The healthcare industry has changed dramatically over the recent years. Patients are aware now more than ever of the choices they have. Medical providers that offer fee for service specialties such as plastic surgery and LASIK, are often more aware of this than most providers. Competition can be tough and can make your practice feel less like a place of treatment and more like a place of commerce. But many providers forget that we no longer live in a market driven by the practice with the ever-present or most persuasive ad campaign. Most patients search for doctors online, where information is available at their convenience. Medical marketing is now about going to the patient, not bringing the patient to you.
Internet and social media marketing require that you not only do it right, you have to do it better. The challenge with this is that what is working for one practice may not work for another. So instead of emulating your competition in order to boost your search engine rankings, you should focus on finding out what is and is not working for you.
To determine what is working, you need to assess your website’s statistics. Find out what pages outside of your homepage are garnering the most traffic. What sources are driving people to your website? Are visitors reading your blogs? Are they landing on your website and then bouncing off?
Once you better understand your own site you are ready to begin researching the competition. When doing this you should understand what keywords are bringing in the most traffic. Evaluate their on-page content as well as social components and aesthetic value. Find out if others are linking to them and why?
After comparing and contrasting the websites you should ask yourself the following questions: Is your website is using appropriate keywords? Is your website easy to navigate? Does the content appeal to your audience? Are you being social? Are people talking about you online? If not, what can you do to change that?
An engaging website is an essential component of any successful healthcare marketing strategy. If you are unfamiliar with online marketing and statistics and don’t know where to begin, MindStream Creative offers a free analysis, which will identify areas that need improvement. Together we can boost your practice so it is on top of the competition.