3 Marketing Strategies Clinics Desperately Need

Bringing fresh marketing ideas to the clinic is often difficult because of tight marketing budgets and time constraints. But there is good news for clinics—building a solid foundation for your marketing efforts can be done at little to no cost.

So before you spend your energy trying to come up with new brochures or mailers, consider a new approach to marketing with these fundamental marketing strategies.

A Fresh Look at Marketing

Data and analytics make up the heart of marketing, and smart organizations know how to use them to drive leads. Pouring time or dollars into low-converting efforts can drain your resources, both mental and financial. According to one of Google’s latest marketing reports, it’s why 60 percent of leading marketers rely on data and analytics to drive decisions.

Once you’re aware of the data and understand how to interpret what it means for your clinic, you can begin to hone in on specific promotion and targeting efforts that are rooted in said data, not in guesses.

How do you know where to start? Let’s take a look at how some leading organizations use data to track customer insights to guide their marketing efforts.

1. Start Tracking the Data

Google provides two free resources for organizations of all sizes to use as a way to track data and customer insights. The first is Google Analytics. Google Analytics allows you to track key information such as website traffic, page views, visitor demographics, and how people are referred to your website.

The second resource is Google’s Search Console, which provides insights on how search engines view your website and procures actual keywords that people are using to land there.

Why Is This Important for Your Clinic?

Let’s say you’ve installed Google Analytics to your website and find that most people are landing on your services page. Ideally, you would like for that visitor to click through to your contact us page where they can call or email your clinic to set up an initial visit. When you look at your Google Analytics data, you notice that 80 percent of visitors leave your website from the services page without traveling to the contact us page or contacting your clinic.

With this knowledge, you decide to add a call to action item on the services page that will direct them to the contact us page. This provides visitors with an incentive, such as a free download, and tracks the number of clicks to a phone number listed directly on the services page.

Without Google Analytics, clinics can fall prey to a ‘set and forget’ mindset and miss opportunities to convert visitors into new customers by simply reaching them where they are.

If you haven’t installed Google Analytics on your website, consider adding it as soon as possible by visiting analytics.google.com and signing up for a free account.

Google Search Console is also free and easy to set up for your clinic’s website. Once installed, you have the ability to optimize the way your website appears in search results on Google and dive deeper into the exact phrases people are using to land on your website.
These tools are powerful resources used by anyone, including small clinics and large organizations, who understands the importance of how data can lead to a more intelligent marketing strategy.

2. Create Awareness: Be Where Your Customers Are Looking

When you’re searching for a good restaurant in a new area, what’s the first thing you do? Most people open the maps app on their phone and search “restaurant” to see what options are closest to them.

If you’re like most people, you scroll down the list to read the names of each place, paying attention to the number of reviews and/or stars listed in each customer rating.

Now imagine your doctor recommends that you see a physical therapist. You might open the maps app and repeat a very similar process.

Claim Your Business and Focus on Reviews

Regardless of the size of your organization, you need a strong presence on Google Maps. Claiming your business is very easy to do with the Google My Business page. Once you’ve established ownership of your business, you should make your listing relevant by adding your logo, business images, and contact information.

The next key step is to focus on building your customer reviews. Why is this important? Google will collect “rich snippets” from your reviews and rating scores from your Google Maps listing and display them on the search results page when relevant searches are made.

By having a strong number of Google reviews, you increase your chances of Google recognizing your business and listing it at the top of the search results when someone searches for “physical therapy” in your area.

3. Promote Intelligently: Use Data to Drive Leads

It’s not enough to plant your flag on Google Maps and wait for the leads to roll in. Targeting potential clients through Google’s Local Search Ads and Facebook Lead Ads should be an active part in your promotion strategy.

The difference with this approach is that you target people who are actively looking for your service instead of blindly broadcasting a message to the masses hoping for someone to call. Let’s take a look at both of these lead generating options.

Local Search Ads: In 2018, Google introduced a new way to promote your business directly through its powerful maps app. Local Search Ads function the same way as a Google search ad. Users set a bid for relevant keywords or phrases, and Google displays your business to people who are searching for those keyword in your area. You only pay when a customer interacts with the ad, also called Cost Per Click (CPC). Establishing a budget of even $50 per month for your clinic will help boost your position in Google Maps, allowing your clinic to display on the top of the results when people search for physical therapy in your area.

Facebook Lead Ads: After you visit a retail store’s website, you might notice certain ads featuring similar items on your Facebook account. The reason you’re seeing these ads is because the retailer targets current website visitors through the Facebook pixel. Clinic owners can benefit from this technology in combination with the Local Search Ads mentioned above. When a potential customer searches for a physical therapist and lands on your website, there is a high probability they will leave your site to compare options. With the Facebook pixel installed on your website, you can immediately promote your clinic to the people who actually need your services. This is one of the most targeted forms of online advertising available today.

While data-driven marketing is currently one of the smartest approaches to promotions, it can also lead you down a rabbit hole of unproductive monitoring. The key is to take action with the data, not just collect it or monitor it. As you plan your marketing strategy for the next quarter, consider focusing on how analytics can play a role in your promotion efforts.