Fabric Medical
Better practice marketing
Dermatology practice marketing
Ten practical online marketing tips for dermatologists
Think your prospective patients aren't online? Think again.
According to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 58 percent of Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 currently go online. About 50 percent are women. Not only are women over 50 online, 74 percent of female Internet users in this age range have sought health information on the Web. Businesswomen with income above $75,000 - an attractive patient group - use the Internet several times per week. If you want to market your practice to this audience, your Web site should be top quality and easy to find through the search engines.
If you want to reach prospective patients, your Web presence is critical.
How can the Web help me grow my practice?
Your prospects may hear about your practice in an ad, magazine story, or on TV. However, it's what happens next that matters. Your prospects use the Web to learn about your practice, experience, procedures, and care. For example, women compare your practice with other practices and share your site with their friends. Today, your Web site is the most valuable marketing tool you have and should be treated as such.
Your Website should be the central piece in your marketing/communications.
Compared to traditional marketing, how important is your Web site to your practice?
You thought direct mail marketing was effective? Mailers who send thousands of pieces of direct mail at one time to carefully selected mailing lists usually consider a 1 to 2 percent response rate successful. Mass mailings to all the people in a particular zip code are likely to get response rates as low as 1 in 10,000 or lower. Through your Web site, you can market your new procedure to thousands of prospective patients and achieve higher response rates at a fraction of the cost in both money and labor. It's simple: Promote an offer in exchange for her e-mail, capture permission to e-mail her, and start the conversation! Even now people don't realize that the Web is the most effective direct marketing medium of all time. Of course, you have to set up a quality system for doing so, but once you do… you'll reap the rewards!
If done right, online marketing can be more cost-effective than traditional channels.
Women care about details.
While it is true that the Web is perfect for getting things done quickly, remember: Women, your prospects, care about details. When women use the Web to make a short list of practices to consider, what they see on your Web site matters. Excellent descriptions of procedures, easy-to-use navigation, high quality design, and in-depth information about the patient care process are all elements women carefully evaluate in their decision process. To make their short list, remember that everything about your Web presence will give you a plus or a minus to prospective patients.
Online, everything matters. So investing in quality pays.
A few things to consider if you want to attract high-income patients.
An attractive strategy for growing your practice is to attract the 10% of patients who spend the most. To do so, it is important to define your audience and develop a strategy for targeting and attracting such patients. For example, women executives visit high-end hotels, restaurants, and spas. To attract this group to your practice, your strategy may include investing in an appealing visual identity, upgrading your office interior design, and hiring a publicist to submit feature articles to magazines read by your target market. Of course, your advertising, brochures, and Website must be of consistently high quality to win the business of this valuable market segment.
To attract high-income patients, define who they are and invest in high-end marketing.
The first steps to improving your search engine ranking.
Every day, thousands of women are searching for information about their skin condition on Google. If they don't find your practice on the first two pages, they won't find you at all. To rank well in Google, your practice Web site must contain relevant information that is useful to your prospective patients. If you invest in editorial content, build a well-organized Web site, and build high quality links leading to your site, you have taken the first steps towards improving your ranking in Google.
Search engine marketing is about good quality content, site structure, and links.
The power of the online press release.
How are you marketing your new laser procedure? Every month, your prospective patients hear about new treatments in magazines and on TV. If they remember the name of the laser or procedure, they go to Google and search for it. If your press release comes up, your practice is first in line to win the patient. Beyond hiring a publicist to produce the releases, there are tools available to distribute press releases to news outlets and search engines.
To maximize your PR exposure, your press releases should be distributed online.
E-mail marketing to your existing patients can increase revenue
It's not hard to imagine. You gather e-mail addresses from 2,000 patients; next, you send them an e-mail with skin care advice and a special 10 percent discount on a new procedure. If done right, e-mail marketing can increase revenue per patient. Moreover, every time you interact with your patients, you have a chance to promote your latest procedure and cement your relationship. Today, your e-mail list should be treated as one of your most valuable assets. When you launch your own skin care line, a large mailing list is worth all the effort.
Building and maintaining a good quality e-mail list is immensely valuable.
Should you hire a designer to build your Web site?
Watch out! It's not all about design. When you build your house, you may hire an interior designer to design your kitchen, but you would never do it without the advice of an architect. In 2006, your Web site should be the centerpiece of your marketing. Visual design is tactical; marketing is strategic. Hire a marketing "architect" to build your Web site. While many Web designers do a great job at the visuals, they often do a lousy job of creating user-friendly, strategically targeted Web sites.
If your designer wants to add animation, sound, or Flash to your site – ask why.
What about traditional advertising?
Advertising works best when it's executed within a strategic framework. One dermatologist told us he had tried magazine advertising and had gotten dismal results. After analyzing the ad, we discovered why. The design was poor, there was no specific call to action, and it looked like every other ad for skin care services in that magazine. As you may know, print advertising is expensive. Why not test your ads online before you invest in expensive print ads? You can try Google's AdWords, which is a pay-for-performance service.
Test your advertising online before you spend on printing.