Being a physician in a private practice is just like most other small businesses. You need to find new patients, keep them and keep down your costs.
People have many choices depending on their insurance on who to go to for their healthcare needs. Long gone are the days of the family doctor that treats multiple generations of the same family until they retire.
These days you have to make sure you’re attracting patients to have a steady income stream.
Some of the marketing techniques are different for a doctor than they are for other solo practitioners – so let’s take a look at how you should proceed.
1 – Build a useful website
The engine that will power your marketing has to be your website. Many doctors make the mistake of creating a site that just has basic information. While you need to have things like services and office hours, there has to be more than that.
For starters, it should have a blog. You should have articles that rank well in the search engines that will bring in traffic. It also serves to give some personality to your practice as people can see what it is that you stand for.
You should probably hire a writer who understands how to write engaging copy that doesn’t come across like a legal contract. Your blog is for your potential patients, not other doctors – so a copywriter will know the right voice to use.
2 – Grow an email list
One of the most important things to have on your website is a way to get people to give you their email. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your business.
Have a landing page that offers a downloadable product in exchange for their email. Something like a checklist for the flu, or a short ebook about how to prevent diabetes, that people can download is helpful. These are called lead magnets as they attract leads (emails).
When you are sending helpful emails to your list, they will feel confident using your services. They can even be reminded to come for a check-up or for their vaccines by email.
The best part is that it is all done with automation software so you don’t have to worry about finding time to send the emails individually.
3 – Use PPC ads
Even if you have all of your SEO on point and your site is ranking in the number one spot for physicians in your area, you’re still going to be further down the results.
Pay Per Click Ads always come first. You’ll need to make sure that you are also spending money on ads to get those top spots for your keywords.
Suppose the keyword terms are “Podiatrist in Peoria”. You’ll have to bid on those keywords and come out of it with the top spot for those keywords. On the other side, you’ll have to make sure you are also excluding terms that aren’t specific to your practice so you don’t spend money on ineffective ads.
