For most of us, going online is an important way to connect with others, shop, get news and search for information. A Pew Research Center survey found that 87 percent of Americans use the internet and of those, 72 percent have looked for health information in the past year. Optimizing your digital strategies will increase brand awareness and engage your community, as well as help you meet patient acquisition goals and drive revenue.
Here are a few digital strategies to increase return on your digital marketing investment:
Review your website’s search engine optimization. Check how well your organization organically rank within search engines for keywords correlating to your services and patient needs. Make sure your content is up to date as updating the content frequently also attracts the search engine spiders to index the web pages often. Be sure to update physician and location information as it changes to maximize convenience for consumers.
Make sure your “quick links” toolbar is intuitive. Once a prospective patient lands on your website, are they able to find what they are searching for quickly? Making sure your calls to action are highly visible will make the consumer’s decision process easier by providing the information swiftly and efficiently. Having easy access to “Find a Doctor,” “Locations,” “Patient & Visitor Info,” “Health Library” and “Contact Us” will help improve the user experience and convert visitors into patients.
Include referral information on every page. Prominently place your referral phone number and other relevant information on every page. The information should be in plain sight and make it obvious the number is for scheduling an appointment or finding a physician and not contacting the central switchboard. If you’re using the right tools, you will be able to attribute the web visits and inbound calls directly to revenue.
Improve calls to action. Grab your visitor’s attention with a strong call to action. For example, include interactive features that will educate and engage visitors. For example, add a health assessment, such as our EVALIA Personal Health Profilers, to engage consumers, provide valuable health information, and provide you with consumer-provided health information that can drive immediate follow-up and target marketing opportunities.
Leverage your website. With 80 percent of American looking online for health information, you need to actively engage consumers with blogs, videos, and other health information. You can promote wellness with actual physicians discussing topics, promote health awareness months, and host online communities around certain health conditions. Studies find that 52 percent of smartphone users gather health-related information on their phones, so it’s important to have a website that is mobile-friendly.
Engage consumers through social channels. Among U.S. adults age 18-29, 89 percent use social networking sites. Converting this significant customer segment into patients has the benefit of making them lifetime patients. Engaging your community through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other sites will help keep your organization top of mind and lead to stronger relationships, resulting in greater patient acquisition and engagement.
Paul Croteau
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