For effective healthcare marketing, it’s not a question of having an Internet presence…just about every doctor, group medical practice, hospital and healthcare organization has at least one website. But visibility for online search doesn’t stop there.
Consumers—prospective patients, patients, family members—are actively searching online for health information, doctors and other health professionals. And, standing out and being discovered amid this intensely crowded field means expanding your digital presence above and beyond an elementary website.
As appropriate to their needs and audiences, medical service providers, hospitals and organizations have added more faces to the public…a blog, a YouTube Channel, a Facebook page, Google Plus and maybe a Pinterest pinboard. Plus, there are social platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and others.
The right combination of Internet tools will be guided by the specifics of your situation, but here are four lesser-known ways to enhance your web presence:
It’s well worth the staff time and effort to do regular and repeated online searches (using various keywords and variations on provider and practice names to track down—and update—all your directory listings. Hints: Begin with your insurance connections (as a patient would search), and, member or not, check professional medical association and specialty society directories.
Google Places for Business is free to start (you may or may not need the for-fee premium services) with a local-search oriented listing. Your business information shows up in relevant searches, as well as Google Maps, Google Plus and mobile. Google’s information pages are here.
RELATED READING: See our previous posts, Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Doctors Tired of Being the “Invisible Man” (or Woman) Online and Healthcare Search Engine Optimization – Spiders, Crawlers and Bots.
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