Without a doubt, the principles of marketing can be applied universally. While the strategies will be very different from one industry or business to another, the principles are sound. The same principles you might use for a retail business are the same principles that will work to market a physician office.
As the provider market gets more competitive, it is important that providers utilize the marketing strategies that will get them noticed by their consumers. Traditionally, we’ve seen physician offices using yellow page ads, direct mail, and television campaigns as a source of creating brand awareness and obtaining new patients. Unfortunately, many of those strategies that worked relatively well for the past few decades no longer work as effectively. Today’s consumer is mobile. They aren’t looking in a phone book for a physician near them, they are looking on their phone. Is your practice showing up where your consumers are searching?
There are many advantages to a good digital strategy. The Digital Marketing Institute cites some of the benefits to a robust digital strategy.
As you look at the customer journey for a healthcare patient we see what happens when they begin to search for information to solve their need recognition, they include a digital search.
If you don’t yet have a digital strategy, you need one now.
1. Create Brand Awareness
Your brand is more than your name. Your brand is built in the mind of your consumer based on your actions and interactions. What are you doing in your community to create your brand? Delivering superior service, serving as the authority on sports injuries, supporting the local ball team, leaving brochures at the nearby coffee bar and putting up a billboard are some of the traditional methods providers use to build brand awareness. But what happens when you Google your specialty or your name? Building your brand digitally is as important as all your other activities, yet often neglected by medical providers.
The idea of a digital brand can be completely overwhelming when you have the business of medicine as your primary focus. But you don’t want to leave it to chance. Start by making sure you have a Google My Business listing and that you have not only claimed the listing but that it is also being properly managed. It’s important to think locally and know your market. According to Brandmuscle, less than 8 percent of businesses use mobile, targeted search, or display advertising to reach local consumers — and as many as 56 percent haven’t claimed their Google My Business listing.
Consumers become patients by knowing your name and your quality of work. Are you known for being responsive to customer needs, scheduling same-day appointments, knowledge and skill in a particular specialty? Having a strong brand is important in the highly competitive healthcare market.
2. Be Found by Your Target Market
It doesn’t matter if you have the best office, great service and an impeccable medical school pedigree if customers don’t know you exist. If you don’t have a significant and positive digital presence you are definitely missing consumers who are looking for exactly the services you provide at their point of need.
According to Bright Local (2017) four out of five consumers use search engines to find local information like business address, hours, and directions. What happens to the customer who is looking for a pediatrician and your office name, address, and hours don’t come up when they search? The answer is simple, you are not getting that consumer. In most instances local searches lead to 50% of mobile consumers visiting the business they searched in less than 24 hours (Bright Local, 2017).
3. Become the Expert
For businesses, social media can be one of the most powerful connections with your customers and a place to build your brand. Social media has become the most popular place where consumers find new brands and information on topics of interest.
According to a study conducted by LinkedIn, 81% of small and medium business owners use social media to drive growth. While you are a medical office manager or physician who understands your specialty and how to help your patients, you are a small business and why wouldn’t you use social media to drive growth just like any other small business?
Medical offices or clinics should be on social media connecting with their consumers and being a voice of authority on the issues that affect them and answering the questions they may have. You can post information about cold and flu season as kids are heading back to school after the holidays. You can connect with women who are pregnant and provide advice on topics such as diet and exercise. Position yourself in your community as the expert in your medical specialty or service line. Connect with your customers as well as their social network. There is nothing more powerful than the mom network and as most medical professionals know upwards of 80% of healthcare decisions are made by women.
4. Build your Reputation
Amazon, Yelp, and Trip Advisor have all trained the consumer to look at reviews. If we want to go to a movie, we check the reviews. A company’s online star rating is now the number one factor used by consumers to judge a business . When we want to try a restaurant we first wonder what others thought of it, what did they have to say? A new book hits the market and we look to the Amazon reviews to figure out if we want to buy it.
Online reviews are the new word of mouth and suddenly we are looking to strangers for advice on what we see, eat, and buy. Traditionally, healthcare providers have been trained to only take note of their carefully cultivated reviews obtained through their health network’s survey system; however, customers are now trained to write their own reviews at the point of contact.
Seeking healthcare is no different, then how we buy other products. Before we choose a physician, we ask our friends, our family, and we investigate the online reviews. But, consumers hold physicians to a higher standard than they do other business service providers. They will not use a business rated below 2.7 stars, on average. But when selecting a doctor, they will not consider a provider rated below 3.2 stars. Afterall, we are talking about our health.
How does your practice manage its online reputation? Do you leave it to happenstance or do you carefully cultivate and connect?
5. Stay Competitive
For any industry there are hard and fast rules for staying competitive. Small businesses have an advantage by being able to really connect with their customers. Knowing the customer and providing for their needs is the foundation for a competitive advantage in any market. Forbes lists several competitive strategies that are shaping our ‘instant communication’ society. At the top of the Forbes list, is utilizing technology to connect with your customer.
If you want to grow your patient base and increase your revenue, you need to be found through digital. Consumers depend on accurate listings when searching for a local business online. Incorrect business listings lead to lost sales opportunities, frustrated consumers, and weakened search rankings. Think like a retailer and be competitive enough to make sure your business rises to the top when your consumer is looking for a provider on their computer or mobile phone.