“Maintaining good health should be the primary focus of everyone”

The healthcare industry is projected to be around $10.059 trillion by 2022! This clearly indicates global health care expenditures expected to grow in the number of smiles that would be spreading in the near future.

Barely, half-decade ago, a majority of U.S. healthcare institutions and individuals clinics practices had a Social Media presence which has risen to nearly 90% as of today.

The increased usage of digital media has played a vital role in their patient acquisition and retention strategy.

One can easily understand this huge expansion when you consider the role of digital media in the daily lives of the people.

The growing importance of social media for the Healthcare Industry

In 2013, only 58% of clinics thought social media was important to medical practices.

Today, people are more likely to rely on and believe your Facebook page rather than your website and you can easily leverage the incredible social proof on your page to win them over.

With the passage of time, more healthcare practices are seeing the power of being active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.

For an industry that unquestionably holds a potential customer in each and every segment of the population, there is no better way than the social media industry to promote and educate their audience that there is nothing to fear and it is important to have a health care specialist, so that good health should be the primary focus for everyone.

Promotions through various social media platforms can help you to connect with prospects (patients) who are looking for orthodontic services and acquire new customers who are not actively looking for but are available for all future references.

1. How Marketing Automation and Brand Management can help your medical practices?

It’s good if your business has a healthy marketing budget; it thus becomes much easier to reach prospective patients over multiple channels.

On the contrary, conventional methods of advertising such as the radio, television and print media increase the awareness and educate about your practice but only amongst the people in your community.

Offline advertising, however, faces one significant problem that is – it may not have an immediate positive effect on the revenue of your healthcare practice. On one side you will keep shelling out your money to expand your reach but would not be getting the results on time.

On the other hand, your investments in Marketing Automation and Brand Management will yield instant results along with increasing your brand awareness and by attracting new customers on a regular basis.

2. Marketing Automation and Brand Management reaches where and when required

As compared to conventional methods of offline advertising, which has an absolute minimum or no getting and has very little relevance, Marketing Automation and Brand Management has a much more immediate and wider effect on affecting your target and your ROI.

Also, when you advertise on radio, print media etc. you face a significant drawback which is you just cannot customize the message for the audience.

However, when using traditional mediums you won’t be able to reach the below:

• People who are actually patients and currently looking for healthcare professionals and experts.
• People who are looking for treatment
• Your regular patients
• Regular patients of your competitors.
• Patients who have not visited you in a while.

With digital methods of advertising, every member of the audience can receive a customized message thus holding equal relevance for all.

3. Targeting with maximum relevance

A well synced Marketing Automation and Brand Management campaign allows you to target a potential, current or a former patient with the perfect customized message, at the exact time and over the most appropriate channel he/she uses – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.

Let’s take a quick look at what you can do over some of the most commonly used Marketing Automation and Brand Management channels:

• To reach customers actively searching for dentists medical specialist use pay-per-click advertising on search engines and business directories.
• Display advertising to increase awareness about your practices.
• Using social media to share general but helpful tips regarding dental health and cure.
• Using social media and email marketing to promote your new services and reminding them for general/scheduled checkups.
• Using marketing automation tools such as sharpspring you can generate reminder messages for your patients.

As Marketing Automation and Brand Management gives you the feasibility of targeting different segments with customized messages, your messages become surely relevant to the people who see them and thus it relevantly helps to ensure the best possible response rate.

4. Mastering the art of converting visitors into customers

A strong visual element and messaging is always the key component which ensures that your post stands distinctively apart in your followers’ social media feeds.

Avoid using stock photographs and wherever possible in static Facebook posts, use original photographs to connect in a more realistic manner.

This certainly helps your reader to build up a better presumption about the services and atmosphere of your business.

Also, because the nature of business comprises of physical walk-in this will definitely leave a positive impact on your existing patients.

In order to reach the right prospective clients with the best offer on social media platforms, it has now become necessary to pay for advertising tools such as targeted social media ads and boosted posts.

5. Optimizing for mobile devices

To boost your digital campaign exponentially, this is the single most important thing that one needs to keep in mind while using the digital mediums of promotions – Optimizing for mobile devices.

To keep it short it’s no longer an option, in fact, it’s a necessity. Almost each and every client of yours is potentially a mobile phone user, who is performing searches and eventually getting redirected towards your business.

This clearly means that your website, as well as your user acquisition services, needs to be optimized to reach them. Read below a few ways of how the design and user acquisition might differ for your mobile site:

• With less screen space, lengthy texts are a strict no-no; this might cause the user to run away even before getting started.
• Mobiles are ‘single hand-held devices’ which clearly means that there has to be a CTA button which can be a ‘call now’ or a ‘book an appointment’ button which they can use immediately. By placing any such icon you are increasing your chances of attracting new customers.
• Videos – a must for mobile users. If your website features relevant and engaging video content, then pat your back! You are already in the leading league. Video testimonials for medical services, self-shot videos or relevant orthodontic YouTube videos are surely going to get more views than sites with text and images combined.
• Optimizing your site for easy contact ability is the key here as mobile users are mostly local and shorter is the time to contact the better it is. Are you offering same day appointments? It’s great if your answer to the question is YES! Do highlight this ‘same day’ feature in a way so that the mobile user can easily schedule one from your landing page.
• Try integrating voice search and local keywords in your user acquisition strategy as these changes will surely create a positive impact on your campaign.

Conclusion:-
While the medical industry has recently made strides in many areas, it is still largely behind the curve on modern website standards, social media, and leveraging the power of patient reviews when compared to other branches than dentistry such as ophthalmology, cardiology, dermatology, Neurology, pathology etc.

Given the fact that the current state of the medical industry in the digital world is in a constant state of flux, it is the right time for the businesses to come forward with modern website standards, effective use of social media, white hat techniques for user acquisition and leveraging the power of reviews. What we can help is, enabling you to digitally transform your business with the varied help of Marketing Automation and Brand Management channels.

Also, you can use effective services like strong web development techniques and online reputation management methods!

All you have to do is [email protected] or book an appointment to get in touch with our subject matter experts for an in-depth analysis.

In order to reach the right prospective clients with the best offer on social media platforms, it has now become necessary to pay for advertising tools such as targeted social media ads and boosted posts.