great marketing ideas for doctors

Elective cancelled? Take time for growth!

If the disruptions in our health system are causing cancellations in elective surgery…you can choose to put your business hat on. Time to reposition your private practice. These 5 great marketing ideas for doctors in private practice are a powerful starting point.

great marketing ideas for doctors

Elective cancelled? Take time for growth!

Time to inspect your brand

brand ideas for medical

Do you look at your private practice as a brand? If you have never taken the time to inspect the patient’s brand experience, now is a good time. The most important brand ideas for doctors connect to how patients see you.

Digital habits have evolved. Patients use your online presence as a first impression. It works for you or against you. Where do you want to be?

A powerful private practice brand aligns with the realities of who you are and what you offer:

Clarity about the size of your practice: a personal brand, your name as a brand? A group practice? An association of like-minded specialists? All other choices stem from your foundational choices about what you want to be for your prospective patients. Big? Small and accessible? Warm and welcoming? Efficient? Top-notch? Affordable?
Authenticity: patients talk about the human experience and that is why the human side of your medical brand needs attention too. Who will they get in front of them? Which consultation style to expect when I become your patient?
Clarity about process: if your diagnostic process and procedure are complicated, patient education is your currency and the more you focus on building a strong brand around clarity and transparency for the patient, the more your word-of-mouth referrals will be based on that amazing patient experience.

Inspecting your brand typically involves two layers: Your brand promise is the idea we get as a prospective patient when we check you out online before committing to the GP referral. And your brand delivery is what we remember after we experienced your services.

Time to inspect your brand promise and delivery

customer service for doctors

If your website only has semi-academic descriptions of your qualifications, conditions and treatments, there is almost no brand promise.

A brand promise is defined by:

The first impression: the images, the colours, the tone of voice, the layout of your website, the way you show up when a patient does a local Google search for a specific condition.
The relevance: the fact that you have dedicated pages on ACL reconstruction, endometriosis, endoscopy or caesarean birth will make a difference for those specific Google searches. The patient lands on a relevant page and feels engaged by your content, simply because that single page focuses on the one thing they are most concerned about.
The tone, style and format: this is where rational business planning meets creativity. This is the core of our existence as a dedicated medical content marketing agency for doctors. For most doctors, information is a straightforward format based on accuracy, logic and clarity. For humans, information needs to be visually compelling, palatable, relatable and reassuring.

Customer services for doctors can not be compared to any other industry. Your brand delivery is defined by:

Your medical and clinical outcomes: This is where you thrive and shine as the specialist that you are.
The emotional experience: This is often referred to as the fluffy stuff, your bedside manners, and others will label it as the right brain experience. It’s how the patient feels about the whole experience. Cared for and supported, or just a number?
Your service experience: This is where the patient has a rational opinion about your receptionist, the efficiency of procedures and paperwork, how smooth your practice operates and the quality of your management.

Leading specialists we work with, often take the time to sit back and inspect this amazing dance between the brand promise and the delivery. Because once they are connected, referrals and word-of-mouth become a fascinating success story.

Time to inspect your visibility

showing up in Google

How competitive is your online presence when patients do a Google search? How visible are you when patients do a variety of searches related to their specific symptom or condition? Or once they learn about a certain surgery type or a treatment pathway? Do you show up for a wide variety of patient searches on Google?

This is not an absolute reality. The impact of your visibility heavily depends on the local market. Competitive visibility is measured by looking at how often you are on page 1 of the Google search results, and how often the patient lands on your competitor’s pages.

You can do a superficial self-diagnosis by listing the 10 most important words relating to conditions, treatments or procedures, and doing a Google search for that individual word plus your location. Is there a dedicated content page on Google’s page 1 without Google Ads?

Inspecting your visibility can be done with advanced tools and expertise. Once we work together, we map your visibility for each of the critical business avenues of your private practice and we present a roadmap to more competitive visibility.

The great news? A one-off investment propels you forward and with minimal maintenance, organic visibility can become the driver of your private practice for years to come, increasing your turnover, improving your recruitment options and optimising your status as a leading specialist in your local area.

Time to inspect your content

content strategy for doctors

Content is vital when you run a private practice. Not just any type of content. The right type of content.

We know what is right for you once we map your local market data for your particular specialty. Based on our experience with patient google behaviour, we are able to present detailed listings of what the patient actually googles for.

Content that has not been underpinned by this essential market data, might be helpful for patients who end up on your website by mere coincidence. What we know for a fact is that random content that is not optimised for Google, will never attract higher patient numbers.

If you have a little time on your hands, you can make it the most valuable time of the year by inspecting your content. Is it really Google-friendly? Scroll down to book a session with me and we’ll do it together if you want.

Time to reconnect with today’s patients

social media for doctors

Depending on your niche it might be wise to invest in social media. Scattered and random Instagram and Facebook campaigns are no longer the one-size-fits-all solutions.

We want to find out where your patients are. Or where your referrers are.

If you depend on GP referrers, let’s set up connection strategies on LinkedIn with local GPs in your catchment area.

If you depend on trust and rapport, let’s build great content and promote it on social media so we amplify word-of-mouth in the digital space.

Digital is the extension of what you have to say and the true power of a medical digital agency is that we understand the realities of running a private practice.

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marketing inspiration for doctors

Let’s discuss your growth plan, options to increase your online visibility and presence, and the most effective way to develop your practice. Book a free consultation and let’s build on the above ideas and more, so you can build the private practice that you have in mind!