, and your website content – the procedure pages and blogs – play a key role in not only getting you ranked on search engines from the back end, but content that is well-written can also help draw your target market in and get them to call your office for a consultation:
- Website content that is written to the industry standard and that is SEO-friendly is going to put your site miles ahead of those who “borrow” manufacturer content and take the easy way out of producing content that is 100% unique. While that may save you time, your patients want to read content that has a conversation with them and relates to what they are going through. Investing in your content is one of the best decisions you can make right out of the gate so that the blogs, social media posts and other elements that revolve around that content have superior quality as well.
- Monthly blogs are another great way to boost your keywording from a search engine perspective and can help address Frequently Asked Questions and help you continue the conversation with your patients outside of the office.
- Social media marketing goes hand-in-hand with the rest of your content. Promoting your service pages and blogs on social media is a great way to drive traffic back to your website.
Mobile Marketing for Doctors’ Offices
So, you’ve got a website and it opens fine on a desktop computer or laptop, but how does it respond when opened from a tablet or a smartphone? Is it easy to navigate? One of the biggest misconceptions is that websites automatically configure to mobile devices, and that is not true. A website has to be specially formatted to be mobile-responsive, and without it, patients can get very quickly frustrated with the navigation and move on to a site that is more friendly for mobile devices.
Marketing for Doctors’ Offices is Just a Phone Call Away!
No matter what metaphor you use for marketing for doctors’ offices, we can help give you the answers you are looking for. Are you ready to bring your practice into the 21st century with marketing for doctors’ offices? Contact Crystal Clear Digital Marketing today!
