According to a study, losing a patient to another healthcare provider can result in a lifetime revenue loss of up to $200,000.
This implies that whether you are a cardiologist, dentist, or general practitioner, consistent profitability and sustained success of your practice largely depend on patient retention.
However, how can we ensure patients’ loyalty in today’s competitive landscape, where patients have myriad choices?
The answer lies in effective marketing strategies.
By harnessing the power of result-driven marketing strategies, healthcare professionals can get an edge over their competitors, cultivate lasting relationships and increase their cash flow. In fact, each patient interaction, from first appointment to treatment and follow-up, provides businesses with a valuable opportunity to make a positive impression. A robust marketing strategy for doctors plays a crucial role in leveraging these touch points and keeping patients engaged.
In this post, we’ve curated the list of 10 effective marketing approaches for healthcare professionals that not only attract new patients but also elevate the retention of existing ones.
But before that, let’s understand the basics:
1. What Is Medical Digital Marketing?
Medical digital marketing is the process of strategic outreach to bring in new patients and guide them through their medical journey. It involves strategies that keep them engaged with the medical system, product, or service. When done correctly, medical marketing can enhance the patient’s experience, drive more qualified leads, build your brand, and position you as a thought leader in the market. With the rapid changes in the medical industry, doctors require agility and focus. You may need to hire a healthcare marketing agency to increase your reach and drive qualified leads.
2. Why Is Digital Marketing Strategy Important for Doctors?
- Increase Patients
Digital marketing strategy for doctors helps increase the patient base effectively. You can develop an SEO-friendly website, improve visibility on social media, and use content marketing and email marketing tactics to connect with new patients and convert them into potential customers.
- Brand Building
Digital marketing strategy for doctors is an integral part of business development. You can differentiate your brand from competitors with a strong branding strategy. Besides, engage with existing patients on social media and other channels to establish your brand.
- Build Relationship
You can build and maintain excellent relationships with your patients with the best digital marketing strategy for doctors. You can regularly stay in touch with them through newsletters, promotional emails, blog posts, and outreach programs.
- Cost-effective
Digital marketing for doctors is more cost-effective than traditional marketing. You don’t have to spend too much to see results from digital marketing. However, you need to invest a reasonable amount of time to generate positive outcomes. The best thing is that you can track the KPIs and modify them to meet their business goals.
3. Marketing Strategy for Doctors: 10 Best Ways to Grow Your Practice
3.1 Create a Responsive Website
As per statistics, 70% to 82% people have looked for health or medical information online.
This data highlights the importance of having a website for healthcare practices. To market your services or products, you need a user-friendly website that provides complete details and helps the user know more about you. With proper navigation and content, your website should be the first point of contact.
Moreover, According to the mobile-first index algorithm, Google ranks responsive websites higher than non-responsive sites. Hence, it is crucial to have a mobile-responsive layout that can be accessed on different devices.
3.2 Drive Organic Traffic With SEO
According to Pew Internet Research, 77% of health seekers begin their search at Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
Some popular search phrases in Google for healthcare professionals are medical specialists near me, the best doctor in Sydney, best doctor near me, and so on. Based on these search criteria, search engines populate a list of authoritative websites by assessing content relevance and the quality of backlinks.
Hence, doctors can utilise the power of targeted SEO to improve a website’s ranking on search engines. It involves combining content with relevant keywords to increase the number of people coming to the website by positioning it on SERPs’ first or second page.
3.3 Build a Reputation on Social Media
41% of people would choose a doctor based on their reputation on social media. It means building a solid social media presence will help improve your reputation and boost awareness. As a medical professional, you can make your presence strong on platforms like – LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Then, build credibility by directly connecting with your target audience on social media channels.
For instance, Innovation on health is a LinkedIn group created by Philips to create discussions on medicine and healthcare. With 1,00,000 members worldwide, marketing on this type of group will strongly impact your medical practice.
3.4 Invest in PPC to Drive Qualified Leads
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is an online advertising program that helps you create ads targeted to a specific audience or group looking for your services. If you intend to invest in Google Ads, third-party tools can help you refine the advertising process. Paid media ads appear on the top and bottom of organic search results. With prominent ad placement, you can have focused advertisements that target your patients.
As a medical professional, you are in a trusted and responsible position that lasts for years. You can proactively build your brand reputation with PPC ads and drive qualified leads.
3.5 Engage in Referral Marketing
Doctor or healthcare practitioner referrals are some of the best medical marketing strategies to bring in new patients. Word-of-mouth referrals should always be a part of your medical marketing strategy, as it adds an authentic and credible voice to your professional reputation. Your patients will always appreciate you taking the time to reach out and even may consider referring your business to family and friends. You could follow up with your patients after an appointment to see how they’re doing, heck about their families, send birthday wishes, personalised promotions, text reminders and more to maintain a positive relationship.
3.6 Leverage the Power of Email Marketing to Retain Patients
Today, nearly 62% of physicians use email communication, and 90% of people check their emails compared to SMS, phone calls, or in-person visits.
If you want to generate new leads for your clinic or nurture existing ones for long-term relationships – you should consider email marketing. Medical practitioners can tap into the power of email marketing to connect with their patients and promote good health practices.
Compared to traditional forms, like flyers or brochures, email is far more cost-effective and a viable option. In addition, email marketing for doctors allows you to offer more than just medical services.
3.7 Educate Patients With Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the best healthcare marketing practices focused on distributing relevant and valuable content to attract and retain potential clients. Medical content is one of the most consumed contents on the internet. With millions of people seeking information on diseases, healthcare, preventive measures, and so on – having an educational blog on your website will help drive potential traffic.
It helps healthcare practitioners to reach people and educate them through online content. Some popular formats include – blog posts, infographics, eBooks, white papers, case studies, and social media content. You can tailor your content marketing healthcare to showcase your specific offerings and specialisations.
3.8 Show Your Authority With Informative Videos
Doctors and healthcare practitioners create websites and use social media to market their services. Videos are more prominent in medical marketing to attract patients and help build your reputation. The time spent by patients on video platforms is increasing day by day. The explanation and animations you use are what keep healthcare video marketing different.
You can create different types of videos, such as – explainers, short stories, testimonials, educational, promotional, and whiteboard videos. Before you invest in video marketing, it is essential to have a plan for the type of videos. You need a storyline or script to create engaging videos.
3.9 Acquire New Patients With Outreach Programs
Medical outreach programs are a great example of how doctors can market their services. Most of the outreach programs are described as initiatives that play a crucial role in improving and extending the reach of healthcare. It may be implemented by a doctor or healthcare organisation to impact the health of underprivileged groups positively.
Americares, checkup, and Cabrini help you build a local healthcare capacity through their extensive partner network of volunteer teams. As a medical practitioner, you can collaborate with any outreach programs to market your business.
3.10 Improve Online Reviews
Online reputation management is another essential digital marketing tactic for doctors. According to sources, nearly 81% of patients look for online reviews when looking for a physician or referring to others. As a result, managing online reputation is of utmost importance. As a part of the marketing strategy for doctors, you’ll need to ask patients for reviews in an effective manner.
Adding relevant reviews and testimonials on your website will help you attract a potential audience. Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook are the most important sites where patients look for reviews. Unfortunately, it is possible to get negative reviews on your profile. However, taking appropriate steps to address patient concerns should be of utmost priority.
4. Case Study Examples of Marketing Strategy for Doctors
- Doctor.Wendy Sue Swanson
Dr Wendy Sue Swanson is a doctor at Seattle Children’s Hospital who created highly relevant and authoritative content to educate the audience on child healthcare. She started a blog, “Seattle Mama Doc,” to share her story and advise mothers on their child’s healthcare. As a result, she established herself as a trusted doctor in her field of specialisation and gained 26,000 followers on Twitter. She was also awarded TIME’s Best Twitter Feeds in 2013.
- Carilion Clinic
Carilion Clinic is a healthcare facility based in Virginia’s Roanoke valley. To create awareness of breast cancer, they ran a campaign, #YesMamm, that generated a lot of traction. The global cancer awareness campaign helped many people keep their hope and win their battle.
Lastly, let’s explore how a digital marketing agency can help in the process.
5. How Can a Digital Marketing Agency Help?
A digital marketing agency can help healthcare practitioners create a comprehensive strategy combining SEO, content marketing, paid media and more. They segment the audience based on demographics and preferences to ensure the marketing initiatives is relevant and resonates with potential patients.
Growth Ganik is a full-stack digital marketing agency in Sydney, Australia with over 15 years of experience in B2B and B2C space. We help doctors and healthcare providers craft informative content, manage online reviews, develop targeted ads and leverage data to enhance patient satisfaction and boost retention.
To build a patient-centric marketing approach, schedule a free consultation with our experts!
6. FAQS
- How can healthcare providers leverage digital marketing?
Healthcare providers or doctors can leverage digital marketing by combining strategies such as – SEO for healthcare, social media marketing, PPC ads, email marketing, and referral marketing.
- How Do You Attract Patients to a Clinic?
To attract patients to a clinic, you need a solid digital marketing strategy for doctors that includes – content marketing, referral, and outreach programs. Also, you can use email marketing to generate qualified leads.
- What role does social media play in healthcare digital marketing?
Doctors must intergrate social media marketing to build their brand reputation and improve online visibility. Today, the majority of people are using social media platforms. Like any other industry, doctors, too, can tap into the power of social media marketing.
- How can digital marketing improve patient engagement and communication?
Digital marketing allows healthcare providers to connect with patients through various online channels, providing timely information, appointment reminders, and educational content. This fosters better communication and engagement.
- How can digital marketing contribute to patient education?
Digital marketing facilitates the creation and distribution of educational content, such as blog posts, videos, and infographics. This helps in informing patients about health conditions, treatment options, and preventive care.
- How can digital marketing agencies help healthcare providers with online reputation management?
Digital marketing agencies can monitor online reviews, manage ratings, and implement strategies to enhance the healthcare provider’s online reputation. This includes addressing negative feedback and promoting positive patient experiences.
