5 Healthcare Marketing Tips to Get More Patients

In the healthcare industry, it's all about making your patients feel safe and understood. If there's a disconnect between a medical professional and their patient, then trust will never be established.

And without this trust, you can't build a loyal base of customers. This is why it's critical to use healthcare marketing tactics that implement relationship building.

But before you can do that, you need to enhance your visibility to attract more prospects. Here's a look at some of the things you can do to get more foot traffic into your medical office.

Conduct a Website Audit

This doesn't sound fun or simple. And it may even be difficult to see how this plays a role in connecting with your patients. When a user visits your website, they should be able to find whatever it is they're looking for quickly.

If your layout or navigation menu is difficult to find, see, and use, then you'll witness a high bounce rate. A high bounce rate signifies two things:

Visitors are dissatisfied with your site, or it's irrelevant.

The first issue you can fix by tweaking your website design. The second -- not so much. Your practice is for specific people looking for medical care, so it's alright for people not seeking your services to bounce away.

Just be sure you're optimizing your site with key terms your audience is most likely to use.

In a website audit, a professional will take a look at your onsite and offiste SEO, overall design, user interface, and mobile-friendliness.

Start Using Local SEO in Your Healthcare Marketing

You don't have to print out thousands of brochures to get the attention of prospective patients. Instead, you can meet them where they are -- on the web.

Now that most people own a smartphone, they're using them to search for services online. The rise of "near me" searches is substantial -- a 900% increase in just two years.

Not to mention, 46% of all searches on Google are local.

This means you need to be found when prospects are searching for your services. You can do this when you're using local SEO strategies. This can include methods like:

• Local keyword optimization
• PPC marketing targeting locals
• increase your web presence

Optimizing your website, PPC ads, and business listings with local keywords will help your clinic be found by searchers.

Use Social Media to Build an Online Presence

Besides having a high ranking on search engines, you also need to build your presence on other internet properties. Where are your prospective patients hanging out?

Chances are, they're on one or more social media platforms. The key is finding which ones they use the most and create business pages on them.

If you decide to use Facebook, your business page is also your business listing. So it'll help locals find your business when searching for your services.

A win for your healthcare marketing campaign.

You can use social media to connect with patients and prospects, as well as build your visibility. Your social posts should be helpful and stir up conversations. Don't be afraid to join in discussions, offering your expertise for free.

This will, in turn, drive more users to view and follow your profile.

Educate Your Audience Using Content Marketing

Speaking of being helpful, you can take it a step further by offering educational content. Let's say you join in a conversation on social media. When relevant, you can answer a question or offer advice and then include a link to one of your blog posts for further explanation.

If your content isn't relevant, then it'll come off as promotional. People hate being advertised to and spammed, so keep this in mind.

As for your content strategy, you want to focus on delivering posts that answer the questions and concerns your audience has. Social media, forums, and comments can all help you identify what your audience wants to know.

Then to help your content get more views, you can optimize it with local SEO.

Once people start reading your content, they'll see you as an authority in your industry, which will help build trust and loyalty. It'll also make your healthcare marketing more effective.

Take a Mobile-First Approach

How many people do you see walking around with a smartphone? It'd probably be easier to count how many who don't. The growth of smartphone users is changing the way people search for and interact with service providers.

This is also true in healthcare.

Being that many of your prospects are on mobile devices, you need to take a mobile-first approach with your healthcare marketing.

This means having a website with a responsive design (that adapts to screen size). You can also cater to this market by claiming your business listing and updating it with all of your organization's information.

What's great about these listings is that users can click your number and ring you up. This helps to boost calls and conversions.

Prep Your Healthcare Marketing for 2020

If you're not using these tips for your healthcare marketing strategy, then now's a great time to start. You can get prepared by learning more about these methods and how to implement them.

If you're ready to dive in, then we recommend downloading our free guide on getting started with local SEO search.