Digital marketing for clinics and medical centers is not just about buying an ad. Rather, it requires efforts to make your medical practice accessible to a diverse audience. At any given time, people might search for symptoms, use a trusted health care guide, or ask for medical recommendations from their Facebook friends. Just as patient interest is diverse, marketing efforts must be diverse as well.
Your medical practice likely already has at least one digital asset such as a website, a listing in an online healthcare directory, or a Facebook page. However, digital marketing is an investment that requires dedicating the necessary resources to achieve your medical business business goals.
With so many digital marketing channels to choose from and invest in, where do you start? Which digital media should be a top priority? What actions can you take to start or resume building your online presence? You’ll find answers to these questions and more about healthcare digital marketing in this article, and we’ll give you a ready-made marketing plan.
The important question: Why does your clinic need an online marketing plan?
You must know why you are spending all this effort and money and making online marketing an essential part of your business, otherwise you will easily give up. There are many benefits to be gained from having powerful online marketing tools, but it takes time and continued determination to develop and thrive.
The first reason to invest in digital marketing for clinics and medical centers is to reach patients where they are looking for a doctor. Do not expect to achieve success while waiting for patients to reach you while you are not in the place where they are looking! A report from the ThinkWithGoogle blog of the giant Google company stated that 77% of patients, or about 3 out of every 4 patients, search online before choosing the appropriate doctor! This search is not only for the name of the doctor or clinic, but also for symptoms, diseases, and the experiences of others.
Due to these reasons, medical clinics should invest in digital marketing for their online presence, where patients can rely on them for information and to make their health decisions. By building a strong online presence and using available digital tools, clinics can achieve notable success in targeting and attracting potential patients.
Digital marketing for clinics and centers cannot be ignored!
Now we know that most patients search online. The question is, will they find your clinic while searching?
Therefore, it is necessary to invest in digital marketing for clinics and medical centers to ensure your strong and noticeable online presence. By creating a marketing plan you can reach potential patients during their active search and attract them to your clinic. Use available digital tools strategically to spread your information and build your reputation online, so your clinic will be more likely to be found and chosen during their online search.
The three basic goals of any successful medical marketing plan
The goals of each medical clinic vary depending on its specialty, but there are some common goals that can be achieved through digital marketing in the healthcare field. These goals are the minimum that any successful medical marketing plan must achieve, which means that there are more goals that can be adopted, but if your plan does not achieve these three goals, then it lacks the basics.
1. Providing an online booking method for patients on search engines and social media platforms
Many medical clinics face an urgent need to update their website, and better meeting patients’ needs is a key goal. They should have a website that provides booking and contact information and provides information about medical services, approximate prices, address, qualifications of the doctor and other information that the patient needs to know before he books an appointment. Also, patients who use social media platforms more need at least one page, and if it is not active, then it is responsive, that is, it responds when a message is sent, and it contains all the basic information, reservation and contact information.
2. Stay with competitors and obtain a percentage of the market size
Competition in the field of medical marketing is increasing day by day. Your marketing plan must be based on responding to this competition and never disappearing under any circumstances, by keeping your website active, renewing the hosting periodically, and also making a publishing plan on social media platforms and not stopping publishing. For long periods because this may lead to conveying a message to your audience that you are not interested in obtaining new patients and therefore you are not among their choices while they are searching for the best doctor.
How does a doctor overcome strong marketing competition?
3. Provide a way for former patients to stay in touch with the clinic
Providing effective ways to sustainably communicate with veteran patients is an essential part of medical clinics’ marketing strategies. Digital marketing is a powerful tool to achieve this goal and enhance the relationship with patients. There are several methods that can be used including sending out monthly newsletters, communicating via social media, and using a ready-made marketing plan.
Using Facebook groups is one effective way to achieve the goal of sustainable communication with veteran patients in digital marketing strategies. Facebook provides specialized groups that bring together veteran patients and provide a platform to interact and participate in healthcare-related discussions. Clinics can create their own Facebook groups and invite past patients to join them.
What do you need to start marketing your clinic? Here’s the task schedule
This table provides a simplified list of the goals that you need to achieve, along with the means and implementation mechanism for each goal.
the goal |
The means |
Implementation mechanism |
| Providing a way for patients to know basic information and book an appointment | Building an effective website | Make your website more user-friendly with interactive improvements, easy navigation, and provide all the essential information.
7 stages to create a successful medical website |
| Communicate with potential and new patients on an ongoing basis | Activating social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & tiktok | Make the publishing plan dynamic, continuous, and diverse, including publications for health awareness, others for interaction, and others to motivate patients to book an appointment. Do not stop publishing for long periods. It is preferable to create a Facebook group to keep communication with the public ongoing.
What is the best social media company? And why? |
| Reaching new categories of patients |
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The plan to reach new patients must be built based on your marketing goals and the nature of the medical services you provide, so that effective platforms are selected according to your audience category (and their economic and age classification), as well as continuous measurement of advertising performance to determine and focus on the channels that achieve the best return.
Learn how to develop a ready-made marketing plan for your medical center, step by step |
| Increase visibility on the Internet | Listing on appointment booking sites and platforms such as Vezeeta, Balto , Yellow Pages and Cleanido | List on as many platforms as possible in a consistent manner and add the reservation number and address. If any of them are changed, they must be changed on these platforms as well so that you do not lose any opportunities.
At Upper Medic, we offer our new customers a free listing in all search directories in Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and Egypt, and we follow them constantly. Upper Medic wins the award for the most pioneering medical marketing company in the Middle East and North Africa ⭐ |
Of course this table is just a short list but it gives a general idea of what you need. At Upper Medic, we have been professional in marketing the medical sector since 2017 and we work with the biggest medical names in Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Egypt. You can contact us to learn about our services and request a detailed and clear technical and financial offer.
