Each month, consumers in the U.S. perform more than 4.7 million online searches for local doctors. For you to convert those searchers into new patients, you need to dominate the web—in the search engines, local directories, social media, and everywhere else your target audience spends time.
To stay competitive and achieve year-over-year increases doctors should consider all core marketing and technology initiatives, as well as some new and noteworthy ones.
Here are 6 easy (but highly effective) strategies you can implement to increase patient volume.
1. Invest in a Beautiful, Functional Medical Website
Think of your website as your virtual practice. In today’s technological age, your website will likely be the first touch your business will have with prospective patients. Therefore, you should put as much thought and care into your site as you do your waiting room.
Not only is your practice website important because it will be the first thing many people interact with, but it also will be where people go to get the information they seek and can be a business generator in itself.
You may presently have a website, but maybe unsure if it’s built to convert patients. Here are some questions you should ask:
Are your featured services highlighted on your homepage?
This may seem obvious, but this is your opportunity to promote your high revenue services or procedures. For example, maybe you’re an Ophthalmologist that helps patients see clearly with Lasik or a cosmetic dentist that can improve someone’s smile and confidence by fixing their chipped or cracked teeth. Regardless of your specialty, having your high revenue procedures on your homepage is a great sales opportunity.
Is your website mobile responsive?
Over the last year, we noticed that 57% of users (current and potential future patients) came to our clients’ websites from a phone or tablet.
With potentially more than half of your traffic coming from mobile devices, it’s important to optimize your site with a mobile-first strategy, or you run the risk of losing those precious consultation requests!
Do you have a designated staff and provider page?
Patients want to know who will be handling their care and want to learn about their physicians. To boost the medical SEO for your practice physicians; dedicate individual pages for physician bios, credentials, and more that way you guarantee when patients do specific physician search your medical practice website shoots to the top over review sites.
Does Your Website Have a Blog?
You’ve heard a lot about blogging, but what’s the big deal?
When Google and other search engines (think Bing, Yahoo, etc.) index your site, their search engine “spiders” (basically robots) crawl it to see what type of information you’re providing and how valuable it is.
Blogging 2 - 3 times a month will ensure patients visit and stay on your practice website. The more original and keyword-rich content on your website, the more Google will show you love.
Do you have the proper SEO & Keyword Research?
Listen…this a BIG DEAL for your website! A strong performing SEO strategy for a medical or dental practice starts with the foundation of your website.
Do you have lead forms on your medical website that are easy to use for patients scheduling appointments?
A well designed medical website simplifies a potential patient to request a new appointment on their website.
2. Optimize Your Website for SEO
In 2018 nearly 80% of all patients turned online to search for medical information, physicians, and practices.
Nowadays it’s imperative you rank high in Google for your main medical services and keywords over your competitors.
The way people use technology today is far different than how it was used 10-years ago. From smartphones, laptops, or AI devices (Google Home or Alexa), people are constantly interacting with technology, so much so, the phrase “let me Google that” is now integrated into people’s vocabulary.
Marketing has always been about connecting with your audience in the right place and time. Today, your audience is spending their time online. You need to meet them where they are.
3. Generating and Featuring Reviews
Patient reviews are one of the top 3 most important local SEO factors when it comes to local search rankings. Studies have shown that 68% of potential patients form an opinion about your medical practice and it’s physicians with as little as five reviews.
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According to a recent survey, providers who consider online patient reviews important to their success are more likely to report achieving key practice performance goals. So, when it comes to medical marketing strategies generating positive patient reviews needs to be at the top of the list!
4. Showcase Your Before and After Galleries
Sharing high quality before and after pictures of actual patient results can be one of the single most important medical marketing strategies, a practice that provides aesthetics services can do.
When it comes to cosmetic surgery and aesthetic marketing before and after photos are an absolute must. Develop a large before and after gallery showcasing multiple examples of successful patient’s before and after for various surgical procedures and age ranges.
If your medical specialty is not cosmetic based consider working with a patient that is willing to share their treatment journey as a case study for your practice.
Allow patients to search by the procedure so they can better visualize the results they can achieve.
5. Advertise On Google Ads
Digital advertising has become an essential tool for a digital marketing strategy for medical practices. It offers a unique advertising experience, unlike traditional media, and has the incredible capability to track and record analytics.
Patients turn to Google and other search engines to find a local practice or information on a particular procedure. You want to be there when and where they are looking for information about medical services and surgeries.
6. Social Media Marketing – Find the Best Platforms to Reach Your Patients
Social media can be an easy and resourceful tool not only to attract patients, improve search, but help your practice engage with patients as well.
Social media for doctors is a massive contributor to driving traffic to your medical or dental practice website and search engine rankings and is an essential part of great medical marketing strategies.
Professional social media pages for your medical practice (separate from your personal pages) allow you to frequently contact your audience and remind them of your presence.
Posting tips, news, and other noteworthy items will help ensure followers and fans keep you in mind when they’re in need of medical services. It’s also an ideal forum for your blog posts—useful and interesting links you post can be shared and passed around, providing virtual word-of-mouth about you.
Conclusion – Strategies to Increase Patient Volume at Your Practice
Doctors tell patients an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure. It’s better to have a strategy and partner in place than to wait until you find out your patient database is nearly empty.
It’s important to keep your brand at the forefront of people’s minds. That’s why it’s so important to have a planned, budgeted healthcare marketing strategy to reach new and returning patients in your area at the right time.
At DoctorLogic, our goal is to simplify the digital marketing process for providers and their staff and deliver a better way to attract and retain patients, while providing insights on what’s actually working.
Find out how DoctorLogic can help change your practice for good. Schedule a demo today!