In today’s competitive environment, marketing has become an essential tool for any successful rheumatology practice. More and more people turn to the internet first when they’re looking for information, whether it’s to research their ailments or seek professional help. If you want to grow your patient list and help those people, you need to ensure that they find your medical practice when they need it.
The challenge is that a good marketing plan and a robust online presence can be expensive. It also requires regular updates and maintenance, which can be difficult for a staff that is already stretched thin.
For these reasons, it’s best to focus your efforts in a few highly effective places to make the most of your marketing budget and reach your intended audience. Below are three areas that will help you accomplish precisely that.
Add a blog to your website.
One of the best ways to create fresh content that people actually want to read is to publish a blog on your website regularly. When you update this blog with informative, well-written content, you can improve your site’s SEO. SEO stands for “search engine optimization,” it refers to strategies that help your medical practice end up on the first page of search page results, which is very important since most people don’t look past page one. Some ideas for quality rheumatology blog content include:
- Managing Arthritis Flares
- Coping with Stress if you Have Arthritis
- Tips for Living a Healthier Life with Arthritis
- Staying Active with Arthritis
- Arthritis Myths Busted
- Arthritis Do’s and Don’ts
A blog is also an opportunity to establish your physicians as experts in their field, share knowledge and wellness tips with your patients, and create original content to share on social media– which brings us to tip number two.
Promote your practice on Facebook.
Here’s the good news: it’s free to create a business page on Facebook for your medical practice, and senior citizens are the fastest-growing user group on the site. Here’s the bad news: it can be tough to get anyone to see your posts unless you put some advertising dollars behind them.
Luckily, a little money goes a long way on Facebook, and the ability to target particular groups of people makes it an excellent investment. For example, you can narrow your audience so that your ads and posts are shown only to women in your city over the age of 65 who are interested in arthritis. Needless to say, this can be incredibly effective!
[Click here for tips on creating a Facebook support group for your patients.]
List your practice in local search results.
Another way to help your rheumatology practice be the first one that potential patients see when they conduct an online search is to add local business listings and online directories. To do this, you can run a free scan to see where your practice is currently listed.
If your practice isn’t showing up, you can submit it to an online business directory of your choice—the more, the merrier.
The website Hootsuite has a great list of 50 places to start. While this can be time-consuming, it will pay off!
We hope these ideas help you make the most of your marketing budget this year and beyond! Do you have any tips or tricks to share? If so, we’d love to hear them on our Facebook page!
Tags: blogging, blogging for rheumatology, medical office management, medical offices, national organization of rheumatology managers, office management, office managers, rheumatologists, rheumatology, social media for rheumatology, tips for office managers Posted by
