Creating a Marketing Plan for Your Practice

When it comes to your healthcare practice, you’re constantly searching for the newest and greatest technological advancements. From innovative equipment or new medicines to ground-breaking therapies, you want to offer it all to your patients.

Why don’t you feel the same way about your marketing?

Doctors and other healthcare practitioners often rely on old-fashioned marketing techniques like print or radio ads, a listing in the Yellow Pages, or even just word of mouth. But with 87% of consumers beginning their journey online, you can’t afford to ignore the internet.

The bottom line is this: If you want your practice to thrive and grow in 2019 and beyond, you need to embrace internet marketing.

Keep reading for the top ways to get in front of a digital audience and keep your healthcare business successful:

Use contact forms

Most people wouldn’t consider contact forms part of a marketing plan. But having a website, and a way for people to contact you from it, is a fundamental piece of your online presence. Most well-designed healthcare websites now have a phone number at the top and bottom of each page, as well as an easy-to-find address, and a contact page with a fillable form.

Include clear calls to action

Whether on your website, your social media, or your email newsletter, you need a clear CTA to lead prospects down your sales funnel. Are you offering a new product or service that you’d like to tell your clients about? Are you the absolute best at a certain procedure or therapy? Make that clear and offer your audience an easy way to request information or sign up.

Make your website mobile-friendly

Take a quick look around you: How many people are on their phones? All of those people are potential clients – but if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, they’re not going to give it a second glance. ALL websites should now feature responsive design, or they risk alienating clients and leads. In fact, if your website isn’t mobile-responsive, Google may not even show you in search results.

Utilize social media

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more continue to grow in popularity and gain new members every single day. But with so many options, it’s easy to stretch yourself (and your budget) thin pretty quickly. The key is to choose one or two platforms that would be most beneficial for your business and concentrate your efforts there. Not only is social media a fantastic way to communicate with your audience and build rapport, but it’s also an essential tool in reputation management: No one likes a negative review, but when you’re online and can respond quickly, it minimizes the damage done.

You can’t count on ads in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television to work anymore. The future of healthcare advertising is online – and if you don’t have an online presence, you’re missing out.