Are you struggling to get more patients into your healthcare practice? medical practice is a business, and it needs to be marketed to be successful. The traditional marketing strategies you may have relied on until now are no longer working. It’s time to try something new.
These days, you need to be online and have a strong web presence to attract new patients. You can boost your reputation by asking your current patients to review your practice online or refer their friends and relatives to you. You can become a thought leader in your field by starting a blog. And you can give patients the convenience they need by offering virtual visits and interacting with patients via an online patient portal.
Build a Strong Web Presence
Building a strong web presence is perhaps the most important thing you can do to boost your brand awareness and improve your reputation (and remember, the better your reputation, the more patients you’re going to get). Start by building a website for your practice. There are plenty of user-friendly tools available to help you build a responsive, up-to-date website.
Your website should be mobile-ready and easy to navigate. The home page design should be nice and simple. It should have plenty of informative content, including information on the doctors and nurses in your practice, your specialties, how to contact you, and where you’re located.
Your website should also be optimized for search, so that prospective patients in your area can find you easily.
You don’t need to become an expert on search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine marketing (SEM) in order to optimize your website for search. Instead, you should hire a healthcare marketing agency to help you with the technical aspects of marketing your practice online.
But building a strong web presence isn’t just about having a website. Your practice also needs a presence on social media.
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are the best social media tools for medical practices. Use your social media profiles to engage with patients and share valuable content. Sharing videos and blog posts about health concerns relevant to your practice will help draw in more patients.
Make sure you list your practice with Google so that patients can find you online. Seventy-two percent of adults in the United States use the internet to look up health information, including information about local medical practices.
Ask Current Patients for Reviews and Referrals
Your current patients can be powerful ambassadors for your practice. Encourage them to review your business on Google or on Facebook. Offer a reward for referrals to your practice – perhaps a discount on their next treatment.
Start a Blog
A blog can be a powerful tool for promoting your medical practice. Fill your blog with thoughtful posts about health conditions and treatments relevant to your practice area. Encourage the other doctors and nurses in your practice to write blog posts of their own.
You can publish your blog on your website. Use SEO search keywords so that the blog posts can draw more traffic to your site.
A well-read blog with an active comment section shows Google that you have built a community around your website, and that can help you climb the search engine rankings to appear at the top of the list of search returns for your keywords.
Blogs also create the opportunity to add more SEO keywords to your page, so you’ll be bringing in more traffic from people searching for those terms.
Implement an Online Patient Portal
These days, patients want to be able to engage with their healthcare providers online. They want to be able to sign into an online patient portal to check and renew prescriptions, make and reschedule appointments, ask their doctors or nurses questions, check test results, and more.
If your practice isn’t using an online patient portal yet, then you’re behind the times, and you’re not offering your patients the convenience they require from you.
Of course, there are plenty of online patient portals that are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
You’ll be able to attract and retain more patients when you can offer them the convenience of online scheduling, secure email, and digital prescription renewals.
Patients will be more likely to make appointments if they don’t have to call your office, and more likely to keep them if they can reschedule online.
Start Doing Virtual Visits
Not everyone can take time off work to see a doctor during the day. Plenty of people these days want to avoid going to a doctor’s office if they have something minor, because they don’t want to catch COVID-19.
Offering virtual visits can help you attract patients with those needs. You can do after-hours virtual visits from home or over the phone, to meet the needs of patients who need after-hours care.
It’s not always easy to attract more patients to your medical practice, but with the right marketing strategy, it can be done. Do what you can to bring in more patients, and soon your practice will thrive.
Read Also
- A Guide to Creating a Caring and Welcoming Space for Your Dental Patients
If you are running a dental practice, you might be looking to make your patients feel as comfortable as possible, especially since there are many adults who fear the dentist just as much as they did when they were children. To ensure that everyone feels as if your practice is a safe and welcoming space,… Read more: A Guide to Creating a Caring and Welcoming Space for Your Dental Patients - How Health Clinics Are Adopting Progressive Wellness PracticesIn recent years, health clinics have transformed their approach to patient care, incorporating progressive wellness practices to meet the diverse needs of today’s healthcare consumers. These practices go beyond traditional treatments, focusing on preventive care, integrative therapies, and personalized wellness strategies that support holistic health. By adopting forward-thinking wellness solutions, health clinics are setting new… Read more: How Health Clinics Are Adopting Progressive Wellness Practices
- Preventing Infections in Health Care Settings: Essential EquipmentInfections in healthcare settings pose a significant risk to patient safety, leading to prolonged hospital stays, increased healthcare costs, and, in some cases, death. To combat this challenge, a multifaceted approach is required, emphasizing the importance of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures. Among the most critical components of these measures is the use of… Read more: Preventing Infections in Health Care Settings: Essential Equipment
- Empowering the Next Generation of Medical Professionals: Inside Tareen Dermatology’s Gap Year ProgramIn the world of healthcare, the journey to becoming a medical professional is often long, rigorous, and demanding. For pre-med and pre-physician assistant (pre-PA) students, the road is paved with academic challenges, clinical experiences, and the constant need to prove their commitment to the field. One way to gain a competitive edge and meaningful experience… Read more: Empowering the Next Generation of Medical Professionals: Inside Tareen Dermatology’s Gap Year Program
- The Future of Care: Why Global Healthcare Services Matter More Than EverThe growing demand for healthcare services addressing chronic conditions and complex ailments necessitates a paradigm shift. Moving away from a reactive, treatment-focused approach, global healthcare now emphasizes prevention. Regular health screenings, early diagnosis, and proactive lifestyle modifications have become crucial components, enhancing accessibility and ensuring better health outcomes for all. This paradigm shift calls for… Read more: The Future of Care: Why Global Healthcare Services Matter More Than Ever
