You probably didn’t learn any ‘digital marketing for doctors’ skills or take classes during your medical school education. However, if you don’t have an effective online-marketing plan, you’re missing out on ways to connect with patients and generate revenue from them. And, if you aren’t managing your online reputation, you could be losing business to your competition.
When it Comes to Digital Marketing for Doctors, it Starts with Your Online Reputation
Online reputation management (ORM), also known as digital PR, is when, in order respond to any negative or false comments about your brand, you actively monitor mentions on websites and social media platforms. You do this by monitoring what people are saying about you online and reacting to it. This could include releasing a public statement addressing the issue, publishing a social media post in reaction to the comment, or even writing a blog article.
The goal of ORM is to manage the overall perception of your brand online. It’s a key component for digital marketing for doctors to pursue. If someone posts something negative about your company on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc., you want to make sure that your customers know how you feel about it. In addition, you want to ensure that the news doesn’t spread further, either via word-of-mouth or through another medium.
Reactive Online Reputation & Proactive Online Reputation Management for Doctors
If you want to avoid such a fate, you must proactively manage your reputation. This involves creating a plan to identify issues before they occur, and take action to correct them.
Proactive reputation management is different from reactive reputation management because it requires you to think ahead. Instead of reacting to negative events once they happen, you are planning for potential crises before they arise. As a result, you can prevent damage to your brand’s reputation.
We can help build out a proactive marketing plan before problems arise. If problems have beaten you to the punch, then we need to introduce you to…
What is Negative SEO and How Your Reputation Can Be Protected Because of It
Negative SEO is a deceptive practice designed to damage the reputation of another web property. This includes spamming keywords, creating low quality sites, and even manipulating rankings.
However, negative SEO in our usage is different. If your reputation online as a doctor has been tarnished you may have sites showing up with comments about you that you don’t want others to see, ie.. your potential patients. Let’s say for example you’ve been featured on TV for a lawsuit and now that newschannel is ranking #1 in Google for your name, ‘Dr. John Doe’. Now anytime potential patients look for a review they come across that article. Needless to say, thats bad for you business.
This bleeds back into the previous section where now we need to perform reactive online reputation management. Our goal upon being hired is to build out and push out many new sites and drive down that #1 ranking site which has your negative review. This too, is a form of ‘negative SEO’. That is, driving down or outranking the negative site so it no longer shows up in page 1 of Google.
Optimize that Site
Yikes! Enough about all this online reputation talk. How else does a doctor get to marketing their practice?
With search engine optimization or search marketer, you can cater to maximum numbers of people with the help keyword phrases. Adding the primary and secondary key words to your website will help to rank higher in search engines like Google. Moreover, with the on page and off page blog strategy, you can easily cover the latest trending topics and get a chance of increasing traffic with back linking. It is considered one of essential elements in digital marketing.
Keyword Phrases
The most important thing about search engine optimization is to make sure that you are using the correct keywords. Keywords are basically the words that people type into the search bar. These keywords are used to find what they want online. You must ensure that you are using the exact keywords that your potential customers are searching for. If you are not using the right keywords, you will end up losing out on potential leads.
On Page And Off Page Blogging
One of the best ways to do SEO for your practice is to write blogs related to the niche your practice falls under. There are many different types of blogs including video blogging, infographics, eBooks, etc. All these forms of blogs can help you gain visibility and improve your rankings.
Make it Mobile Friendly
According to Statista, there are now 2.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, while in 2017, mobile traffic accounted for 72% of total internet usage. In 2018, it is expected that 80% of all searches will be conducted on smartphones and tablets. This makes it extremely important that your website is optimized for mobile use.
The most popular way people access the web today is via their mobile device. A majority of patients come into your office looking up information about health issues online. If you don’t have a well designed and optimized site for mobile viewing, you’re missing out on potential clients.
In addition to being easy to view on mobile, your website needs to work across multiple platforms. Your website should be able to deliver the same experience regardless of whether someone is accessing it on a computer or a phone.
Your website should include features like responsive designs, a clean navigation structure, and a good amount of white space. These elements make your site easier to navigate and read on different screen sizes. They also help improve usability and conversion rates.
Social Media Marketing for Doctors
Almost 3.6 billion people uses social media marketing around the globe. This means the majority of clients are using social media and subsequently, it can be a good platform to attract them. Marketing doctors using social media almost 4.2 million people follow medical practitioners on Facebook.
Look Locally
When it comes to digital marketing, doctors are often focused on national campaigns. While there are many benefits to targeting a larger audience, it’s important to keep in mind that you’re competing against thousands of businesses for the attention of potential customers.
Patients typically choose doctors in a local area rather than traveling long distances to seek medical care. A recent study found that people are 3.5 times more likely to use a doctor within 30 miles than those living farther away. In fact, Google Consumer Insights reports a 900%+ increase over the past two years in “near me today” searches.
Google Business Profiles help you build trust among local consumers. By creating a profile for your practice, you can add information like contact numbers, opening hours, address, and even photos. These tools allow patients to quickly locate your office, see what services you offer, and learn about your team.
You can personalize your profile with photos, offers, and more. With just a few minutes of work, you can make sure that your clinic stands out from the crowd.
Focus on Pay Per Clicks Ads for Specific Keyphrases
Pay per click advertising is one of the most effective ways to advertise online. You simply bid on certain keywords and once someone clicks on it, you pay a fee. If you don’t want to spend money, you can always go for sponsored listings. These are free and you just have to promote products that are relevant to what you sell.
You can choose to run paid ads on different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. There are many tools out there that help you understand how well your campaigns are doing. You can measure things like CTR, impressions, conversions, etc.
The best thing about PPC is that you know exactly how much each ad costs and whether it worked or not. You can easily track your ROI.
We are experts in digital marketing for doctors. We’ve worked with hundreds and can start building out a strategy to take your practice to the next level.
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