As you try to build your practice and reach more patients, have you considered digital marketing? Creating a comprehensive healthcare digital marketing strategy is essential because this industry demands more credibility and authority than other industries.
Patients are unlikely to choose just any provider. Your marketing strategy needs to show them that you are the best choice.
Forge Apollo is a Philadelphia-based marketing agency that provides website design, video production, and digital marketing services for the healthcare industry. Let’s dive into what our experts recommend every digital healthcare marketing strategy contain.
1. Website
Most digital marketing efforts lead back to your website. When visitors land on a medical professional’s website, they want to see a high-quality website design that builds credibility and is easy to navigate. As time moves forward, website design standards also change. Make sure you regularly refresh your website design to match modern expectations. Having flex hours from your marketing agency is an easy way to continuously make design updates to your website over time.
2. Email
The best way to reach the audience you already have and motivate them to take action is through healthcare email marketing. In some cases, you can set this up to passively act in the background to warm up leads, like automated campaigns we made for a luxury rehabilitation center that helped them generate nearly $100,000 in revenue in seven months.
3. Local SEO
89% of Google users search for healthcare-related queries. SEO helps you reach audiences searching for information about your service area online. While SEO is important, local SEO is especially helpful to ensure practices can reach audiences specifically in their service area.Â
Local SEO includes on-page elements like location landing pages and off-page elements like local listings. If someone searches for “dentist in Philadelphia,” or they are located in the area and search “emergency dentist near me,” local SEO would help a dental practice in the Philadelphia area appear in their results.
4. Paid Ads
While SEO depends on search engine algorithms to connect you with specific search terms and audiences, pay-per-click and social media ads allow you for precise, intentional targeting.
For example, a dental practice in Philadelphia could target Google ads to appear for searches of keywords related to dental work in the area. Or, they could target people living in the area at a certain income level with an interest in health on social media.
Paid ads allow medical practices to remain top of mind when a potential patient wants service and appear in results when actively seeking out their services.
5. Social Media
Social media is the perfect way to give potential patients (and potential hires) a view into your practice’s culture, personality, and expertise. In fact, over 40% of people use social media to help them make decisions about doctors or hospitals. Social profiles go a long way in building brand awareness and brand affinity, but they can also generate leads in the long term. Sharing before and after content, for example, can greatly impact potential patients.
6. High Quality Content
Patients want their medical providers to be credible. So, every piece of your marketing strategy needs to broadcast quality to showcase trustworthiness. This applies to all your content, from website design to visual imagery.
Main Line Health, for example, shared a message for the holidays in which they shared how they helped patients heal in time to spend the holidays at home. Instead of sending an intern out with a phone camera, Main Line Health partnered with Forge Apollo to produce the video.
We crafted such a high-quality video that it won an Emmy.
Remember HIPAA Compliance
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulates the handling of patients’ protected personal information. Healthcare providers must be clear that none of their marketing efforts (particularly those using patient information, like email) violate HIPAA policies.
Your Partners for Healthcare Digital Marketing
Effective healthcare marketing strategies work together seamlessly to drive high-value cases to a practice. Forge Apollo is a digital and video marketing agency providing healthcare marketing in Philadelphia and other areas. If you want help to build your marketing strategy, contact us today.
