Want to attract new patients to your medical practice? Here are just a few ideas to get you started.
Be Where Your Patients Are
86% of patients use the internet to research health information and to find a new physician. Will they find you there? Go to Google, Bing or Yahoo! and see what comes up for your practice and more importantly, search the terms or words a patient might use to find a new physician. Do you show up on page one? If not, this is an area to focus on to improve and grow your practice. One of the most important things you can do is claiming and optimizing your Google My Business page.
Improving your website, the content on your website, business listings and social media all play important roles in how and where you will show up.
Contact us to provide a free evaluation of your online presence.
Check and Update Your Business Listings
98% of medical practices have errors in their business listings. Wrong or inconsistent phone numbers, incorrect or incomplete addresses, old office locations or missing information about the practice can lead to searches about your practice not showing up prominently or at all. Google looks at consistency when determining how to rank your practice in their search results. You don’t want to be on page 2 or 3 of Google.
You can also deploy a software solution like the one from Reputation Health to help you track the accuracy of listings as well as manage and update these listings.
Improve Your Online Reviews
Online reviews are considered more credible and more important than ever. Over 80% of patients look at a review site before or after visiting a physician. Having recent authentic reviews is important as it’s the store front of your medical practice online.
Responding to online reviews is also important as it gives other patients an opportunity to see how you interact with their patients. Yes you can respond and more importantly, you should. Responding to a review isn’t breaking HIPAA but you also have to know how to best respond and what to say and not say for privacy and service reasons.
It all starts with monitoring reviews. If you want to improve your current online reviews or get more reviews online, set up a free consultation with us and we can provide some solutions to improve not only the quantity but the quality of your online reviews on sites like Google, Yelp!, Healthgrades and Vitals.
Have a Mobile Friendly Website
We all use our smart phones more and more to research things online. Patients looking for a medical practice are no different. Today’s websites are actually designed with that in mind using what is called a responsive design to adjust to different devices like a mobile phone, tablet or iPad or a computer. A mobile version of your web site is just a few hundred dollars if your website is not currently mobile friendly and the investment is well worth it.
Not sure if your website is mobile friendly? Pull up your website on your phone and see how easy it is to navigate. If it’s mobile friendly, you can probably tell right away since it will be easy to read and navigate. Still not sure, contact us and we’ll let you know.
Embrace Social Media
There was a time when having social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, didn’t provide an ROI. But times have changed. Having a presence on social media now is part of providing great service to your patients and also is quite effective in attracting new patients. But you can’t just have an “If I build it, they will come attitude.” Research how to implement a strategy and assign someone to manage it at your practice. Or hire a reputable firm who has experience in the healthcare space to develop a social media plan that you can manage or they manage for you.
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I hope this information was helpful to you. The team at Reputation Health is here to assist you with any questions you may have. Reputation Health is endorsed and recommended by various medical associations throughout the United States.