8 Online Marketing Techniques for Start-Up Clinics
Medical clinics and virtual healthcare are in high demand right now. It’s a reasonable time for clinics to launch online marketing campaigns and generate awareness in their local region. You can create more visibility and recognition for your start-up clinic with some intelligent online marketing strategies.
In healthcare marketing, there are several key strategies to find patients and connect them to your brand. You can focus all your efforts on one strategy or diversify through several tactics to improve your results. Whether you’ve just opened your clinic, are about to open, or opened six months ago, here is your guide for online marketing techniques for start-up clinics.
1. Create a website
A website is an online business card that anyone can see. It is a great tool to use to attract qualified leads who are looking for a medical clinic. As a start-up clinic, your business lacks visibility and recognition. On your website, give patients a reason to attend your clinic compared to where they’d usually go for healthcare.
Your website doesn’t have to be fancy. A simple five-page website that outlines your clinic’s services, physicians, and location legitimizes you.
2. Build an email subscriber list
Nurture new and existing patients by encouraging them to sign up for your email newsletter. Connecting via email is an incredibly effective online marketing technique. The messages allow you to distribute information about vaccinations, guided group programs you might be offering, introducing new doctors, and getting out any clinic news.
The best time to join an email subscriber list is at the start of the patient-clinic relationship. If patients opt-in to receive your emails, this gives you a direct line that you can use monthly or quarterly to remind them that you exist. Learn how to build your email list.
3. Paid ads on Google and social media
If you’re in a strong location, you may not need PPC or paid ads. Some start-up clinics will. Paid ads will get your name out quickly and land you premium placement on platforms like Google, Facebook, and others.
Although it may not be a cost-effective long-term strategy, a paid online marketing campaign quickly gets you lots of awareness. As a start-up company, the paid ads will kick-start the process of bringing in revenues, which may cover the costs of such a strategy.
4. Social media marketing campaigns
If you don’t want to pay for ads, at least have a few social media channels open. Have accounts active on Facebook, updated with regular postings and contact information. Make it easy for new patients to find and share your information as well as contact you.
Social media marketing for start-up clinics is very underdeveloped, possibly opening up a major opportunity to find new patients. With ongoing efforts, you can expand your roster of users fairly quickly. Organic reach does have its limitations, which is why this technique may be most optimized when combined with paid ads.
5. Make it easy to contact you online
If you’re in a highly competitive area or haven’t achieved the sort of engagement you want online, try improving your service model. Make it easy to contact you. Encourage messages and comments online. Return messages faster. Offer virtual care either by phone or video.
In a lot of cities, it isn’t easy to get in contact with some physicians’ offices. Being more responsive will make a positive difference between your clinic and your competition if you can be more responsive. When you offer more easily accessible services, you instantly interject yourself among the best clinics in your area.
6. Hyper-local targeting
A start-up clinic isn’t a global business. It’s regional. This means everything you do, from social media posts to how you write blogs and deliver content, can include hyper-local keywords. City names. Streets. Location-based keywords ensure you are seen by people who are eligible to receive care from you.
In crafting URLs, metadata, and photos, adopt this same strategy. Use local keywords and imagery to emphasize your clinic in the community, ensuring people know where to find you.
7. Monitor your online reputation
About new medical centers and clinics, word travels fast, especially online. A bad review or publicly posted complaint could sink a start-up clinic in their first few weeks. One negative remark might force an uphill battle that would be entirely unnecessary if monitoring was in place.
This is reputation management 101. Track online reviews on social media, Google, and any reviews platform. Complaints or negative reviews should be responded to as soon as possible and resolved. Positive reviews should be highlighted. Bad reviews add up quickly. Deal with them head-on and keep your reputation up to snuff.
8. Short-form video marketing
People have all sorts of healthcare questions they ask online to Google. Take the time to answer questions in short-form video marketing posted to YouTube and embedded onto your social media pages and website. A length of 2-3 minutes is perfect. It’s a great way to introduce your clinic to people in the area without being purely promotional.
People also get a chance to meet a physician at your clinic potentially. It’s not unreasonable to use videos in other ways, introducing people to your clinic or demonstrating different services that you offer.
