Here are five ways your orthopedic practice can market its services to the community using new media.
1. Create a social media presence. your practice is looking for ways to connect with current and potential customers to increase retention, word-of-mouth referrals and gain new patients, social media is an inexpensive, direct way to do so, says Kassi Belz, Vice President of Healthcare Division, MassMedia Healthcare Marketing. However, the world of social media is new, vast and can be overwhelming, so it is crucial to develop a plan before embarking on social media outreach. Identifying your target audience, finding out what social media platforms they are using and strategically entering into their conversations through applications and advertising is the best approach. It’s also critical to budget time within your workweek to manage the content and allow the project several months to grow. Assign an office manager or hire an outside marketing agency to assist in the planning and implementation of social media strategy.
2. Promote other events online. Surgeons can promote their community outreach events through social media outlets, which will reach both patients and their friends online. Remind patients about your orthopedic webinars or seminars to improve attendance. "There's 500 million people on Facebook, and 120 million users are in the United States," says Mr. ohn Luginbill, CEO of The Heavyweights, a marketing company. "There's a whole lot more people gathering information from the computer than picking up the newspaper."
3. Send electronic newsletters catered to your patients. Once you create an electronic practice newsletter, you can send it to a distribution list where patients sign-up to receive it and you can post it on your website so future patients can read it as they research the practice. Include patient stories focusing on the relief of pain after treatment. If you want to include information about a new procedure or technology, find a way to relate it to the patients through a personal story. "Human interest is where you are going to gain more readers," says Karen Rocks, principle consultant and owner of Sparkfire Marketing.
In addition to human interest stories, you can have a section in the newsletter about positive patient scenarios. Patients come to orthopedic surgeons because they are in pain, and fear goes hand-in-hand with pain, says Ms. Rocks. Providing patients with scenarios of cases where other patients with similar conditions recovered and had good outcomes helps ease their nerves. "You have to reinforce that you're trustworthy," says Ms. Rocks. "Scenarios help patients see how the physician can help them, whether through surgery or another type of treatment."
4. Update the practice website to make it more accessible for patients. The first step to reaching the new generation of patients is to have a website--the second step it to make sure the website is appealing and easy to navigate. Patients don't want to see a wall of text or a solid background when they visit your website--they want to see pictures with the words and videos to guide them along the way. On the initial pages, Ted Epstein, Director of Sales at Medical Web Experts, says pictures can be important for increasing patient interest in the website. However, after people navigate away from the introductory pages to the specific subpages about the practice or orthopedic treatment, he suggests relying more on text to carry the site. Additionally, when patients are diagnosed with a specific injury or disorder, they often use a search engine to find their diagnosis and educate themselves. The search engines will link the patient directly to the desired subpage. Including text-heavy pages about common diagnoses on the website could attract viewers, which expands the practice's reputation beyond the single community.
5. Keep a blog for general interaction with patients. Setting up a blog about healthcare can allow you to interact with patients and potential patients through the familiar ground of cyber space. You can make blog entries commenting on the big issues in orthopedics or use the space as a forum to provide general patient information, such as tips for youth athletes on injury prevention. On his blog, David Geier, Jr., MD, an orthopedic surgeon and director of sports medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, responds to patients' questions. Through a disclaimer, he clarifies that his response contains general information rather than a specific diagnoses or individualized treatment advice. Those who submit questions know ahead of time that Dr. Geier may feature them in future blog posts. He also encourages people to reach out to him via Twitter and e-mail, and shares the locations of his practice.
Related Articles on Orthopedic Practice Management:
6 Ways Orthopedic Practices Can Boost Word-of-Mouth Marketing
4 Upgrades to Optimize Orthopedic Practice Waiting Rooms
5 Things Orthopedic Practices Can Do Immediately to Improve Profits
2. Promote other events online. Surgeons can promote their community outreach events through social media outlets, which will reach both patients and their friends online. Remind patients about your orthopedic webinars or seminars to improve attendance. "There's 500 million people on Facebook, and 120 million users are in the United States," says Mr. ohn Luginbill, CEO of The Heavyweights, a marketing company. "There's a whole lot more people gathering information from the computer than picking up the newspaper."
3. Send electronic newsletters catered to your patients. Once you create an electronic practice newsletter, you can send it to a distribution list where patients sign-up to receive it and you can post it on your website so future patients can read it as they research the practice. Include patient stories focusing on the relief of pain after treatment. If you want to include information about a new procedure or technology, find a way to relate it to the patients through a personal story. "Human interest is where you are going to gain more readers," says Karen Rocks, principle consultant and owner of Sparkfire Marketing.
In addition to human interest stories, you can have a section in the newsletter about positive patient scenarios. Patients come to orthopedic surgeons because they are in pain, and fear goes hand-in-hand with pain, says Ms. Rocks. Providing patients with scenarios of cases where other patients with similar conditions recovered and had good outcomes helps ease their nerves. "You have to reinforce that you're trustworthy," says Ms. Rocks. "Scenarios help patients see how the physician can help them, whether through surgery or another type of treatment."
4. Update the practice website to make it more accessible for patients. The first step to reaching the new generation of patients is to have a website--the second step it to make sure the website is appealing and easy to navigate. Patients don't want to see a wall of text or a solid background when they visit your website--they want to see pictures with the words and videos to guide them along the way. On the initial pages, Ted Epstein, Director of Sales at Medical Web Experts, says pictures can be important for increasing patient interest in the website. However, after people navigate away from the introductory pages to the specific subpages about the practice or orthopedic treatment, he suggests relying more on text to carry the site. Additionally, when patients are diagnosed with a specific injury or disorder, they often use a search engine to find their diagnosis and educate themselves. The search engines will link the patient directly to the desired subpage. Including text-heavy pages about common diagnoses on the website could attract viewers, which expands the practice's reputation beyond the single community.
5. Keep a blog for general interaction with patients. Setting up a blog about healthcare can allow you to interact with patients and potential patients through the familiar ground of cyber space. You can make blog entries commenting on the big issues in orthopedics or use the space as a forum to provide general patient information, such as tips for youth athletes on injury prevention. On his blog, David Geier, Jr., MD, an orthopedic surgeon and director of sports medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, responds to patients' questions. Through a disclaimer, he clarifies that his response contains general information rather than a specific diagnoses or individualized treatment advice. Those who submit questions know ahead of time that Dr. Geier may feature them in future blog posts. He also encourages people to reach out to him via Twitter and e-mail, and shares the locations of his practice.
Related Articles on Orthopedic Practice Management:
6 Ways Orthopedic Practices Can Boost Word-of-Mouth Marketing
4 Upgrades to Optimize Orthopedic Practice Waiting Rooms
5 Things Orthopedic Practices Can Do Immediately to Improve Profits