4 Healthcare Marketing Trends You Need to Use Now

Here are four healthcare marketing trends you’ll want to incorporate into yourmarketing planthis year!

If you need help figuring out which strategies work best for your practice, WebFX can help. We have a team of over 250 marketing experts that can help you craft a customdigital marketing planthat works for you. Give us a call at888-601-5359orcontact us onlineto learn more!

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Healthcare marketing trend #1: Building a local presence

First on our list of healthcare marketing trends for 2021 is building a local presence. When people search for your healthcare practice, they’re going to turn to search engines like Google to find local providers.

If you want your practice to appear in these search results, you need to optimize your local presence withlocal search engine optimization (SEO).

Here are two ways to optimize your practice for local search:

Claim your Google My Business listing

The first thing you’ll want to do is claim yourGoogle My Business listing.

This listing appears in search results when people conduct searches like “podiatrist in Los Angeles” or “ENT doctor near me.” These local listings appear in a box at the top of search results, known as thelocal 3-pack.

Once you claim your listing, you’ll want to fill it out completely. Verify and add information like your:

• Name
• Address
• Contact information (phone number and email)
• Hours of operation

Additionally, you can add a link to your website to guide people to check out your practice, book an appointment, and more. You’ll also want to add photos to your listing to give people an insight into your practice.

By claiming andoptimizing your business’s listing on Google, you’ll help local patients find your practice and get all the information they need to make an appointment.

Update local listings across the web

If you want to be successful with local marketing, you need to keep all your local listings up to date. People don’t always use Google My Business to find local medical professionals. They may turn to sites likeYelporZocDocto find your practice.

You must ensure that your information is the same across all websites to ensure people don’t get wrong or inaccurate information. For example, if your Google My Business listing says you’re open 8 AM to 5 PM, but your Yelp listing says 9 AM to 3 PM, these patients will be confused about which hours are correct.

You can use a tool likeLocalFXto help you update all your listings across different directories. This tool will also help you spot any listings that are incorrect, unlisted, or duplicated.

Healthcare marketing trend #2: Managing your reputation

Next on our list of healthcare digital marketing trends involvesbuilding your reputation.

As a healthcare provider, your reputation plays a significant role in guiding people to choose your practice. People want to select a practitioner they can trust, so it’s fundamental that you build a positive reputation.

People will review your practice on multiple sites, from your Google My Business listing to Facebook to industry-specific sites like ZocDoc. You must ensure that you’remanaging these reviewsand analyzing them to see what people say about your practice.

When people leave you positive reviews, take time to reply and thank them for their positive feedback. Something as simple as “Thank you for your review!” is a great way to show your clients that you’re listening and see their feedback.

As for negative feedback, you want to ensure that your patients feel heard and recognized. Don’t lash out or claim they’re leaving a false review. The best approach is to apologize for their experience and offer a solution for rectifying the problem.

You may feel like negative reviews will ruin your reputation, but that’s not the case. People expect to see negative reviews, as not every person that visits your practice will have a positive experience. What people care about is how you handle that negative feedback.

If you’re taking steps to fix the situation, people will feel confident in your practice. They will feel they can trust you to rectify a problem if something goes wrong with their experience.

Bymanaging your reviews, you’ll build trust with future patients and grow your practice as a result.

Reach more patients online

When you partner with WebFX, we’ll help you earn visibility for the keywords your target audience is searching, and earn more patients for your practice.

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Healthcare marketing trend #3: Running paid advertisements to reach patients

When it comes to healthcare digital marketing, you want to ensure you’re reaching leads from all avenues.

That’s why paid advertising makes the list for 2021 healthcare marketing trends. Paid advertising is an excellent way for you to reach qualified patients for your practice.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertisingis an excellent method to help you advertise your practice to new patients. These paid ads appear at the top of the search results above organic listings. These ads have the word “Ad” tagged in them to indicate paid content.

Did you know46% of page clicks去前届ree PPC ads?

By running PPC ads, you drive more clicks and traffic for your practice. It’s an excellent opportunity for you to obtain more patients for your practice.

To get started with PPC, you must select relevant long-tail keywords for your ad.Long-tail keywordsare keywords that contain three or more words, like “podiatrist in Los Angeles.”

These keywords are best for your ads because they’re more specific, so you know people who search them want to find your practice. Not to mention, fewer people bid on these keywords because they’re so specific, which means a lowercost per click (CPC)for your ads.

After choosing your keywords, you’ll upload your ad content. You can use features likead extensionsto help create more informative ads that generate more clicks.

Once you select your keywords and upload your ad content, you can bid for your ad’s placement. Two main factors determine your ad placement:

1. Bid amount:This amount is how much you’re willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad. According to Google, most bidders start with amax of $1 per clickand adjust bidding as they get data back from their ad performance.
2. Quality Score:Quality Score, as the name suggests, provides you with a score of your ad’s quality on a scale of 1 to 10. The higher the score, the better your placement. This score includes factors like ad relevancy, anticipatedclickthrough rate (CTR), and more.

After you launch your ad campaign, these two factors will determine where your ad appears in search results for your relevant terms.

By launching a PPC campaign as part of your healthcare digital marketing strategy, you’ll create an opportunity for new and qualified patients to find your practice.

Healthcare marketing trend #4: Building a presence on social media

Next on our list of healthcare marketing trends for 2021 involvesbuilding a presence on social media.

Social media is an excellent place for you to connect with potential patients and share valuable information with them about health and wellness, as well as your practice.

To get started withsocial media marketing, you must select the right platforms for your practice. Some of the most popular platforms include:

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Instagram
4. LinkedIn
5. Pinterest

Once you select your platforms, you’ll want to create and set up your profile. Start by adding your practice’s logo as your profile photo, and if applicable, add a relevant cover photo to your profile.

By adding these elements to your page, you’ll helpbuild brand recognitionwith your audience. Brand recognition is critical when someone ultimately chooses a practitioner because they’re more likely to choose ones they recognize or know.

Once you set up your profile, you’ll want to startposting content. The type of content you can post will depend upon the platform, so explore your platforms to see your options.

When you post content, you want topost it regularly. Since so many people follow other businesses, as well as friends and family, your content can get lost in their feed. Posting often will help more people see your content and engage with your healthcare practice.

If you want to take your social media strategy up a notch, you can usesocial media advertisingto put your practice in front of qualified leads. It’s a great way to help people who haven’t discovered your practice yet, find your office and learn more about you.

Put these 2021 healthcare marketing trends into action

These four healthcare digital marketing trends are a great place for you to start building your online presence. It will take time to develop and run these strategies, so if you’re too busy managing your practice to manage your marketing, WebFX can help.

We’ve been doing digital marketing for over 20 years and know how to develop strategies that drive results. In the past five years, we’ve driven over$2.4 billionin sales and over 6.3 million leads for our clients. You can feel confident we’ll help your practice grow online, too.

Don’t believe us? Check out our550+ glowing client testimonialsthat attest to the incredible work we do!

If you’re ready to put these healthcare marketing trends into action,contact us onlineor call us today at888-601-5359to speak with a strategist about ourdigital marketing services!