2 Must-Knows About Digital Healthcare Marketing

Every healthcare provider that wants to maximize their visibility and grow their business should invest in digital marketing. If they neglect it, their marketing and business will never reach their full potential.

77% of people research their ailments online before consulting a doctor. In other words, you can sway 77% of people to visit your business for their health problems before they ever step through the door. Ignore those internet users, and your competition will sway them away from your company and into theirs.

If you want to bring a slice of that 77% to your healthcare business, digital marketing is an absolute must. In this blog, learn about two pillars of digital healthcare marketing–local SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click) advertising.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is a form of SEO that incorporates geographic location as a part of Google’s search algorithm.

In 2004, Google discovered that it could improve the relevancy of its search results by using location as a search factor. Before then, if people searched for a restaurant or a local business, they would see companies from all over. As they discovered, somebody looking for pizza delivery will never order pizza from a store halfway across the country.

To counter that problem, Google introduced a maps feature for businesses to specify the areas they serve. If you searched for pizza delivery today, only pizza shops within ten or so miles appear because that is their range of delivery.

Using Local SEO For Healthcare Marketing

For healthcare businesses, marketing to people who are hundreds or thousands of miles away will not do any good. After all, you cannot pack and ship off a knee surgery or an in-person consultation. Even if there are those few people who will fly out to your business, you could spend your marketing budget elsewhere and receive more.

Instead of marketing to people far from your healthcare business, leverage local SEO to target potential patients within driving distance. To select your service area, consider how specialized your services are.

If lots of competitors around you offer similar treatments, set your area of service to be smaller. That way, you can leverage your proximity to patients as an incentive to visit. On the other hand, if you offer something that nobody else does, set your service radius to something larger. If people can only go to you for something, using location as an incentive to visit is unnecessary.

In addition to using a service area, do not neglect setting up a Google My Business profile. My Business lets you fill in different information that Google can then use to rank you. If you don’t have a My Business profile, Google may not even know that you exist–making it impossible for you to rank in local searches.

What Is PPC Advertising?

PPC advertising is effectively a way to pay for website visitors. You pay media platforms to display your ads, and every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay the platform.

While PPC is certainly not the cheapest marketing approach, it can be one of the most effective if done correctly. Why can it be one of the most effective digital marketing methods? Because PPC offers an unparalleled amount of targeting ability.

With PPC, you can choose exactly who you want to see your ads. If you want middle-aged men who played football in the past, the chances are that you can make a targeting criteria for that.

But, you must choose to target the right group of people. If you choose incorrectly, then the website visitors will never amount to any meaningful business. To get a positive ROI from your PPC, you need to target people who are likely to convert. That way, they will visit your website, interact with your content, enter your drip marketing system, and eventually become profitable.

PPC In Healthcare Marketing

To get the most out of your PPC investment, we recommend that you start by creating a series of ads highlighting the different services you provide. If you specialize in knee and shoulder injuries, make ads for those respective treatments.

Once you have your arsenal of ads, target people who have problems with those injuries based on their search history. Then, coordinate the ads about specific ailments with the people who have issues with those ailments. By matching their needs with your ads, you maximize your chance of attracting quality website visitors with a high probability of converting.

In addition to matching ads to people who directly search about those topics, you can also take a more proactive approach by anticipating their needs. For example, 58% of cyclists report frequent back pain. Therefore, if you treat back injuries, target back injury ads to cyclists. By matching people’s lifestyles with common injuries, you can become the first business they think of once they notice their pain.

Implementing Digital Healthcare Marketing In Your Business

Local SEO and PPC advertising are essential elements of digital healthcare marketing. Executed correctly, and you can attract more customers than you ever thought possible. Done incorrectly, and you can spin your wheels and end up in the same place you are now. To jumpstart your digital marketing, we recommend that you:

• Calculate your service area based on the uniqueness of your services
• Make a detailed Google My Business profile
• Create ads that cater to different ailments
• Target internet users who suffer from those ailments based on their search history
• Proactively target people who engage in activities that frequently result in specific injuries

With the above steps, you will be well on your way towards forming an effective digital marketing campaign. But, to get the best performance from your marketing, we recommend that you enlist the help of a team-based approach.

With a team-based approach, you get all the benefits of hiring a large team of experienced, full-time marketers, but without the cost. While saving at least 40% compared to any traditional marketing alternative, you get the best possible digital marketing results for your business.

If you are interested in a team-based marketing agency with a proven track record in the healthcare industry, click here to contact us.