Online Marketing for Healthcare Providers

People are searching for healthcare online more than ever before. Are you set up to be found? Crosby Digital Marketing is a marketing and advertising agency in Franklin, TN that helps healthcare companies develop and manage their digital marketing and advertising efforts. Here are 13 steps to get started with marketing for your healthcare practice. 

Establish a Google My Business (GMB) page.

This is key for getting others to find you online. This allows you to input your phone number, business hours, website URL, health services, and has a place to start collecting reviews. Setting up a Google My Business listing is an incredibly important and easy step. This is also step number one for making progress on SEO. Because of Google’s integration with Google Maps, a GMB listing allows you to be found in searches like “Physical Therapists near me.”

Create a website.

This should come fairly soon in the process for a medical practice. In our opinion, this helps to create legitimization. Your website should be fully optimized using SEO best practices.  Your website needs to be mobile friendly as well. Mobile is the most popular way to surf the web, so this needs to be considered when designing your site. 

Make sure your website is HIPAA compliant.

HIPAA compliance issues can cost you, but it can also cost your reputation with patients. Make sure you are constructing a website that keeps your patients secure. From HIPAA-compliant contact forms to on-site data tracking, read more about how we handle HIPAA compliance. 

Your website needs to have appointment request functionality.

There has to be a way for your patients to contact you for an appointment in addition to calling you. This functionality can be as simple as a HIPAA-compliant form or integration directly into your EMR system if you have that functionality. This form needs to be checked frequently as well to assure you are receiving the requests. 

Have a plan for telehealth.

Telehealth is here to stay. This is likely going to be a major change in the time of COVID-19, and after the pandemic is over. There will be a bigger push for this. People want to be able to attend doctor’s appointments from home. There are many ways that you can reach patients virtually. Keep in mind that telehealth services must be HIPAA-compliant just like all other patient communication systems.

Collect reviews on Google and social media.

This is key for generating more business. A good way to do this is to do review-boosting with emails that go out after appointments. Direct your patients to leave reviews in the places that you need them most. Google reviews should be your practice’s biggest priority. 

Don’t forget to monitor all your reviews.

Respond to your reviews just like you would respond to any customer feedback. Show up for your patients online. Respond to both positive and negative reviews. 

Use Google for paid ads (PPC).

These ads have the best return on investment (ROI) when managed properly. As long as you can calculate the value of a patient, you can guarantee a strong return on investment because you can cap bids on ad spend in Google Ads. This means you won’t spend more than a patient is worth, and you can justify costs over time. You can also track calls that come in from Google Ads, so you know which patients are coming from this source. It is the most effective way to spend your advertising dollars in the healthcare industry. 

Create content that is informative and adds value.

Doctors are natural teachers. For example, Physical Therapists are constantly teaching their patients how to regain movement through methods like stretches and exercise. This is perfect for online content. It may feel like simple knowledge to a professional, but many people don’t know how to alleviate back pain from sitting every day. They don’t know how to perform appropriate shoulder stretches. These are simple pieces of content that can be produced that have a lot of value to your social media followers. It can be in the form of a video or blog post. Podcasts can also be great for this type of information if you are targeting a specific group, like runners. Creating content also helps your current and potential patients get to know you better. This helps with doctor/patient relationships and is great for retention. 

Broadcast your content on social media where people will pay attention to it.

Your patients are more likely to follow you on social media if they feel like you are providing value to their feeds. The more followers that you have, the more you can reach people organically. 

Talk about safety measures for COVID- 19.

This is big in healthcare right now. People want to know that they will be safe if they visit your office. Don’t just tell them, show them on social media with pictures.   

Promote specials and packages.

At this point, you should have some great places to promote specials and packages. Post these on your website and social media. 

Establish an email marketing newsletter.



Because healthcare is so involved with patient education, it is a perfect fit for an email marketing newsletter. Make a monthly newsletter where you touch base with past, present, and future patients. Check out our email marketing guide here. 

If you are interested in setting up a marketing or advertising plan for your healthcare business, you don’t have to do it alone. Crosby Digital Marketing has 10 years of experience working with healthcare companies to increase patient numbers, create educational content, and showcase your services to your ideal patients. We would love to help you grow your business. Contact us to learn more. Call us at 615-249-8488 or email us at joe@crosbydigitalmarketing.com.