Why Internet Marketing is Important to Your Practice, Part 1

According to a recent survey conducted for the Health Technology Center (HealthTech) by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Institute for the Future (IFTF), Internet marketing is reshaping the medical community and its interaction with its customers, as well as its colleagues. The rise in acceptance and use of social media has reshaped how patients interact with present and potential physicians, how physicians themselves network with colleagues, and how medical practices thrive.

All physicians are keenly aware that their practice will only prosper if they have a good reputation; that reputation, in 2014, goes beyond simply providing quality services. With the advent of the World Wide Web, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, a physician must now develop not only a winning bedside manner, but more importantly, a World Wide Web presence through Internet marketing. According to leading advertising experts, approximately 50% of all potential patients search the web before choosing a doctor. If a physician does not participate in online marketing activities, he or she will not even be considered by over half of potential new clients.

In light of these staggering facts, health care marketing is crucial to any physician’s success. Establishing an online website is crucial; working with professionals helps with website design and placement. However, merely creating a website will not guarantee increased patient bases. The physician must also control his/her presence, constantly updating and expanding not only their website, but their Internet marketing reach, as well. Establishing a Facebook and Twitter page is also essential for engaging patients, providing generic medical advice, and promoting a positive means for feedback and also to allow for correction of misinformation and negative feedback. Updating the social media outlets for a medical practice has grown in importance to equal in-office contacts. Timely responses through social media rival emergency phone calls or late night consultations. Google+Business pages, another Internet-marketing tool, allow the practice to be viewed by wider segments of the population, locally and regionally. Google alerts also allow a physician to know when and by whom a particular practice’s web site has been viewed.

Effective Internet Marketing Puts You on the Map

Internet marketing shapes a successful practice’s success by researching who that particular physician’s potential audience is; if the doctor is a surgeon, marketing customizes the content, keywords, and visuals to highlight those skills. A doctor is not everything to everyone. Health care marketing specialists will create unique content and establish reliable blogs to promote the practice’s superior services and foster the all-important trust factor. Online marketing, if done correctly, guides the potential patient to the practice’s site and convinces them of the intrinsic superior services it offers. These Internet marketing experts will help establish the practice’s web content in such a manner that when customers conduct on line searches, that particular practice will jump at them first: this is termed Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and is a guaranteed method of increasing clientele. SEO and optimal placement of the practice’s services in related directories, as well as links to professional organizations, are all Internet marketing efforts specifically employed to develop new patient contacts.

An all-important additional online marketing tool is the creation and continued use of patient reviews. This not only promotes trust and confidence in the practice’s overall abilities, but also engages the various segments of the targeted client base. Likewise, the creation of high quality and engaging videos of specific procedures and informative demonstrations can greatly enhance a practice’s reputation and standing in social media.

Internet marketing, as provided by such experts as Axiom Health Care Marketing, provides targeted, traceable, and versatile methods of attracting new patients, as well as reinforcing the trust and loyalty of current patients. Axiom Health Care Marketing concentrates on medical practices throughout Florida, including Miami Beach, Daytona Beach and surrounding states, such as Virginia.

Published by Axiom Health Care Marketing