What is The Best Way To Promote Medical Websites For Physicians and Patients?

Look around and you'll find several medical websites competing with one another to capture the attention of patients. Indeed, the competition is tough, but when a great method of healthcare marketing is combined with an effective strategy and impeccable execution then there's probably nothing that can stop your medical website from leaving a lingering mark in the minds of patients. But, the question remains to be the same- which method can be considered as ideal for increasing awareness about your healthcare website?

Healthcare promotional advertisements, PPC and marketing campaigns are everywhere, but are they able to connect with patients and serve the purpose? To find out the answer to this question, you need to know more about where the potential patients are going to find the right physician!

How Exactly Do Patients Find Medical Websites?

In the age of digital media, where a smartphone is considered to be a lifesaving device, people are often seen looking for every service online and the same goes for healthcare as well. For example, if a patient suffers from disorder X then he/she would immediately perform an online search of the best doctor for disorder X or reputable physicians near me. The main objective here is to find a medical practitioner who specializes in treating disorder X and holds the reputation of being the best in their practice.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing

While searching online, the patient will come across a list of options mentioned in the higher rank of search engine result pages (SERP) and then as seen in over 98% of users, they will click on the same to know more about them. If the website's design is appealing, holds quality content and lets them connect on other eminent social media platforms then the patient would gain a sense of trust in the website and physician's practice. Thus, the first and perhaps the most important path used by patients to explore physicians, doctors and specialists is a search engine.

Medical websites having a higher rank do have a better possibility to attract patients, compared to those who don't. This is where healthcare SEO marketing comes into play. To achieve and maintain top rank in Google's search engine Index you have to work on the SEO dynamics of the site such as responsiveness (compatibility with mobile devices), informative content, right blend of medical keywords, superiorly optimized images & videos and most importantly authority builders like backlinks, directory citations and social signals.

However, the SEO of medical websites does not end here, as to enhance local search experiences of a user; Google offers a local search pack that appears above organic search results. The pack contains details of about 3-4 private physicians, hospitals or healthcare centers and mentions crucial details like description of the company, address, contact number, working hours and reviews. By optimizing the medical website for local search, you can easily attract the patients located nearby who are looking for the services that you offer.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

From the above example, a patient who found a medical website on the search engine result page is over 60% more likely to get to know more about your social media presence. With social media, physicians can connect with influencers and patients, making it a wonderful arena to solidify branding. Now, that you have been discovered by the patient, keep them engaged with the latest health tips (content marketing), announcements, recent blog posts, events & news that are associated with the practice.

Here, two things tend to occur at the same time. One, a patient discovers the true potential of your service and how useful it can be and two, if satisfied, he/she would also promote your practice through social media channels- isn't that exciting already!

Email Marketing

While social media takes digital marketing for medical websites to the next level, it also widens the horizon of email marketing. Healthcare websites have an email newsletter that encourages patients to share their emails for staying updated about services, features or other critical aspects about your practice. Now, when a patient is satisfied with the social media presence then they would be more confident about the idea of registering for newsletters.

Medical email marketing is an incredible space for personalization, where you can communicate with patients to send appointment reminders, health tips that are related to the specific disorder that they are suffering from and share all promotional information that would benefit both your practice & the patient.

Final Verdict- The Ultimate Method To Promote Medical Websites

When planning to kickstart your marketing game for a medical website, healthcare SEO marketing undoubtedly is the first move towards promotion. SEO for healthcare website lays a strong foundation by improving online presence, increasing the reputation and ensuring that you acquire a competitive edge from others by achieving a higher rank. But, the important thing is: promotion of medical websites is not a simple straight line; however SEO marketing makes the entire process a lot easier.

To sum it up, "the ultimate way to promote medical websites is SEO marketing for medical websites combined with comprehensive digital marketing efforts such as content marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing."

Confused about how to connect with patients and retain/convert them? Leave your worries onto Medibrandox - a renowned healthcare digital marketing specialist that empowers medical websites with effective and ethical marketing practices and that too within every budget!