You’ve just seen a patient. They have been having problems and the test results are back. The news isn’t the best. They have 1,000 questions, and you have a small amount of literature to provide them about this life-changing event.
The patient goes home and "Googles" a word most people have a hard-time pronouncing and they’re praying for good news.
Where will it take them? To a site filling them with difficult jargon or false information that can send them into a panic?
People are constantly trying to self-diagnose themselves, and the amount of good and bad information out there is staggering. The key to this statement is that there is information already being published online. Why not be a part of the conversation and publish good content that will not only help your patients but also help others who need help find your practice verse the doctor down the road with the same credentials as you. Your goal is to build yourself as the helpful expert in your field. People will search out doctors they feel like they can trust. Having useful content will help you be found, be social and be useful online.
So what are some ways you can push content out to reach your ideal patient?
Publish a blog on your website. Think about it, people search online all the time for questions like, “What to expect when a family member is going through Chemo?”
Writing a detailed blog about conditions can help in many ways.
- It can help educate a patient.
- It can help boost your SEO for your online presence.
- It can help build the trust value and comfort your patients, sometimes that is needed the most.
Another way to publish content online is to create a video channel. You can create video testimonials or video blog on your website or on YouTube?
Believe it or not what was once an emerging trend, online video, has already reached mainstream status. Healthcare practitioners are catching on and are starting to deploy new and creative uses for video, especially on their websites. Right now video accounts for 50 to 60 percent of Internet traffic and predictions are that video will account for 90 percent of traffic within three years.
Videos in particular are a helpful tool for your potential and current patients, and can quickly educate them about what you do and how you can help them. Online videos can be used for welcome messages, client testimonials, hospital information, physician profiles, patient information and commercials, explaining the benefits of a procedure or service and many other purposes.
There are clear benefits to using other social media networks in your marketing strategy as well:
- Facebook will help with the Doctor to Patient relationship. It helps humanize your brand and will help a patient relate to your style of practice.
- Twitter gives you a platform to publish information quickly and link up to other health care professionals. "Tweet" a health tip of the day, currate content from your peers and why not link it to your latest blog post!
- Pinterest allows you to organize your content to easy to view "boards and pins". Organize tips by condition or by area of focus.
Some health care professionals who are using Pinterest successfully is Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic . Another great thing about Pinterest is.. it not only boosts your SEO by linking every pin back to your website, but it also helps with the education for your patients!
Many of these options are not only free but Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing. (State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)
If you’d like to learn more on how to improve your practice contact a NOW Marketing Group team member at 877-380-6698. We specialize in inbound marketing for the health care industry. Let us help you improve your patient relationships and grow your practice.
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