In 2024, no business, be it one of goods or services, no practice, and no individual seems to stay immune from online advertising. And rightfully so.
As written by Peter Web’s Digital Marketing for Doctors guidebook: ‘With more and more patients turning to the internet to find healthcare professionals, doctors must adapt to the digital age and utilize digital marketing strategies to stand out from the competition.’
In case you are wondering whether digital marketing for doctors approaches are right for you as well, read on to explore its benefits and best tips for starting.
Key Takeaways
- Digital marketing for doctors in 2024 is a common practice, used before most to gain visibility.
- Some of the benefits of medical marketing online include cost-effectiveness, patient reach and engagement, reliability, and even easier networking.
- The top 5 marketing tips for advertising for doctors are to look at the practice as a brand, to know the specific target audience, to choose the right channels and to offer relevant content.
- Some of the most recommended digital channels for online marketing for doctors include direct e-mailing and newsletters, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms complimenting specific medical practices, content promotion, and SEO website optimization.
Benefits of Digital Marketing for Doctors
In a time when one’s reputation depends significantly on how it is perceived online, digital marketing for doctors is becoming a standard practice. Self-promotion is no longer frowned upon and looked at as an expression of vanity—it is now a needed element of professional recognition and trustworthiness.
Adapting to the new standard means that every doctor who desires to create a pool of loyal clients, showcase their experience, and spread their word on good practice should know how to use digital assets to represent their brand – as we all are, in a sense, becoming brands of our own.
That said, here are some of the benefits of medical marketing online:
- Digital marketing is more approachable for various medical professions
Apart from being the most cost-efficient, digital channels are also more easily targeted to various medical practices that can even be legally limited to traditional advertising channels. Plus, with little investment, digital marketing tools help you track your audiences easily.
- Digital marketing helps you reach patients.
By putting yourself online, you make it easier for your current and new clients to reach you and for you to attract more patients. While word-of-mouth remains an important channel for discovering doctors the patient needs, newer generations prefer to search, research, and get in touch with medical professionals online, even resolving to write to them via e-mail or even direct messages rather than calling. Some will even eliminate the possibility of making an appointment with a doctor that can’t be contacted online. If targeted correctly to precise demographics, you can reach more possible clients online than you would with any other marketing channel.
- Online presence makes you more reliable.
Regular newsletters and direct e-mailing, rhythmic posting on social media channels, and an always current website make a medical professional more reliable than one without even offering these assets. By following a doctor’s work and engaging with them passively or actively, patients feel more secure that their chosen doctors are experienced professionals in their respective fields. An option for your patients to leave reviews on their experience with you, be it on social media or specially designed platforms, is also important for gaining new clients.
Your regular digital presence online will also help you when it comes to networking and connecting with doctors on social media.
Top 5 Tips for Digital Marketing for Doctors
Before you start applying any of the following strategies to grow your practice, make sure you are well aware of the HIPPA, The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
- Make Yourself a Brand
A doctor can use the best dermal filler brands on the market, but the most important brand is his own personality. The best advice for anyone thinking about advertising anything is to look at the subject of advertising as a brand of its own. This will be particularly important when deciding on things like:
- One’s visual presence: practice name, logo, and even website domain
- One’s tone of voice: the way the information is presented online and how they communicate their target audience
Doctors influencers are no rarity anymore, especially on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, so before starting, we recommend you research successful profiles and top doctors’ and clinic’s websites.
- Listen to Your Target Audience
Once you have set your brand, get to know your target audience. Not all medical practices are relevant to all audiences, therefore pinpointing the right touchpoints where patients and specific healthcare content meets is crucial for creating the best online marketing strategy for doctors.
The best way to approach this is to build a brand persona – a sketch of the imaginary representative of the target audience – this can sometimes include multiple brand personas – to dot out their needs and wants and see how your practice can help them achieve their goals by getting in touch with them via channels they find to be most relevant.
- Focus on Specific Channels
There are different digital marketing channels to consider when going online, and not all are suitable or best for specific doctor’s practices. For example, aesthetic medical professionals should focus on posting on Instagram and TikTok, while orthopedic content is more adequate for Facebook, where there is a wider audience of patients who may have age-related issues.
Some of the general channels to focus on are:
- Direct e-mailing and online newsletters
- At least one social media platform
- SEO-optimized website with regular blog posting
By looking into the target audience and where they spend their most time online, it will become easier to note the right touch-points for the specific medical practice.
- Offer Relevant Content
When it comes to online content for digital marketing for doctors, it is a rule of thumb to keep the practice as respectful of patients as possible. That said, a little benign humor is always welcome, yet medical digital content should focus on three pillars:
- Educational: for audiences to be able to learn more about specific concerns, causes, and solutions
- Inspirational: everyone wants to feel good about engaging with specific content
- Applicable: as this will keep medical content relevant
Online marketing is a place to be creative yet always mindful of the seriousness of the medical profession.
- Use SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Although seemingly passive, a website as the main channel of communication between a doctor or a clinic and their patients remains the most reliable source of recognition for the profession.
White can be a simple landing page that will offer basic necessary information on the practice and contact information, it should always be adequately SEO optimized to meet the search engine requirements it needs to reach your target audience.
And when in doubt, there are also plenty of AI tools you can use to support your creation of a genuine, coherent online presence.
Conclusion
Digital marketing for doctors in 2024 is no longer a commodity but a basic need if you want to see your practice grow. There are specific strategies you can take to make sure you become recognizable to your desired target audience and that you create a pool of loyal patients that will be happy to recommend you if the need arises.
For more information on how to boost your online presence and how to raise your practice to an even higher level, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Book a meeting with Medical Spa Rx.
FAQ
How is digital marketing useful for doctors?
Digital marketing helps doctors become more visible to their targeted audience.
How to do email marketing for doctors?
Create a pool of leads and offer relevant and consistent content that will make your audience want to stay in touch with you.
Why is digital marketing essential for the healthcare industry?
Due to the lack of visibility in the traditional advertising channels, digital marketing offers more freedom for doctors to showcase their expertise and get in touch with their patients.
What is digital health marketing?
Digital health marketing is the action of advertising health-related brands, which includes products, clinics, doctors, and CSR causes, through carefully targeted online channels.
How can digital marketing be a game changer for healthcare providers?
If applied correctly, digital marketing can create high visibility and proof of reliability for healthcare providers.
How can healthcare professionals use digital media?
Healthcare professionals can create websites and social media channels with little investment to reach their desired target audiences.
How is AI used in healthcare marketing?
AI can be a great tool to support medical digital marketing. From content suggestions, grammar checking, blog writing, generating images and videos for social media content, and even monitoring results, time is yet to tell the limits of AI.
References
web P. Digital Marketing for Doctors: Proven Strategies for Growing Your Practice. Independently published; 2023. Accessed April 10, 2024. https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Marketing-Doctors-Strategies-Practice/dp/B0BXNP8QN7
The 5 Top Benefits of Digital Marketing for Doctors: How to Boost Your Practice Online. www.linkedin.com. Accessed April 9, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-top-benefits-digital-marketing-doctors-how-boost-your-practice
CDC. Health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996 (HIPAA) | CDC. www.cdc.gov. Published June 27, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/hipaa.html#:~:text=The%20Health%20Insurance%20Portability%20and
Best Practices in Health Care…. American Med Spa Association. Accessed April 9, 2024. https://americanmedspa.org/blog/best-practices-in-health-care-communication
