How to Focus Your Healthcare Marketing When You’re Booked with Patients for Weeks

How to Focus Your Healthcare Marketing When You’re Booked with Patients for Weeks

You’re swamped.

You’ve got appointments booked for weeks, and more patients call your office every day. You think to yourself, “Why should I continue marketing, when I can barely manage the patient base I’ve got now?”

We’re here to tell you: healthcare marketing is always important. Yes, even when you’re busy.

Here’s why — and how to stay on track.

Why Marketing Matters — Even When You’re Busy

The right healthcare marketing strategy allows you to maintain your current clientele, attract new patients to your practice, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your community.

Here are three reasons medical marketing is so important, no matter how far you’re booked out.

1. Marketing Helps You Maintain Your Current Patient Base

As the healthcare industry shifts its focus from physician to patient, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain your existing clientele.

You can’t expect to keep patients simply because they’ve been seeing you for years. You’ve got to earn — and keep earning — their loyalty.

Instead of calling their doctor, people are now looking online for medical information. We’re not just talking about the “youngsters,” either — at least 57% of baby boomers search for health and wellness information online.

Digital marketing can help your practice show up online for the questions that people (yes, even your current patients!) are asking. When they see your name on Google, on your own website, or across a variety of other marketing platforms, they’ll remember you as their trusted source of medical information.

Marketing can also help enhance patients’ experience at your practice. If you move facilities, upgrade equipment, or introduce new technology, you can proactively communicate those changes via marketing. Your patients will appreciate that extra layer of consideration — and will be more likely to book with you again in the future.

2. Marketing Helps You Attract New Patients

We know what you’re thinking: “But I don’t need new patients!”

Yes, you do. Maybe not now, but somewhere down the line, your sales pipeline will dry up if you aren’t supplying it with new leads.

And where do those new leads come from? Marketing!

Medical digital marketing can introduce your practice to new markets, engage the exact types of patients you want to reach, and build trust among people who aren’t quite sure whether they need your help.

Plus, the path to an appointment may be longer than you think. The average patient spends more than two weeks researching before scheduling an appointment. So even if they stumble upon your Google Ad today, they may not actually make a move until next month.

How do you know if your marketing is working? Thanks to advanced analytics, digital marketing helps you clearly measure your return on investment (ROI). By collecting and analyzing your marketing data, you’re able to determine whether your investment was worth the cost.

If you have multiple providers at your practice, healthcare marketing can benefit your entire practice. The surplus of new patient calls allows you to “share the wealth” when one of you is low on appointments, and it fosters a better rapport among your staff.

3. Marketing Helps You Educate Your Community

As a physician or other healthcare professional, you want a shining reputation in your community.

But your reputation won’t shine without a little polish.

To establish yourself as a thought leader in your area, employ creative marketing techniques that are focused on educating your audience. We recommend a healthcare content marketing strategy featuring helpful blog posts, social media content, and more.

Considering most of all health inquiries begin with a search query, you definitely want to answer those questions on your website!

Another way healthcare marketing helps build your reputation is through the management of online reviews.

We assume you’re already well aware of the importance of online reviews to the success of your practice. (If you aren’t, take a gander at these compelling review marketing statistics.)

But did you know that you can actually help influence online reviews with digital marketing? Not in a shady way. Just in a way that encourages happy patients to leave more good reviews (and in a way that fosters better relationships with unhappy patients).

So, Which Marketing Efforts Should You Focus On?

Now that we’ve covered the importance of healthcare marketing even when you’re busy, let’s take a look at the most important marketing efforts for your practice.

(Because you are busy. Even if you weren’t, you wouldn’t want to chase every marketing tactic out there, because not all of them will be relevant to your business — or an efficient use of your time.)

At 9 Clouds, we offer four core services that we recommend to anyone seeking healthcare digital marketing:

But this isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Every practice has different needs, so you should customize your marketing to align with your goals.

Here at 9 Clouds, we understand the needs of different healthcare businesses — from therapists to dentists to healthcare systems. See how 9 Clouds can help your practice achieve its goals.

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