Are you a health professional trying to build a digital presence? Are you looking for ways to improve your digital marketing plan for your medical center? This digital marketing plan is meant to guide any doctors through the process of taking their business to digital platforms.
Nowadays, most people draw on the internet and technology for information on healthcare. The digital presence for healthcare professionals is fundamental as it makes it easy for people to reach their doctors. Along with this, having a digital marketing plan for your medical business is paramount to reach your goals and objectives. A well-deliberated plan should contain several keystones to move your business forward.
As for the health sector, there are plenty of digital marketing strategies one can use to attract more attention in the digital world.
Here is a basic guide on how to make a digital marketing plan for healthcare professionals.
MAKE A COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
To build a successful digital marketing plan, researching and analyzing competitors and what’s happening digitally within your field is important. Gaining knowledge on what tools and techniques other colleagues are using to succeed in your area can help you determine what you can or should implement for your medical business. Also, a good analysis will also point out the strengths and weaknesses of others making it easier for you to create your market strategies.
IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET PATIENTS
In the medical field, a patient is anyone seeking medical treatment or attention. However, as a doctor stepping into digital marketing, you want to analyze who your ideal patients would be. If you happen to work in a particular area of your profession you want to target those patients seeking that specific medical attention. For example, a physical therapist specialized in hand therapy. This will help you narrow the crowd that you would like to reach digitally. Therefore, facilitating the creation of content for that specific targeted audience.
DEFINE YOUR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
To begin formulating your digital marketing plan, ask yourself the following – What would you like to achieve with digital marketing?
Set up some goals and objectives you would like to achieve in the short-term (1-3 months) and long-term (6-8 months). Make SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) goals, so that progress can be measured. In short, the purpose of creating these goals will be to keep you focused and on track to obtain that digital presence you are looking for.
CREATE CONTENT
As you start to get set up digitally with your business, create or have ready some content to use for your website, social media platforms, and local directories. Having a logo design, a couple of photos and even some videos can be useful for advertisements and content creations. You can even prepare some treatment evolution pictures to show your work.
DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES TO USE IN THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
WEBSITE
Having a website is essential in the digital marketing world. An easy-to-navigate website for healthcare professionals plays the role of an online center for patients. Anyone can surf right on in and learn more about the services offered at your medical center. People can learn more about you, check out what types of treatments you offer, explore prices, and even read some reviews from other patients. Some websites even offer a customer service experience where you can live chat with patients and help them with their needs. A website also helps in branding your medical center through photographs, videos, designs, and logos. Above all, in healthcare, a website contains crucial contact information like telephone, address, and hours.
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS & DIRECTORY LISTINGS
Google My Business is a free way of promoting your business locally. For anyone in the healthcare industry, this is a MUST since it contains quick access contact information like address, telephone, hours, and website that can come in handy when there is an emergency. The process of listing is simple and your business will be displayed on the Google Search Results, as well as Google Maps. Aside from this, it provides the opportunity for patients to share their personal experiences. Also, they can rate the medical center, which can potentially lead to building trust with new patients.
Similarly, listing yourself in the local directories is another way of reaching more people. Some of these local directories have a high SEO value when searching online, making it easier for people to find you. You can list yourself in general directories, as well as medical directories. For example, Practo and JustDial.
SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
Social media is a great way to brand yourself and your medical center. Through social media, you can build awareness as to what you do and offer. From pictures and videos showing your professional work to advertising your medical clinic in general. These platforms have the power of attracting new faces and followers every day. You can build strong digital profiles on various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin.
EMAIL MARKETING
Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. Through email marketing, you can keep patients informed and up to date on your promotions and services. You can use platforms that will aid with this task. Such as Sendinblue, GetResponse, and ConvertKit to name a few.
Make sure to define a schedule for your emails, create engaging graphics and keep growing your contact list.
CONTENT MARKETING
As a doctor, there are plenty of topics one can talk about with patients. Sometimes in a clinic, it is hard to get these messages across due to time constraints.
There are plenty of ways we can get information across to digitally.
BLOGGING & ARTICLES are a great way of informing the general public about certain topics within your profession. For example, explaining general illnesses, treatments, or procedures. They are comfortable forms of expressing what you know from your professional career, experience, and practices. Additionally, writing is a great way of staying connected with your career, by keeping knowledge fresh.
PODCASTS & VIDEOS can also help with complex topics and discussions. At the same time, they give a voice or image to the concept you would like to explain. Likewise, people like having the opportunity to listen and watch multiple times in order to understand, especially when it comes to health.
PATIENT REVIEWS
Feedback for any business is important. Through it, a business can see how well it is doing and what it should improve. As a healthcare professional, this feedback, in the form of reviews, will build trust which can be very valuable among other patients and encourage new ones to come.
MEASURE THE PROGRESS
Lastly, a good digital marketing plan should be measurable monthly to keep you on track and focus on growing your business. Seek ways to improve websites and apps that patients could be using. Additionally, find solutions to emerging digital problems, so that your business always moves forward.
DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN EXAMPLE – FOR DENTISTS
*disclaimer* this is an example for explanation purposes
- MAKE A COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Research local dental clinics and make a thorough evaluation of their digital content, techniques, and tools.
- IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET PATIENTS
Anyone seeking medical attention and ideal patients (specific to field).
3. DEFINE YOUR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
SHORT- TERM EXAMPLES
- 1 month: build a strong digital presence – website, social media, and Google my business.
- 2 months: gain 10 new patients & 100 followers on social media.
- 3 months: gain feedback – at least 10 reviews on Google my business.
LONG- TERM EXAMPLES
- 6 months: care for up to 10 patients a day.
- 7 months: gain 1000 followers on social media.
- CREATE CONTENT
Create a clean logo of your dental business and take some photos of the dental clinic. In addition, another idea could be successful treatments done with before and after pictures.
- USE DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES
- Website
- Google My Business & Local Directories
- Social media presence
- Email marketing
- Content marketing
- Patient reviews
- MEASURE THE PROGRESS
Evaluate frequently if you have achieved any of your short-term goals. Apply changes and continue growing to achieve those long-term objectives.
CONCLUSION
Before launching yourself digitally, it is important to formulate a plan for the growth and success of your healthcare center. Analyzing the competition, identifying the target patients, and defining clear goals are among the key factors to think about for your plan. To execute this effectively, apply digital marketing strategies that will help you achieve those objectives. All in all, don’t forget to measure the progress and implement new ways to move your business forward.
Altogether, this digital marketing plan should serve as a guide to help you navigate your way in the digital world and get you started on promoting your medical business.
REFERENCES
Here are some excellent articles that help me put together this plan!
https://www.semrush.com/hub/marketing-strategy/how-to-do-competitor-analysis-in-digital-marketing/
DIGITAL MARKETING FOR HEALTH COACHES
International Institute of Digital Marketing ™ is a certifying body founded in the USA by several long-standing marketers. We have years of experience in business, marketing, and more, and have put forth our combined experience to develop DMI. Digital Marketing is something that’s all around us, yet there has been no solid foundation for marketing in many, many years. In the news, there are blunders again and again by companies, failing some of the core aspects of modern marketing. Because of this, the need for a solid, stable foundation for marketing in the modern world is needed– a foundation with the ability to be built upon and developed with time.
For Details visit: https://thedigitalmarketinginstitute.org/
Written by: Dafne Nazar, Digital Marketing Analyst at The Digital Marketing Institute Worlwide™.