Today it’s critical for doctors, medical specialists, hospitals and private practices to develop and build their brand or online persona, if they want to maintain ongoing success in this highly competitive space. Effective brand strategies and online reputation management is the key to this continued success. Without a direct effort in web-based marketing, you’ll simply miss out on a significant amount of potential business.
One of the most common questions medical professionals ask relates directly to their own specific brand strategy. “What should I be doing to attract more patients to my practice and keep them coming back?” The answer to this complex question comes down to a multi-faceted approach to online brand management.
All of the elements need to work together synergistically to create a stronger, more direct market presence, that targets potential patients and encourages them to make contact.
Why Your Website Is So Vital
Whether you focus on SEO, social media branding, email marketing or any other aspect of marketing, all your efforts are designed to drive traffic to your website. Any medical professional looking to improve their online persona and reputation should ensure that their website remains a priority.
An intuitive, user-friendly website remains the most important requirement for practically every industry. For medical-based sites, you’ll also need to include elements that will simplify the process from a patient perspective.
In most cases, your site should be equipped with the following features:
- Multi-Platform Compatibility (e.g. Mobile, Desktop, Tablet)
- High Security for Confidential Patient Information
- Simplified Contact, Enquiry and Appointment Booking
In addition to these basic necessities, the site design should also be attractive to prospective patients while maintaining a high degree of functionality. A highly polished site that gives visitors a convenient method to learn more and browse before and after imagery, is paramount to any practice’s ongoing success.
Making Connections through Social Media
Today social media isn’t just about posting on Facebook and Instagram a few times a week. Instead, it’s about utilising these platforms to make direct connections with your current and prospective patients.
Think of social media as a convenient way to interact with the public. You can use these avenues to promote your medical practice, respond directly to patient enquiry, and even funnel prospective patients to your website. Simply stated, there’s no better way to make direct connections with the public than through these sites.
SEO & The Local Touch
Beyond your website and social media, one of the most critical components to your own brand strategy boils down to search engines. Search engine optimisation remains paramount within any successful online brand. Without authoritative and competitively ranking content, your practice won’t meet its optimum potential.
SEO carries a few added challenges within the medical field. Most importantly, you need to achieve ranking results based on your local area. For example if your practice is in Brisbane, you would probably not be interested in displaying in the localised results for Sydney-based web traffic.
The key to achieving the results you’re seeking comes down to relevancy in searches. Keeping your marketing efforts focused within your local area helps to drive more relevant user traffic to your website and social media accounts. This relevancy means your leads are automatically more qualified because they’re within your area. And by targeting these prospective patients through localised SEO, you’re giving yourself a far better chance of a good ROI on these campaigns.
Finding the Right Marketing for Medical Professionals
Medical marketing requires a high degree of specificity to achieve successful campaign results. You need a streamlined approach to remain competitive within your field from finding the right targeted keywords to identifying the best local channels for your advertising. This approach demands a concerted effort and requires a significant investment in time.
This is where The Gaswerx can provide a solution designed specifically for you. Our experienced team understands the medical profession, the legislation regarding medical advertising and we have helped countless specialist medical professionals develop results-oriented brand strategies that have improved their visibility and boosted their potential.
The Gaswerx will manage your brand by providing you with a diverse spectrum of brand management services. This will allow you to focus on what’s important to you – providing your patients with the best possible care.