Despite their amazing expertise within a respective field, a lot of healthcare professionals struggle to promote their clinic. Truth be told, healthcare marketing can be quite tricky; the competition is quite high, and things are especially tough if you don’t have enough web reviews.
Given the sensitivity and importance of good health care, word of mouth plays a major role in promoting a business. Whether we’re talking about dental clinic marketing or addiction treatment center marketing, the basic premise remains the same: get as many positive reviews within your local area.
In addition to word of mouth, consider engaging with healthcare PR agencies to elevate your clinic’s visibility. These agencies specialize in crafting compelling narratives and managing public relations for healthcare providers. By leveraging their expertise, you can enhance your clinic’s reputation, establish trust within the community of healthcare marketing with a strategic and professional approach.
Anyway, here are 5 strategies for promoting your healthcare business.
Table of Contents
1. Add your clinic to all local directories
When looking for a healthcare provider, most people will focus on their general area for clients. Of course, this might vary based on the complexity of the procedure. For some treatments, people are willing to travel 1,000 miles to reach a reputable professional.
However, if you’re just looking to clean your teeth, you will likely search for professionals within your area. In such cases, it is very important to rely on local directories as the optimal form of advertising. You can list your clinic for free on these websites. All you need to do is leave your name, address, email, and phone number, and you can exponentially increase your web exposure.
2. Manage your reviews
As already mentioned, reviews are probably the first thing that people check when looking for medical facilities. Although advertising does have some merit in promoting the business, most patients want to know if the business is legit and whether it can provide appropriate care. People don’t want to take any risks when it comes to their health.
So, unless they’re going with word of mouth, they will likely rely on web reviews as the best source of information. Patients need confirmation from real people; this is the only way for them to feel safe.
As a business owner, it is your duty to hunt for reviews. Ask patients if they can leave some positive online comments after a successful procedure. If there are some complaints, try to contact the person who left the comment and remedy the situation. Occasionally, you might have to give free treatments to remove these negative reviews, but in the long run, it will be more than worth it.
3. Consider paid web advertising
There are several ways you can advertise online. When it comes to paid forms, most people think of paid social media marketing and search engine pay-per-click. Both of these approaches are valid and are especially important if you’re a brand new clinic and cannot attract initial visitors.
Another reason why the pay-per-click solution is great for new businesses is that you pay per lead. So, instead of spending money trying to search for random clients, you will only pay per person who actually clicks on the ad. All these guys are potential patients, so there will be no money lost.
The only issue with this approach is that you will probably have to hire a marketing professional, which can sometimes be quite expensive.
4. Invest in your website
Your website is your calling card on the internet. No matter what you’re doing, potential patients will eventually go to your website to check the services, doctor’s profile, and price list (if there are any). Having a shabby website can be disastrous, costing you a lot of money.
Keep in mind that you don’t need a luxurious website; it just needs to be well polished, fast, and open on mobile devices. Some people overdo it with images, making it hard for pages to load. As a result, they lose a lot of potential patients who are not willing to wait.
Make sure to hire a good designer. If necessary, consult an SEO expert as to how to optimize the pages. A nice site can, later on, be utilized for search engine optimization, thus providing another, potential marketing channel.
5. Think about follow-ups
If you’re working within the healthcare industry, you know how important it is to retain customers. The lifetime value of a client in this profession can be enormous, so make sure to do everything in your power to keep them.
Whether this means creating newsletters, periodic offers, or loyalty programs, find a way to stimulate them to revisit your clinic. Some medical professionals believe that the only thing they need to do is perform a good service. And while this is true, to an extent, don’t forget that people like to be pampered.
About Carson Derrow
