The 21st century is the era of digital marketing. Every industry and every sector has splurged the benefits of digital marketing. With its tools, techniques and strategies, digital marketing has proven to be beneficial in every aspect. Today’s generation understands the concept of being digital. Therefore, it is imperative to master the art of digital marketing.
Talking about being digital, many doctors and medical practitioners utilise the tools of digital marketing. It proves to be a great way to connect with potential patients. As a matter of fact, 77% of patients carry out a medical search for services in their area before making an appointment. Before diving into the details, let’s start with the basics.
With healthcare slowly but surely embracing digital transformation, patient experiences will be enhanced online and on mobile devices in 2023. Patients will feel empowered with more information to make more informed decisions, increasing loyalty and reducing care aversion. The commitment to prioritise patients is implicit in each of these digital marketing trends for 2023. A doctor or health practitioner who builds empathy for their patients will outperform their competition through patient-centric marketing strategies. You can get helpful digital marketing tips for doctors in this blog.
The Healthcare Digital Marketing Ecosystem: An Overview
By 2026, the worldwide healthcare marketing and communications industry is expected to develop at a rate of 19.72 per cent per year, reaching $8,498.72 million.
What role does digital marketing play in the healthcare industry?
Product launches, lead generation, networking among health providers and communities, conversions, engagement and education, and, most importantly, optimising Return on Investment are all benefits of healthcare internet marketing (ROI).
With healthcare digital marketing, who really are you trying to reach?
With healthcare technology marketing, healthcare organisations strive to target two sorts of clients: outside customers and internal customers.
People who aren’t affiliated with the hospital yet seek care there are referred to as “external consumers.” This group comprises patients, their families, and the general public. The primary goal of marketing for this sector is to present the hospital as the best choice for somebody seeking care.
Interior consumers, on the other hand, are people who work in the medical field, such as physicians, hospitals, health workers, and other medical professionals. Internal brand creation for hospitals, as well as controlling rivalry for individual practitioners, are the goals of marketing in this category.
Digital Marketing and Healthcare
Eventually, every business has to come in alignment with the current changes and developments to stay relevant. Keeping this in mind, the healthcare sector has benefitted from the tools of digital marketing in many ways. By using the means of digital marketing, doctors can reach a larger pool of audience.
Doctors can build good relationships with their patients by creating informative content and promoting it on their websites and social media channels. This will ultimately result in building trust with potential patients. When patients see that you’re an expert in your field, they’re more likely to choose you as their healthcare provider. Using digital marketing, you can position yourself as a thought leader in your field and build trust with potential patients. Also, you should follow healthcare marketing trends.
How can a Doctor benefit from the tools of Digital Marketing?
It might be unfamiliar to hear about the benefits of digital marketing in the healthcare industry. Much to your surprise, it can actually be a lot of help for doctors to grasp the idea of digital marketing. Let’s understand the benefits of digital marketing for doctors.
1. A strong online presence:
In today’s digital world, having an online presence is of paramount importance. By creating an online website, doctors can promote their services. Having an online presence allows your patients to view your practice, read reviews, compare prices, and decide whether you are the right choice for them or not.
2. Engaging and attracting your potential patients:
With the help of digital marketing techniques like SEO, you can stay on top of the ranking page and attract as many people as you want. You can also engage and communicate with your patients online. Using digital channels like email and social media provides you with the opportunity to stay in touch with your patients, give them helpful information, and build a relationship with them.
Patients can leave positive reviews on review sites like Yelp and Google by using digital marketing channels such as email marketing or social media. This can help a doctor attract new patients and improve their online reputation.
3. Digital marketing allows doctors to target their audience better:
Doctors can create targeted ads to show only people who live in their area and are looking for information about health or are interested in similar practices. This will allow doctors to save money by not wasting marketing dollars on people unlikely to be interested. Furthermore, this is a much more cost-effective technique than compared to traditional forms of marketing such as printing ads in newspapers or buying ad slots on television or radio.
4. Digital marketing can help your patients become loyal:
With the application of various forms of digital marketing, such as content marketing or social media marketing, doctors can establish an everyday relationship with their audience. For instance, it has become a lot more common these days for the masses to follow everyday health advice. This way, your audience will remember your name and will consult you first whenever the need arises.
5. Doctors can have a real-time analysis of their marketing efforts:
With the help of digital marketing, doctors can have real-time actionable insights and access to real-time data. This data can be used to help doctors gain insight into their campaigns’ performance and pinpoint areas that need improvement. Doctors can, for example, adjust the messaging and targeting to increase conversions if a campaign or ad isn’t generating enough clicks. Doctors can also shift their budget to better-performing channels and platforms if one channel or platform isn’t delivering the results they desire.
Digital marketing tips for Doctors
While it sounds easy and beneficial in writing, in reality, practising digital marketing is a challenging yet crucial task. Let’s take a look at a few important strategies and digital marketing tips for doctors should follow in 2023, to up their digital marketing game.
1. Maintain an interactive website:
Having a website nowadays is very crucial. It portrays your services, your brand and your practice to the audience. Your website is the first impression that your potential patients get, so the website should be up to the mark.
The website should be user-friendly, and every piece of information and every service should be displayed clearly. On the website, all actions that a patient wants to take should be convenient and easy to use.
If there are multiple doctors working in the clinic, make sure that the website mentions every important information, like their contact, their specialisation etc. Also, make sure that your website is compatible with a mobile phone.
2. Including a blog on your website:
Inculcating a blog on your website gives you an edge over others. Through your blog, you can inform and educate the viewers. This is one of the most effective ways to gain organic traffic for your website. Make sure to add content that is relevant and something that your audience would like to read and share. You can discuss recent medical updates, upcoming diseases and vaccines, or tips for maintaining good health in your blogs.
3. Google maps optimisation:
You can enhance the visibility of your website on Google Maps by optimising it for Google Maps. Your listing will appear on the map if someone enters a keyword associated with your business. Include your practice’s name, address, phone number, website URL, and hours of operation in your listing to optimise it.
4. Use PPC and display ads:
Apart from search engine optimisation, paid advertising is also crucial. Even if you have a well-planned and laid-out SEO strategy, websites with paid advertising are bound to appear higher. You will gain more awareness with PPC.
Pay-per-click advertising is a cost-effective method since you pay a small fee each time a patient clicks on your advertisement. You will be able to target potential customers who are searching for similar services to yours using PPC.
5. Be consistent with your social media platforms:
Social media is the most important and crucial of your digital marketing strategy. Make sure to stay on top of all the ongoing trends and follow them to stay ahead of the curve.
Social media is an extraordinary way of engaging with your audience. However, this is possible only if you are consistent. Introduce your team, share educational material, answer frequently asked questions, and talk about recent developments in your practice using videos.
6. Invest in Search Engine Optimisation:
SEO is one of the most important aspects of Digital Marketing. If you are a doctor, you need to make sure your website and blog are search engine optimised.
Search engine results pages (SERPs) can be improved by including relevant keywords and phrases in your website content. Your website should also be easy to navigate and informative, in addition to including relevant keywords. Make sure to add keywords to your title tags, your blog content, your website content, as well as the content you publish on your social media platforms.
7. Email Marketing:
Email marketing is one digital marketing strategy doctors can use. Through email marketing, doctors can communicate with their patients and potential patients. In this way, the practice can advertise special offers, new services, or events that are happening at the practice. The use of email marketing can be a powerful tool for reaching potential and existing patients, as well as for building relationships with referring physicians.
8. Establish expertise online:
If you have in-depth knowledge of a particular topic, then you can form an online course. This is a great way to communicate and engage with people. It will not only educate the patients but will also increase their trust in your practice.
Furthermore, you can use platforms like LinkedIn communities and other internet forums to stay on top of developments in your particular area of the healthcare sector. You should periodically send out press releases to the healthcare system. Consider using a service like HARO to help you gain more exposure in the healthcare industry (Help a Reporter Out).The topics you can cover in your online course could include nutrition, exercise, mental health, and more. If you want your students to get the most out of your course, be sure to include plenty of helpful tips and resources.
9. Social ad campaign:
There are a lot of targeting options available in social media advertising, which makes it so effective. The next step is to build an audience with a specific goal in mind based on who your Ideal Patient is.
Social media provides you with a variety of targeting options. You have to keep it relevant to your target audience and your objectives. In order to create a successful social campaign, you must know what your business goal is.
As your patients’ needs change throughout the year, it is likely that it will also change throughout the year. Your audience that already likes your social media pages will be able to connect with your content organically.
Social ads can help you reach out to people who are not already familiar with your services but may be interested in them. You may want to increase brand awareness, drive engagement, generate traffic, or even generate in-person visits.
10. Webinars:
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the concept of webinars saw a rapid increase. You, as a doctor, can use this tool of digital marketing to inform and educate your audience. It allows you to have a live conversation with the patients, clear their doubts and disseminate important information. You can conduct a webinar on any topic you feel is current and would attract your target audience. Make sure to add a CTA at the end so that your viewers know what to do next.
11. Chatbots:
Chatbots, which are software tools that use artificial Intelligence (AI), allow patients to communicate with them and answer their questions. Chatbots are easily integrated into websites, patient portals, and messaging apps. They can be programmed for a wide range of tasks and can handle many requests. Chatbots can be used by doctors to improve patient satisfaction and provide quick, helpful responses to patient queries, even when they are not in the office.
Chatbots can be used to reduce administrative tasks and increase efficiency in the practice. It is important to ensure that chatbots have been programmed correctly and that patients can escalate their queries to a human representative, if necessary.
12. Respond to reviews:
Online reviews are an important part of digital marketing for doctors. Online reviews can have a major impact on a doctor’s reputation. Responding to these reviews can improve the doctor’s credibility as well as the patient experience. Doctors can improve their online reputation by responding in a respectful and thoughtful manner to online reviews. Reacting to online reviews can help improve patient experience.
It shows that doctors are listening to patients and willing to address any issues or concerns. It is important to keep track of online reviews and respond to both negative and positive reviews. Online review management tools such as Yelp and Google My Business can be used by doctors to streamline the process. Doctors can improve patient experience and build a strong online presence by taking a proactive approach in online review management.
13. Use patient portal:
Patients can access their health information online through a patient portal. They can also communicate with their healthcare providers and manage their healthcare needs. Doctors can make it easier for patients to have access to their health information and communicate directly with them by using a patient portal. Patient portals can be a great way to improve efficiency and patient satisfaction. It is important that the portal be secure and user-friendly so that both patients and healthcare providers can access it. Patients should be given clear instructions on how the portal works and staff trained on how to handle patient requests and inquiries through the portal.
14. Build a mobile-friendly healthcare website:
The website automatically switches to fit as the screen gets bigger or smaller. When trying to crawl a healthcare site, search results look for things like this to evaluate how and where your site will rank.
Sites optimised for mobile users will be given preference over those that aren’t. Responsive websites are the best for mobile virtual healthcare. A responsive site doesn’t mean your photos and materials won’t be accessible on mobile devices, even if you already have one.
15. Test your website speed periodically
According to healthcare marketers who conduct research online, study after study shows that patients may be less willing than ever to put up with slow page loads. A potential patient can be lost on a slow website in the blink of an eye.
Your hospital or medical website could be penalised if your users (or patients) have a bad experience. Google PageSpeed Insights can be found here. Consult with your web developer to learn how to reduce the time for pages to load. Check out your competitors in your “healthcare neighbourhood” or “medical services niche” to see how fast their websites are.
are their posts online unless they’re already engaged or employed.
16. Ask for genuine reviews from patients
Over half of all Americans say that when it comes to finding a doctor, hearing about other people’s experiences with that doctor is extremely important.
Your website can benefit from automatic data reviews from contented patients, which can be used to counterbalance negative reviews that have been posted somewhere else online.
17. Respond to patient feedback
You can’t control what your patients write about you on Yelp and other review sites. It is possible to respond to any patient feedback and demonstrate that you are working on the problem. Yelp and other review sites adapt and respond directly to customer feedback. Patients may be more likely to update their reviews if they receive timely follow-ups from the provider.
Any healthcare marketing plan must include reputation management, but this does not mean that you should become defensive when a customer leaves you a bad review. It’s about making improvements based on feedback from previous patients and guaranteeing excellent patient understanding moving forward.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that digital marketing is an incredible tool for all types of businesses. It has contributed a huge amount of growth to every industry and still has a long way to go. The healthcare sector can also reap the benefits of digital marketing.
It is imperative that people stay informed and educated about certain healthcare terms and be familiar with the treatment they might be getting. Therefore, digital marketing can be used to educate people.
A well-designed and well-planned out digital marketing strategy can help doctors promote their practice and help people in need.
