table of contents INTRO: Why Should Your Practice 1 Market Itself? Step 1: Website Development 2 Step 2: Search Engine Optimization 4

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According to Proctor & Gamble, shoppers make up their mind about a product within three to seven seconds after coming into contact with it. By that logic, this ‘first moment of truth’ represents the most important marketing opportunity for a brand. The same is true for patients and their physicians.

So it’s only logical that prospective patients take to the web to research you, since you’re essentially a product or service they’re consuming. They already do it for nearly everything else, and sometimes on the spot – over 70% of consumers with smartphones are using them to aid their shopping habits.

How do you even begin to manage your online reputation and reach more patients to facilitate growth? While plenty of ‘industry experts’ will tell you online marketing is a logical next step for the medical practice of tomorrow, prescriptive content on the subject is almost impossible to find.

With that said, this eBook is for the medical practice willing to enter the online marketing world soundly, with the kind of scalable infrastructure capable of handling online growth. The following pages outline the five major steps your medical practices need to jump start its online marketing plan: website development, search engine optimization, content marketing, email marketing, and social media best practices.

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steP 1: Website Development

Setting up a website is the first step to building a robust online marketing plan for your practice. And due to the popularity of open source content management systems, anyone can design an appealing and functional website to attract new patients.

Remember, your website is your office’s online home, where you can offer practice updates, patient forms, contact information and additional patient resources. Below are four essential tips for creating a strong medical website.

Select a Domain Name

First, you’ll need to register a domain name and web-hosting plan to house your practice’s website. Almost any commercial hosting plan will work if you’re a small to medium sized practice. Go Daddy, FatCow and Network Solutions provide affordable webhosting solutions for all kinds of businesses. Today’s average .com domain name costs approximately $8 to $10 to register.

Select your domain name wisely – it should represent who you are, mirror your site name and make it easy for patients to remember and identify with. Some examples of good medical domain names include Coral Gables Cosmetic Center’s coralgablescosmetic.com and New York family practitioner Westside Family Medicine’s westsidefamilymedicine.com.

Install a Content Management System

The core function of a content management system (CMS) is to visually present information on websites. Use a CMS to publish, edit and modify web content, including text, photos, video, audio and any embedded graphics that display content or interacts with the user. We recommend WordPress because it’s powerful, intuitive, user-friendly, and best of all, free. Not to mention, it’s free.

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Website Development

Designing Your Website

There are two paths you can take when designing your site. The easiest, most cost-effective is to find free themes online or purchase one from a company specializing in creating templates for content management systems. These themes provide your site’s architecture and make basic design choices for you, making it easy to fill in your content and create the pages you need with little to no knowledge of front-end web development.

There’s also the option of creating a site from scratch, but it usually requires an in-house or outsourced development team. So, unless you have web design experience and/or the money to hire a designer/branding agency, choosing a theme is your best bet.

WooThemes and Themeforest are two popular sources for stylish WordPress-compatible themes.

Brainstorming and Writing Content

Make sure your website, at the very least, has an eye-catching home page and an informative About Us section. This section gives your practice the opportunity to speak directly to potential patients about the services you offer.

If you have time and want more robust content, consider building out a page for each of your specialty services, awards and/or certifications and what makes you unique. Don’t forget to include your contact information and an easy way for patients to get in touch with you.

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steP 2: Search Engine Optimization

Nothing is stopping patients from finding physicians online. A recent Google study claims 77% of patients research provider information online prior to making their first appointment. Therefore, it makes sense to build out a site that search engines will easily pick up.

To do so, you need a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. SEO is the process of increasing a website’s ranking on search result listings generated by engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Since web users are increasingly less likely to click on the links further down the list of search results, a website’s goal is to be at or near the top of the first page.

Let’s take a look at the primary factors affecting your website’s ranking:

Content: the actual words or text on your site

HTML: the programming language used to build the site

Architecture: refers to structure, while considering the way users interact with

your site and the content search engines use to crawl your pages

Back-links: when reputable outside websites link back to your site

Combined, these elements determine how search engines rank your website among peers. So when creating your site, be sure to build upon them with SEO in mind. Below you’ll find a list of SEO tips and free tools to help your practice reach thousands of potential patients.

Develop an SEO Strategy

While SEO is a complex, ever-evolving field, there are still simple methods you can employ to make sure you’re optimizing your web content to the best of your abilities. These include:

Substantial keyword/key phrase research. It’s important to find out what terms potential patients are actually looking for before creating your content. The Google Adwords Keyword Tool helps you determine people’s search habits for a given keyword, including search volume, competition and geographic area.

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Create a list of 10-15 keywords and/or phrases you think are worth targeting and use them to create a site map, or list of pages your site will include. These can focus on the history of the practice, details on services rendered and a contact page.

Page Structure. Once you’ve compiled a worthy list of keywords and phrases and you move on to building pages, ensure you use the word uniformly across the page structure. In other words, ensure your keyword is optimized across:

• Page title: feature your keyword and geographic location prominently • URL slug: the representation of the page’s name on the page’s unique URL, normally the information after ‘yourdomain.com/’

• Headers: tags attributed to page titles, headlines, sub-headlines and other important bits of information, organized in a hierarchical fashion and referred to as h1, h2, h3, etc.

• Your copy: ensure your keyword makes up 2-5% of your page’s total text • Meta description: the descriptive information search engines pick up about a given page; Yoast provides a useful WordPress plugin to help you maintain SEO uniformity across your site’s pages.

Hyper-localize search terms. If you’re located in a large metropolitan area like New York City, there will be more competition for the top ranking spots. Therefore, it’s easier to rank well in community-centric searches, like “pediatrician Queens” or “Harlem cardiologist.”

Maintain a blog. Blogs are easy ways to keep creating content that will help your site appear for varied search terms. This way, you aren’t limited to the keywords on the standard pages of your website.

Start with some professional help. SEO specialists are professionals who focus solely on optimizing websites. It’s a good idea to hire a consultant to look at your site and tell you what areas need improvement. If the fixes are basic, you can take it from there.

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steP 3: Content Marketing

Content marketing provides a simple, inexpensive way to gain exposure for your practice and build relationships. The end goal is to become a trusted resource to your patients so they think of you when they need medical attention.

Set Up a Blog

Sharing expert knowledge through guest blogging on other sites, starting your own blog or serving as an expert source in someone else’s article are all great examples. A simple Internet search will find you a number of health or industry related blogs open to contributions. Furthermore, guest blogging can help you get links back to your practice’s site, driving more traffic and boosting search engine rankings.

While starting your own blog may sound too demanding, open source platforms like WordPress make it easy for anyone to put up a site within hours. Not to mention, there is no need for you to publish long, elaborate posts. It’s best to write just enough to get your point across.

Content creation for your practice is a low-risk, high-reward activity. The key is to do it consistently. Make blogging a routine by creating an editorial calendar, which you can do via Google Calendars or even a plug-in for WordPress.

Stay connected by downloading the blog platform of your choice on your laptop, tablet and/or smartphone. Blogging can even make you a trusted resource for reporters in your area and/or the healthcare industry, which in turn means free publicity.

Manage Your Brand

While a standard website is a significant part of your practice’s image, its content remains largely the same and runs the risk of growing stale.

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Blogging allows you to continue building your brand and rank higher in search engines by adding fresh, insightful content.

Injecting new insights or news your audience would benefit from cultivates a personality for your practice. For instance, you can create a warm, friendly voice by blogging about your practice’s community involvement and writing in a friendly tone. On the other hand, if you wanted to come off as a leader in your field, you’d write helpful, thought-provoking articles on your area of expertise.

Integrate Your Efforts

Your blog can also be used to supplement other branding efforts like social media engagement. Instead of always posting articles from other sources on Twitter or Facebook, occasionally you can share your own original content with followers, thus growing your reputation as a credible authority.

If you already have a practice website, you should be able to add a section dedicated to blogging at no cost. And if you don’t have a website, you can always create a blog for free using web services like WordPress or Blogger.

Once you have a platform, you only need to write intermittently. There is no need to spend all of your valuable time cranking out multiple articles per day. Two quality posts per month will suffice, a number from which you can easily scale upwards if you see a boost in readers.

Just remember to have someone look over your posts before publishing, even if you’re a strong writer. You’ll lose credibility if your blog contains too many grammatical errors. Other than that, don’t be afraid to let out your voice!

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steP 4: Email Marketing

Keeping a steady flow of patients coming through the door is critical for any medical practice to survive. While there are a variety of tools at the disposal of practices, one of the more effective is running an email marketing campaign. Steady communication, such as a healthcare newsletter-marketing program, provides a cost-effective way to reach out and keep in touch with both patients and referring providers on a regular basis.

According to Software Advice, a website that reviews and recommends information management systems such as electronic health records across various industries, email marketing campaigns can help medical practices in the areas below:

• Keeping your name and practice in front of patients and referral sources • Reinforcing your authority in your field of practice

• Encouraging more word-of-mouth marketing • Building relationships with referral sources

However, many practices often make critical mistakes when running email campaigns, as there are several challenges to executing these marketing programs well. For instance, practices need to become proficient at generating content on a regular basis and learning the technical aspects of email marketing before a foray into newsletters can be successful. Check out some tips below.

How to Craft an Email Newsletter

To help providers understand industry best practices for a newsletter marketing campaign, we’ve outlined a few keys to email success for your practice.

Establish your brand. Use the same colors and fonts you already use on your website, pamphlets and other marketing collateral. Eventually, this will build a brand identity that your patients will recognize. Your newsletter is a reflection of your practice, so keep it professional at all times.

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Build an email list. Begin by acquiring an email address from every patient and referring provider. Let them know you’ll be sending useful health information they can use, and reassure patients you will not be spamming their inbox. An easy way to grow your list is by adding a noticeable “subscribe” button on your website and social media page.

Create valuable content. Your goal is to teach, not sell. If you want people to open your emails, you have to provide them with high-quality content about health issues important to them, so don’t just cite achievements and milestones. If correctly executed, a newsletter will convince readers they need your advice. Craft a compelling subject line. First and foremost, you want the reader to open your email. The best subject lines are short, conversational and targeted. Tell the reader exactly what’s in the email. There’s no need for surprises. Like a good newspaper headline, an email subject line should let the reader know what’s inside.

Follow a schedule. If your newsletters are interesting, your readers will be expecting them, so be punctual. Send your electronic newsletters on a regular basis.

Use reporting tools to improve content. Most email marketing services provide reports that tell you who opened your email, clicked on links and forwarded it to friends. This can help you gauge what works and what doesn’t. If a particular email did exceptionally well, build on it and use similar content in future newsletters.

Lastly, staying in touch with your patients through reminders, new services and practice happenings is a great way to keep them engaged. But the importance of collecting and compiling patient emails can’t be stressed enough. Direct email communication is a perfect way to help ensure your patients are getting the best possible information available - as well as keep them walking through your front door.

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steP 5: Social Media Marketing

Plenty of physicians have signed up for Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook, but not all of them are using these tools effectively. Writing up a tweet here or posting a video on YouTube there isn’t likely to garner positive results. The key is creating a social media blueprint for your practice.

How to Create a Social Media Blueprint

You didn’t build your practice without a plan. Likewise, social media strategy means building a more abstract identity, so it’s important you have a well-constructed roadmap. Your social media marketing goals are simple: tell your story, grow your patient community, express opinions, and manage your online reputation. Here’s how can you get started.

Create a social media mission statement. A mission statement serves as your compass in the social media sea. The sites you have a presence on, as well as the content you post, should be determined by the purpose specified in the mission statement. A mission statement not only fine-tunes your strategy, but also gives you something against which to measure your efforts.

Conduct competitive research. According to QuantiaMD, 67% of doctors use social media professionally, meaning there are many other practices out there showing you what works and what doesn’t.

Most social media sites won’t allow you to view other profiles unless you join, so use a personal account or ghost user that can be deleted later. Once that’s done, check to see what kind of posts garner the most interaction and what media are working best for your competition.

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Determine where to establish a presence. After the first two steps have been completed, you should know enough to choose what site(s) to establish a presence on. Facebook is always an option because of its overwhelming popularity. Twitter is a solid number two that allows you to reach out directly to others, a feature Facebook business pages don’t permit.

If you just want to use social media to improve your practice, then a site like QuantiaMD, one of the more renowned online physician communities, would be best. These allow you to share knowledge and gain insight from other physicians. Appoint a social media specialist. Notice, it does not say hire a social media specialist. Depending on your social media ambitions, your strategy can be carried out by one or two current employees.

Ideally, these specialists will use the chosen medium in their personal lives, and therefore can embrace the opportunity and make time for social media activity. The only thing worse than no social media page is a neglected social media page.

Establish an identity. A solid social media identity will set your practice apart from the rest. Do you want your practice to be the authority on health in the community? Or will your practice provide helpful information with a humorous twist? These are the type of questions you need to ask yourself.

Much of your practice’s social media identity depends on the particular site you establish a presence on. For instance, if you’re using LinkedIn, humor doesn’t usually go off well. Facebook, however, makes it fine to inject humor occasionally.

Rules of engagement. The key to social media success is to mingle, not drown everyone in your field out. When you post on your page and want to promote your own content, thoughts, blog posts or anything else, make sure its something worth listening to. And be nice to the people you’re joining in conversation.

Your ideal person to follow or like is someone who interacts, asks questions and really engages you. The use of hashtags (#), for instance, #ACA (Affordable Care Act), helps you find conversations you may want to be involved in, as well as other users that share similar interests.

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conclUsIon: Marrying Word-of-Mouth

with Online Marketing

Perhaps the most important result of a robust online marketing plan is its tendency to reinforce the basics, the bread-and-butter of traditional practice marketing: word of mouth. In fact, if one were to assume Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos was discussing patients instead of consumers, the following mantra could define the future of practice marketing:

“If you do build a great experience, customers patients tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

Your online marketing plan should reinforce current relationships and build new ones. If done properly, your greatest success won’t be measured solely in numbers, but in the way you engage the patient community. And that’s what being a doctor is all about, isn’t it?

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aboUt PoWeR YoUR PRactIce

Power Your Practice is an authority on medical practice management strategy, industry news, insider tips and answers to common healthcare provider questions. Powered by CareCloud, our website is a trusted resource for physicians,

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Our goal is to help you enrich your practice by providing valuable information from our network of experts and contributors. Power Your Practice cuts through the chaos for you, providing readers with the most pertinent news, tips, research and advice available today.

Over the past year we have helped thousands of physicians, administrators, billers and managers to improve their practice operations through guides, checklists, whitepapers and how-to articles that are easy to incorporate into daily activity. It is our belief that a better-informed medical community will lead to more profitable practices, happier providers and more efficient patient care.

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table of contents INTRO: Why Should Your Practice 1 Market Itself? Step 1: Website Development 2 Step 2: Search Engine Optimization 4