Medical Marketing Report

At some point, the website that helps you market your medical practice needs to encourage visitors to make an appointment.  That’s why your phone number should always be prominent and accessible for website visitors.  In fact, it’s good practice to include you phone number at the top of all pages.

But you might also consider offering a “call me” button on your website. Consider that many existing and potential patients may be visiting your website outside of office hours.  (Your Google Analytics account will tell you how many web visitors you get during these times.)  If it’s the weekend and a user decides that they would like to speak to someone at your clinic to set up an appointment or discuss an account balance, they have two options: (1) pick up the phone and leave a message for you to contact them or (2) remember to call on Monday morning.

Some people are organized enough to remember to call on Monday or motivated enough to find the phone and talk to a machine.  But offering an immediate “call to action” in the form of a call request web page is the often the most convenient and effortless option for even the most unorganized and unmotivated individuals.

A simple web form that allows the user to submit their name, phone number, email address and the best time to call works like a charm.  If you are going to use a call me option on your website, make sure that you …

1. Make sure that someone at your medical practice is following up with the submissions.
2. Ensure that the form is “secure” and you tell users so.  (Your web developer will know what that means if you don’t.)
3. Clearly tell users on the submission page not to use this form if they have an emergency. 
4. Don’t solicit sensitive health details or personal information.  This isn’t the place for them to describe medical conditions or give out their social security number. 
5. Keep the form simple
6. Have a “Thank You page” after submission acknowledging that you have received their request and someone will call them.  Repeat what to do if they have an emergency.
7. Send an email repeating #6.
8. Place the button in a prominent stop.

Here’s an important piece of search engine advice. 

If you hear your web developers saying things like “we’ll trick the search engines by…” or “we’ll hide this element on the page, so that search engines will see it but users won’t,” it might be time to reconsider your relationship with them.

You see, it’s possible to get “blacklisted” from a search engine, meaning your site will be permanently removed from the listings.  One surefire way to get listed is to engage in “Black Hat” search engine optimization techniques.  These practices rely on unethical techniques like cramming keywords into hidden areas on a page or disguising pages to appear different for search engines and users.

If you want to see an example of a site that has been blacklisted, read Matt Cutts’ blog posting called, SEO Tip: Avoid keyword stuffing.  Matt is head of Google’s Webspam team.  His goal is to maintain the integrity of Google’s results.

White Hat search engine optimization techniques are those that fall within the webmaster guidelines offered by search engines.  These practices help the search engines index the content and include proper code and site maps.

So, ask your web developers how they plan to optimize your site for search engines.  Listen for activity that seems sneeky or unethical because if they are indeed using Black Hat techniques and you are caught doing so, it could land you on a blacklist that’s difficult to get off.

It’s pretty common for well-established medical practices to receive a large chunk of new business from patient referrals.  In the pre-Internet days, a referrer would likely pass your telephone number.  (They would at least pass your name so their friend can “look you up” in the telephone book. )

But many times these days the preferred piece of contact information is your web address.  (It’s still common for referrers to pass on just your name.  Only now they are using this information to “Google” you.  Making sure that your site appears when they do is a discussion for another day.)

To facilitate referrals, it’s important that your domain name is (1) easy to remember and (2) easy to communicate.

If your practice name is something like “Denver Family Practice” and DenverFamilyPractice.com is available, you don’t have a problem.  But if your practice name is composed of the name or names of the doctors in your practice, e.g. “Smyth, Benson and Schlotsky,” you may have an issue.

For someone to remember and communicate SmythBensonSchlotsky.com successfully, they need to remember all three names; remember which order they are listed; and know how to spell each one.  

Then there’s the consideration of what happens when a new doctor joins your practice or one leaves?  (Changing domain names regularly is not a good idea.)

If the name of your medical practice is the name of one or more doctors, you might consider using a more memorable domain.  You can (and should) own and maintain the domain that uses your name(s) but have your web developers redirect this to your main site.

Let me ask you a question. 

Let’s say that 2o years ago you had the chance to speak to a team of IBM executives.  Your mission: to warn them that their fiercest competition will soon come from a 20-something college drop-out with no plans to sell his computers through physical stores. 

Here’s the question:  How many executives would have taken you seriously?  Actually, I suppose a more realistic question would be how long would they listen before security were called to usher the “crazy” away.

I think it’s fair to say that the internet has radically changed the business landscape forever. New business models have been built; some old ones have toppled, and ALL businesses have been handed new challenges and opportunities because of the Internet.

This is true in a very obvious way for large business.  But what about your local medical practice?  Has the Internet changed your business?

Absolutely!  Consider this…

• An estimated seventy percent of internet users turn to the internet when they need to find local services. For many, the internet has become the preferred source for finding and researching local service providers.

• A generation of Internet-savvy comparison shoppers (potential patients) is visiting a plethora of online directories to read reviews of your practice.

• In many cases, users are making decisions on who gets their business completely online. Clinics without a web presence don’t get considered.

• “Yeah, you can find him at www….” or “Google him!” has replaced the traditional phone number referral.

• The biggest internet players and many strong start-ups are wise to the massive opportunity for small businesses.  Local search advertising is expected to grow from $4.1 billion today to almost $11.1 billion by 2011 (Kelsey).  Google and Yahoo alone are throwing billions of dollars supporting companies like yours.

• The Internet’s unique qualities are helping companies keep in touch between office visits with efficiency and effectiveness unlike any other method in history.

So, although things at your practice have probably not changed much – customers still want excellent service at fair prices – how they find your practice has shifted dramatically and will continue to do so.  It presents a huge opportunity for those who are prepared with a sound Internet strategy.  That’s why you should bother.  This site exists to help you promote your practice using the Internet.

It’s important to understand what the Internet – which includes website and email – can and cannot do for you.  Many websites flop because the website owner either doesn’t understand what’s possible…or because they try to accomplish the impossible.

As with every type of marketing and sales channel, the Internet offers several characteristics that make it very valuable.  For example, it’s a very cost effective way to instantly communicate to an unlimited group of people.  There are also some things the Internet does not do well.

Generally speaking, the Internet is great for performing transactional activities. Transactional activities are those that are common enough that a single resource can satisfy a large group of people.  For example, if there are several thousand people in your neighborhood wanting to learn more about your practice, including your hours, your services and even general advice on handling a toothache, the Internet is a great tool. It can perform this function 24/7.

But the Internet is not a good tool to accurately diagnose an individual’s condition, which is a good thing because that would take your practice out of the equation.  This activity is more consultative, i.e. it often requires a trained expert to interact with the patient directly.