Patients are the lifeblood of medical clinics and practices. Without a regular flow of patients, clinics can’t survive. In order for clinics and practices to exist (and ideally, to thrive and to grow), you need to find new patients. To find new patients, you need to come up with some medical marketing solutions. And luckily, we’re here to share 14 medical marketing solutions that can get new patients into your clinic or practice.
If you want to learn even more about these solutions, contact OppGen today.
1. Pay-Per-Click
Rather than seeking out new patients, why not try having new patients seek out your clinic? Paid search advertisements are an excellent way to have local prospects looking for your services find your clinic. These ads are tied to specific keywords and phrases prospects may use when using search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing, when looking for treatments or medical procedures.
There are 2 main kinds of paid search ads: search ads and display ads.
Search Ads
Search ads are text-only ads that look similar to organic (unpaid) search results. As the name suggests, they incur a cost whenever someone clicks on them. Search ads are shown when someone within a certain radius searches for certain keywords and phrases that are relevant to your clinic’s services, so you can be fairly certain the right people are the ones clicking on the ad.
You determine the cost per click (CPC) using a search engine’s keyword bidding system. The better the bid, the better the ad placement.
Display Ads
Display ads are image ads that come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Unlike search ads, display ads are not placed on search engine results pages (SERPs); they are placed on websites that host relevant content. For example, a blog post about someone’s weight loss journey may have display ads featuring a local medical weight loss clinic.
They tend to be more affordable than search ads, which charge on a per-click basis. Display ads typically incur a cost for every 1,000 impressions (CPM).
Display ads are perhaps most effective in remarketing (or retargeting) strategies, which involve getting someone who visited a website or page but didn’t take any action (i.e., clicking anywhere on the page, going to a different page on the website, buying something, filling out a form, etc.) to come back and take action.
2. SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy that boosts a website’s organic search engine rankings for certain keywords, with the end goal of achieving a steady increase and a constant flow of organic traffic to get more leads.
Unlike pay-per-click advertising, SEO is not a quick one-and-done solution. It takes time to see the results and it is not something you can stop doing once you start it. It is a continuous process of improving your clinic’s website and creating more in-depth content. The end result of SEO (a more consistent flow of organic traffic to your website that will result in more qualified leads) is well worth the time and effort.
3. Paid Social Media Advertising
Social media is a fantastic tool for sharing life events with friends and family, but it’s also excellent for marketing your medical services and solutions. Paid social ads have more flexibility and options than paid search ads do, as social media sites like Facebook have a lot more user data to work with than Google or Bing does, which allows for even more accurate targeting options. You can seek out prospects based on their location, sex, age, interests, and behavior.
Paid social ads also have more options when it comes to ad types, sizes, and page location: image ads, video ads, carousel ads, collection ads, and more.
4. Organic Social Media
If you’re running a paid social ad campaign on Facebook, then you already have a Facebook page set up for your clinic. Don’t just use the Facebook page only so you can use paid social ads; use it as a way to interact with prospective patients and current patients. Share your latest blog posts and clinic updates on a regular basis and reply to your patients’ and prospects’ comments.
5. Referral Network
Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing: a 2013 Nielsen survey found that 84% of people trust recommendations from people they know, making it the most influential kind of marketing.
Patient referrals and recommendations can go a long way in drawing more patients to your medical practice. The best way to build up a referral network is to provide the best possible service and treatment to your current patients, who will hopefully tell their friends and family about their experience.
6. Price Comparison Tools
Creating a web page with price comparison tools can be a very persuasive medical marketing solution. Even posting the general prices of your services and breaking down the expenses can persuade people to go to your practice. Considering that the majority of practices and clinics are not usually 100% transparent about the costs of services and procedures on their websites, you’ll likely find more patients scheduling appointments at your clinic as a result.
7. Attractive special offers
Consider implementing a special offer that’s hard for patients and prospects to turn down. This may be a free initial consultation, a discount for patients who refer friends and/or family, running a raffle or drawing for a gift card for patients who write reviews for your clinic, and so on. Don’t forget to share any of these offers on your social media pages!
8. Groupon Presence
Make a Groupon Merchant account to find new patients while also sharing special deals or discount options. Groupon customers tend to be loyal and do a good job of referring places to friends and family, making them ideal prospects for your services.
9. Webinars
Educating prospects through web-based seminars, or webinars, can help persuade prospects who are on the fence about your services, how they work, and their overall effectiveness. (Many of our medical clients have generated leads through seminars and webinars we helped promote.)
When you’ve finished your webinar, you can open up a Q&A session as well as a sliver of time to schedule an initial consultation to prospects who seem very interested in your clinic’s services and procedures.
10. Event Sponsorships
Get your clinic’s name out into the world by sponsoring local events. If you treat peripheral neuropathy, sponsor a group participating in a JDRF One Walk event and create T-shirts with your clinic’s name and logo on it. You could also rent a booth and discuss your services and how they can be of help to someone with Type 1 diabetes. Print out pamphlets that discuss the statistics and signs and symptoms of peripheral neuropathy and include your clinic’s contact info.
The event doesn’t necessarily need to be 100% related to your clinic, either. With a little creativity, you can easily rent a booth at a local convention, conference, or other gathering and think of a creative twist on the services your clinic offers and work those services into your booth’s activities. A podiatrist could rent a booth at the state or county fair and print out coloring pages of shoes and have kids color them in. The best shoe design could win a free gift card or a discount to your clinic.
11. Outdoor Signage
Investing in outdoor signage can make your clinic easier to find while also making your clinic more visible. Consult with a local business that makes custom sizes and designs and keep in mind the weather in your area. If your clinic is in a location that experiences regular rainfall or heavy snowfall in the winter, you’ll need something waterproof and more durable than a place where the weather is consistently hot and humid all year round.
12. Direct Mail
Direct mail marketing has improved over the years — USPS has gone so far to include a free mail route mapping tool that allows you to target addresses in specific areas as well as marketing insights, and even a B2B or B2C option that can shift into word-of-mouth marketing and sharing. And that’s just scratching the surface of the USPS’s direct mail offerings. They’ll let you design and format postcards, brochures, letters, flyers, and more, all of which can be done or picked up at your local US post office, so you can make a truly one-of-a-kind direct mailer advertisement.
13. Radio and Video Advertising
Getting a local radio or video ad spot can be an effective option for medical marketing. While local TV commercials aren’t exactly Super Bowl quality (they’re not), they still need to have some level of professional quality to them. The visual quality of a TV commercial will certainly impact prospects’ perception of a clinic, and having a lower quality commercial will undoubtedly deter prospects from making an appointment. That said, it’s a good idea to partner with a local production team to ensure your TV commercial is the best it can possibly be.
Radio ads can give you more flexibility; you can write and produce a radio ad with minimal effort, and with the technology available, poor quality is less of a concern than it would be for a TV commercial.
14. Newspaper Ads
Newspapers, believe it or not, are still around and are accepting print advertisements and press releases that can be reformatted and used as an article, both digitally and in print.
Keep in mind with submitting a press release, you will want to give the paper some time in advance, as they may have a list of stories they are required to include that day. Submitting a press release ahead of time gives the paper plenty of time to prepare and make space and figure out what articles they should include and which ones can be cut. Generally speaking, press releases are more effective than print ads. They’ll be included in both print and digital editions of the paper, which allows you to share the press release to your social media channels.
That said, don’t discount print ads yet; they don’t require as much advance notice as press releases and the advertising department will work with you to ensure your ad is the right size, design, and colors, and located in the right place.
Drop Us a Line for More Medical Marketing Solutions
These 14 medical marketing solutions are only a drop in the bucket of options available to you. For even more medical marketing solutions and ideas, contact us today.
