Today’s installment continues our series on growing your pediatric practice through digital marketing.
If you missed our recent webinar, held by CEO Brad Smith and marketing advisor Lauren Wittschen, these posts will fill you in.
We’re covering everything from a solid website framework to the best way to geofence ads – but before we get into this post, we’d recommend you check out Parts 1 & 2 first:
Digital Marketing For Your Pediatric Practice, Part 1: Understanding Your Patients
Digital Marketing For Your Pediatric Practice, Part 2: Creating a Better Website
Getting the Most from Your Testimonials
94% of healthcare patients use online reviews to evaluate providers.
Even more importantly, 84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
One last stat – 81% of consumers are not satisfied with their healthcare experience.
In other words, if you haven’t utilized testimonials before, now’s the time to start. When used correctly, they can drive visibility, increase trust, and help obtain new patients.
So, how do you get more testimonials?
This one is tricky, but the best solution is simply to ask.
We helped one of our clients develop a post-visit survey that asked for a star rating and a few words about their experienced. They’ve now garnered over 1,000 4- and 5-star reviews – and all they had to do was ask!
It’s true that you may end up with a negative review or two, as sometimes mistakes happen; however, it’s much more believable to consumers when your Google reviews feature several dozen positive reviews and a single negative review.
What’s important is managing your online reputation and maintaining awareness of what’s being said about your practice.
And once you have them…what do you do with them?
We’ll dive deeper into testimonials in our next post, so be sure to check back for in the next installment.
(Hint: Use them across your social media.)
Utilizing search engine optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, sounds significantly more complicated than it is.
In the simplest of terms: when someone Googles “pediatric practice,” how close are you to the top of the results?
5% of all Google searches are healthcare related – people are always searching for the answers to their medical questions. This further underscores the importance of good content and using your website as a resource, as opposed to a simple brochure.
The top organic search result on Google experiences 28.5% of clicks. It’s incredibly important to not only land in the top results but to keep website visitors on your page to convert.
An expecting parent in your area looking for advice on how to choose a pediatrician, for example, is an excellent candidate to find your website and the information you offer.
Tips to optimize your website:
Create individual provider/office location pages.
When your doctors or office locations are recommended, it’s likely they’ll be recommended by name. Ensure a simple search of their name will return your website.
Write strong meta titles/descriptions.
These are the titles and page descriptions that appear in your Google search results. Write them how your new patients are searching – ie, “Top Pediatrician in Columbus.”
Focus on the user experience.
Pay attention to your mobile experience and double check your website is secure.
For more information on SEO, check out our blog.
In our next post we’ll be taking a look at some of the most useful social media strategies.
If you can’t wait until then, check out the whole webinar here!
We’re here to help.
When you need your marketing questions answered, get in touch or give us a call at 888.576.6100.
