Grow your surgery practice faster than ever by mastering these eight digital marketing tips.
As a surgeon, your job is to help people heal — physically and emotionally. But to do that, you need a strong online presence and digital marketing strategy that focuses on what matters most to your patients. Seventy-three percent of consumers say that customer experience is a vital component in their decisions. That is why it’s important to understand how to optimize your digital marketing in order to grow your surgery practice.
Key Takeaways
- A smooth patient experience is the cornerstone of a good digital marketing strategy.
- Consistent branding and quality engagement across a range of platforms is an effective way to attract new patients.
- As social media continues to evolve, creating content for niche communities is an important component of your marketing plan.
1. Keep Your Brand Cohesive Across Platforms
The first step in developing a great online presence is to make sure that your digital marketing strategies all reflect your brand image. This means developing a cohesive online presence across all digital platforms. While this might seem like a big job, it’s easier than you think. The key is to identify the main images, themes, and values that shape your brand image. Then, build your online presence around those themes and values.
Maintaining brand cohesion conveys a competent, polished appearance and helps you establish a personal connection with your audience, which in turn helps you build trust and rapport.
2. Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices
Today, more than half of all Google searches are made on mobile devices.
Potential customers are increasingly likely to access your website from a mobile device. That means the way your website appears on a smartphone is as important as its appearance on a desktop computer. Mobile-optimized websites also appear higher in search results. Making your website mobile-friendly conveys professionalism and ensures that potential customers can access your resources from anywhere.
3. Create a Seamless Patient Portal
Creating a seamless patient portal experience is one of the best ways to improve your marketing and grow your practice. Your online patient portal should provide a convenient way for patients to access their records, pay bills, renew prescriptions, and ask questions. The more seamless you can make this experience by keeping all the features accessible in one place, the better the patient experience will be.
A quality patient portal allows you to build a relationship with your patients that goes beyond just receiving treatment. By creating a simple, intuitive experience for your patients, you build trust with them and turn them into advocates. This can have a huge impact on how your practice grows.
4. Allow Patients to Schedule Appointments Online
Another important feature in your patient portal is the ability for patients to schedule appointments online. While you will always have a portion of patients who prefer to make appointments via phone, patients increasingly expect to be able to self-schedule and manage their bookings through their patient portal. An online booking service that is smoothly integrated into the patient portal is another excellent way to improve the patient experience and ensure that as many inquiries translate into appointments as possible.
5. Use Patient Reviews to Your Advantage
When it comes to digital marketing, one of the most effective ways to build your online presence is to talk about your patients’ experiences and success stories. Nearly three-quarters of patients rely on online reviews when choosing a healthcare provider, and 43% are willing to go out of network for a highly rated provider.
You can include patient reviews, testimonials, and case studies anywhere in your digital marketing. This not only humanizes your practice, but it also provides a sense of realism and authenticity to your online presence.
It’s also good practice to respond to online reviews to address any complaints and demonstrate good
6. Take Charge of Everywhere Your Appear Online
Consistent branding across all digital platforms is vital to any digital marketing effort, and that includes all your online profiles. By claiming every profile available to you, you can make sure your information is correct and in the most places possible. This increases the chances of patients finding you in results, regardless of which platform they search.
Claiming all of your profiles also gives you more control over how your practice is represented on each platform. At a minimum, you should claim and update your practice information on:
7. Actively Engage on Social Media
An engaged social media audience is more important than a large one. This means posting high-quality content that is relevant to your audience. Also, actively seeking feedback from your audience helps increase engagement.
It’s important to note that building a strong online presence doesn’t mean talking about yourself non-stop. In fact, you should avoid talking about yourself or your practice constantly. After all, it’s not human nature to share things we don’t care about. Instead, you need to build a meaningful relationship with your audience and provide them with value consistently.
The goal is to build a connection with your audience, which in turn helps you build trust and rapport with your audience. The more you engage with your audience, the more they will engage with you.
8. Create Content for Niche Communities
As internet culture continues to evolve, the number of online communities dedicated to specific topics is growing steadily. Users fed up with the constant noise of their Facebook feed are increasingly switching to more niche platforms to connect with like-minded people. These communities can be more dedicated, loyal, and personal than audiences found on broader social platforms. This is why creating content targeted at niche communities can be an effective way to attract more patients. By appealing directly to each niche community’s needs and interests, you demonstrate how your practice is relevant to them as individuals.
Bonus Tip: Grow Your Surgery Practice with Wellbe
Quality patient experience is at the heart of any good digital marketing campaign. Whether you want to improve your patient portal or allow scheduling online, Wellbe offers automated patient enablement solutions that will help grow your practice.
Contact us today to find out how Wellbe can help improve your patient experience.
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.