Written by: 
Traditionally, medical practices rely on referrals to get new patients. Websites, blogs and social media for medical practices have been largely ignored, but specialty medical practices are learning that inbound marketing online can be an effective way to get new patients.
By increasing your online presence through content on your website and sharing it on social media, your practice will attract more patients, earn more referrals, and boost business.
If you’re new to inbound marketing for medical practices, here are 5 tips to help get you thinking about reaching more people.
1. Publish Content Regularly on Your Practice Website
While this may seem too simple to be true, it's one of the most effective ways to build your web presence and attract customers to your practice.
We work with a regional specialty medical practice with 4 offices that publishes helpful articles on a regular basis. We write for them using the physicians’ expertise, and share the content on social media.
When we started, the practice averaged 6,000 visits monthly on their website. They now average 23,000 visits per month, and visits from the region they serve increased 75%. More patients are scheduling appointments; they see more surgeries and positive patient outcomes (and personal referrals) as a result.
72 percent of adults that use the Internet look for health information online.
Read this article about 5 important ways medical practices can grow with content marketing.
It may seem surprising, but medical practices that blog even once or twice per month earn 70 percent more new patient inquiries than practices that don't blog at all.
Plus, publishing patient-focused information on your site can help you outrank sites like Healthgrades, which can help you manage the reputation of your providers.
2. Offer Subscriber Emails
Email subscription is important in the world of inbound marketing.
When people subscribe to your email list, you gain a base of followers for information distribution. Companies that use email to produce and nurture leads earn 50 percent more leads at a 33 percent lower cost.
For the best results possible, use your email list to offer information about clinics and events, screenings, community events and distribute helpful tips and facts. Your blog comes in handy here because it’s great information to include in email newsletters.
3. Make Use of Social Media
Social media isn’t often used by medical practices because of privacy concerns, but it's an important piece of the puzzle if you can navigate the legal hurdles.
More and more practices are solving the social media puzzle.
By maintaining an active social media presence, you can engage patients and help nurture new ones. You may also get feedback that you can use to identify opportunities to improve the practice reputation.
Social media can also provide an important SEO boost, which is important because a whopping 60 percent of all organic clicks on the web go to the top 3 search engine results.
4. Give Something Away
While you don't need to give medical services away for free, you may consider offering free content (like an eBook or an infographic about a particular condition) or offering tools like health calculators on your website.
People go to the internet to do research, and creating a valuable guide that a potential patient will love is a fantastic way to fill your providers’ schedules and generate interest and goodwill for your practice.
5. Optimize for Keywords
As you put content on your website, do your research. What questions are patients asking the physicians or support staff?
By choosing one or two keywords and optimizing your web pages for them, you can help ensure good SEO rankings and a higher level of visibility for your customers.
Inbound marketing is important for modern medical practices. By following these five tips, your medical practice can get a solid online presence, earn a better reputation and get more patients and referrals.
