Smart Ways To Boost Your Practice’s Online Presence

Today with the digital revolution, everything about a doctor and his practice can be found with a simple search button. But building a healthy and successful online presence may be a daunting and overwhelming task. No matter what the type of business, restaurant, hotel, electronic gadgets, cars or even physicians now are decided based on online reviews and web presence.  It is not just about grabbing the client’s eyeballs, but making your online presence strong, impressive and trustworthy.

Attracting new patients and holding on to existing ones requires optimizing your web presence across multiple channels and capitalizing on consumer-driven trends. Here are a few insights into ensuring your online presence is accurate and optimized:

• Get your directory updated -The first and foremost step would be to make sure your medical information is accurate on physician rating sites and medical directories. Doctor search directories should be made valuable with a unique profile photo, customized bio (your story, experience, treatment and philosophy) and an updated insurance plan that your patients can accept.
   
• Get listed on Google My Business –It is a no brainer that Google is supreme and it is absolutely imperative that you feed your practice information to Google. Making your prospective patients find you is most vital to any medical practice and Google My Business is one such platform that empowers your patients to locate you through the tools like Maps, Google+ and Google places. Make sure you update your business information to Google from time to time in order to provide your patients the maximum, correct information in hand.
  
  
   
• Get a Mobile Optimized Website- Claimed as one of the best SEO practice, a mobile friendly website means that your visitors( patients ) have an optimized experience accessing your website from any device, laptop, tablet or Smartphone. To see if your current website is mobile optimized, copy/paste the URL into Google’s handy Mobile Friendly Tester.

Key Takeaway

Building an optimized online presence is not something to stress about but to get started. A Healthy Online presence will not only help you connect with the right clients but also help you establish your brand and benefit your practice in the long run. It is however not a one time practice and requires continuous updates and patient engagement mechanisms to amplify your business potential. Feedbacks and reviews must be monitored and responded to ensure an open line of communication. Online presence when implemented adequately and precisely will make you shine!

Creating A Winner Marketing Plan For Your Prospective Patients

 

There was time when patients sought out to doctors, but given the increasing number of medical practitioners, it is the doctors who are battling to attract patients, new and returning in order to maintain a healthy and profitable relationship among them. With advances in technology, patients now have access to quality healthcare and detailed information in going about choosing the right medical practitioner.This evidently calls for a result driven, easy to implement marketing plan that will pay off in the competitive years and drive their profession to new heights. The focus of the marketing plan should be to ensure that the treatments and services offered best meet the patient’s need. 

Marketing Plan that focuses on Patient Acquisition to Patient Engagement
 

A flexible marketing strategy that responds to changing market situations is the key to improving patient acquisition and managing long term business sustenance. As a medical practitioner you need to know where you are heading to go in order to plan how to get there. It is then, that you can target the right patient with the right message at the right time.

 These are a few steps outlined to help you devise a Medical Marketing Strategy that will help you grow your business efficiently:

• Identify who you are and where you want to go: Begin your marketing strategy with a SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities & threats) analysis. This will help you discover your key potential that differentiates you from the rest and give you a clear idea as to which type of patients you would want to attract and promote your practice accordingly.
• Design your sales funnel and marketing plan: When you know who your potential patients are, design your marketing plans and channels they are most likely to access. For example the age group of your patients will help you decide the ratio of online and offline marketing mix that is ideal for your business.
• Targeted online advertising for Patient Acquisition: Your patient acquisition process should meet the evolving needs and surroundings of your patients. An effective advertising campaign should entail a selected target audience and deploy strategies to optimize your business position and bring a call to action (call for an appointment).
• Patient Retention & Engagement Strategies: Patient engagement strategies should help attract new patients as well as builds long term relationships. Just like other staff, patients also need to be made to feel special. Automated E-mail marketing campaigns that will send notifications,updates, newsletters and routine check up reminders for example, are excellent engagement tools that ensure optimum patient relationship and repeat business.

The Bottom Line 

A famous quote by Zig Ziglar says: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

A good marketing strategy is not just the application of the 5P’s (Product, Price, Place, Promotion and People) to meet your requirements in driving your medical practice but also that which drives your reputation and branding. The key to a thriving medical practice is about maintaining a perfect balance of the medical marketing techniques that focuses on “staying in touch with patients”, “understanding their evolving needs” and “delivering results through a tactical plan”.

Need For Technological Advancement In The Healthcare Industry

Technology has intruded almost every aspect of human lives. If you were planning a holiday at the hills or shop for best brands online, you are quite likely to search for a health care specialist or a healthcare solution using the irrefutable power of internet. From locating where is the closest dental clinic to getting reviews about the cosmetic surgeon you were planning to visit, technology has changed the way we access healthcare.

At a recent digital marketing event, Google’s healthcare business lead Shivalika Singh mentioned that one in 20 searches on Google are healthcare related. This highlights the internet's ubiquitous ability to potentially empower patients.

The challenge remains in finding the right information!

The way we find information is often the challenge. Healthcare brands and organizations need to evaluate the digital expectations and demands of patients. The wealth of information that is disseminated to patients, is often impersonal, irrelevant or invalidated. The reality of online health that is being offered by healthcare brands or organization is still trailing behind, something that they really cannot afford in this digital age.

The need for a positive, radical change in Digital Healthcare
The opportunity for digital healthcare brands is to create services and products that are tailored around the patient. Taking the example of Airbnb's hospitality solutions works perfectly for people wanting to lease or rent short-term lodging enabling simplified transactions and other supports.  Likewise, the need for a simple healthcare solution that offers efficient and streamlined booking systems, patient enquiries and opening the doors to an "interactive healthcare" platform will change the future of online healthcare. Online conversations about health in social networks, participation of doctor's online, all lead to better engagement and open the doors to improved healthcare and well-being. Data needs to be well analysed, real-time with recommendations in moving the way forward for Digital Healthcare.

Integrating the above said is about empowering and inspiring a perfect healthcare and patient equation. Now is the time for technology in healthcare to spell avant-garde!

Marketing Strategies That Can Bring Back Dentists A Big Return

Dentistry is an evolving world, like all medical professions. With more and more dental clinics entering this changing marketplace, as a busy dentist you may well understand the need to protect your turf and stay ahead of competition. Weather it is offering competitive pricing, adding new patients, catering to your existing clientele or promoting your services to them, all of this needs a solid dental marketing plan to build a competitive edge.

While devising a marketing strategy, have you considered which options would be best and return you a positive ROI?As a healthcare marketer old school ways, like hefty TV commercials, tacky newspaper inserts, or other offline promotional policies may prove redundant over the time. Further, they do not help you measure your return on investment or track your advertising efforts if they eventually paid off.

The best way forward is to go to a consultant who will evaluate your brand and help you chart out a comprehensive and modern marketing plan that will meet your business goals within your budgets. In this digital age of information overload all you need is smart andinexpensive ways to market your practice so that the right clients can find you.

How can dentists optimize their marketing plans?

1. Online Internet Marketing- Establishing and increasing your online presence is the hub of all marketing activities. This includes an attractive, well designed and responsive website that will reflect your brand and capture all your potential patients.Make sure to optimize yourself on mobile while creating your business website. Internet has gone social. Start a blog or social media platforms like a Face book page to post articles, connect with potential clients, advice and inform about your particular specialty. You tube videos are a great way to exhibit your dental practices. Online Internet Marketing is the game changer that no other marketing strategy can replace.
2. Referral Marketing - Nothing beats word of mouth when it comes to dental practices. Referrals indicate Trust and isvital to building a potential patient base. While this method of tapping business is not new, tracking and managing referrals is a tough task. An electronic referral management system can solve the issues of maintaining accurate information and keeping them up to date at real time. A good referral program that rewards existing patients doesn't cost much but works wonders in this practice.
3. E-Mail Marketing - No one likes to go to a dentist unless they have to. That suggest as a healthcare marketer if you have to rule out "out of sight, out of mind" you need to stay in touch with your clients by sending monthly newsletters and medical guides and gives them a friendly reminder for their next visit.

Leveraging The Power Of Digital Marketing Into The Healthcare Space

Digital Marketing will certainly give Healthcare a makeover! Here is why and how

Healthcare and digital marketing have not been heard going hand in hand until now, the digital age. It was then, when patients spent dull hours reading medical pamphlets or visiting clinics looking for information about best doctors and now the tech savvy, flipping screens and instantly accessing information no matter their location. Anywhere from a simple CBC test to complex Cosmetic Surgeries, healthcare has made its presence in every online forum ranging from mobile apps, social media to digital ads. The trend has actively set in with physicians as well in the strive to gain maximum visibility, so there is no escaping the digital path for both, patients and medical professionals.

Why go digital?

Medical marketing strategies worldwide have undergone massive transformation. Some interesting takeaways for healthcare marketers are as below, (insights by Think with Google’s ‘The Digital Journey to Wellness: Hospital Selection)

• Most patients search for treatments and information related to doctors online. According to one of the research, more than 70% of internet users look for Healthcare Information Online.
• More than 40% of consumers (patients) find social media information not only useful but trustworthy. Social is a wonderful way for patients to let out stories of their experiences online. Most of the users of social media falling in the age group of 18-24 trust medical information online through LinkedIn, Twitter and Face book, making it increasingly important for healthcare professionals to target the young audience.
• Over 70% of patients use search engines like Google before they book appointments online out of which a 44% comprise mobile devices.
• Digital content plays an important role in building trust among consumers. This applies particularly to medical treatments like cosmetic surgery where a doctor's review plays a significant role in the patient's decision making. With reviews being searched extensively, online reputation management through digital marketing remains critical. Building a good brand for healthcare professional becomes easy with online marketing.
• Youtube attracts over 119% year on year increase in traffic to hospital sites. It is more likely that doctors and hospitals find their potential audience on you tube, a highly acknowledged marketing platform.

What is trending in medical healthcare in the digital space?

• Emergence of e-patients (both existing and new)
• Proliferation of online health video, consumers watch more of health videos featuring doctors than food or other topics
• Impact of Mobile traffic. With more than 50% of web traffic coming from mobile device and mobile apps, the spends on digital marketing on this medium is expected to grow.
• Community building. Creating a community around the brand with patient testimonials helps to educate and inform consumers.
• Indian healthcare market is likely to show a growth of a CAGR of 23%. IT health care which is valued at US $1 is poised for 1.5 times growth by the year 2020.
•  Marketing budgets shifting to digital continues to show a positive trend.  

So what is the bottom line? If you as healthcare marketer is not on the internet, you are missing out on a big chunk of prospective consumers, your potential healthcare audience!