Social Media Marketing for Doctors
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Benefits of Social Media Marketing
The widespread use of social media has taken the business world by storm. From Facebook to Twitter to YouTube, a solid social media presence can help a business experience exponential growth. Modern businesses are taking advantage of the social media boom in a number of various ways. Traditional outbound marketing efforts are diminishing as internet-based marketing continues to rise. This is where social media marketing for doctors can be quite useful. Social media marketing can help a doctor’s office achieve marketing success. Read on to learn more about digital marketing for doctors and how a practice can reach more patients through the use of social media platforms.
How to Promote a Medical Practice
What is Social Media Marketing?
Before defining social media marketing, it is important to first explain digital marketing. Digital marketing includes the various ways by which businesses influence and convert their leads to clients through the internet. Digital marketing can includes such tactics as search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, blogging, and social media marketing just to name a few. Social media marketing is the process of reaching customers through social networking platforms like Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. These platforms provide connections among people all across the globe. This can be great for a doctor’s office that wants to obtain more patients, expand their services and meet their service goals. The good thing about social media marketing is that it’s a familiar platform for most people who are already accustomed to using the internet. Millions of people have personal social media accounts that they use to connect with family, peers and businesses, social media marketing allows doctors to leverage these existing connections and reach new patients.
Digital Marketing for Doctors Video
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
A social media marketing plan can skyrocket a doctor’s office to success. There are many great benefits to using social media marketing for doctors. Many doctors often question the validity of using social media. However, the short answer to this query is yes, doctors really do need social media marketing to enhance their businesses. Remember, while a doctor’s practice may be established to help people with health concerns, at the end of the day the practice is still a business. Any business owner realizes that without new customers the business will not survive very long. This could not be any further from the truth when applied to doctor’s offices. Doctors must consistently rely on various marketing techniques to attract new patients into their business.
Reasons to Implement A Social Media Strategy
Bolster Brand Reputation
Consistent posts on social media will position the doctor as an expert in their field. This can help to position the doctor as a reputable source of information and as an industry leader. This is important because it helps with branding the doctor’s practice. For instance, branding could include uniformly designed social media posts that feature the practice’s logo. The more that people see the brand the more they will recognize it. Consistently posting helpful content can even lead to brand loyalty over time.
Real Time Interaction
Since posts are made to social media accounts in real-time, responses to comments and inquiries can also be made in real time. This is excellent for customer service. For example, if there is a problem with the service the doctor can address the matter right away. As in any business, customers appreciate responsiveness of companies. Issues that are resolved fairly and right away help to leave a positive impression in the minds of the customer. This can improve the company’s reputation and impart the idea that the practice is a brand that can be trusted to do the right thing.
Relationship Building
To get the most out of social media accounts, the doctor must interact with patients. This includes responding to inquiries and comments on social media as well as providing useful information. Often businesses provide content that is not relevant to the audience being marketed to. Social media allows the doctor to connect with prospective patients and vice versa, delivering content that can help to foster a relationship between the doctor and the followers.
In this manner, patients get a glimpse into the doctor’s life but the doctor can also get a glimpse into what the patient needs from an information standpoint as well. Social media marketing leads to interactions with people who want to know more about the doctor’s services and expertise. These interactions, when done consistently, will lead to lasting relationships over time. As the relationship continues to grow, these people will actually seek out the messages the doctor posts on their accounts. This means they will not view the information as sales content, but will instead view it as helpful information they can use in their everyday lives.
Subtle Sales Tactics
This leads to another important point—social media posts are a subtle way to obtain sales with many sales even occurring months down the line as customers become more acquainted with the doctor’s office. In the past, traditional marketing used very aggressive sales tactics that turned customers off. From obtrusive magazine ads to disruptive television commercials, discerning customers were put off by these approaches. This has helped with the popularity of social media marketing. Social media marketing takes a more helpful approach by offering content that customers can use. From how-to tips to links to informative blog posts, social media has transformed the marketing world and made it more customer-friendly.
Shareable Content
People like to share content they find interesting or valuable. Prospective patients who like content they have found on social media will share it with their networks. This leads to improved online visibility of the doctor’s office. The more people who know about the business the more possibilities there are to convert these prospects into paying customers.
Return on Investment
By its very nature, social media marketing leads to increased sales. This is because it improves the online presence of the company. Consistent social media marketing keeps the business name in front of the customer, creating opportunities to make more sales. A strategic brand message gives the customer a reason to want to become a paying patient. For example, the doctor could provide coupon codes just for social media followers or other discounts for loyal followers. This is a great return on investment because social media allows the doctor to find customers they did not know existed and also prominently places the company online to be discovered by customers who are actively seeking doctors in their areas.
Social Media Marketing is Inexpensive
Social media marketing is a low-cost approach to reaching new customers. There are no high printing costs as is associated with traditional means of marketing. The highest cost associated with social media marketing for doctors who take a do-it-yourself approach is the time it takes to create the content. On the other hand, for doctors who see the benefits in hiring a professional digital marketing company these costs are very low when compared to the return on investment. A professional service can help the doctor convey the right message, attract new customers and improve the doctor’s online presence.
A Targeted Approach
Social media marketing, especially on Facebook allows doctors to take a targeted approach when seeking certain demographics of people as potential patients. Social media is customizable and doctors can target certain geographic locations, age groups, and even education levels. On some platforms doctors can even follow people who have expressed an interest in a specific medical condition, such as people on Facebook who follow a diabetes support group. For doctors who fully understand their target audience, this feature can prove to be valuable, as these prospects will be more likely to convert to paying patients.
Increase Website Traffic
A social media presence can be vastly improved through the strategic use of SEO. SEO is the skillful use of top keywords that allow a business’s website to rank highly in search engine results. The good thing about SEO is that it can also boost traffic to a doctors office social media pages. Well-crafted social media posts that are laced with the right keywords can make a huge difference on the traffic that is driven to a website.
Increased Traffic Equates to Increased Potential for Patients
Networking with Other Professionals
Social media can also be used to connect with other business professionals and thought leaders within the industry. LinkedIn is a very useful tool for this.
Final Thoughts
A digital marketing strategy that includes social media marketing should be at the top of the list for doctors who want to make a huge impact in their industries. It is never too late to begin a social media campaign. For doctors who have not initiated these strategies, now is the time. Doctor’s offices should capitalize on the move to social media marketing because of all of the great benefits that social media marketing entails. Digital marketing for doctors improves the doctor’s online presence, simply put, it can help grow the business. Many doctors are already taking advantage of this great opportunity. To learn more about social media marketing and digital marketing for doctors contact an expert today who can discuss the best social media tactics that can be implemented for a doctor’s online growth and success.