Article by
Anil
Get your healthcare business online
Compete with bigger healthcare businesses and attract more patients with these proven digital marketing ideas to help generate leads for your business.
Times are changing. Traditional marketing for healthcare businesses is no longer a viable way of competing with bigger healthcare businesses such as private hospitals, private healthcare businesses and healthcare groups. Relying on word of mouth isn’t a sustainable means of generating new business either with COVID-19 guidelines altering the way people interact with each other and businesses.
This has placed ever-increasing importance on the internet. According to the latest research, 97% of people learn more about a business online than any other medium. More and more people are turning to search engines such as Google to find businesses and services for their requirements. Its vitally important for businesses to be online for people to find them.
So, if you’ve previously relied on other marketing methods or your glowing in-person experience to generate more business, it might be time to rethink your strategy.
In this blog, we share some valuable digital marketing ideas to help healthcare professionals create an online presence and attract new patients/customers.
Digital marketing ideas for healthcare businesses
Create a mobile-friendly website
One of the most important digital marketing strategies for any business or professional especially in this case healthcare businesses is to develop a website which is optimised for mobile.
With over half of worldwide internet traffic happening on mobile devices and 61% of people stating that they’re more likely to contact a business if they have a mobile-friendly website, mobile optimisation is a must for any healthcare business. Whether that be dentist’s opticians, chiropractors, physiotherapists, etc a well built mobile website is vital to improve your digital presence.
This includes adding Call to Actions on the website, such as clicking to call. This will allow customers to tap the button on their phone and be directly connected to your business phone number. By simply adding this into the footer, header and contact page, you get a chance to convert leads into new patients.
Think local-marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO)
Interestingly, “near me” and “close by” type searches grew by more than 900% over two years. It seems location is becoming a major factor for businesses.
From a digital marketing budget and resource stance, it’s not feasible to compete with bigger healthcare chains on a national scale. However, this market shift does give you a golden opportunity to establish your business as the leaders in your local area.
Local-based marketingis the process of optimising your online reach to customers within a radius of your company.
One of the best local marketing strategies for healthcare businesses is to focus on improving your local search engine optimisation (SEO).
Local SEO refers to strategies that help your business appear higher in local search results on Google for relevant keywords. To improve this, your website content needs to include more location-specific keywords such as “dentists in city/town”, instead of just “dentists”. By doing this, you’ll maximise your chances of being found by customers conducting their “near me” and “close by” searches.
Another local-marketing SEO strategy is to ensure you list your business site on Google My Business and Yelp. This will instantly give your healthcare business an online presence and help local customers find you more easily.
As an ongoing part of this process, you should encourage your existing customers to leave good reviews on Google. This will not only make your business look more trustworthy to new customers, but it also helps you boost your ranking on Google too.
Utilise Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC ads are another top digital marketing strategy used by other businesses in other industries. These online ads are either a form of paid search result ad (appearing at the top of a relevant Google result), or display ads (popping up on other websites).
PPC ads are useful in boosting your online presence as they allow your healthcare business to show up at the top of search result pages above organic results. You can target these ads to reach specific audiences, again, focusing on your local audience.
PPC ads are an extremely cost-effective method of digital marketing for healthcare businesses as you only pay when someone clicks your ad. Generally speaking, customers will only search for a dentist for example when they need to find a dentist, so, there’s a good chance a lot of clicks will convert. The intent of a user searching through Google and clicking an ad is quite high.
To get the most out of PPC ads, you need to:
- Create dedicated landing pages that are designed to suit the PPC ad campaign
- Increase your ad visibility by improving its quality score – i.e. Google’s rating of the quality and relevancy of your PPC ad
- Boost click-through rates by using ad extensions to include extra information in your ads
Optimise social media marketing
The final digital marketing idea for healthcare businesses is a very well known channel, social media. Using Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn will help you stay connected with your clients and increase awareness of your business.
You can use it to:
- Send out general updates – such as opening times and booking info
- Highlight success stories – going to the dentist or optician shouldn’t be seen as a negative. Share positive news stories from your business and flip the perception
- Run competitions – launch a refer a friend incentive to boost your social audience numbers
- Invest in paid ads – social media advertising can generate some quick results online and significantly boost your local audience
A proven track record in generating leads
Knowing what to do is one thing, but finding the time to do it effectively is another challenge altogether. At Amay Digital, we specialise in digital marketing for healthcare businesses.
If you like what you see, get in touch with us today and let us help you improve your online presence through smarter digital marketing for your healthcare business.