Not too long ago, i ran into a post on linked-in from someone asking for tips on advertising their medical practice on a budget. I took a few minutes and answered the post, and shortly after realized it would make a good blog post here. Using my experience in Lasik Advertising with Dr Boothe, I’ve compiled a list of low cost medical marketing techniques that can really help your practice.
Become an Authority – By this i mean, show and publisize your knowledge about your field. This requires a little networking, but can be an effective tool. Give speaches on topics about your practice. Write press releases reguarding your practice. Start a blog and talk about what you know best. This works because if you are the one to educate someone about Lasik, or their eyes, or whatever it is you do, then they are likely to go to you because you are the authority.
Improve Your Website’s Search Engine Rank - If your doing the step above, then all you have to do is start adding links to your website on them. Search engines love legitimate links from other sites to your website. If you are answering questions and writing PR with links to your site, you are creating great links to your site. This can take alot of work though, and often it is best to get some help. There are some really great SEO firms out there (hint hint), but there are also some really bad ones. Make sure your SEO firm is giving you reports on what they are doing, and if you don’t understand them then make them explain.
Use Pay Per Click Advertising – This is a scalable type of advertising that is great! We had lots of success with it in Lasik Advertising. If you are on a budget and can’t quite afford the key terms you want, try using google’s adwords keyword tool to help you find less popular keywords. The less popular keywords can be more your price range and still be very effective in bringing in new customers.
Increase Word of Mouth – We all know word of mouth advertising is the best type for conversion. So work on increasing your word of mouth advertising. A couple ways is to start an email campaign to your recent patients asking them to refer you to their friends. Another is to cherry-pick the best patients you can and ask them to write a testimonial on various doctor and lasik center rating websites.
Be Found – Make sure your medical practice is listed on as many local sites as you can. A few big ones are maps.google.com, citysearch.com, and kudzu.com If patients can’t find your practice, then your advertising is an ultimate failure.
Support A Charity – Get your office staff pumped about a charity. Not only are you doing good for the community around your practice, but you get a great PR piece out of it.
So if you are into Lasik advertising or some other medical marketing, hopefully these ideas will help your practice grow on a budget. Please write comments on Low cost solutions that have worked on your practice.
