5 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Practice

Content marketing involves creating and sharing content that attracts and interests your target audience. The goal is to create high quality content that your audience will find valuable. When done right, it can convert prospects to patients or clients.

If you’re thinking of using content to attract patients and clients, it’s a great decision. By providing your audience with useful and relevant content, they are more likely to engage with you, share the content with their family and friends, and return for more. Not only will it capture the attention of your target audience, it will also help you build your credibility and position yourself as an industry leader.

As compared to other sectors, the healthcare market has shown a slow adaption rate when it comes to content marketing. By implementing a content strategy now, you’ll have less competition in your industry and get ahead of your competition.

Here are 5 content marketing ideas for your practice.

Blogging for Health and Wellness Practices

There may be lots of content out there, but they will never be enough to satisfy our thirst for knowledge.

Blogs are a great way to share new and relevant information while attracting new visitors to your stie. But before you start putting your content strategy into action, it is important that you know your audience well. The more effort you put into understanding your audience, the better you’ll be able to cater to their needs.

Keep your audience in mind when writing your content. Capture their attention by choosing topics they actually want to read about. If you’re a pediatrician, you can use your blog to offer insightful advice to parents, establish relationships with your audience, and attract new patients.

Once your blog is up and running, you’ll be surprised at the opportunities it brings. Establish your authority as a thought leader and you’ll find your practice climbing to the top search results.  

Interactive content for Medical Marketing

Content marketing doesn’t have to be a one-way conversation. Get your audience involved through interactive polls, quizzes, and challenges.

Let’s take UnitedHealthcare’s “We Dare You” campaign as an example. They were able to position themselves as a leading healthcare brand using this strategy. As part of their campaign, they provided their followers with quizzes and monthly challenges. The goal is to encourage people to make small changes and live healthier lives. Followers are then asked to share a photo of themselves performing that challenge.

“We Dare You” campaign received two silver awards – one for digital marketing and one for social media.

Patient spotlight series

Sharing patients’ stories and testimonials on your website is a great idea for the same reason Amazon user reviews are so powerful.

Unlike in retail industry, healthcare providers do not offer refund or “return services”. This is why patients conduct thorough research and read online reviews before booking an appointment with a healthcare provider. Without these reviews, you’ll be missing out on hundreds of new patients each year.

Make it easier for potential patients to choose you by shining a light on patient success stories. Patients trust other patients. And in success stories, you, your staff, and the facility are presented as capable. That’s what patients are looking for – a capable healthcare practitioner who can help them with their medical condition.

Video content in Healthcare Marketing

We don’t have to tell you how big video content is in today’s marketing world. People love videos. In fact, recent study shows that more than 500 million hours of videos are watched on Youtube every single day.

We believe that video would be an excellent marketing strategy for your health and wellness practice.

There is a wealth of video content ideas that you can explore – from sharing medical information to how-to videos.

If you’re a physical therapist, you can create a video series showing patients how to perform exercises at home. If you’re a yoga instructor, you can do some pose tutorials for different levels. Or talk about your personal experiences practicing yoga.

Infographics for Healthcare Data

People love information. But if you’re posting links to your blogs on social media, they might not even read them. Why? Because most people have a short attention span. They want to get the information they want without too much exerting too much effort. They want content that are easy to digest and understand. This is where infographics come in.

Infographics are more eye-catching than plain texts. They contain both photos and content, which naturally draw the eye. Infographics are also extremely shareable. Every click or share means more people seeing your content.

Overall, infographics are a fun, engaging medium that can generate a unique connection with your target market.

5 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Practice

5 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Nutrition Practice5 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Yoga Practice

5 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Healthcare Practice

5 SEO Strategies to Get More Patients for Your Practice

People are searching for everything online – from restaurants that will deliver food to their doorstep, to the latest fashion trends. Searching for a health practitioner is no exception.

Your potential patients are looking for you online. The search engine is usually the first place people go to when looking for a healthcare provider. As such, the goal is to make sure you show up at the top of the search engine results page.

When done properly, SEO has the potential to earn an impressive ROI for your practice and attract the leads you need to grow.

Here are 5 SEO strategies to get more patients for your medical practice.

Optimize your website

A well-optimized website can help bring in people who are interested in your service, but who aren’t necessarily familiar with you. Not only will it help boost awareness of your practice, but you’ll also look more credible to prospective patients.

Doing SEO requires knowing who your target audience is, as well as their pain points. You need to start by conducting keyword research.

Using keywords that best describe your business and industry will help make your website more visible. Tools like Keyword Tool and Google Keyword Planner can help you find keywords and key phrases people search online to find your practice.

Create high-quality content

Building a website that highlights your service isn’t enough to get you the top spot on the search engine results page. You also need to create high-quality content.

Not too long ago, ranking your website on search engines was easy. All you need to do is write keyword-packed contents and you’ll start seeing results. But not anymore.

Search engines like Google love fresh, unique content. While keywords are still a vital ranking factor, you also have to consider the quality of your content. Write for your audience first and then search engines.

Having more custom content on your site can drive more traffic to your site and help you rank higher in search results. Write content that is interesting, informative, and unique. Make sure that you do it better than your competition.

Claim and optimize business listing

If you want to attract more patients, then you need to get listed in local directories. While most patients do use search engines when finding healthcare providers, not all of them would book an appointment immediately after making a quick Google search. In fact, studies suggest that 77% of potential patients do further research and read reviews before making a decision.

Claiming and optimizing listing on local business directories can increase your chances of being found by search engines.

Prospective patients usually visit third party sites such as Google My Business, Healthgrades, and more. You want to increase your local footprint to ensure that they find you no matter which site they are looking for. Having customer reviews will also help you gain the trust of prospective patients.

Optimize for local search

One of the best ways to convert a searcher to a patient is to ensure that your location shows up at one of the top three positions in a search engine’s “near me” map.

Potential patients usually search for facilities and doctors nearby. Optimizing your site for local search will make you more visible to people in your area, and ultimately contact you right when they need you.

Be sure to register your business on Google maps. Don’t forget to add your location to your page titles and content on your site.

Build a strong social media presence

Living in the digital world, having a social media presence is a must. While social media isn’t a direct SEO ranking factor, it does help with your ranking somehow.

If you want to get SEO benefits from your social media marketing, then you need to optimize your profile first. Also, make sure that you post updates regularly. You don’t need to create an account on different social platforms. Just choose one or two platforms and maintain an active presence on those channels.

Share your blogs on social media. This will help you reach a wider audience as well as build trust. If people start sharing your content, it’s more likely that more people will link to it. Links are a hugely important SEO ranking factor.

Final thoughts

With the world going digital at a rapid pace, more and more people are turning to the internet to find answers to their health queries and find health practitioners.

Your medical practice can’t grow if it lacks the attention of prospective patients. It’s time to start taking a more focused and strategic approach in getting your practice in front of thousands of potential patients with search engine optimization. If you still haven’t invested in SEO, then you’re giving away clicks to your competitors.

5 SEO Strategies to Get More Patients for Your Practice

5 SEO Strategies to Get More Patients for Your Practice5 SEO Strategies to Get More Patients for Your Practice

Types of Adwords Campaigns for Healthcare Marketing

Healthcare practices often have an advertising budget, and typically this advertising budget can be split between digital and traditional marketing. We found in our digital marketing experience that Google Ads is one of the best places to run advertisements for your business to make sure that you are reaching prospects and getting new leads into your practice.

We’ve talked in the past about how it’s important to have a landing page and a lead capture system so that you can then follow up with these individuals as well. So here we’re going to be talking more on the Google advertising side of it.

So I’m going to be showing you a few of the campaigns that we utilize for our clients and that we are seeing tremendous results from. So let me jump over and we will share my screen.

Okay, so this is just a random account that we have that has a small budget, but I’m going to be utilizing it for a demonstration of these different ad groups.

Oftentimes, you will already have a Google Ads account set up. You could create a new account. I like always being able to look back and see old data, so you can always pause the ads that you currently have running, the campaigns that you currently have running, and then start a new one.

Traditional search term campaign

So the first type of campaign that I always recommend for our providers to be running is just a traditional search term campaign. So here we’re going to click New Campaign, and oftentimes we have it where we have the lead conversion set up.

We have talked about this in the past as well. But what you want to do is make sure when you have that “Request a consultation” page, that you then have a “Thank you” page, that’s the easiest way to set it up. You can also use the Google Tag Manager to have a tag in the code up here when somebody clicks “submit” or when the thank you message pops up, we find it just easier to have that “Thank you” page. The reason is that you can then make sure that front and center is the phone number to call immediately, maybe there’s an online scheduling tool in addition to just collecting their name, email address and phone number, or maybe it’s a video from one of your doctors or specialists.

So here, if you check leads and then you want a search campaign. And so what we want to do is website visits, and then you could also do phone calls, for example. And you put on your website here.

Try to be as specific as possible

Now, when we are creating ad campaigns for our clients, we try and have it be as specific as possible. By that, I mean we want to have a campaign that’s specifically for search networks and we have text ads and another campaign that’s specifically for the display network.

Now, some of these do have text ads as well, but they’re also the banner ads and you’re having it show up on womenshealth.com, for example. They might have advertisements that show up as pieces of their content. And so if that’s your target market, you might wanna have ads show up there too.

Target by specific location

But the search network, this is for somebody searching specifically for your specialty within your geographic area, so we want to have the search network and then the location. We want to be able to enter a specific location. So when you’re doing this, click advanced search, and oftentimes we will do a radius around a specific area.

So let’s see, I don’t have an area off the top of my head, but you type in your address here and you can go from, one mile, is the minimum, up to hundreds of miles. So if you are really the only specialist in the entire state, you might want to have this be a state-wide radius. If you have multiple locations, you would want to have a campaign for each of those locations.

Target by zip code

So something else you can do is a target by zip codes. So if you have any sort of report that says X condition is more prevalent in this zip code, this zip code, and this zip code, you might want to create a campaign specifically for those three zip codes, rather than doing a radius around the location or a full state or full setting. So that’s one targeting option there.

Target by neighborhood level

We are also working on, kind of internally, ways that we can get more specific and even go down to a neighborhood level, and that would be by having a location, setting it to one mile apart, so you have a radius around a location, and then excluding specific radiuses that are around there, so that you can get that one-mile radius down to a quarter of a mile, for example.

Using longitude and latitude

Using longitude and latitude, a lot of geofencing companies are able to do this. This is different than what we typically are doing on Google AdWords, but I did want to bring that up that there are ways to get more specific than that one-mile radius. But for the search term, typically we want to go sometimes 20 miles, sometimes six miles, it really depends what the competitive landscape in the area is looking like, how easy it is to travel from place to place, you know your location.

Boulder, Colorado, for example, would have a much larger radius that we would run there potentially, rather than New York City, in which case, that would be a much smaller radius.

Target by language

Now, if you’re writing ads in different languages, let’s say you have a high Hispanic population and you wanna do Spanish, again, I would recommend dividing this out, so you have a campaign that’s specifically for that other population.

Budget

As for the budget, we often start the budget around $3-5 per day and then grow it from there. The reason why is we want to see those leads coming in, especially as we’re putting out new ad text, and we also want to have the focus again, beyond conversions, and this is with that lead capture form.

Target cost per action

Oftentimes, we have a target cost per action, and this is just to help Google be able to estimate whether or not their own optimization is helping us reach that conversion metric that we want. Oftentimes, we set this for a healthcare center around $100 or so. Our cost per conversion is often much less than that over time.

Ad extensions

Then there’s this area for ad extensions, we always recommend filling these in. Just the more tools that you utilize through Google, the better it is. Site linked extensions, these lead people to other parts of your website, maybe to learn more about the position or about the practice in general.

Call extensions

Call extensions, these are just more business information, telemedicine consults available, for example. Call extensions, these are places where somebody would be able to click your phone number, especially on a mobile device, and get to call immediately. Google then could track those calls.

So this is a search campaign, you would create the ads, and these ads are text ads and the ads show up on Google at the top, into the sides of the search results.

Smart campaign

The next item that we are going to show is the smart campaign that is driving conversions as well. So smart campaign is a campaign that ties into your Google My Business page, so this is that Google Maps listing.

We recommend every healthcare center has a Google Maps listing, both for your center and for each of the specialists there. So basically, you create the page, you link it to your Google account, and then you add information here. People then can leave reviews for a specific position or for the practice as a whole.

How to setup a smart campaign

So this type of campaign, again, you click new campaign, you want leads, but you’re going to click the “Smart Campaign.” And so here, we recommend having a campaign that specifically is for calls for your business and potentially one depending on what type of center you are for visits to the store front.

So let’s click “Calls to your business.” And it’s important as you’re setting up this campaign to link it immediately to your business page.

So here, I’ll do “Share Social Speak Network,” and our goal, in this case, you can have it be to get more calls or to get more leads through the website.

So for our healthcare practice, oftentimes people still do want to talk with somebody on the phone as they’re scheduling that consultation, especially if you have a specialist, a doctor who’s a really well-known specialist in the area, you want to make sure that you are advertising his or her Google My Business page, and that you have this get more calls.

Target by specific zip codes or areas

For these campaigns, we recommend having it be in specific zip codes, for example, to make sure that you are targeting the right people. So again, this is driven by leads and then I selected the “Smart Campaign.”

And so you can set up specific areas. We want it more specific than just the location, so let’s say we did Niwot, Colorado, for example. Niwot is a small town, so that is a very specific location right here. However, if you did Manhattan, you’d want to narrow it down to specific zip codes from there.

Keyword themes

Here, you choose what they call them keyword themes. So basically in Smart Campaigns, you have less control over the keywords that you’re going to be bidding on. So it will give you suggestions for things to use.

Now, I would X out all of these and start with a fresh list. So if you are a gynecologist, you’d want to do Gynecologist. If there’s a special type of birthing plan that you do, you can put that in, if you have a doula, you could do that. So really just making it very specific about what type of people you are trying to attract with the ads that are within this campaign.

I didn’t mention this with the search campaign, just ’cause I didn’t go through far enough in it, but when you choose the keywords, you want to have multiple ad groups potentially for each of your centers. For example, we have some clients who have multiple practices and within those practices, they have potentially five different specialties.

Ad campaign settings

So we have an ad campaign, search ad campaign, let’s start with, that is for the center and that so that we can really identify what their budget is and easily track conversions from there. Then within that campaign or a search ad group for each of the different specialties.

Some people do it the other way where they have a campaign that’s just for the specialty, and then each of the ad groups are for the specific locations. It doesn’t really matter which one you do, though we find targeting by geographic location is a lot easier on the campaign level than on the specific ad group level.

For these ones, for example, you’d want to just focus on a singular specialty within these keyword themes, so even if you provide five different services, 10 different services, 30 different services within your center, you want to make sure that these keywords are all very specific towards one of the services that you provide. The reason is because the next thing that you’re going to do is create the ad text. Now, this ad text has to be directly related to the content, the searches that you are wanting your ad to show up for.

So if you have a campaign that’s running in an ad group that’s running a Smart Campaign that’s for knee surgery, you don’t want your ads to all be talking about hip surgery. You want them to be aligned. So in that case, you’re an orthopedic surgery, I would have an ad campaign that specifically is for one type of knee surgery, you could even divide those into two different types of knee surgeries or joint replacement versus ACL tear versus all of these different things, just so that it’s as specific as possible.

You want your ads to directly correlate to the content, keyword, the searches that people are looking for. So the thing to make sure that you do here is when you are writing an ad, you want to make sure that the clicks to the ad go to a special place. You also want to make sure that you have a phone number that’s specified for that call extension.

So when somebody sees the ad, they are going to see that there’s this “Click to call” button with the phone number here, and so they would actually be able to click on this call and then that number, for example. And so that’s really powerful.

Google actually then tracks how long those phone calls are. Basically it says, you have a Google My Business call or a Google phone call, and then it will transfer over to the person who’s calling. So they hear just like a normal phone call, your admin, your staff will hear it, a brief Google message. So just make sure that they know that that message is going to happen, and then you’ll be good to go.

So these are the two types of ads that we really recommend running. Again, in the campaigns, new campaign, we have both of them under the leads and one search and one’s the Smart Campaign.

Video campaign

Now, we also utilize video campaigns in the display network, etcetera, we’ve run Gmail ads before, but these ones we’ve found to be much better for overall branding, whereas the search campaigns and the Smart Campaigns are really driven by those conversions and getting leads, new patients in the door for your practice.

We’ve seen even the day that some of these campaigns are set up, that new leads are coming in for our clients. Sometimes it does take a little bit longer, but as long as you have that content where you’re focusing on a call to action, you’re showcasing your expertise, you’re trying to build trust, even though it’s just a small amount of text, these are really where you’re going to see people calling up and wanting to schedule a consult with you with your business.

Additional tips

So please take a look at your Google ads when you’re creating them. Again, be as specific as possible with the keywords that you’re focusing on, as well as the ad text.

We’ve even run ads and set up campaigns for people where we only want the ads to show up for one single keyword, and that’s because that keyword is so important to us and we’ve seen a majority of the conversions come from that keyword.

So you can get that specific, where you have one keyword, one zip code and it goes to a landing page that’s specifically about that service, has a video of the doctor, and is just really powerful.

The display network, video network, etcetera, these could be used for retargeting ads, for example, but Google does have some pretty strict guidelines on healthcare and who can actually run these remarketing campaigns.

Get a free 30-minute consultation

So please, if you have any questions about how to set up the Google ads for your healthcare center, or just to double-check that they’re set up as we would recommend them to and how we’ve seen results before, please head on over to Social Speak Network, click on that “Free consultation button,” we’re more than happy to set up just a 30-minute call to run through your ad groups, your campaigns, make sure that they’re working as efficiently and effectively as possible for you and for your healthcare center.

Be sure to subscribe to our channel on YouTube, on Podbean, iTunes, and also jump on over to Social Speak to follow us over there.

Types of Adwords Campaigns for Healthcare Marketing

Types of Adwords Campaigns for Healthcare MarketingTypes of Adwords Campaigns for Healthcare Marketing

Interview with Nick about Chiropratic care in covid

Dr. Nick graduated from Sherman College of Chiropractic in 2004 where he earned the honors of Magna Cum Laude and the Rising Star award given to a recent Sherman College graduate who has demonstrated exceptional achievements and service in the community. Dr. Nick’s focus on education came from growing up in a household with two amazing teachers as his parents. He has lectured both internationally and locally on a wide variety of health and life topics. Dr. Nick first learned about the importance of a healthy functioning body during an internship in a pediatric oncology unit in Madrid, Spain. From that point on, it was his mission to learn as much as possible to be able to help as many people as possible.

When Dr. Nick is away from the office, you will find him spending time with Dr. Rachel and their “magic man” of a son, Noah. He also enjoys spending time with friends, gardening, running, practicing American Sign Language, spending time in nature, reading, and playing basketball.

How to Maximize Your Social Media Presence During the Pandemic

The unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak has holed up a huge chunk of the global population in their homes. It has created a healthcare crisis alongside an economic crisis. Unfortunately, no one seems to be able to say when the COVID-19 outbreak will end.

With emotions high, it is important now more than ever to put extra thought into what messages you share with your target audience.

Here are 6 ways healthcare providers can maximize their social presence during the COVID-19 crisis.

Educate your audience

Studies suggest that nearly 66% of internet users get their news online, specifically from social media.

Information is powerful and can help save people’s lives, especially during this pandemic.

COVID-19 cases have surged across the globe, so does the number of people searching for information about the virus. People need answers to questions like:

  • What are the symptoms of COVID-19?
  • How will I know when it is time to seek help at a hospital?
  • Should I stay home if the symptoms are minor?
  • Where can I get tested?
  • How do I avoid infecting others?

As a healthcare professional, you have enormous potential to educate your community. Your first step would be to provide answers to combat those concerns. Write a blog or record a video, and then post it on your social media page.

Beyond the fact that it is the right thing to do, sharing valuable, accurate information can help you grow your authority and build your organization’s thought leadership.

Counteract misinformation

Living in the digital world, information is just a mouse-click away. This free information age is a good thing. Unfortunately, false information is rampant, especially on social media. Some people who see them may think what they are reading is actually true, and that could be harmful. Worse, people are sharing “fake news” to their family and friends.

In a step in the right direction, WHO has launched a chatbot on Facebook Messenger to combat COVID-19 misinformation. The WHO Health Alert was developed in an effort to provide instant and accurate information about COVID-19. This movement aims to help people understand the facts related to the disease, protect themselves from COVID-19, and prevent its spread.

Counteract misinformation by sharing factual, accurate information about what is currently known about COVID-19. Another option is to share blog posts from trusted sources such as the CDC and WHO.

Encourage social distancing

Despite the surge of COVID-19 cases across the globe, a lot of people still underestimate the seriousness of the virus.

At this point in time, people’s safety is a top priority. You can use social media to help people understand that this is absolutely serious. Globally, more than 2.25 million people have been diagnosed with the virus, and more than 170,000 have died.

Use your voice to convince people to comply with social distancing, stay at home, and consequently help flatten the curve.

Take every opportunity to engage

With COVID-19 sending people indoors for more hours than they’re used to, many of them are relying on social media to stay in touch with family and friends, consume news, and entertainment.

Your fans and followers are spending more time online than they ever have before, and you want to stay connected to them. Take this opportunity to engage with your audience and deepen your relationship with them.

Social media is a great place to start a conversation, inspire, and spread the good news. Get in front of the camera and talk to your audience. People need hope. They want to see that there is a reason to smile. We all know that it is a difficult time, but you want to continue to uplift and inspire your followers.

By answering questions and concerns, as well as providing updates about patient recoveries and treatment options, you are acting as a resource to those who are anxious and could use some extra help to get through this difficult time.

You still have to comply with HIPAA

There are no dedicated HIPAA social media rules. But as a medical practitioner, you still have to comply with HIPAA regulations.

You must protect the privacy of your patients at all times. That means you should never include information that can be used to identify individual’s patients or their medical records. This includes name, photos, date of birth, medical data, social security number, etc.

Consider telemedicine

Living under lockdown conditions while a pandemic encircles the globe can be difficult. As basic supplies go short and some healthcare professionals get diverted to COVID-19 wards, some patients are struggling to get treatment.

Integrating telemedicine to your practice means being able to see patients who need routine checkups without risking a visit to a medical office. Instead of leaving the house and sitting in a waiting room full of other vulnerable patients, patients can get the care they need at the comfort of their homes.

How to Maximize Your Social Media Presence During the Pandemic

How to Maximize Your Social Media Presence During the PandemicHow to Maximize Your Social Media Presence During the Pandemic

Top 6 Telehealth Software of 2020

Over the last decade, telehealth has gained much traction on a global scale. It is quickly becoming a pillar of modern healthcare and is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.

Through telehealth, patients are given the option to consult a healthcare provider at the comfort of their home. This translates to happier patients, more revenue for your practice, and improved workflows that save you time. In order to facilitate these virtual visits, you will need an intuitive interface and a secure system.

What is telehealth software?

Telehealth software is the platform used by healthcare providers to provide remote clinical healthcare when they cannot meet in person. Through this software, healthcare becomes more accessible and cost-effective.

Telehealth software is not just a simple tool. Healthcare providers will need a secure portal where they can conduct remote patient examination, collect data, as well as store, share, and analyze confidential medical information and records.

There are literally hundreds of HIPAA-compliant telehealth solutions in the market. Use this as a guide to selecting the best telehealth software for your practice.

Doxy.me – https://doxy.me/

Pricing: Free for limited services

Professional: $35/month

Clinic: $50/month

Doxy.me is safe, simple, and secure platform that lets physicians meet with patients remotely. The cloud-based system can be accessed via any web browser or smarthpones.

Simple, accessible, and free of charge, doxy.me is on a mission to make telemedicine simple and easy for you.

Features include:

  • Free for all to use
  • Business Associate Agreement (BAA) included on all accounts, even the free version
  • High quality audio and video
  • Accessible from anywhere – desktop, laptop, and mobile devices
  • No download required
  • HIPAA, GDPR, PHIPA/PIPEDA & HITECH compliant

Healthie – https://gethealthie.com/

Pricing: Beginnings: $29/month

Small practice: $89/month

Practice Plus: $129/month

Group Practice: $149/month

Organization: Custom

Healthie was built specifically for nutritionists, dieticians, health coaches, and other wellness professionals. It is a web and mobile platform that allows nutrition and wellness professionals run their business and collaborate with their clients. It includes core business features such as scheduling, client education, charting, bills and payments, virtual care and more.

Healthie has all the functionality you need to run and grow your nutrition and wellness business in one software. No more cobbling together different tools.

Features include:

  • Access from any device – laptop, desktop, mobile phones, and tablet PCs
  • Range of customization and white-labeling options
  • Integration resources to fit your specific needs
  • HIPAA and PCI-compliant security
  • Extensive support and resources

Practice Better – https://practicebetter.io/

Pricing: Sprout Plan: Free

Starter Plan: $19

Professional Plan: $49

Plus Plan: $79

Team Plan: $135

Practice Better is a complete, secure cloud-based practice management platform for health and wellness professionals. It is packed with features designed to relieve health and wellness professionals of burdensome adminstrative tasks.

It saves you hours of work, so you can help more reach their health goals. With Practice Better, you can manage your professional recommendations from one secure place.

Features include:

  • Telehealth video chat
  • Record and manage sessions
  • Uncompromising security
  • 24/7 access to files and records
  • Branding and customization
  • Automate tasks and appointment reminders
  • Secure chat and instant alerts

Simple Practice – https://www.simplepractice.com/

Pricing: Essential Plan: $39/ month

Professional Plan: $59

With Simple Practice, you get a secure, fully integrated video solution. Your client communication, notes, calendar, and billing are combined in one system. That means, you’ll have more time seeing your clients, getting paid, and growing your business.

Features include:

  • HIPAA compliant
  • Conduct secure video appointments with your clients
  • Free telehealth resources
  • Automated billing and insurance processing
  • Paperless notes and documentation
  • Share videos, goal tracking, worksheets, and more from your screen
  • Start a video call from anywhere, on any device

Chiron Health – https://chironhealth.com/

Pricing: Independent: $150/month

Enterprise: Need to request quote

Chiron Health is a powerful telehealth software solution that is designed for practices of all sizes.  The system makes it easy to successfully implement a telehealth program in your practice with simple patient features, streamlined workflows, and customized plans. It allows users to schedule appointments with patients based on their availability, updates practitioner calendar.

Chiron Health also offers eligibility checks to verify informed consent documentation and insurance information.

Features include:

  • Streamlined patient workflow
  • HIPAA-compliant
  • Signed BAA for each client
  • Custom patient marketing
  • Patient notifications
  • Co-pay collection

swyMed – http://swymed.com/

Pricing: Not available on the website

swyMed is a patented telehealth software that is designed for community paramedicine programs, emergency response encounters, home and hospital health monitoring.

swyMed’s patented software overcomes traditional connectivity issues. It allows hopitals to use their medical expertise in the ambulance and at the scene of an emergency by delivering reliable, real-time video telemedicine, even in low bandwidth areas.

Features include:

  • Community paramedicine made easy
  • Extend the reach of your hospital
  • Reliable, real-time video telemedicine
  • Connects specialist and patients in live video
  • HIPAA compliant and fully secure
  • Home health solutions

Final thoughts

Considering how much traction telehealth is gaining during the current pandemic, it is important to choose a software that works for your patients and the specialty you practice. The right telehealth software has the power to change the way you provide healthcare for the better.

If you need help finding the right teleheatlh software or you’re interested in integrating telehealth into your practice, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help.

We’d love to offer a free 30-minute consultation call to discuss the ins and outs of implementing a telehealth feature into your practice.

Top 6 Telehealth Software of 2020

Top 6 Telehealth Software of 2020Top 6 Telehealth Software of 2020

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time T

Today, I want to talk about five different things you can be doing right now with all this extra time we have on our hands.

Most of us are working from our home offices and trying to move our businesses from an offline to an online service, and that could be a little difficult. We’ve talked a little bit about different things that you can do to help make that transition a little bit easier. And today I just want to give you five more things that you, guys, can be doing at this time to stay top of mind with your patients and keep your marketing going.

Blogs

So, the first thing is the blogs. Usually, blogging is something that gets put on the back burner because we’re so busy. We don’t have the time to sit down and write blogs. Maybe we’re not natural writers, it’s not something we really enjoy doing. And I understand that I am not a natural writer. It’s hard for me to sit down and write a 3000-word blog post. One really cool tool that we have discovered, and we use all the time, is called Scribie. And I’ll put the link below.

This is great because it allows you to do a video recording, just like this, and you can send in the audio file or the video file to Scribie, and they do a transcription of that file. This is a great way because now that video that you did acts as two benefits. You have the video for YouTube, but then you have the content for your blog that’s going to help with your SEOs, so it’s serving dual purposes.

Now, the other thing, if you have an audio file or an audio recording on your phone or different device, then you are able to upload that MP4 file to Scribie as well.

We use Zoom to record the videos, and then we upload the audio file because, with Zoom, it provides you both the video and audio, so that’s perfect. And so I think MP4 is video and MP3 is the audio. So, if you’re just doing an audio recording on your phone, just then upload that MP3 file into Scribie, and it will transcribe your blog. And for fairly reasonable.

Most blog posts are under that $10 mark to transcribe, and then you need to edit them, make sure your grammar is correct, and then you can put them into your blog post and format them with your header tags and your images. This saves a lot of time. This is something that we’ve really been able to focus on, is doing one to two video blogs per week and really making sure that we’re working on that content strategy. That’s number one.

Telehealth

Number two is really considering implementing telehealth. We have recently done a blog on telehealth, and what it is, and how to implement it, but now this is becoming a little bit more of a normal thing. Y

Now that your patients can’t see you face-to-face in your office, telehealth is a great way for them to see you face-to-face via video, whether that is through Zoom or a different tool used for the health care industries. So, really thinking of how can you implement telehealth into your practice to be able to see your patients, continue the business, and make sure that you’re giving them that peace of mind.

Videos

I know you probably are so tired of us saying “videos, videos, videos,” but really right now, your audience, your patients, they’re turning to social media more now than ever, and it’s important that they see your face.

As their health care practitioner in whatever field that is, it’s important that they see you, that they hear you. That gives them peace of mind that things are going to be okay. And I’m not saying that every video you do needs to be around the topics of COVID-19 or whatever is going on, but I would just educate them. Maybe if you’re working with kids, you can do some different cooking, some different recipes that they can try. Since the kids are home, you can give some study tips, maybe some art tips, nutrition tips, things that your audience can find valuable. And that you get creative with your videos.

If your staff is working from home, maybe do a weekly behind the scenes, like “Hey, this is Nurse Becky and this is her dog, Sam,” or whatever it may be. Get creative with your videos, and really allow this time of vulnerability to be there for your patients. You can ask for videos from them, too. Have a contest of the most creative art project or recipe concoction, whatever that may be.

If you’re working with elders, maybe you’re putting out crossword puzzles or word searches, things to keep them active. And that’s where I feel videos are great. They’re building that relationship on a much deeper level.

Ads

People may be wanting to cut costs right now because of that uncertainty, which we understand. One thing that you do not want to cut right now is your marketing.

It’s so important to make sure that you have your Facebook ads running, you have your Google ads running. And maybe you cut back that budget a little bit, but you still are doing business as normal. And especially if you are starting to implement telehealth, that maybe something that you really want to put a little bit of ad spend behind to promote because now you’re able to reach more people and help even more people, rather than just the people in your demographic area or geographical area.

Facebook ad campaigns, you want to make sure you leave them on, that you’re re-marketing people. And that’s something that we can help you with. If you’re confused about how to get that setup or how that works for your practice, we’re more than happy to help you with that, but make sure you have your ads running.

Patient check-ins

Lastly, take this time and do some patient check-ins. Go through your charts. If you haven’t seen anyone in a while, or you have a client that may be a higher risk or you are worried about, just do a simple check-in. Maybe even handwritten notes. I know that sometimes it takes a little bit of extra time even if you put together a newsletter, and you had your patients the newsletter just updating them.

I think it’s really important to build relationships and community right now, and make sure that you are again staying top of mind because that’s what your patients need right now. And so just doing that patient check-in, whether it’s individual… And you may have thousands of patients, so checking in with each of them won’t work. But if you can do a newsletter, where it is individualized to them, and you could say “Go do a video,” but just letting them know that you’re thinking of them and that you’re here for them, and maybe giving them some tips that you can help them, you again maybe introducing the telehealth series and letting them know that that’s an option.

Final thoughts

So, think of your target market and how you can utilize this time in a different way to focus on your marketing and being able to reach more people.  We may have extra time on our hands and most of us are, like I said, working from home.

So If you need help with any of these things, we would love to schedule a consultation with you, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com, click on FREE consultation, and we will talk to you soon.

 

 

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time

5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Online Marketing at This Time

What is Telehealth and How It Can Benefit Healthcare Practices

Over the last two decades, our lives have been slowly taken over by technology. From mobile communication to bills payment to food ordering, people are constantly looking for ways to simplify their lives.

Today, patients crave the same type of convenience when it comes to healthcare. They want an easier way to reach their provider and stay engaged in the medical process without exhausting themselves and their time. Healthcare providers, on the other hand, are also struggling to effectively reach patients in rural areas. This is where telehealth comes in.

What is Telehealth?

Telehealth is the use of digital information and communication technology to deliver healthcare, health education, and other health-related services remotely.

Mobile health apps, remote patient monitoring, and live video conferencing are examples of technologies used in telehealth.

Benefits of Telehealth Program

If you’re wondering whether adding telehealth to your practice is worth the time and effort, keep reading. Here are some of the top reasons for adopting telehealth for your practice.

Expand your patient base

Telehealth can overcome barriers to health services caused by the distance between a healthcare provider and a patient. It allows physicians to connect with patients outside of their geographic region.

In today’s healthcare world, convenience is key. Adding telehealth to your practice makes you more accessible to patients and give your practice a competitive advantage over similar practices in your area.

Elderly, working parents, patients from remote areas, and those who are less ambulatory during post-operative recovery can receive the best possible care even when hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare facilities are hundreds of miles away from their home. The convenience it affords can help you retain current patients and attract new ones.

Saves patient’s time and money

Patients in rural areas need to travel for several hours just to reach specialists in urban areas, not to mention the time spent hanging around in the waiting room. The cost of travel, childcare, parking, and taking time from work can easily add up. Some patients would skip treatment entirely due to the burden of excessive travel.

Telehealth is a cost-efficient alternative to in-office visits, especially for patients with a chronic condition that requires frequent appointments. It allows patients to receive care in their own home instead of traveling long distances. That means patients save on time as well as transportation costs and child care.

With telehealth, appointments can be scheduled before or after work or during lunch hours.  No more hanging around in waiting rooms. No need to worry about taking time off from work either.

Stay connected with patients during challenging times

As the number of COVID-19 cases skyrockets across the globe, people are asked to stay at home and maintain social distancing. But for patients with a pre-existing medical condition, doctor’s visits cannot be postponed indefinitely.

Since a telehealth visit can be done form the patient’s home, there is no risk of being exposed to the coronavirus or other pathogens. It keeps patients safe by keeping them out of doctor’s offices and emergency departments.

With the ease and convenience of telehealth, you can see your patients and provide follow-up visits, reinforcing treatment adherence, and offer specialty services during challenging times.

Integrating telehealth into your practice

Patients want the ease and convenience found in telehealth programs. In fact, one study revealed that 80% of patients want access to virtual care. Despite the increasing demand, many doctors are still reluctant to try telehealth in their practice.

Many healthcare providers are worried that telehealth is too complicated and time-consuming to implement in their already busy practices. But the truth is integrating telehealth into your practice doesn’t have to be complicated.

Review laws and policies

States have their own laws around telehealth licensing, consent, and reimbursement. Call your state medical board to determine what laws govern this service.

Make sure you have the right equipment

As mentioned above, telehealth uses telecommunications technology to provide healthcare from a distance. It is likely that you already have a computer, phone, and internet connection.

If you’re using a desktop computer, then you’ll need a webcam and microphone in order to do any sort of video conferencing. HIPAA-compliant software required for privacy and encryption should be installed on your computer or laptop.

Select a platform

Not all telehealth platforms are created equal. That said, it’s important to do your homework before choosing a telehealth platform.

Ease of use, reliability, and affordability are just some of the key factors to consider when selecting a platform. Also, it is vital to ensure that the platform is:

  • Integrated with your EHR solution
  • Secure and HIPAA compliant
  • Equipped with a method for verifying patient eligibility for reimbursement
  • Easy for staff and patients to use

Test it out

Once you have the technology set up, perform some trial runs. You want to make sure that you and the staff are comfortable and properly trained in using the technology. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use it effectively with your patients.

Encourage your staff to log in on the telehealth app and practice accepting and arranging visits. Get comfortable starting and ending calls, inviting others onto the platform, and adjusting audio and video. You can also try it out with a couple of patients and get feedback.

No matter how expensive your equipment or how reliable your software is, it won’t help your patients if your staff does not know how to use it.

Set-up your workflow

To prevent misunderstandings, make sure that all your staff is on the same page. Bring them up to speed and include them in your training and workflow discussions.

Start by asking these questions to ease telehealth into your workflow:

  • When will the visits occur?
  • Who will be involved in scheduling telehealth appointments? Who is responsible for coordinating follow-up care?
  • What information do you need to gather from the patient before a meeting?
  • How will you bill patients?

Market it to patients

Inform potential clients who may benefit from this kind of technology. Let them know that video visits are an option. Be sure to explain the advantages of telehealth and how it works.

You can post articles on your website, put up signage in your office or you can bring it up to patients during in-person visits.

What is Telehealth and How It Can Benefit Healthcare Practices

What is Telehealth and How It Can Benefit Healthcare Practices

What is Telehealth and How It Can Benefit Healthcare Practices

Ty Allen Social Climb Interview

Today we’re going to be joined by Ty Allen, the CEO of SocialClimb. SocialClimb is Ty’s fourth successful business in the marketing and technology space. He is passionate about building systems that actually grow practices and improve patient experiences.

SocialClimb enables thousands of physicians to automatically attract new patients to their practices by building their online social reputations and automatically targeting ideal new patients. Delivering more than one million patient per customer interactions every month, SocialClimb helps practices transform themselves inside and out.

Ty and his wife have five beautiful daughters and live in Alpine, Utah. Ty enjoys golfing, and mountain biking, and we’re so excited for him to be joining us today as he shares insights into how your medical practice can benefit from reputation management, and reviews, and directory listings online.

In this interview we discuss:

  • Why reviews are so important for a medical practice
  • Where reviews should be posted (what directories are most important for healthcare)?
  • How can office administrators solicit reviews?
  • What technology exists for getting reviews?
  • Once you get a review, what should you do?

 Listen to the Medical Marketing Podcast:


Caitlin McDonald: Wonderful, thank you so much, Ty for joining us on our podcast today. To get started, we’d love to learn a little bit more about your story, and SocialClimb’s story.

Ty Allen: Great, thanks, Caitlin, I really appreciate the opportunity to participate in the podcast today, and maybe just to share a little bit about why we started SocialClimb and the reasons we’re so passionate about what we do for practices, is I think a great way to start.

So, my personal story behind this is six years ago, I was involved in an accident wherein I fractured my neck and at C4, and had a spinal cord injury. At the time of the injury, of course, I didn’t know what had really happened in my neck. The ambulance took me to the hospital, and the emergency room doctors did a great job, they quickly diagnosed my issue, and they knew that the fracture was there, and that I also had what is called a central cord syndrome.

And at that level in the neck, I was pretty lucky that I was still able to breathe. But when I first had been injured, I actually felt like I was a quadriplegic and then over the next half an hour, I started getting some sensation back and some functionality back, but I was actually in a lot of pain by the time they got me to the emergency room. So I remember vividly laying on a backboard after the doctors had gotten the diagnosis, and they came to me and said that my case was too complex for the small hospital that I’d been taken to and that I needed to either go to a larger hospital north of me or a larger hospital south of me, and the ER doctor said, “These are the names of the two physicians, spine surgeons, who are on call, one at each of the hospitals. I need you to choose which hospital, therefore which spine surgeon is going to do your surgery. You have five minutes to make that decision.”

And my wife was at the hospital at that time and I remember looking at her and neither of us had any idea how to make that decision. Eventually, we made the decision by asking a few other providers who were very reticent to give us any information, but we had to make a decision so we did. And in my process of rehab, so I had surgery, I went into a rehab process that… I was in the hospital for about a month, and went through inpatient and outpatient rehab and… And I’m doing very well today, in a large part to the great care that I received from a lot of providers

But there were probably eight to 10 decisions I had to make during that process about who would be my occupational therapist, who’d be my physical therapist, what inpatient facility would I have myself go to, what outpatient facilities would I use for rehab, who my rehab doctor would be, and just a lot of decisions that I just, as a consumer of Medical care, I did not have the data to make that decision.

So I realized, while, going through this process that there was a problem, that a lot of these practices and physicians don’t know how to tell their story in a way that consumers of medical care today can use it to find the right provider for them. So that’s where the genesis of SocialClimb came from.

We’re really passionate about helping providers, great providers, tell their story, and attract patients in the way that patients seek to find providers today. And that is the story behind SocialClimb. And again, it’s not a story I always tell every potential customer, or every person I talk to, but it is the reason that I personally am so passionate about what we do.

 

Caitlin McDonaldWhat a powerful story, and thank you for sharing such a personal story about why you started SocialClimb. And as a consumer of healthcare and a marketing agency that helps healthcare practices, we know how important reputation management and reviews are as a way to build trust and really showcase your own medical practice story as a way to bring new patients in the door. Can you talk a little bit about why reviews and reputation management is so important for healthcare centers?

Why are Reviews and Reputation Management so Important for Healthcare Centers?

Ty Allen: Sure, yeah. One of the things that I learned pretty quickly is that I’m not unique in the way that I seek for care, when I wanna buy a product, I take my phone out and do a search. I go to Amazon or Google and I do a search. And I do the same thing for medical care. Today, it’s a great thing that now we have a lot of this data available to us online. But it wasn’t the case even six years ago, a lot of it wasn’t available

So getting a physician or practice’s data online in the right way, so getting the listings, the optimization of those listings, and the reviews from real patients out there is super critical because the next potential patient is simply gonna take their phone out and do a search, they’re gonna ask Google in most cases, “Where can I get help with problem X? Or where can I find a provider that can help me with problem Y?

And if those reviews from patients are not out there, and if those pages are not owned by you as a physician, you are not gonna show up. Even five or six years ago, most practices and physicians thought, “Look, all I gotta do is get a website set up. My website has to be great, it’s gotta be optimized.” And it’s not to say that websites are not still valuable, it’s just that so many patients today do a search, find a physician because of their reputation online, choose that physician, even make the call to the practice straight from that listing, having never gone to the practice’s website. So a website is still valuable. It’s just that there are so many other ways to now tell the story of the practice, and the physician online in ways that patients actually find… Help find your practice.

 

Caitlin McDonald: And then where should these reviews be posted? What types of directories should a medical practice make sure that they are on?

What Directories Should a Medical Practice Use?

Ty Allen: Great, great question. So four years ago, when we first started this, we saw a lot of emphasis on a lot of different platforms, right. You’d hear people say, “There’s 70 different platforms that you should put your listings on and make sure they’re all correct.” And at the time that may have been a bit true. But today it’s coalescing. So we really think that Google is 80% of the value for a practice. Google is the focus. So, Google My Business pages for each doctor and each office location. In fact, if a physician practices in multiple locations, they really should have a Google My Business page in each location where they practice if they’re more than five miles apart, because local search is what’s going on here. When Google does a local search, it’s very first local.

So a great reputation downtown for a physician does not help somebody in the suburbs find that physician, but if that physician works two days a week out in the suburbs, having a strong reputation out there is really important on Google. Now, Google used to kind of be just the judge.

By that I mean you would do a search and Google would say, “Well, HealthGrades ranks this physician this way, and Facebook does this, and Vitals says this, and RateMDs says this, and Facebook says, or Yelp says this.”

And so, that summation of data from all those other areas would pull into the search for Google. We’ve seen a trend over the last few months, or… Sorry, a year, year and a half that Google is now the judge and the jury. So, Google seems to trust its own data on its own listing’s pages for doctors and practices, more than it trusts that third party data. So when a practice has done a good job helping Google understand that it does find work for patients by getting reviews from patients and optimizing pages on Google, then the Google results reflect that.

So we would say Google, number one. Facebook has some really interesting ways, with Facebook… The way that your patients can go on and they don’t necessarily leave reviews in a traditional way, that they are kind of recommendations. Yelp is often important. HealthGrades is very important. So, probably Google, Facebook, HealthGrades, Vitals and Yelp are the top platforms, that we see really having an influence on how patients find physicians.

 

Caitlin McDonaldSo you mentioned Google has become judge and the jury for their own organization of those listings, do you feel as though they take a look at on­site SEO or is it really just looking at your Google My Business listing, seeing if that’s optimized and kind of seeing what reviews you have there?

What Do You Need to Have on Google My Business Listing to Stand Out as a Medical Center?

Ty Allen: Yeah, we see that they do both, actually. So we see that the link from your Google My Business page where you’re connecting basically to a doctor’s profile or to a practice’s profile on the website, if that link goes to a page, that has the same keywords that are in the doctor’s profile and in the doctor’s category on the Google My Business page, we see those pages rank more highly. So it is still very important to have a highly ranking website that you can link to from the Google My Business pages, so that the page, the Google page ranks higher, and if you get those keyword… Kind of that keyword triangle set up correctly, if the category chosen on the Google My Business page, those same keywords from that category on the physician’s profile page on the website, and those keywords also included in the business description on the physician’s Google My Business page, we see a nice synergy there that causes Google My Business pages to rank higher.

 

Caitlin McDonaldOkay, that makes sense. I can see how it all works together there. Now, are you recommending that in addition to having the medical practice have a Google My Business page, that each of the physicians have their own Google My Business page, as well?

Physician Google My Business Listings

Ty Allen: We do recommend that, yes. We’ve seen policy change from Google on that, and we’ve seen it become a really valuable way for a practice to attract patients. Now sometimes a practice doesn’t wanna do that and they wanna just promote their practice as a brand and they don’t really want their physicians to be front and center, and sometimes they’re worried that those physicians will then take that reputation and leave, and it doesn’t strengthen the partnership in the practice, but honestly, it’s more valuable in the search process if a practice will embrace the concept of each of the providers, each of the doctors, we don’t typically recommend this for PAs or nurse practitioners or even PTs, but the doctors themselves, having their own Google My business page, as well as the practice having a Google My Business page, that gives that practice more footprint in the market to attract patients and making those pages highly optimized is also very important.

So when we say that, we believe there are 10 key components on a Google My Business page that really help it rank highly, so when our platform actually sinks a Google page in, it runs a scorecard analysis on each of those components, so the optimization score, and that is completely independent of the number of reviews. We actually see that a page can ranks more highly without any reviews if all the components on a Google My business page are properly configured. Then, of course, you add reviews to that, you add postings, you answer and respond to questions that get posted by patients, you reply to reviews, you do all those great things on a Google My Business page, and it just moves it higher and higher and higher, but the first step is claim a page for each doc in each location, optimize those pages, and then start the process of building a reputation.

 

Caitlin McDonald: Great, so it sounds as though an office administrator has quite a bit of work or they can turn to a service like yours to help them with this. So, what could an office administrator do to make sure that that they are soliciting reviews from patients?

How to Solicit Reviews from Patients

Ty Allen: Yeah, so the basics, and as you said, this can all be done manually. If an administrator has the time, they can go and claim the pages, go through each of the pages and get the pictures, the configuration, the hours, the description, the links to the website, get all of that stuff done, that’s all very doable. You can use Google’s interfaces to do that, to manage these Google My Business pages. And then once you’ve done that, you can say print a little card and hand it out to each of the patients. And on that card it has a link that they could type into their phone or into their computer and click that link and go out and leave a review for the doctor.

All very doable, and something that we highly recommend practices consider doing. Typically what we find is most practice managers or marketing people, or front desk people, and these practices are already overworked. So our approach to this is to automate all of that process. So I’ve already talked through claiming the page, optimizing the page, all those things, but let’s talk about how the best way to get patients to leave feedback.

So we’ve seen groups do everything from putting a computer in the lobby and asking patients to walk up to that computer, log in to their personal accounts on that computer and then leave a review for a doctor, to some groups, even as I said, handing out a card and hoping patients will take the card home and type that long URL in, and then get to a review page. So, most of those things can work, they’re just not as effective as actually sending a message, automated message, via text to each of the patients. So we actually recommend a text message that goes to the patients that has a nice link on it, a picture from the doctor, and an invitation for the patient to easily click the link, leave a review, typically a patient can do that in about 30 seconds.

The beauty of that process versus the other two that I just talked about, is those patients receive that text message or email on their phone typically, and when they click the link to leave feedback on Google or Facebook or one of these platforms they’re typically are already authenticated to Google, maybe they already have the Facebook app on their phone, that it opens into Facebook. So make it so that it’s so easy that they could do it in less than one minute, and then you actually get in a high enough response rate that you can really move the needle on the reputation.

There’s a couple of other problems I would point out when you try to do it more manually, is you hand somebody a card. It’s a complex URL, the chances of them actually doing it go way down, they’re not gonna type that in and go through that process. And if you ask them to do it in your lobby on a computer, they’ve gotta remember their passwords to log in, then you’ve gotta remember to make sure that that thing gets logged out so you’re not sharing personal data, so the next patient who might walk up to it. But then the worst thing about that option is if you’re making those reviews, many of them from the same computer, on the same IP address, the platforms start to throw those away, the review platforms start to ignore those because they know they’re coming from one IP address and they think they’re fraudulent. So, the most efficient thing to do is to get a message to a patient, on their phone that they can easily click and move through the review process as quickly as possible.

 

Caitlin McDonaldNow SocialClimb as a platform, this is exactly what you do. We have some clients who utilize SocialClimb and it is very straightforward, and very easy for patients to leave those reviews. Honestly, within a couple of hours of turning on the packages with you, we have as marketing managers of Google My Business pages, we have seen reviews come in, when prior to that, maybe one per month would come in.

And it really is making that process easy and simple for the patients as they’re leaving the practice, they get that text message notification. It’s top of mind and that ease of use is just right in their face. So it does make it very easy and streamlined to get those reviews.

 

Ty Allen: Well that’s great to hear that it’s worked well for your client like that. We see that with a lot of groups and as you pointed out, previous to making an effort like this, to invite patients, you typically only get one or two reviews, very few a month, and really unfortunately, they’re often the patient who wants to complain. So, what we’re really doing is enabling that silent majority of happy patients who walk away from a cycle of care with a practice, or a physician, who are very happy, right, they’re the happiest of the patients, but they don’t turn around and say thank you.

They don’t think about it, they’re not passionate about saying, “Thank you,” like a person who’s mad is passionate about saying they’re mad. So what we’re really trying to do is get 10%, that’s the goal, 10% of the happy patients, and we’re asking every patient whether they’re happy or not. Let’s talk about that in just a second. But, get 10% of those happy patients to turn around and say thank you by leaving a social media review for that practice or that doctor. And that adds up really fast and really makes a practice look… Or a physician look great online, because they typically are making 99% of their patients extremely happy.

And we ask those questions, when we invite a patient, we do not gate them. We don’t say, “Hey if you’re happy, leave a public review, if you’re unhappy, don’t do anything or leave a private review.” We ask the question per the policy of most of these review platforms to just invite everyone to leave feedback. The reality is most unhappy patients, given a chance, if you’re asking them how their experience was, they’ll actually turn around and wanna tell you without giving you a bad name online.

So, our process is, “Would you please leave feedback at these public review sites?” If they say yes, they’re taken to the public review sites, if they say no, they’re given an opportunity to say something that comes right back to the practice. So that’s the way to appropriately invite patients to leave feedback, and we typically see that great care providers get great reputations online through this process.

 

Caitlin McDonaldNow, one thing that across all industries, by opening up yourself to getting reviews online do is that you are opening yourself to get bad reviews. And one thing that’s always good to do, especially in the medical industry, is to think about what those responses are going to be for those negative reviews as well as positive reviews as commenting back on any review that you get can help show that you are also an active participant, and really care about your patients. Do you have any tips or insights about how to go about formulating those responses to negative reviews specifically?

 

Ty Allen: Yes. So your point is very, very accurate from my opinion. You wanna respond to any and all reviews. Really, we recommend that a practice responds to all the positive reviews, thank those patients. That is a courteous thing to do in normal human interactions. It’s also a very positive thing to do from Google’s perspective. If you’re getting lots of reviews and you’re actually responding to the reviews, you actually then rank higher. Getting a lot of reviews is great but getting a lot of reviews, that you respond to seems to cause your pages to rank even higher. So, our positive reviews, it’s an easy thing. We actually have a suite of replies, both positive and negative, that are built into our platform that are HIPAA compliant, that we recommend that a practice use.

So now let’s talk about negative feedback. So when you do get negative feedback, our suggestion is to think of it in two ways. First off, you wanna get this conversation offline. So you wanna reply in a respectful way that asks the patient to contact you privately so you can have that conversation offline, and you wanna do that so that everyone can see that you’re proactively and quickly responding to negative feedback. So, you don’t wanna wait a month, you don’t even wanna wait a day. If you get a negative review, you wanna reply within minutes to hours, and then you wanna get that conversation offline, and that helps the next patient who comes along that looks at your feedback then understands that sometimes things do happen

Something out of your control can happen but you care as a practice, and so you respond quickly. And then when you get that patient into a service recovery opportunity, which is what we recommend how you think of these, we actually have a process in our platform that makes it easy for you to track what you’ve done there, make notes on it, share it with your team and even build a little process around it, so that everybody in the organization understands what you got feedback on that didn’t work and that kind of socializes within your organization and also shows how many of those have been resolved.

So when the physician looks through all the feedback, positive and negative, that’s come in for them throughout that month or that week, they can see that anything negative has actually been dealt with or is in the process of being dealt with. So you have several different constituents you’re worried about here. Of course, you are worried about the patient, and responding to them, but as an administrator, you also want to make sure that your physician understands what’s going on, the feedback that’s being brought in, and that you’re actually dealing with it, and kind of solving those issues for them.

 

Caitlin McDonaldThat’s such great insights and information there. Ty I see that we are running short on time. Are there any other tips or pieces of advice that you would like to give to our listeners today?

 

Ty Allen: Yeah, actually there is. So we’ve spent this time, it’s been great talking about the importance of building a practice or a physician’s ratings and reviews, and how that can then help them be found more easily online, and that that data is clear. We have thousands of physicians using our platform who see a significant uptick in their visibility and inbound calls and clicks. But to me, the most exciting thing is once a physician or a practice has built a great reputation online, there’s now a new emerging option that lets you take that reputation and easily leverage it to target more specifically, the patient types that you want in the areas where you want them.

That might be a topic of conversation for another podcast at some point, but what I’m really talking about is the ability that Google has recently made available to take a Google My Business page and convert it into an ad that carries that doctor’s great reputation into a targeted ad campaign that can easily be delivered into certain zip codes, or certain cities to go get the patients that a physician wants as they grow their practice.

 

Caitlin McDonaldYes, and that actually would make an excellent future podcast. We truly believe in the Google Ads interface, and their ability to optimize on the different ad sets and utilizing Smart Campaigns to really tie into the the Google My Business listing. So I would love to tap into your insights and your mind on that as well, and to hear how SocialClimb is able to utilize Google Ads campaigns as a way to further reach the right people online. I think that that’s very powerful for medical practices, and again, it shows how you can get all of these different tools working together to reach new patients and get new patients in the door.

 

Ty Allen: Yeah, awesome, let’s find a time to have that discussion at another time. I really appreciate the opportunity to have been here today, though.

 

Caitlin McDonaldWonderful, well, Ty, you have shared such great insight talking about why it’s important to be on different directories and solicit reviews, what tools and technologies are out there, as well as what to do once you do get a positive and a negative review. So we really appreciate your time today. Listeners, if you are interested in learning how SocialClimb can benefit your practice, head on over to their website, SocialClimb.com. Ty, you have social media sites as well so I’m sure they can jump on over to Facebook to learn more about your business and the great work that you’re doing.

 

Ty Allen: Great, thank you.

 

Caitlin McDonald: Wonderful thank you so much!

 

Ty Allen Social Climb Interview

 

 

Ty Allen Social Climb Interview

Ty Allen Social Climb Interview

Five Social Media Post Ideas for the Healthcare Industry

In this video, we talk about how to keep that brand consistency on all platforms within your digital marketing strategy and what makes engaging social media content.
We understand that it can be difficult to figure out what to post about on social media and what your audience is looking for. We share 5 types of content you can create to build brand awareness and relationships with your patients.

Today, we’re talking about brand consistency and what type of social media content you should be posting.

Brand consistency and what type of social media content you should be posting

So let’s take a step back real quick, and let’s look at your digital marketing as a whole. Now, we’ve been talking a lot about video marketing, creating that content strategy, how to use Canvas for your images, how to use Instagram and Pinterest.

We cover a lot of topics, and being able to implement all of those is a lot. So looking at your digital marketing as a whole, so you have your blogging, you have your social media, you have your email marketing, you have your ad campaigns for Facebook and Google, you have your email marketing, you have your lead pages that go into your ad campaign, so you have all of these components, plus your website. So you have all these components that are tied in to your digital marketing strategy. And it’s not being a jack-of-all-trades, master of none; it’s becoming a master of all and being able to show that brand consistency on every single platform.

So as you are looking at when you write your blog post, the image that you create for your blog post should have the same thought and color scheme as the thumbnail image for your YouTube video, as the social media posts that are tying in to that blog or just all of your social media content. Everything should have the same look and feel. And this doesn’t mean using the same theme in Canvas for every single image, but it means having your brand identity. So looking at what are those brand fonts, what are those brand colors, what types of images are you wanting to use. This is something that really is a hard thing to overcome, especially in the healthcare industry, is using stock photos versus real photos. And if you are using photos from your center, from your patients, you need to make sure that you have the HIPAA-compliant form signed that they are okay with you using their photo, and that they’re okay with you using it on social media. They may just want to do a written testimonial, and they don’t want to have their image up. Some of them may not mind at all; some of them may say, “Okay, just get the side view,” so really making sure that it’s okay with your patients to use those photos and okay with your staff.

So, I think that, and we’ll get into this on the social media side, of what type of posts, but really showing that personality of your practice is really important. So using original photos, that is key, so that creates the brand consistency. And so, that leads me into what types of posts should you be putting up there for social media.

Here’s some two interesting facts:

That means your audience are looking at what you’re talking about, how often you’re talking about it, if it’s helping them, if they find it valuable, and that it’s a huge deciding factor for them if they’re going to call your clinic and come into your practice for treatment.

So, again, this kind of shows people will do business with people they know, like, and trust, and if they feel that they already have this relationship with the doctor and the staff, it makes it so much easier to build that relationship and that relationship loyalty. So I found that really interesting, how high those numbers were.

So let’s dive into the five social media post ideas for the healthcare industry.

 

Cause marketing

This is huge! You’re in the healthcare industry. You have to have a purpose behind what you do. Let’s say you’re a pediatrician, and your practice is, you see a lot of kids with type 1 diabetes. So maybe you partner up with Diabetes Association and you work with them on how to help kids with type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes.

Maybe you are an OB/GYN and your cause is to help premature babies, so you have a fund, you partner with somebody. So really showing that your office is more than just caring for your patients, you guys have a greater cause, you guys are supporting something.

Collaboration

So if you guys partner with a non-profit and maybe you donate services to them or you guys do community events together or a certain percentage of your proceeds goes back to that non-profit or however that works, but that cause marketing and collaboration is a really big piece of your social media strategy.

This shows your audience and your patients that you’re more than just a doctor, you’re more than just, “Okay, take this, do this, you’re fine.” You really care about the greater good. And I think that that’s really important to do.

Brand awareness

It’s important to showcase what you do as a practice. This can be the different services that you offer, maybe a service that’s not very popular. Maybe if you’re a pediatrician, you can also say, “Oh, did you know we do a kids’ cooking class,” or something like that, but that brand awareness, showing behind the scenes and highlighting the staff.

Again, being able to show your practice’s personality, that brand consistency, that personality behind the name, is really… That’s what people are going to connect with, and that’s what your audience will see.

Highlight a staff member every week with something that they love to do. Maybe they are an avid marathon runner. Showcase them running a marathon and also tag that marathon. That’s that collaboration piece as well. So, with thinking outside the box and highlighting a doctor, highlighting a nurse, that’s creating that brand, that shows that you are real. So that is three. Number three is brand awareness.

Education

This really should be the first one, because education is the most important piece. You really want to provide that valuable content to your audienc. Really, that’s what’s going to attract them to you in the first place – if you’re providing that valuable content that they feel, “Oh, wow, I didn’t know that. Oh, that’s awesome.”

Depending on your industry, this could be as simple as, you know, flu season. What’s going on in the news with the flu season? The corona virus is a topic of all conversations right now, and it’s important if you are a pediatrician or if you are a head of a senior retirement living, how do they stay safe from this? Washing hands, antibacterial cream. How can you educate them and give them peace of mind, whether this is if you’re working, again, with people that have diabetes, providing easy recipes that are made for diabetics, maybe it’s helping them with different types of the bands for their legs or the different socks or the different lotions, things that they are already searching for.

As a healthcare provider, you already know these things. So write that content that can help them. What are they searching for, and being able to educate them on that. This can be healthy lifestyle. This is another curated content, so sharing articles from other sources. So, this could be from the CDC website, this can be from Mayo Clinic, this can be from Allrecipes for diabetic… Diabetic recipes. So there’s a lot of different options you have for curated content.

Curated content just means sharing something that’s not from you, that’s not original. You’re sharing it from another source, and this is huge. Facebook really likes when you do curate a content and you’re sharing posts. That gives you kudos on Facebook.

Videos

We just did a blog on why you need to implement video marketing into your strategy. And videos can be time-consuming.

If you have a laptop, if you have an iPhone, you can record on those devices. If you have an older laptop, sometimes the quality isn’t that clear, but there’s options available, you can go on to Amazon. We just ordered cameras for one of our clients. I think they were maybe $45-$60-ish, just a camcorder or a computer camera that fits on here. The picture is very clear, microphone’s clear. Take the time to do your homework to see if the quality of your computer or your phone will work, the more authentic you are.

You don’t need to have a staged space, but these can be as simple as interviewing your doctors, having a nurse practitioner or even the front desk staff. Do one interview per month and asking questions to the doctor. This can be an FAQ.

So, you guys can compile questions every week of what your patients have been asking you, and put into, “Okay, this is our Friday FAQ, these are the questions that been coming in this week. We want to make sure we get them answered for you.”

You can have a little box on the front counter that says “Questions,” and you can start building that, again, that brand awareness of, “Every Friday, our doctor is going to answer at least five of these questions.” It doesn’t have to be a long video, but that content can then be turned into a video for YouTube, a video for social media. You can even use a transcription service and have that content put together in a blog for you.

So, those videos serve a lot of different purposes, and video marketing is huge. People want to see who you are, what your values are, and it’s important to highlight that staff, even if it is the front desk. They do a lot at that front desk, they see a lot of patients, they hear a lot of feedback. So, let them answer a couple of questions or give a couple of tips.

This education, the hand-washing tips. You can do a quick video on how to wash your hands, and what’s the right protocols. So think of your audience. Think of the questions they’re asking, think of the information that they’ll be searching for, and create those videos and that content around them, because at the end of the day, it’s about your patients. It’s about what they are searching for and what information you can provide them.

So if you need help putting the strategy together and executing this, let us know, we are here for you. You can go on to socialspeaknetwork.com and schedule a free 30-minute consultation, and we can walk you through this and give you some insights.

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Five Social Media Post Ideas for the Healthcare Industry

Five Social Media Post Ideas for the Healthcare IndustryFive Social Media Post Ideas for the Healthcare Industry