Nine Types Of Practice Advertising
1. Websites - You can have more than one website. Websites behave as the hub of your marketing. They can be the most robust brochure your practice can ever have. A website can have hundreds of pages, photos, video, intake forms, documents, .pdf files. Its clearly where medical marketing is headed... A website is something that you own and with no printing cost. Search engine optimization is critical for most websites to get the traffic the need.
2. Pay-Per-Click - Advertising on the major search engines under specific keywords. Can be expensive. Can be time consuming. Needs to link to a well thought out web page. Can be up to 20% false clicks.
3. Facebook - Pretty advanced. You should have a great website if youre going to get into social media. Great way to build up lists of people in your market and people who want your services. Facebook Is a great content management system and can be integrated into your site. Helps to manage your reputation and can improve your search engine placement.
4. Directories - Includes Yellow Pages, DocShop and other online resources. Directories can be very, very cost effective. They tend to quickly occupy a spot on the search engines, especially for your name, which is good because you want to protect your reputation. They tend to generate a pretty good amount of patient inquiries especially if your marketings good. They also have a very real search engine benefit for your own website.. The directories that have been around a long time have been catalogued at a very high level by the search engines. Many directory companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to catalogue well. Theres no quicker way to get up on the search engines than just hopping into a directory.
5. Radio and TV - For elective medicine most radio and TV suffers from a frequency and reach issue. In big markets, theres too much reach. Youre paying to advertise into neighnborhoods and towns that you will be unable to pull from. In markets under 300,000 we see radio and TV working pretty well still but larger markets it becomes cost prohibitive.
6. Email marketing - Email is quickly replacing direct mail for sophisticated practices. Focusing on email marketing and getting the emails and cell phones of your potential clients is a very cost effective form of marketing. You also have the benefit of building a database of people in your market that you own. Its a great way to touch patients and prospects without any corollary cost.
7. Text Messaging - Using a cell phone as an appointment reminder is an extremely powerful tool. People ALWAYS have their cell phones. Even in the advertising mecca of Times Square people will look at their cell phones for info - its a direct line to the patient - every time. If youre looking to get involved in Contact Einstein to get a system that reminds people to come in for appointments, that reminds them of their followup, that wishes them a happy birthday. This is a great way to create happy, lifetime patients and radically cut down no-shows in the practice.
8. Events and Promotions - Events give you something to newsworthy to advertise, something really going on to help generate PR. There are very few successful medical practice these days that isnt thinking about their practice in terms of events and promotions. Some ideas:
- seasonal promotions
- monthly promotions
- whitening promotions
- co-opted promotions with your vendors
- Facebook promotions
Events really stand out and help you generate some buzz.
9. Team members - Your team are walking billboards. Theyre probably your biggest marketing influencer you have within the practice. How they feel about the practice is going to directly affect your sales and conversion rates. If youre a dentist and everybody in your practice doesnt have dynamite teeth, you owe it to your business to make sure youre fixing that. Your staff - theyre the best testimonials you have.
