When looking to grow your medical practice, it is important to think digital. 8 out of 10 people turn to the internet for healthcare information, so being as visible as possible within this space can give you the opportunity to engage and attract more patients to your practice. .
Here are our four digital tips and tricks to help you grow your medical practice in 2022:
- Improve your online visibility
- Connect through email marketing
- Build your social media presence
- Collect and publish patient reviews
4 ways to grow your medical practice this year
Improve your online visibility
Having a website is a great starting point for your medical practice but in order to grow, it’s important to improve and expand your online presence.
Optimise your website
When people are looking for a new medical practice, they will often start their search in Google. Through search engine optimisation (SEO), you can improve how your website currently ranks in Google’s search results so that you become more visible to these prospective patients.
There are numerous SEO tactics that you can introduce in order to begin optimising your website. Here’s our top five recommendations for improving your search presence:
- Write SEO-friendly content
- Optimise your images
- Improve your local SEO
- Get backlinks to your website
- Make sure your website is technically sound
For more information on these SEO tactics, we have put together two guides – one for dental SEO and one for healthcare SEO. These go into detail about how to optimise your website so that you can rank higher in search results.
Get published on other websites
What are the websites or social media channels that your prospective patients typically visit? Appearing in these spaces can help to increase awareness of your medical practice. Some ways in which you can expand your online presence in this way include:
- Press releases. Let journalists and websites know about anything new and noteworthy that is happening in your practice.
- Adverts and advertorials. Work with websites to generate engagement and interest amongst their readership.
- Social media takeovers. Collaborate with brands or specialists in slightly different fields to connect with their audiences.
Overtime, expanding your online presence can help you to establish connections with potential new patients. Through widening your audience, this can help to increase your own website traffic and result in more people getting in contact, helping you to grow your medical practice.
Connect through email marketing
According to Nielson research, most doctors still don’t use email or text messages to market to or communicate with patients. Email and text can be a simple and effective way of connecting with lapsed patients and retaining patients for longer.
For some practices, discount treatments or incentives may be suitable. You may also want to remind patients of annual or recommended check-ups. Alternatively, you can put together a monthly educational newsletter to generally increase people’s awareness of your medical practice.
The key to successful email marketing is to have a plan, be consistent in your delivery and use simple clear messaging. Remember that 46% of emails are read on mobile devices, so keep them short and simple.
Build your social media presence
Your Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin can be a great way of reaching out and engaging with new and prospective patients. Here is a checklist of the things that we recommend doing in order to have an effective social media presence:
- Allocate time. Set aside time each week to plan, write and post on social media. Do it at the end of each day or use online scheduling tools such as Later.com or Hootsuite.
- Before and after pictures. Patients engage with before and after pictures. This is especially valuable for cosmetic procedures and dental work.
- Words matter. Use a careful combination of everyday terms and technical language to sound professional yet approachable.
- Shout about your successes. Use social media to showcase talents and successes, from patient testimonials to award nominations and wins.
- Hashtags. The right hashtags can boost your exposure and help you to connect with the right audience. Monitor high performing posts to discern which hashtags work best for your clinic.
- Join in the discussion. If a post is generating comments, reply or acknowledge them. Thanking people for positive comments and responding to technical questions can be a great way to keep the conversation going and boost the visibility of a post.
Collect and publish patient reviews
90% of patients use online reviews to evaluate healthcare professionals. And, the average person reads between 4-10 reviews before choosing to book an appointment.
Your reviews can make the difference between a patient choosing your medical practice or going with another. As such, you should be embracing patient feedback. Not only do online reviews allow you to showcase your standard of care to potential patients, but they also allow you to establish deeper connections with your current patients. They show that you are committed to their ongoing care, as you have steps in place to listen to their thoughts and understand their experiences.
The Doctify platform is a review intelligence platform that has been purpose-built for healthcare. We make it easy for you to gather and publish verified reviews online, helping you to hear more from your patients and share their experiences with prospective patients online.
