Some Basics of Digital Marketing for Doctors
A website is your representation on the digital landscape, it’s your ID. It is the fundamental when it comes to digital marketing for doctors. Did you know more than 60% of the patients use mobile to find detailed medical information and book appointments? This makes it a mandatory to have website designed with mobile devices in mind.
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Remember your website should be responsive and fast loading.
Off course get your SEO done. It will help your blogs rank up in the search engine.
Blogs increase the website traffics by 55%. Another effective tool when it comes to digital marketing for doctors. Case studies, informative content, frequent updates, Do’s & Don’ts, Q&As, infographics and videos make blogs more engaging for patients. It helps to build a connection between you and your patient. It becomes the manifesto of your repertoire.
71% of the patients are influenced by social media when selecting the medical practitioner or surgeon. Social Networks can get you in touch with potential patients and build a relationship of trust and respect with the existing ones.
# Step 4 - Email Marketing
It is one of the most powerful tool for patient engagement. It adds personalized touch to your relationship. Also sending valuable information to patients, which are highly appreciated.
The top medical journals have a very high impact factor and peer view process.
If you specialize within an area of medicine and surgery, the top medical journals in each specialty could be crucial to add your status and acceptability. It helps to build your brand name.
High journal impact factor = highly influential
Some of the top Medical Journals…Click to know more:
Nature
NEJM
BMJ
AIM
JAMA
CMAJ
Nature
Nature – It publishes recent findings in science, and is an esteemed science journal for health writers.
NEJM
NEJM -The New England Journal of Medicine receives nearly 5,000 article submissions every year and adopts a rigorous peer review process – as well as extensive revisions by at least five experts and at least one statistical review before publication. The journal has an impact factor is 54.42 (2013), the highest among general medical journals.
BMJ
BMJ -The British Medical Journal is a completely online journal that publishes general medical research articles.The journal’s impact factor (2014) is 16.3.
AIM
AIM – The Annals of Internal Medicine is a reputed internal medicine journal with free online access. It ranks fifth among general medical journals. The journal has an impact factor of 16.104 (2013), the highest for a general and internal medicine (internists) specialty journal.
JAMA
JAMA – Established in 1883, the JAMA is the major journal in the American Medical Association’s “family” of 10 medical journals. The JAMA is the world’s most widely circulated journal with around 1.2 million email subscribers and has an impact factor of 30.
CMAJ
CMAJ – The Canadian Medical Association Journal is a peer-reviewed general medical journal which publishes original clinical research, commentaries, analyses, and reviews of clinical topics, health news, clinical practice updates and thought-provoking editorials. The journal’s impact factor is 7.7 (2018)
A Wikipedia page can prove to be very significant for the improvement of your reputation. It adds a level of prestige, authenticity and credibility to your persona. It provides you with an additional and credible website presence that will depict your integrity. Besides, it can also enhance your visibility in search engine results.
Following guidelines will help you with your Wikipedia page
- You should make sure that you are renowned in the digital media and someone has created articles or news about you, which are available online.
- Create Wikipedia account.
- Now you need to find informative articles on yourself. These articles should be related to you and must be present online. It would be excellent idea to take articles from online magazines, online newspapers etc.
- Do not include your personal essays or original research as citations.
- It is not recommended you to pull tons of information directly from your website.
- This outside source citation about your business proves that you are known.
- And very important – do not advertise about anything in your post.
- If you don’t have a lot of outside articles, consider doing a little online outreach and publish new relevant content before creating a page.
- If you have got these in place then you can create the wiki page or post.
Smart contents refers dynamic engaging contents that adds value to the reader. It is the most powerful tool for your sustained digital presence. It is easier said than done, getting enough content to publish is a challenge. But the challenge must be taken.
When I’am taking about smart content, the basic criteria is that it should be as if you know them, understand their issues and feel their pain. More you are in-depth with your patients, it is more likely you will find more content. AS APART OF GOOD PRACTISE: you can record the conversation with your patients during check-up or consultancy, then get the transcripts.
Dynamic emails can deliver personalized content to your target audience based on the information that you have been collecting. The best part is, you don’t have to do it manually, in this era of technology, market automation can help you solve this.
Since the post-panda era, search engine algorithms are fast changing. So simply relying on SEO to generate traffic will only result in failure. However, it cannot be ignored either. It is only that it no longer is a principal strategy to gain audience.
You need to be at relevant places to maximize your digital presence.
Two things here could come handy:
Mere posts and interactions are not sufficient. As per Forrester Research, only upto 16% of your patients following your page will get to see your Facebook post. When it comes to twitter, it is just 10%. So these platforms now offer paid support to distribute your content uniformly. It might pinch you a little but will definitely help you achieve your objective.
With the advent of cheap 4G connections and low cost smart phones, everyone seem to have become a little smarter (at least that is what they think). You can easily leverage upon this mind-set to create a strong foothold for yourself creating a high esteem and a favorable outlook that has trust all through. Social media gives you this advantage.
Most of you must be thinking, “We all have Facebook and Twitter handle, WHAT’s NEW?”
I would rather ask you, “What have you leveraged out of your social presence?
Has it helped you to create a larger than life persona for yourself?
Or has it helped you in getting a substantial number of patients?”
If the answer is negative, then the opportunity awaits. In the fast changing digital world you can never predict how long it is going to last. So get going as soon as possible, because tomorrow may never come.
Encourage reviews from your patients. It will help you gain trust. According to studies, about 25% of the patients check online review before deciding on the doctor.
As per Forrester Research, if a picture speak a thousand words, a minute of video speak more than 1.8 million. As you know, the belief is that 55% of communication is body language, 38% is the tone of voice, and 7% is the actual words spoken (Ref: Mehrabian & Wiener, 1967 and Mehrabian & Ferris, 1967). Video helps you express with these three components together, especially, live videos, as it is more trusted over doctored videos.
Those who are leveraging the services rendered to celebrity or high networked patients would know the benefits already. However, the need for influencer marketing is more significant today than ever. Please note: I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT TESTIMONIALS. Going by trends nearly 71% of the patients are more likely to book an appointment based on a reference on social networks.
Social media posts are today’s ‘word of mouth’. An influencer is someone who has gained attention and loyalty of a certain group of people.
Influencer marketing is an instant success formula even if you have just started. More engagement with patients leads to more appointments and more referrals.
