Healthcare marketing is moving target. What you did yesterday, will probably be
ineffective today or tomorrow. If you put content on your website and it isn’t revised or
new content added, you will find visitors looking elsewhere for their healthcare
information.
In the recent past we were focused on patient satisfaction and online reviews as a
necessary ingredient of our marketing efforts. I would like to share three trends that I
think the contemporary practice might consider.
1 Voice-driven searches
With the introduction of Siri and Amazon Echo\Alexa, voice search has come of age.
The voice-search market is growing and expanding. We initially looked to Siri for quick
answers like the number and address of a restaurant or asking about the local weather
forecast. Now it is projected that nearly half of online searches will be made via voice
queries. Medical specific searches will answer which doctor is in a specific zip code,
what are specialists in the area, and what do searchers’ symptoms mean. Take home
message: if your website has current and useful content about any of these search
queries, you will have access to new patients.
2 Reach out and touch someone
Nearly every patient craves human-to-human interaction. Your reputation, including
your online reputation, is one of the most important parts of your marketing efforts.
Nearly 40% of negative online reviews are a result of a phone system that uses a tree
and denies access of the caller to a human voice, problems with online appointment
scheduling, and general patient service issues such as waiting for long periods of time
to obtain an appointment or waiting in the reception area for long periods of time. We
need to never forget that negative online reviews for the most part are forever. (very
seldom can a negative review be removed). If your reviews suggest that patients are
lacking a human interaction, use these negative reviews as a motivation to fix the
problem.
3 Content is king
Content on your website is a driver for your Google SEO ranking and thus will affect
your patient acquisition. Gone are the days of “one and done” or transferring your tri-
fold brochure to an electronic format and have a high school student add it to a
templated website creator. You can’t include dated content on your website and hope
to attract new patients. I recommend that you focus on content that tells a story and
answers the FAQs that most patients are asking. Take home message: post current,
credible content to your website on a regular basis.
Bottom Line: These trends aren’t cut in stone. They may be applicable today but not in
the future. However, these three trends are great starting points. Here’s hoping that it
will move you to the top of Google search and generate new patients for your practice.
For more information about doctor websites and our work with practices and hospitals around the country, call Vanguard Communication Group:
Vanguard Communications – Healthcare marketing & practice improvement
2400 Broadway, Suite 3 | Denver, Colorado 80205 | MedAmorphosis.net
