Inbound marketing is by far the best way to promote your medical practice online. In a technology world where more patients are scouring the Internet seeking information about doctors, hospitals, and medical treatments, staying on trend in your digital marketing is critical. Embracing inbound naturally positions your practice in front of this audience to increase exposure and help you grow.
You see, the essence of inbound marketing lies in publishing content that solves problems and educates a desired audience (or target market) to attract them to your brand. Through education and information, patients are drawn to your content because you’re sharing something of value. As you continue to share messages that speak to their interests, you’ll find people coming back to you for more, wanting to be a part of your practice.
In 2017, inbound marketing is a must if you desire to excel in digital marketing. Here are five top reasons why this strategy will work for your medical practice so you can begin to take the appropriate steps add this tactic to your marketing plan.
#1 Blogging Extends Your Influence
Blogging, a central piece to the inbound marketing strategy, allows you to create fresh, ongoing content to keep your audience informed about being proactive of their health, to remain abreast of the latest advancements, and any other information relevant to your patients and your specific practice area. It also positions you as a credible source and authority for those who are just getting to know you, expanding your influence. Blogging helps to build the know, like and trust factor to foster relationships with prospects.
Your blog content can also be optimized for local SEO to target various geographical areas and demographics relative to your practice.
#2 Drive Traffic To Your Website
Looking for ways to boost traffic to your website? There are a plethora of inbound marketing tactics geared to driving new and repeat visitors to your site. Consider strategies like your social media marketing, paid search engine marketing (SEM), videos and email marketing. All of these are ways to generate traffic and get eyeballs to your content.
The best way to do this is to publish content that resonates with the pains and problems of your target audience is experiencing. Create buyer personas. When people are searching for solutions in your medical niche, you want your content to show up. Creating engaging content is how you offer value and attract users to your website. Knowing who your “buyers” are helps you craft your content just for them.
#3 Generate Quality Leads
Another reason why inbound marketing works for your medical practice is because it bolsters your lead generation goals. In fact, inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads compared to traditional outbound marketing. Tools like landing pages, webforms that are embedded onto your site, and lead magnets (a downloadable offer – like an eBook – in exchange for your visitor’s contact info), are all key pieces to capturing leads from your ads and blog posts to grow your sales funnel. It’s also a major component to your inbound strategy.
As you attract potential patients to your website, you want to get their name and email address to stay in contact with them. Since leads are the lifeline to your business, having multiple tactics aimed at generating them, is crucial to your overall online success. A strong inbound marketing strategy ensures this component is activated so you’re capitalizing on every traffic opportunity.
#4 Gain New Patients
Email marketing continues to be one of the most cost effective online marketing tools. It is the bridge that converts your email subscribers into active, new patients for your practice. Another big factor to inbound marketing, honing your email strategy, will play a huge role in accomplishing revenue goals from your online efforts.
You see, email marketing significantly improves your bottom-line. Through proper nurturing tactics, you can strategically move your leads through the buyer’s journey from prospects to clients. It’s a proven way to turn your list into a revenue-generating machine for your practice.
#5 Promotes Retention
The advantage to inbound marketing is it doesn’t stop once your leads become patients. The ultimate goal is to create repeat business and gain new patients from referrals. We want your patients to stick around and bring their family and friends along with them. Having raving fans who gleefully promote you to their inner circle bolsters retention and keeps people walking through your doors.
This is the delight phase of an inbound marketing strategy. Building an army of satisfied patients who share us with their networks. Inbound marketing embraces retention and creates ways to increase this percentage.
Conclusion
Incorporating inbound marketing in your marketing strategy is essential. With search being a top source for consumers to look up information, you want to be found when your audience is looking for you. A strong inbound marketing plan will achieve greater exposure for you and your practice, produce more traffic to your website, generate better leads, and build up your patient-base.
Need help developing your inbound marketing strategy? We have you covered! Reach out to us and let’s chat.
