Let’s talk about physician branding!
The last time you reviewed your healthcare organization’s marketing outcomes, what did you see?
Perhaps there has been a major decline in your performance across some marketing channels – at least this is what’s happening with most of the established healthcare organizations.
So, is there anything that you’re doing wrong?
There’s a good chance that you think expanding your marketing budget is the answer. But NO, it’s not!
Of all the things preached about when running a healthcare organization, digital marketing is certainly not one of them. In today’s modern world where social media and other digital platforms have opened several doors of advertising, it is imperative that you focus on the reputation of your physicians in the online market.
Why Physician Branding is Important
We are all living in a digital world, and your prospective patients are no exception to this rule. It means that they are searching for answers to their healthcare needs on the internet. That’s right…not the Yellow Pages, not television ads. They’re finding unsubstantiated clues to their health needs in the palms of their hands.
The biggest mistake some healthcare organizations make is that they focus solely on advertising their services and disregard the concept of physician marketing.
Did you know that around 44% of internet users in the US look for physician-specific information?
Yes, you heard that right!
People are no longer interested in knowing about their options based on treatments and conditions only – they want to know how good their healthcare provider is and what other patients think about them.
- Stand Out from the Competition
When patients hear of a trained healthcare professional, they automatically assume that they’re an expert. While this definitely turns the odds in your favor, it makes it difficult for a physician to set themselves apart from those who share the same specialty.
Physician branding is what brings in potential patients through your doors by setting your skills apart. With the growing competition in the healthcare market, it’s crucial that you market your physicians to let the audience know why and how they are better than others.
- Help Your Patients Develop Clear, Realistic Expectations
When patients choose to get treatment at your healthcare center, they look forward to an overall pleasant experience rather than just the quality of service.
This is why developing a physician marketing strategy that allows patients to discover the workplace culture is so important. Virtually introducing your physicians to the patients before they come in for a visit helps set expectations that you can easily meet in-office. This ultimately earns you a trustworthy reputation. From the virtual introduction to the patient’s review and follow up, physician branding is used throughout the entire process.
- Build Loyalty
According to a research study, patients’ loyalty depends on the following five aspects of healthcare practice:
- Satisfaction
- Reputation
- Quality of service
- Staff follow-through
- Being treated with respect and dignity
Physician branding is a sure-fire solution that can help you lay the foundation for a healthcare business that offers each of these things.
The Benefits of Digital Marketing for Healthcare
The benefits of digital marketing for healthcare settings are diverse. Digital marketing allows hospitals, healthcare organizations, and physicians to stay on top of their prospective patients’ minds and proactively reach out to them for maximum and consistent patient growth.
Now, we trust that you know how marketing your services on digital platforms can build your reputation in the market. It works but it’s certainly not enough!
Unfortunately, many CMOs and physician managers think that physician branding and marketing is only profitable for physicians. They fail to understand that by helping their physicians in increasing their patient base, they can ultimately scale the reach of their healthcare organization as a whole. We’re here to help you experience a marketing paradigm shift.
Top 4 Physician Marketing Strategies
The following are some of the best physician marketing strategies that will take your healthcare digital marketing game to the next level!
1. Humanize Your Physicians by Using Stories
Do you think physicians don’t need personal brands?
Think again!
The medical field has become fast-paced and overly competitive. It warrants healthcare settings to not only promote their services but also market their physicians.
Prospective patients are interested in getting to know their healthcare providers before they actually meet them in person. They want to know what other patients think of them and why they like their services.
Obviously, a certain level of trust and reliability needs to be there when it comes to the physician-patient relationship. It’s a matter of health and in some cases, of life and death, after all. Physician branding and marketing is the ultimate way of gaining patients’ trust.
For successful physician marketing, consider telling a story to the audience that builds a personal connection between them and the physician. You can post a video in which a physician talks about themselves, their expertise, and their achievements. The more you humanize them, the better!
2. Build Landing Pages
You know how landing pages work wonders for promoting a specific service, right?
Well, why not use it for physician marketing as well.
You can invite your prospective patients to land at these pages through the advertisement links you post on different web platforms, newsletters, or email campaigns.
This is one of the best physician marketing strategies to promote individual physicians using limited and focused content on a specific condition or disease. It ensures minimum distractions for the readers and grabs their attention immediately, thereby maximizing patient response. The key is to produce compelling content that provides value to the target audience and converts them into leads.
3. Don’t Forget about Social Media
As we stated earlier, most patients go to the internet when searching for a new physician. And Google likes to present the LinkedIn page or Facebook page of the medical professional/group at the top of the page. This offers patients a great opportunity to learn at least a few things about them prior to the face-to-face meeting.
Many patients search for the physician’s public social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Social media isn’t only useful for maintaining a personal profile of the physician but also for posting regular medical content for people who’re looking for medical information.
Again, the quality of content you post can make or break the deal for you!
4. Create a Blog
Blogging is perhaps one of the best physician marketing strategies for healthcare organizations. It’s a valuable, cost-effective solution to promote your physicians as well as your healthcare services to a large audience base.
The trick is to post relevant, value-based content on a regular basis. When your content is credible, engaging, and of good quality, you’ll yield the following benefits:
- Attract and retain the target audience
- Better SEO and online ranking
- Stay on top of the minds of your prospective patients
- Inspire influencers
- Reach a bigger audience by sharing of content
- Build and grow relationships with your patients
In essence, to have the best physician marketing strategies in place for your healthcare brand, you need to stay on top of your content production game. The ultimate goal of your digital marketing plan should be to attract more patients who are seeking medical help or advice to your healthcare facility. This means that patient engagement will be a crucial factor in your marketing strategy.
Typically, you need to take care of the following elements of your healthcare digital marketing plan.
- Laying the foundation of an excellent online presence of your business
- Managing the reputation of your brand as well as of your physicians
- Securing top rankings in the search engines
- Customized, patient-oriented digital marketing strategies to attract the target audience
- Earning quality patient referrals
- Maximizing the ROI while reducing the cost of conversion
- Bringing heavy traffic of potential patients and generating quality leads
- Devising online content strategies to promote patient loyalty and retention
Now, we understand that you probably don’t have the time to give your 100% for executing your digital marketing plan considering the busyness of your typical day.
That’s where a professional content marketing agency comes in! They understand that each physician has their own set of medical specializations and treatments to offer. Based on the niche, they help healthcare businesses devise effective digital marketing and branding plans that complement their goals.
If you’re not sure how to market your physicians the right way that drives maximum success or don’t have the time to do that, feel free to contact us. We’ll help you determine your healthcare business’ digital marketing needs and equip you with the ideal physician marketing strategies to achieve your goals.
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