Marketing your surgery practice doesn’t have to be complicated when you follow these three simple surgery marketing tips.
According to Pew Research Center, 85% of U.S. adults are online daily, with 31% saying they’re online almost constantly.
A great online presence is vital to reaching potential patients. But you don’t have to be a marketing expert to make your internet presence work for you. With just a handful of simple strategies, you can truly elevate your online marketing.
Key Takeaways
- Using multiple front doors helps you find patients wherever they are in their journey.
- It’s important to establish consistent branding to build patient trust.
- You can optimize your content in search results by using your patients’ language.
Stand Out with the Help of These 3 Surgery Marketing Tips
Here are ways you can beat your competition, grow your surgery practice in no time, and better help patients through surgery and beyond.
1. Open Multiple Front Doors
Imagine a well-run hospital. Patients pour through the main entrance and are directed to the reception or the elevators. Well-wishers enter through the gift shop to pick up flowers before visiting loved ones. Patients in critical condition are rushed into the emergency room through a designated entrance. There are different ways to enter the hospital depending on your needs.
Your website should work the same way. Have multiple digital front doors open to greet patients wherever they are in their journey. A blog might attract patients in the early stages of research about weight loss options, while a contact form greets those who are ready to book a consultation. A patient searching for the best bariatric surgeon in their area might find a page of testimonials helpful, while another has never heard the term bariatrics and wants to know what your surgery does.
According to Inc., “The digital front door represents where virtual marketing overlaps with the customer experience – it is the first place where customers experience the brand.” That means that your digital front door needs to be accessible and getting through it needs to be easy. Having different kinds of front doors tailored to different kinds of patients is the best way to achieve this.
Automate for Convenience
Care automation benefits both your patients and the surgery practice. From setting up an appointment to filling out intake forms, providing payment, and giving feedback, an automated guided workflow keeps things frustration-free for the patient and increases your efficiency.
Services like Wellbe’s ConnectedCare emphasize patient journey process improvement as a vital aspect of your marketing strategy. A smooth patient journey complete with personalized care automation brings clients in, retains them, and ensures they recommend you to everyone they know.
2. Establish Consistent Branding
It is vital to establish consistent branding and marketing strategies across all digital platforms. The best way to do this is by using a simple, consistent, and unique web address and matching social media handles. This will help customers find you anywhere on the internet, and ensure they know what to expect.
Your domain (or web address) should include your primary keyword and your business description. For example, if you register the domain www.greatbariatrics.com, then you’ll want to make your handle @greatbariatrics on Instagram and facebook.com/greatbariatrics on Facebook to match.
By taking the time to ensure your branding is consistent across platforms like your website, Facebook, and Instagram, you will appear more professional and trustworthy. You’ll also be more likely to reach patients wherever they naturally spend time online.
Claim All Your Online Profiles
According to Software Advice, 71% of patients use online reviews to choose a medical professional. Major directories like WebMD and Yelp are trusted by patients and can be an incredibly effective way to reach them. That’s why it’s vital that your consistent online branding extends to anywhere a prospective patient might look you up.
To get started, make sure your facility’s information is up to date on:
Keeping these and other directories consistent and updated will help patients find you from a source they trust and give you more opportunities to appear high in search engine results.
3. Optimize Your Content for Search Results
When a client googles their surgical options, you want your business to come up. Search engine optimization, or SEO, refers to making sure your site turns up in those search results.
Blogs and other informative content can bring in patients by ensuring your site turns up in their search results and help to prepare them for any surgery they might undertake. Patient preparedness has been linked to improved surgical outcomes, so providing this information not only increases the likelihood that your business will be found, but also that your patients will be set up for success.
Avoid Jargon
As a medical professional, it’s easy to take technical language for granted, but all that jargon can be alienating to a patient. That’s why it’s so important to create content in their language.
Using plain language improves patient enablement and care by equipping them with the resources they need to understand the whole process and take the next steps in their journey. Plain language helps patients feel more comfortable, confident, and empowered throughout the surgery process.
If you’re struggling to find the right words for your target audience, take the time to put yourself in their shoes and imagine how they might search for you. How would your aunt or uncle find your information? What words would they type into Google to figure out their problem and find a surgery that might help them? For example, instead of the technical phrase “bariatric journey improvement,” you might substitute more common phrases like “a better weight loss journey.” Better yet, take time to talk to your patients and ask them how they describe what you do. Listen carefully for terms they often use and never use to help guide how you present yourself digitally.
Can you translate your content into simple language like this? By using more plain language and less jargon, you can reach and retain more patients with your content.
Bonus Tip: Use Technology to Step Up Your Marketing
Standing out from the competition isn’t hard with these simple surgery marketing tips. You are now well on your way to an improved bariatric journey for all your patients, but why stop there?
Wellbe provides personalized care automation to ensure your patient journey is truly one to be proud of. Grow your surgery practice, engage patients throughout the process, and improve their bariatric journey today.
Click here to tip the scales in your favor.
The epitome of an entrepreneur, Mark has seen the peaks and valleys of starting, operating, and assuming the risks of a new venture. He’s come up against payroll, had a few bad hires, and even swept the floors early on. Collectively, Mark’s companies have done over $360 million in sales and raised more than $38 million in venture capital, and he has successfully bought and/or sold eight companies.
James believes technology, when creatively applied, can improve our life experiences. Intrigued by the amazing potential for internet and mobile technology to engage us all, James created a business model to reshape personal health management.
Mike Splinter, an electrical engineer and innovator, has played a major role in driving advances in the high tech industry, with more than four decades of executive leadership experience including 12 years with Applied Materials, Inc. where he was served as chairman and CEO, and over 20 years with Intel, where he was executive vice president of sales and marketing, and executive vice president of the Technology and Manufacturing Group.
Mr. Baldwin was most recently Chairman and CEO of Baxa Corporation, a leader in devices, systems, and software for the handling, packaging, and tracking of fluid medications in a critical care setting. Under his leadership from 1997 until its sale to Baxter Corporation in 2011, the company sales grew from $25 million to over $170 million. As CEO, he led the eight-member board of directors and led a minority recap resulting in Goldman Sach’s private equity group owning 27% of the company. He was also an early investor and lead director in Pharmacy OneSource, an innovative software-as-a-service business that had a successful exit in 2010.