The content marketing world is more competitive now than it has ever been before. Big brands, small businesses, influencers, and even healthcare professionals create their own content to reach more people online.
But with so many blog posts, videos, infographics, and other types of content online, it can be challenging to stand out. That’s what we’re going to talk about next.
When developing a content strategy for your healthcare practice, there are five things you need to keep in mind. Let’s dive into those now.
Know your audience
It is estimated that Google processes approximately 5.6 billion search queries every day. According to Google, 5% of those searches are health-related.
There is no shortage of content on the internet. But if you want to get in front of your target audience, you need to create content that is relevant and useful to them. To do that, you must get to know your audience on a deeper level.
Dig deep into what types of content they’re consuming and what topics they’re interested in. This way, you can align your content with your target audience’s specific needs and interests.
Establish your content marketing goals
Let’s face it. It’s easy to get caught up in the who, what, how, and where of content marketing that people tend to forget about the most important question: why?
Every strategy should start with a specific goal in mind. So ask yourself. What do you want to achieve with your content? Are you hoping to capture more leads? Or maybe you’re looking to grow your brand awareness and social media presence.
By defining your goals, you can ensure that each piece of content works towards meeting those goals. Even better, you can keep track of your data and use them to improve your content marketing strategy in the long run.
Create a content messaging roadmap
Now that you have already created a buyer persona, established your goals, and set criteria for success, it’s time to start building a content messaging roadmap that can help move each persona through the sales funnel.
Patients who are visiting your site for the first time may be looking for a healthcare provider but aren’t ready to book an appointment with you yet. During this stage, getting their trust is of key importance. This is where educational content can help. Articles, podcasts, videos, and case studies can help position yourself as an expert and get potential patients’ trust.
Warmer prospects may have considered booking an appointment already but may still be looking around. At this stage, adding testimonials from other patients, answering frequently asked questions, and offering free consultations may be just what you need to seal the deal.
Make the most of your content
You spent hours creating those content, so why not make the most out of them? You can repurpose your content to introduce them to new audiences who might prefer a different format.
For instance, you can turn your blog post into an infographic to make it easier to digest and understand. You can turn it into video content, which is perfect for those who prefer watching videos. Another option is to segment your blog post and publish it as a series on social media.
Identify the most relevant platforms
So you spent so much time and effort researching and writing your content. You wanted to make sure that your audience would find it helpful and informative. But it won’t matter if no one has seen it.
The key is to identify which platforms your audience spends most of their time in. This can help give your content the best possible chance of being seen.
If most of your audience is on Instagram, start by creating an appealing image that would make users stop their scroll. But don’t just stop there. You should also write compelling captions that create more engagement.
Final thoughts
There is no denying that content marketing strategy works. It can help you reach more patients online, retain current patients, and even improve patient journeys. But for it to work, you need to have a well-defined and carefully thought out strategy. Otherwise, you’d be wasting a lot of time and effort creating content that won’t benefit your practice.
If you need help devising a content marketing strategy and plan or need some fresh ideas to include in your plan, we can help. Schedule a free consultation with us, and we’ll help you generate more traffic and leads for your healthcare practice with content marketing.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/5-Tips-for-Building-a-Content-Marketing-Strategy-for-Your-Healthcare-Practice.png12602240Kathlyn Angeleshttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles2022-03-30 10:46:482022-03-25 11:55:185 Tips for Building a Content Marketing Strategy for Your Healthcare Practice
Millennials might have the spotlight for the time being, but Generation Z has arrived! They’re set to become an influential consumer segment in the years to come.
This group is predicted to make up one-third of the working population by 2025. Gen Z represents a huge opportunity for sustainable growth. And you wouldn’t want to ignore them.
Gen Zs are highly tech-savvy. They’re value-driven and socially conscientious. Unfortunately, using the same marketing strategy for millennials won’t work with this market.
Use these tips to make sure you’re marketing to Gen Z patients the right way.
Meet them where they are
As a generation that is born into a world of the internet and smart devices, these younger patients spend as much time on their phones as the older generations do watching TV. That said, they expect their healthcare experience to be digital too.
According to SproutSocial, 65% of Gen Z have increased their use of social media in the last year. To create meaningful connections with the younger audience, you need to have a solid online presence and make sure that you tailor your message to each social platform.
Go beyond your Facebook page and meet your audience where they are. If your brand’s target audience includes individuals aged 30 and below, you should be on Tiktok right now. You don’t necessarily have to dance or participate in challenges.
If you’re a gynecologist, you can use the platform to share helpful information about sex education. If you’re a dermatologist, you can talk about the importance of sunscreens.
Remember, each platform has its own voice and audience. So make sure that you tailor your message to resonate, not just with Gen Z but with a diverse audience.
Create short but helpful content
Gen Z’s attention span is shorter than millennials. So if you want to engage with them, your focus should be creating snappy but meaningful content.
Gen Z is our most health-conscious generation. But they also like convenience. That said, you can show them how to create healthy meals in 10 minutes. Or maybe feature a 10-minute exercise routine that they can do at home.
Choose influencers with care
Influencer marketing is excellent tool to reach them. In fact, influencers now have even greater appeal than yesterday’s celebrities. Why? Because they’re more relatable and resonate well with the younger audience.
In fact, Gen Zs are nearly twice as likely as millennials to make a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation.
But remember that this younger demographic values individual expression. If you decide to work with an influencer to increase brand awareness and build trust, make sure that you choose your influencers wisely.
Do some research before reaching out to an influencer. Take a look at their social media pages. Look beyond their follower count and pay attention to their content. \
Be accessible
Gen Zs are more likely to seek advice from social media or their network for answers. These young patients are an impatient bunch and are not willing to wait in line.
Like it or not, they aren’t loyal to their healthcare providers. They prefer easier, more convenient, and accessible healthcare services, so they’re not tied to time or location. This is why many of them would opt for emergency care, walk-in clinics, or concierge centers. Others would just Google their condition and self-medicate.
If you’re looking to capture the attention of Gen Z patients, then you need to be accessible. Remember that most of them are glued to their phones most of the time. You can reach and interact with this group by creating informational but engaging video content.
Also, being accessible via social media or an app can help you capture the attention of Gen Z patients.
Be transparent and honest
Gen Z craves transparency and authenticity in marketing. They are drawn to brands that “keep it real.” This intelligent and informed generation doesn’t hesitate to boycott brands and companies over false advertising and unethical business practices.
There is no better way to show transparency in healthcare than by sharing your patients’ stories. Younger patients are extremely invested in what others say about a service or practice.
Patients themselves are the most effective communicators. Plus, they’re far more effective than images of your facility. Make sure that you get the patient’s consent before posting it online.
Final thoughts
Having grown up with social media and smartphones in hand, these digital natives wouldn’t have known life without a touch screen. That said, you also need to adapt your marketing strategies to younger audiences.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/5-Ways-Healthcare-Professionals-Can-Engage-Gen-Z-Patients-1.png12602240Kathlyn Angeleshttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles2022-03-02 10:53:132022-02-25 10:45:145 Ways Healthcare Professionals Can Engage Gen Z Patients
Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms today, with over 1 billion monthly users worldwide.
With so many users on the platform and the ocean of posts being published every second, odds are you’re getting fewer and fewer comments and engagements on your posts. Worse, some of your posts may not be reaching your desired audience.
But with the right strategies, you can level up your Instagram comments rate and watch your notifications go wild.
If you’re not getting enough comments on your Instagram posts, keep reading. In this blog post, we listed down some tips to help you get more comments on your posts.
Create Quality Content
Instagram centers on photographs and captions. Many businesses embrace Instagram because it allows them to feature their products and services. To get the most out of your posts, you want to feature your products in the best possible light. If you own a restaurant, we recommend posting pictures of your signature item menus.
Instagram users respond to beautiful, captivating photos. If you feature delectable dishes, not only will it will garner more likes and comments, they can also drive customers to your restaurant.
Make Use of the “Videos” Properly
Instagram started out as a photo-sharing app, but eventually, they realized the power of video content. Now, Instagram offers a full suite of video options — from a standalone 60-second video to reels, live, and IGTV. The most successful brands on Instagram are the ones who capture videos, so be sure to explore each of these video formats.
If you’re running a bakeshop, you can post a video of you preparing some bread or pastries. Show them how your products are made. Consumers like it when they get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look. If you’re a plastic surgeon, you can record a video and share educational content to potential patients who might be interested in undergoing certain procedures. This will likely attract more comments.
Ask a question
Social media involves 2-way communication. While it’s a great place to promote your products, services, and upcoming events, you can also use it to get the opinion of your target audience. To earn more comments and prompt responses, ask your followers a question. You can seek their advice or simply ask them if they agree or disagree on a certain topic. Asking questions on your captions makes your audience think of a response.
Hold a contest
A fun and easy way to get more Instagram comments are to hold a contest. If you take a look at the social media accounts of different businesses, you will notice that the most liked and commented posts are all contests and giveaways. Come on, who doesn’t love giveaways?
Before you get too exciting planning your giveaway, be sure to set a goal. You can create the coolest contest in the world, but if you don’t know what you’re looking to achieve, then it won’t do you any good. Also, be sure to give away something that would be of value to your target audience. People are more likely to put some effort into your content if you have an amazing prize.
If you’re running an Instagram giveaway, this blog post might help give you some direction.
Final thoughts
Posting regularly on Instagram isn’t enough to get more comments and engagements. You’ll need to put more effort into creating comment-worthy posts.
Engagement is a great indicator of how well your posts perform. The more likes and comments your posts have, the more Instagram likes you. As a result, more people will see your posts.
If you need help creating engaging posts that will capture the attention of your target audience, we’re here to help. Schedule a free 30-minute call with us, and we’ll help you jump higher in the feed and get the attention you deserve.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Clever-Ways-to-Get-More-Comments-on-Instagram.png12602240Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2021-12-22 10:11:182021-12-29 15:08:05Clever Ways to Get More Comments on Instagram
In today’s episode we are going to be talking about blogging for your healthcare center or your wellness practice. Blogging is one of the best ways for you to share your knowledge and your education with prospects and with your network online.
Additionally, a well-written blog post helps to boost your search engine (SEO) rankings for your website thus driving more traffic, to your website for specific keywords and keyword phrases.
It’s always important as you’re writing a blog post to keep both that end-user, or that potential patient in mind as well as keeping the search engines in mind too.
How do you go about finding topics to blog about, how do you go about writing that blog post and structuring it, and how do you share it after it’s written?
These are the key elements that we will be covering today in the video about How to Blog to Boost SEO for Healthcare Providers.
00:00 Caitlin McDonald: Hello and welcome to the Social Speak Network podcast. I’m Caitlin McDonald and I am the co-founder of Social Speak. And today’s episode we are going to be talking about blogging for your healthcare center or your wellness practice. Now blogging is one of the best ways for you to share your knowledge and your education with prospects and with your network online. Additionally, a well-written blog post helps to boost your search engine rankings for your website thus driving more traffic, to your website for specific keywords and keyword phrases. So it’s always important as you’re writing a blog post to keep both that end-user, or that potential patient in mind as well as keeping the search engines in mind too. So how do you go about finding topics to blog about how do you go about writing that blog post and structuring it and how do you share it after it’s written. So that’s what we’re going to be covering today.
01:19 CM: So the first part of that question is thinking about what topics you should blog about. Now, it’s always important to blog about something that you are knowledgeable about. So you want to make sure that you’re blogging about topics within your practice or industry that you actually know about and care about. If you are not the specialist in that topic, find somebody in your practice who’s better suited to write about it or who can at least edit the information that you’ve put out. We find this often especially with some smaller health care centers where they have one person who’s in charge of doing the blogging. Unfortunately, they don’t necessarily have the expertise in whatever specific topic there is. For our team, for example, when we are going into a new practice, we make sure that we are matching that practice up with a writer who’s going to be suited to talk about those topics. If we’re talking about Pediatrics, or if we’re talking about pain management, we might have two different writers for those two topics. They’re very different, and they require a different level of understanding of who that patient is, what that patient journey is, and everything like that. So let’s get back to writing that blog post, so to find a topic to write about one make sure that it’s something that you are very knowledgeable about two, make sure that some people are searching for it.
03:03 CM: So what I typically recommend doing is taking out a pen and paper, and actually writing a list of different topics that you talk about with patients and with prospects. So by this I mean, what are the questions that people are asking you what are their top concerns what are they looking for, what benefit does the practice provide to them what are the specialties of your practice, what additional things can your services and specialties help to solve for your patients? Now take a look at this list and what I recommend doing is hopping on over to Google and starting to type in these, phrases, what you’ll see is that Google will pre-populate other searches that are related to it, or searches that other people search for. Now, there are also tools that you can use to do this research. So, I like first starting out doing your own brainstorm looking at Google search results, and just set your timer takes about 30 minutes to do this exercise, make as many notes as you can.
04:22 CM: I often find myself hand-writing them, probably it would be a little bit more streamlined if you do this for yourself, in a spreadsheet so that you don’t replicate work overtime. The next thing to do is either head on over to Keyword finder kwfinder.com or over to Neil Patel’s Uberselect app. Now, this is a new app that he has brought to the market and it currently is completely free. So what you do is, within this app and I’ll have a link down below, excuse me Ubersuggest not Uberselect Ubersuggest app. And so it’s Neil… Excuse me, app.neilpatel.com/en/ubersuggest is one way that you can get there or you can just do a Google search for it as well but what you do is there is a related keyword ideas sort of tool within there, and so you can actually type in some of those keywords and keyword phrases.
05:30 CM: And you can see what other search results folks are looking for. Keyword finder you can do the same thing, however, now it is limited to just a few searches per month on that free account. So I do recommend jumping over to Neil Patel’s tool. When you are utilizing this tool and I don’t have it up in front of me. So that’s going to be a whole new blog post and tutorial about how we utilize it. But when you use it, you can see one, what keywords your competitors are looking for and two what those related search terms are for the ones that you enter into that search field. Now, we recommend filtering these results so that you are looking for keywords with a low keyword difficulty score. We recommend starting off if you’re just starting off blogging, putting in a keyword score, a maximum keyword score of about 20, maybe 30.
06:30 CM: Now, this means that it is hypothetically easier to rank for these keywords, you’ll find that typically the result that pops out there is going to be a long-term keyword so a keyword phrase rather than back pain, for example, another thing that you can do is you can plug in the number of searches per month for that keyword. Now as you’re starting off blogging we recommend writing blog posts and trying to rank for keywords that don’t have as many searches for them. So I would plug in a number like 500 here.
07:12 CM: So you’re looking for searches where there are fewer than 500 searches for them and where the keyword difficulty score is fairly low. The reason why we do this is, and I’m taking this from one of our interviews a while ago, is because we follow the skyscraper approach to keyword research and blogging for that SEO benefit. What this means is, if you visualize the Skyline, we are targeting the low-buildings, So we’re targeting the buildings that, Yes, they don’t have as much traffic, but they also don’t have as much competition for them. Then over time, as you’re proving your worth to Google, you can start bidding for those higher skyscrapers. So you can start writing content that has more searches and higher keyword difficulty, score. So you’ve done the list of your brainstorm of all the topics you’ve jumped over to the Ubersuggest app on Neil Patel’s website, you’ve done your keyword research there and you’ve chosen a topic now what do you do? This part is actually my favorite, and it’s seeing what other people have written about that keyword phrase.
08:39 CM: And so what you want to do is just type it into Google and take a look, open up a few of the searches excuse me, search results that come up for that phrase. When you open up the articles I recommend, not reading them word for word, but doing a cursory skim, just to see what other headlines and sub-topics people are talking about. Then close all of the windows take out either your notebook and piece of paper again or jump over to your spreadsheet or a Word document, you could even open up your blog post if you want to a blog post draft and write the outline that you want to follow for that blog post. Now I always recommend putting that title, excuse me, putting that keyword phrase as the title of the blog post or at least in the title of the blog post this will help you rank even better and also make sure that people who are searching specifically for that phrase know that you are the place to go when they see it up in the organic listings. So you’ve done the cursory outline for your blog post and now we recommend filling in the content.
10:03 CM: So what you’re going to have, what you should see on your paper are major topics that you want to cover, sub-categories or sub-topics that you want to cover, And then maybe a couple of bullet points that you wanna make sure that you touch on. So underneath each of these items, type in two to three or more sentences or bullet points for each of these. Now, if you do that, and if you are putting together a robust outline, you might find that at that first go, you already have a 1500-word blog post. I’ve done this before where I’ve done an outline and the outline itself, was over 500 words long. That makes writing a longer blog post very straightforward. Now, let’s say you sit down to fill out these bullet points and you just have a mental block, you can’t think of anything to put down. I recommend jumping over to Google Docs, and under, if you open up a new doc, you can click tools, and then you can do a voice record. So if you do this you can actually record yourself speaking and make a transcription of what you’re going to say and so you can create a few sentences, if you feel more comfortable speaking rather than sitting down in writing, you can at least talk through some of the bullet points so that you have something that then you can convert into a nicely written blog post.
11:35 CM: Now, if all else fails, if you have this outline that’s put together and that’s tapping into your knowledge about what topics should be talked about, you can then Hop on over to WriterAccess or Upwork on, to have somebody else fill in the blanks and write the content. This is an easy way to make sure that you’ve done the research in terms of what other people are looking for, you’ve added your expertise on that specific topic, and then you’re just getting someone to fill in the blanks now to make a blog post work even better for your business there are a few additional things that we recommend adding, the first is video so you’ll see in all of our videos excuse me, in all of our blog posts. We have a video embedded in the blog post as well. Now, having this video adds a multi-media element to your blog post, the multimedia element, allows different people to come and view it. People who wouldn’t necessarily be reading your blog post, maybe they’re more interested in listening to it or watching it.
12:46 CM: So, this adds additional SEO benefit because you’re keeping people on your page longer, and you are uploading the video to YouTube which is in fact the second largest search engine and also owned by Google. So you might be adding an additional place for your name and brand to show up in search results. Another thing that you can do with this video is you can create a transcription of it. So I talked about transcribing with the Google Voice On the Google Doc in order to write the content but if you do a video, that goes into deeper detail on one or two of the topics that you talk about in the video, you can actually create a transcription of that video and add that to the bottom of your blog post. I believe it’s something around 10 minutes of speaking typically equates to about 2500 or 3000 words. Now, imagine what that can do for the content on your website. Now, after you write your blog post, it’s important to make sure that you’re going through for formatting.
14:09 CM: When we go through for formatting we take a look at the outline that you originally created and make sure all of those main topics are header twos, then those sub-topics are header threes, and the topics below that are header fours. Typically within a longer blog post, you’ll see something like two header twos, three to five header threes, and four or more header fours. This allows Google to see what those most important categories are and if your website was structured properly in the CSS and the styling those elements are going to be bolded, or have more, more prominent on a page rather than just the written text. Additionally, we recommend linking two services pages from that blog post. So again, let’s say you’re talking about back pain and you have a service that is great for back pain. It could be a massage, it could be surgery or a specialist. You want to make sure that that Back pain text is linked to the services page or more information about how you can help with back pain. This is called inner page linking.
15:27 CM: And so by doing that again, you’re getting people to more resources. You can also add a section of related posts to your blog post so let’s say you’re talking about one specific specialty within your blog post link to or add the related blog post that also has to do with that specialty or potentially this is a physician interview link to the other blog posts that have physician interviews And it helps keep people on the site longer, so that they know like and trust you more. It also signals to Google that people are finding the information that they want when they view your site and that helps to increase the Domain Authority and where your website is positioned compared to competitors, in the organic search results. The last thing to do with your blog post for your health care and wellness center is to share it with the world. So the past few weeks we’ve been talking about a lot of different tactics that you can do to make this happen. The first would be sharing it on social media, the second sharing it to your newsletter, the third making sure that you are sharing it through sponsored advertising on Facebook. This could be as a boosted post. Your organic reach you’re going to find is fairly low. And we talked about this with the reach apocalypse the other week. So you are going to have to boost the post with at least a little bit of money behind it in order to make sure that it is reaching your audience and other people who might be interested in reading it.
17:11 CM: Now, I hope that this has been helpful. If you have any questions about how to write a blog post for your wellness center please don’t hesitate to reach out. We have blog posts and other resources about how to do this over on our website at socialspeaknetwork.com, And we would love to chat with you to see how we can help with the process. So thank you so much for tuning in. My name’s Caitlin McDonald, I’m here with the social speak network and I can’t wait to see you next time on our next podcast episode.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Blog-to-Boost-SEO-for-Healthcare-Providers.png7201280Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2021-07-07 10:49:152021-07-02 12:33:09How to Blog to Boost SEO for Healthcare Providers
Digital marketing is becoming the new wave of healthcare marketing. With the growing competition in the healthcare industry, it is important to stay on top of digital marketing and keep your organization at the forefront of change.
Today, the competition is getting tougher and patients are getting smarter. Many of them even turn to Google for quick answers to health-related concerns. If you want to get more customers to your door, then you need to get in front of your audience and have a solid online presence. Otherwise, someone else will. This is why it’s important to have a healthcare marketing plan — so you can reach potential and existing patients at the best time.
Ever wonder what it takes to create a successful healthcare marketing campaign?
We listed down some tips that you can incorporate into your marketing plan right away.
Know your target audience
A successful healthcare marketing campaign starts with knowing who your audience is and what they value. To produce great results, you first need to create a well-defined persona profile.
Vividly picture who is it that you want to attract to your doorstep and what matters most to them. The more specifically you define your audience, the more likely you are to inspire a positive response.
Carefully and precisely defining your target audience will ensure that you’re not making the wrong assumption about what your audience values. Plus, it will improve your efficiency since you’ll have a good idea about what media to use and how to shape a compelling message that brings a response.
Combine healthcare and social media
Today, social media isn’t just a place for family and friends to stay in touch. People also use them to promote their business and reach their audience.
The power of social media extends to all industries, including healthcare. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn can help you reach a wider audience and connect with your followers. It can also help you drive traffic and leads to your website.
Now that you know who your target audience is, it will be easier for you to reach your key audience. Tapping into online communities and sharing health information can be a game-changer in your healthcare marketing plan. Keep in mind, though, that each platform has its own voice and audience. When you create social media content, make sure that the message is tailored to different audiences and channels.
You can also use paid advertising to increase brand awareness, improve visibility, and widen your reach. Don’t worry. You don’t need to spend a huge sum of money in order to get results. In fact, you can run a Facebook ad for a minimum budget of $5 a day. So go ahead and try it out, and adjust your budget later on.
Make wellness a lot more fun
Health and wellness is a serious topic, but that doesn’t mean that your campaign should be boring and uninspiring. Let’s take cues from UnitedHealthCare’s successful healthcare marketing campaign – We Dare You.
UnitedHealthcare created an interactive campaign that dares people to make one small change to live healthier lives and document it on social media. Each month, there are new challenges and quizzes aimed at inspiring people to live a healthier lifestyle. There are prizes involved too.
The multi-awarded “We Dare You” campaign not only led to healthier habits, but it also fostered an interactive online community of brand loyalists.
Establish an email marketing plan
Email marketing is an effective means of transmitting messages to your current and prospective audience. In fact, studies suggest that email marketing is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers as compared to Facebook and Twitter. When done right, it can help you grow your practice and reach a larger amount of patients.
With email marketing, the audience is openly receptive, and relative cost is low, and the rate of return can be exceptionally high. You can promote your services in a cost-effective way while building a relationship with your patients.
If you’re new to email marketing, you might want to start with growing your email list. To do that, you need to focus on reaching as many people as possible. Don’t worry. Getting your first 100 email subscribers isn’t as complicated as it seems. With an irresistible lead magnet, a killer landing page, and the power of social media, you’ll be able to grow your email list in no time.
Google yourself
Studies suggest that physicians and other medical practitioners receive up to 45% of new patients through referral. Though most patients would consider the referral of other doctors, family, and friends, the majority of them will run a Google search of your name and check out your reputation before booking an appointment.
The survey revealed that 60% of patients wouldn’t book an appointment with a medical practitioner that has bad reviews. This is why you should Google yourself now. It might seem silly, but it’s actually important.
By running a quick Google search of yourself, you’ll have a good idea of how your practice looks from a consumer’s perspective and know where to start when creating your digital strategy. You also want to make sure that all the information about you is correct and updated.
If you unearth some negative results when you Google yourself, try to have the post taken down. But if that doesn’t work, then the best thing you can do is suppress them with positive content.
Be a source of helpful information
In today’s digital world, most people’s inclination would be to open up a browser in Google and research about their own or their loved one’s condition. With so many people turning to the internet for answers, it is important that healthcare marketing is there to be a helpful and supportive guide.
Regularly post high-quality content that answers people’s questions. This will help them learn more about medical conditions they may be searching for or procedures they may have to undergo. It is also a good idea to share important and relevant medical information to help people improve their health. This will help build your credibility and position yourself as an authority in your field. People may not run off and make an appointment, but you will be in their minds the next time they get sick.
Healthcare is an increasingly competitive field, and reaching new patients require a strong digital marketing strategy. One of the best ways to attract new patients is through social media marketing.
Social media and healthcare are a powerful combination. It can be a key place to share breaking information, raise public awareness about health concerns, and combat misinformation. When using social media for marketing purposes, it is important to keep in mind that social media marketing is more than just creating an account and then posting updates once in a while.
If you’re looking to do more with your healthcare social media marketing, we urge you to read on. Use these tips to start improving your strategy.
Facebook
Facebook is the undisputed leader of the pack, with over 2.3 billion monthly active users worldwide. Be sure to use it to your advantage.
Many healthcare providers we’ve worked with see great results with emotionally-positive images and videos. You want to ensure your images convey a positive experience and outcome for your potential patients. Also, use videos that feature your employees, a testimonial, or even a virtual tour of your office to interest prospective clients.
If you’re running out on content ideas, try posting information about preventive care. Remind your patients to get their vaccinations, mammogram, and annual checkups. Feel free to show your personality by posting photos of you and your staff engaged in healthy activities.
Facebook users rely on word of mouth recommendations and testimonials. They want to hear about other patient’s experiences before booking an appointment. Encourage happy and satisfied patients to spread the word by asking them to leave a positive review.
Instagram
Your bio is usually the first thing users see when they visit your profile. But with only a few short lines and one link available, you need to make it count. Write a bio to support your intended goal. You need to give your audience a distilled value proposition and impart to them why they should do what you want them to do.
Instagram is a visual platform that is designed for sharing stunning photos and engrossing videos, but it is a good idea to accompany your visuals with a great caption. Also, make sure that you post new and fresh content regularly. People may lose interest if you post duplicate content.
Try posting a variety of content to keep your visitors engaged. You can post a behind the scenes content, photos of your staff, branded quotes, or new services you’re offering.
Twitter
Twitter has the potential to transform your online presence and to help you connect with your patients on a new level.
A carefully composed Twitter bio can convert just as many visitors into patients. Your bio should aim not only to provide basic contact information but also to spark interest in your practice. Include your city and your website’s URL as part of your bio to make it easier for prospective patients to find you.
If you want to grow your Twitter following organically, you need to follow people on Twitter. Be sure to actively follow communities and patients who follow you. Research suggests that the number of Twitter followers you have starts increasing when you begin to follow people more frequently.
When posting on Twitter, be sure to talk to people rather than talking at them. Think of your audience as your friends and relatives. Your tone will go a long way toward defining whether your tweets welcome or alienate readers.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a uniquely purposeful platform for healthcare professionals. It provides an excellent forum for healthcare professionals to build trust and develop a position as thought leaders in their industry. Use LinkedIn to build new connections. Get social and start connecting with colleagues and other medical professionals. Join industry-specific groups so you can take part in discussions as well as interact with other healthcare professionals and prospective patients.
When writing content, be sure to tailor your voice to LinkedIn’s demographics. Instead of writing your posts as you would for Facebook, be sure that you’re gearing them toward the unique community LinkedIn offers. Remember, people who use LinkedIn are geared toward the world of business and professionalism.
Original content increases the likelihood of converting new leads. Write valuable, digestible content that educates your audience. Make sure, though, that you keep your content on-topic, professional, and authoritative. People want to hear your point of view as a professional, not something copied and pasted from your company blog.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Best-Practices-for-Healthcare-Social-Media-Marketing.png12602240Kathlyn Angeleshttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles2020-11-04 07:00:152020-11-02 16:11:15Best Practices for Healthcare Social Media 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.
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.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/How-to-Maximize-Your-Social-Media-Presence-During-the-Pandemic.png1200800Kathlyn Angeleshttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngKathlyn Angeles2020-04-29 10:20:472020-10-02 14:46:04How to Maximize Your Social Media Presence During the Pandemic
In today’s competitive healthcare environment, it is important to have a strong patient referral base. As a healthcare provider, you are probably aware of how powerful referrals can be for generating new patients and growing your practice.
When done right, a patient referral program can add years of income to your practice. Let’s take a look at some of the best practices your office should maintain to get new patients through the door.
Listen to the Medical Marketing Podcast
Build a strong relationship with referring practices
Professional referrals are the lifeblood of every healthcare organization. Building and nurturing those relationships is essential for bringing in new patients.
Always keep the communication lines open with the referring practice and let them know what steps you will take to address the patient’s condition. Email them, call them from time to time, or arrange lunch appointments with them. Quick updates to the referring physician about the condition and progress of the patient tells them that you are committed to patient care.
Don’t forget to thank anyone who refers a patient to your practice. This will motivate your colleague to refer you more often.
Improve customer experience
Not all referrals come from other practices. Happy patients are more likely to give you good feedback as well as refer you to their family and friends.
To create a memorable experience, it’s important to get your internal house in order so it’s ready to welcome new patients to the practice. You want to ensure that patients feel comfortable and cared for, both in the reception area and exam room. You and your staff should pay close attention to the concerns and queries of your patients and make sure that they are cared for.
A percentage of your new patients should come from referrals by existing patients. If not, then you may need to address your customer service policies. Remember, unhappy patients won’t refer you to their family and friends. Worse, they’ll tell them to stay away.
Reach out on social media
Many patients turn to social networking sites to establish an ongoing relationship with their primary care physician.
The point of social media is to effectively reach your target audience and connect with them. It gives you a tremendous opportunity to interact with patients in ways that are not possible during appointments and consultations. This is your chance to talk to them and have a friendly relation with them.
Promote engagement by starting conversations on various health topics, providing healthcare tips, and alerting patients to new services and discounts you offer. Sharing your blog posts on social media is a great way to provide valuable healthcare information while driving patients to your website to learn more.
When done right, social media marketing can help you enhance your online reputation, solidify your brand, and bolster your authority among patients.
Be a thought leader
Most doctors go into medicine to help patients, not bask in the spotlight. But there is no denying that being a thought leader can help you attract new patients.
Being a thought leader in the healthcare industry requires lots of knowledge, effort, time, and desire to impact change. To achieve this status, you need to make your expertise and ideas known.
Write blog posts that are relevant to your practice, but don’t just write just to have content out there. Make sure that you produce quality content. But it shouldn’t stop at blogging. You can educate existing and potential patients on your healthcare practice by creating videos, podcasts, and newsletters. You can also offer speaking engagements at local hospitals.
Have a web presence
Many healthcare professionals feel as though their practice should be able to thrive on its own through referrals. But given the certainty of change in healthcare, it is important for healthcare providers to have a strong online presence.
Many patients will go online to acquaint themselves with the practice prior to making an appointment. Making a good first impression starts with a well-designed, patient-friendly website. Not only will it give potential patients an easy way to get to know you, but it also makes your practice look and feels engaging.
By having your credentials, education, services, and procedures on your website, you can help instill a sense of trust in your future patients.
Get more mileage from patient testimonials
Patients want to make sure that they receive care from the best doctors in their field. Testimonials can help build trust in your practice and offer validation for the quality of your services.
Tell your patients’ success stories in a way that people will take notice. Quotes and written testimonials can be powerful marketing tools, but videos can bring testimonials to life.
Short two-minute video testimonials will capture the attention of potential patients and drive more patients through the door. To get higher-impact testimonials, you can guide patients by asking leading questions. If you are an eye doctor, you may ask questions like “How has LASIK impacted your life?” or “Are you happy with the results?”
On today’s episode of The Social Speak podcast, we’re going to be talking a little bit about website development and specifically our process for website development for your healthcare clinic.
We specialize in creating websites that capture your brand, your voice, your expertise and best position yourself in your medical practice to be found by prospects. Now, when we build a website, we don’t view it as a one-and-done sort of thing. It’s not a brochure that you print out and then you have thousands of copies to hand out.
Healthcare Website Design and Development
A website is an ever growing and changing, and shifting presence online, where we recommend you are continually adding blogposts, uploading videos, creating resources and interviews to engage your prospects and engage your current patients.
So the reason why I want to do this today, is we just finished up a website for one of our clients and our main contact, the office manager sent over such a fabulous note. She writes, “I am beyond thrilled with how everything has turned out so far, and want to thank you so much for all of the hard work. Prior to starting this project, I heard horror stories from some friends and colleagues who have been in charge of website redesigns and had been dreading the process. You and your team made it so easy on us and we could not be happier with the way things have gone. We really look forward to our continued partnership moving forward.”
So this is just one of the many testimonials that we have from a local clinic who had an old website that frankly, they just weren’t thrilled about. The pages were hard to update, they did not include current information, and it was hard to really adjust the functionality, so that it attracted the right people to their organization.
Listen to the Podcast
How we create websites for clients
Now, the process that we follow for creating websites for our clients tries to make it as fun and simple as possible. I got a kick out of designing these websites because really I’m able to visualize what that end goal is.
Analyze your current website
Oftentimes, you start with the website and potentially you just can’t stand the look and feel of it. However if we go into the backend and we look and we see that everything really is set up very strongly for Google and you are getting patients and prospects from the website, we might actually tell you, “You know what, there are better ways to spend your budget rather than doing the website redesign.”
Now, if we look in the back end and things are just as messy as they are on the front end, we’ll let you know and we will help you work through a process that we follow for creating the new websites.
Initial conversation
So the first thing that we do is we have an initial conversation, they’ll be with myself, potentially, my business partner will be on the call as well or one of our account managers, and we ask questions,
Do you currently have a website, what are websites you like the look and feel of and what are some that you don’t?
This allows us to see if there are similarities between the ones that you like and the ones that you don’t like so that we can replicate by using your own branding and values and purpose and goals, though with items that you do like compared to the ones that you don’t.
What are the top concerns about your current website, what are the top goals for your new website?
How will you measure if the site is performing, what is the main call to action?
So new consultations booked, appointments scheduled, email sign ups, increased traffic, things like that, so we can track all of that as well as where they’re coming from.
Additional functionality that you’d like to see in your new website
Let us know if there are functionalities you’d like to expand on and carry on from your old website.
Questions about your current brand standards
Oftentimes, our clients already do have their branding all set and solidified. They have their logos, their fonts, their colors. However, if you are a newer healthcare clinic or want to go through a complete rebranding of your healthcare clinic, we can definitely help with that as well.
We have a few partners that depending on your niche will make a great fit for that branding side. However, a lot of times our clients come to us, their website is just not performing as it should, they’re all set with their branding, all set with their value selection, things like that and we just take that and move it into the 21st century.
What is your target market?
So in order to create a website that attracts this target, we need to understand:
Who they are – so we wanna know who your ideal patient is and understand some of those success stories.
What were they struggling with beforehand and where did they come out the other side, once they were done working with your physicians, your doctors?
What about you, what about your brand?– We wanna know the values and the passions of the doctors, as well as the admin, the administration, so that we can really understand how to capture your unique voice through the website.
We have some websites that we work through where we are rewriting all of the copy on the website, and running it through your medical director to make sure it’s all approved, and then we have other clients who write the content, or already have the content written and they just wanna make sure that it’s displayed the best on a new website.
We find that branding and layout and content really have to all work together in order to have a seamless website. It can’t just have images, and then content built separately. You need to pull them together. We also love to talk about the benefits of working with you. So what are some of those most impactful transformations that your clients realize with working with you?
Plan website’s structure
So once we have all of this information and we have our website kick-off call, we get to work. And the first thing that our team does and I am actually going to hold up a workbook, right here.
So, if you’re listening to the podcast, you can kind of visualize this basically, it’s just very rough sketches of what pages could look like. And this one right here, it has a header. It has icons, events, kinda scrolling testimonials. And so what we do is we take elements that we see on other websites that you have noted that you like the look and feel of, and we see how we can then incorporate similar items into your website.
We typically have a page layout for the home page, then another page layout for the top level services pages, so let’s say you have one service page for all of the different… Oh goodness, thinking of too many different industries [chuckle] for all of the different dental care options that you have. So that page would have one layout, however all of the sub-pages, that go into dental cleaning surgeries, cavity extractions, and things like that, would have a different layout. So those are three layouts there, a layout for your contact page and probably a layout for your about page. And so each of these pages, they’re going to have a similar look and feel, however we’ve found by differentiating them by layout a little bit helps to make sure that somebody can move smoothly through the website.
As we’re building the site, we also make sure that we really understand your page hierarchy. So, this means how do all of your pages and services relate to one another? How should Google be ranking them and how can we link between the pages to get that best search engine optimization for you?
Search Engine Optimization
While we’re doing that and putting the content on the pages, we’re doing keyword research. Potentially the wording and the language that you use within your practice isn’t what people are actually looking for on Google.
So we wanna make sure that we are writing for search engines, writing to showcase your expertise and then also writing to best position your practice to be the one that clients and prospects then choose to become a patient.
Web design and content approval
Now this whole process, we like to move through it actually fairly quickly, at least that design element. We recognize that it does take time for content to be approved, messaging to be approved. However, our process is typically a one-month turnaround, for smaller website projects.
Turnaround time
Within the first two weeks, we wanna get you a working design, a working layout that you can poke around and see where we’re going for that look and feel. Typically, at this point, we’ll have that home page, about page, main services page, sub-services page and contact page. If I haven’t said that, contact page, all kind of set, ready to go.
Then, if you already have the content and you have minimal additional functionality, maybe a blog on potentially lead capture form and we utilize Influx MD for most of our healthcare clinic websites. If you need that, again, typically a month, we can get most of the site all set ready to go and then just that approval process might take another month.
So we like to have a website started and completed within that same quarter. If you want additional functionality, such as payment center, maybe a more robust directory listing for your physicians, scheduling tools and things like that, might take a little bit longer.
Integrating Influx MD
If we are integrating Influx MD in there, they do have an onboarding process as well to make sure that we are tapping into the systems and processes that you already have and really bringing those to help your administration through the whole process of that initial scheduling.
Influx MD is a HIPAA compliant form system so that it really taps into your current processes, keeps everything secure and allows us to then, moving forward after the website’s done, move into lead collection for your healthcare clinic. And that’s where our ongoing marketing really ties in with search engine optimization as well as running sponsored advertising, writing blog posts, doing doctor interviews and posting to social media, all of which tie into how people that interact and utilize your website to achieve their goals.
Conclusion
So if you have any questions about how your website currently is working, I’d love to do an audit on your website, so we can talk about what your goals are and see if it’s actually accomplishing them. Or a small tweak might be able to better align your website with what you’re hoping to do.
If we find in that process that a new website is going to be the best course of action, I’ll send over that website onboarding form and we’ll schedule a call from there to really dive into what those goals are and that look and feel that you’re going for that website. So I can’t wait to talk with you about your medical marketing website, and I hope that this has been insightful about some of what that process looks like for working with our team.
If you like this episode, and you want to learn more about healthcare marketing, please subscribe to our podcast, subscribe to our YouTube channel and jump on over to our website to check out the additional blog posts that we have over there.
https://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Website-Development-Blog.png1200800Caitlin McDonaldhttps://socialspeaknetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SocialSpeak-Logo.pngCaitlin McDonald2020-02-26 10:46:272020-03-17 15:41:59Website Development For Medical Clinics
