Optimizing Your Digital Presence: The Key to Success for Medical Clinics
How Medical Clinics Succeed With Digital Marketing
Are you a medical clinic looking to get more patients in the door? There is a certain secret sauce regarding local medical clinics and how they do their online marketing. Even if you already have a website, some ads running, and even some SEO optimization, there is still so much more you can do. Local SEO and local digital marketing give some of the best results in the marketing business, and there are tons of tips and tricks you need to know. Keep reading to learn more about how medical clinics can succeed with an optimized digital presence and the things you can start putting into practice as soon as today.
Understanding Local SEO
The most important key to success for medical clinics when it comes to optimizing their digital presence is to understand local SEO. As mentioned, local SEO gives some of the best results in the marketing business. Here are some important statistics about local SEO you need to see:
- ‘Open now near me’ searches skyrocketed 400%
- Replying to local reviews boosts submissions by 12%
- 60% contact businesses directly from local search results
- 76% visit a business within a day of searching
- Map apps drive 30-40% of local business discovery
- 46% of all search users are looking for local businesses
- Voice search usage has ballooned by 146%
- 74% increase in website visits and 83% more phone calls
All of these statistics point to one thing: Your local SEO better be optimized, or nobody will find you—period. How do you make sure your SEO is localized, optimized, and showing up on top? Here are three major keys:
- Use the right keywords. It is important to use the right keywords when writing any copy for your business, whether on your website, on social media, or in an ad. You’ll want to make sure you include your town’s name and be as specific as possible.
- Optimize your Google and Bing listings. If you haven’t already, go on Google and Bing and claim those business listings. Optimize them as much as you can by inputting as much information, photos, links, and contact information as possible so that the search engines have more to pull from.
- Be Siri-friendly. Make sure your website is optimized for voice search. This includes writing blogs that answer specific questions, having an easy-to-use website that is optimized well for mobile, and targeting specific voice-search keywords.
Make Sure Your Website is Top Notch
Chances are pretty good that you already have a website for your medical clinic. However, it is important to ensure it is top-notch and optimized correctly. Some important things to keep in mind when taking a look at your website include:
- Clarity in your copy. Make your website very easy to read and understand. If your website can’t explain what you do to a grandmother or a toddler, you need to consider a rewrite.
- Be direct on your offerings. Don’t beat around the bush—when it comes to medical clinics, people want to know ASAP if you can provide them with the service they need. Have these listed very clearly, including your treatment offerings, staff, benefits, and the insurance you accept.
- Be available 24/7. Your website should offer people the ability to contact you any time, day or night. Even if it isn’t business hours, prospective patients should be able to fill out a form, find an email address, speak to a bot, or call a voicemail. Most if this can be done through automation tools to make your life easier.
Local Advertising
Local advertising is an important component for optimizing the digital presence of medical clinics. Pinpointing your clinic’s radius is important. For example, if your clinic is based in Woodland Hills, California, you will want to use those specific words for your local advertising.
Even though Woodland Hills is part of the larger Los Angeles, California, which would get more eyes on your ad, you won’t get as many conversions or bang for your buck. Hyperlocalizing your advertising efforts will yield you the best results.
Other local advertising ideas include:
- Social media marketing with specified demographic information
- Search engine ads
- Teaming up with a nearby business
- Sponsoring a local team
- Hosting an event for the neighborhood
- Offering discounts to local community workers, such as firefighters or police
- Personalize your marketing toward local trends, such as offering a promotion if the local high school wins its football championship
Take Advantage of Geofencing
Geofencing is one of the most effective ways local businesses can get new patients, and it is extremely underutilized.
Geofencing is when businesses or other organizations create virtual boundaries around specific zones or locations. Using GPS, radio frequency identification (RFID), Wi-Fi or cellular data, organizations can drop points on a map to form a shape ― usually a square, polygon or circle ― to designate a virtual zone for various purposes. An action can be triggered when people enter or exit the zone, such as sending a notification or a location-based ad with a coupon.
We wrote an entire blog about geofencing, which you can check out here, but here are some of the important takeaways:
- Know where your patients are. Do you have specialized offerings, such as treatment for rare conditions or a treatment method not offered by your local competitors? You can use geofencing around local hospitals or other clinics to advertise your special service.
- Find your local anchors. Where are the major local anchors in your specific area? Find the most popular grocery stores, shopping outlets, or coffee shops nearby and geofence those during peak hours.
- Stay within the lines. It is important not to venture too far out of your service area. As mentioned, staying as localized as possible is the key to the best results.
- Create videos. Take advantage of streaming ads and digital display ads by investing in video production. A few well-produced videos can take you a long way with geofencing opportunities.
Playing The Long Game
Ever heard of the saying, “It’s a marathon, not a race”? This phrase is absolutely true when it comes to local marketing, local SEO, and getting new leads.
Local advertising and SEO should always be in your toolbox. Perpetually running ads, staying up with your optimization, and tweaking as you go are all things that should be done for the long term. This can be especially true when it comes to medical clinics because people need to feel comfortable enough to make the call.
For example, if you have a prospective patient who has been seeing your ads and information all over town as well as online, it will eventually be enough to finally nudge them to make that appointment they’ve been putting off. However, if, through that process, you turn off your ads and drop your efforts, you will be out of sight and out of mind, and your competitor is going to come out on top.
Getting people to make a medical appointment can be a much longer process than getting someone to buy a great product. It is less of an impulse decision and more of a mental process the lead has to go through before finally making the move. That is why it is so important to constantly remind your target audience who you are, what makes you different, and why they should choose you.
Lead Generation Tools
As a local business, there are so many lead generation tools that you can take advantage of to help get new patients. Some of these include:
- Forms. If your website doesn’t have forms, you need to jump on it now. Forms are the best way to capture a lead while they are in the initial discovery process of the customer journey.
- Bots. Having a bot on your website is a great way to not only capture new leads but to give prospective patients the information they are looking for in real-time without having to use any of your own employees or manpower.
- Email marketing. Email addresses are like gold when it comes to local marketing and lead generation. Make sure you have email marketing set up to send out regular emails, promotions, and personalized offerings such as birthday promos.
Using Social Media as a Medical Clinic
One of the best ways to optimize your digital presence as a medical clinic is by taking advantage of social media. Your goal is not to get thousands of followers. In fact, depending on the size of your town, you may not even get near the 1,000-follower mark. Rather, the emphasis should be placed on your engagement rate and impressions.
Impressions refers to the number of people who see your content. The engagement rate refers to the percentage of the impressions that engage with your content. Industry standards are at around 5% for local businesses.
Some of the ways you can use social media as a medical clinic include:
- Show off your office. People want to know what your office looks like, if it looks comfortable and inviting, and how upscale it may appear. If your office is state-of-the-art, designed professionally, or in a unique building, show it off!
- Introduce your staff. Showcase your clinic’s expertise by introducing your staff. Create short videos with each staff member explaining who they are, what they do, and how they can’t wait to help.
- Showcase your services. Talk about the procedures, services, and treatments that your clinic offers. Take advantage of video production opportunities as much as possible.
- Post testimonials. If a current patient or client is willing to give you a video testimonial, post it on your social media. It allows your target audience to see the type of people visiting your clinic and what they think about it.
- Get relatable. Posting funny memes, important “National Holidays”, and putting a twist on viral trends as they relate to your offerings are great ways to take advantage of social media as a medical clinic.
Medical Clinic Digital Marketing with Navazon Digital
Are you a medical clinic looking to optimize your digital presence? At Navazon, we are experts in local advertising for medical clinics and are ready to help.
We help businesses increase profits through data-driven marketing that expands opportunities and reduces risk. As marketers and entrepreneurs, we understand the value of developing a memorable brand through creativity and consistency.
This is accomplished through targeted graphics, videos, and websites that reflect our proven, time-tested methodologies and detailed analytics. It is an approach proven effective for companies of all sizes, from start-ups and medium-sized businesses to large firms with an international presence.
At Navazon, we are content creators who listen to our clients so that we can formulate ideas and strategies based on your unique goals and philosophies. Thinking through those goals with our analytics-based approach, we study your tendencies and those of your competition and the market.
This knowledge allows us to develop a powerful plan, test it, and roll it out. Once we arrive at the winning formula, we can scale up rapidly to meet even the most optimistic growth projections. We do not believe in “one size fits all.” Every part of the marketing plan is customized to address your unique niche and positioning strategy. It’s how we excel. It’s why we succeed.
Schedule a free consultation with us now! Visit us at navazondigital.com for more information.
