Healthcare Internet Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for All Medical & Dental Providers and Practices

internet!

Introduction

The internet can bring a wealth of patients to a medical or dental practice in an extremely cost effective way. According to pewinternet.org, 81% of the US adult population uses the internet. In 2013, this amounted to approximately 240 million people. Of internet users, 72% looked online for health information within the past year. Twenty percent of internet users (almost 50 million) have researched online reviews and rankings of healthcare providers and treatments.

According to 2013 Pew Research reported in the New York Times, 35% of Americans have used the internet to diagnose a medical condition. Those most likely to do this have a college degree and a household income over $75,000. In other words, people who most likely will then seek out medical or dental treatment from a provider to treat that health condition!

Healthcare marketing is very competitive.

In these times of significant medical specialization, practices have to compete for patients. Gone are the days when medical marketing was illegal, and then made legal but considered unethical. Savvy medical and dental practices in the 21st Century have evolved with their marketing techniques, including many that are similar to retail. These include not just print marketing like newspapers and direct mail, but also radio, television, and the internet. Why has this radical approach occurred?

Most people think of medicine or dentistry as "recession-proof businesses. Even when the economy is hurting and disposable incomes drop, people still need to get their medical needs addressed right? Wrong! How much of the country's medical treatment is absolute versus elective? Dealing with absolute issues such as cancer, trauma, neurologic deterioration, and incapacitating issues are absolute. Those are recession proof.

What about everything else? A knee replacement, cosmetic plastic surgery, dental implants, veneers, lap band surgery, allergy shots, bunion surgery, etc. are quality of life treatments that are elective. What has been seen in the latest recession is these treatments are often delayed and put on hold due to finances unless absolutely necessary. Even medical conditions that one would think need to be dealt with quickly are being shelved such as cataracts.

As someone who has owned a medical practice in a recession, I can definitively say that at a certain tipping point medicine is not recession proof. Patients will 1) Wait longer to seek care 2) Put off elective procedures for lengthy periods 3) Raise their insurance deductibles substantially and 4) Negotiate on the cost of their medical care.

We have reached a New Normal in health care marketing as a result of the increasing specialization and how patients view the cost of healthcare versus the benefit. It was unheard of a decade ago for patients to bargain on the cost of their treatment. Now it is routine even for insurance covered treatments, and it appears this new normal is here to stay. I felt weird a few years ago discussing a bill for my dog's eye surgery. But I have had plenty of meetings with patients at the practice discussing treatment cost, pre-payment discounts, bundling self-pay items and more that used to never happen.

I never used to hear patients negotiate on lab work cost, back brace fees, or even the $15 cost of filling out disability paperwork. What have the likes of Ebay and Craigslist done to carry over into medicine? This new normal exists for how patients find their healthcare providers as well. It's becoming somewhat commoditized, and patients see their providers as part of a business that compete for customers like everyone else in free markets. In line with that view of healthcare, prospective patients now understand they can choose their own providers.

Patients who are savvy take time to research their options, and not all will obtain a referral from their primary care doctors. Research from the Pew Institute has shown that 80% of all internet users, or 60% of the American public, looks up health information online. On top of this, the report showed that 18% of Internet users have gone online to look for others with similar medical problems. In fact, quite a few patients find the specialist they desire on their own online, and then ask their primary doctor for a specific referral.

Prior to the internet, traditional marketing for a medical or dental practice involved the phone book's Yellow Pages, significant word of mouth, doctor referrals, and newspaper and magazine advertisements. As competition has increased over the last decade along with the deep recession and significantly more specialization, medical practices are finding it necessary to advertise in more creative ways.

I walked through the pain clinic one day and asked 10 patients how many used the Yellow Pages book anymore. Only one said yes, and infrequently.

Practices have turned to radio and television for patient acquisition, but the cost of a proper campaign can run well over $10,000 monthly. This may be worth it depending on your goals, but keep in mind you will be reaching a large audience of people who are both outside your practice's catch area and not looking for your services. Cost of radio and television is high, and unless you have numerous locations around your city, or the city is small with a captive audience, a lot of people will hear your advertisement who simply do not need your services. Why waste those dollars?

More of the general public is letting go of cable service to watch television online. This trend will continue. Additionally, more people are listening to internet streaming radio, such as Pandora, which does not have many advertisements between songs. So not to completely burst your bubble, but if the combination of less people hearing your ads and most of those individuals not needing your services exists, what would be the return on investment? Just some things to consider.

Four things need to happen with radio and television advertising to be successful. One is that an individual needs to have the problem you are offering to solve. The second is that person must actually see or hear your advertisement, with the third being the advertisement must resonate with that person enough to generate a phone call to your business. And fourth, the person answering the phone needs to be able to convert those leads into paying customers.

It is well known that a typical sales cycle for advertising takes a prospective customer seeing or hearing an advertisement five to ten times prior to acting on it. This is why advertising on the radio or television, or any other successful medium for that matter, necessitates repetition. Can you imagine advertising with a radio campaign with one sixty second spot a day? What are the chances that will generate lots of phone calls resulting in appointments? These campaigns need months of steady advertising to allow for repetition to sink in to the public.

A billboard may be an excellent method of advertising especially if the location has a high traffic count. Often times city data can tell you the exact number of vehicles on a daily basis. But keep in mind the same problem seen with radio and television will exist. There will be lots of people seeing your ad who are not in need of your services. Since the billboard stays up consistently, that could change if a person develops symptoms your practice treats. The good news is that people do still drive to work and if the traffic count is sufficient, it will be seen. You may be surprised at the cost of a billboard if you haven't checked lately. One billboard in a busy area may cost over $2500 per month. And that's just one!

Healthcare marketing success online can be yours with steady work.

Marketing can consist of an extreme amount of trial and error. This can burn through capital like you've never dreamed if you start throwing money at every marketing sales representative who walks in your door. I tried quite a few marketing mediums early on, and many of them failed miserably.

The objective when putting together an effective marketing campaign is to generate high numbers of patients while staying within the acceptable budget – in other words obtaining a low patient acquisition cost. It is not a good idea to throw all of the monthly budget into one medium, unless the track record for it is well known. If all your marketing dollars go towards an internet campaign and it's paying off, then great! But my point is it's always a good idea to somewhat diversify your marketing efforts, sort of like a financial advisor recommending a diverse portfolio.

As the internet continues to gain in popularity in the US, the ability to garner a significant steady stream of patients with a low patient acquisition cost exists. With over 60% of the US searching for medical information online, the opportunity is substantial and growing every year. As will be shown in this book, there are plenty of low cost methods of getting your practice in front of the crowd looking on the internet for what you offer.

As you read through it, you may say to yourself This is overwhelming! Although the book is comprehensive, it is not imperative to include every idea discussed into your initial campaign. It may be done in phases, and a plan is laid out including immediate, mid-range, and long-term as a guideline.

Getting in the game is important. I have spoken with plenty of office managers who say I don't know where to start! This is common and completely understandable. But unfortunate because it means those practices have not done anything and are missing out on lots of potential patients. They have developed internet stage fright. The key to typical stage fright is simply to get out the first few words and develop a rhythm. Then the jitters settle down and the performance takes its course. An internet campaign is very similar. Armed with a simple blueprint, a medical or dental practice can begin small, eliminate the stage fright, and grow the campaign into a coordinated powerhouse which is cost effective and consistently generates traffic and converted leads.

Information is power, and after reading this book you will be armed with a solid understanding of the steps necessary to put your practice's internet marketing campaign into action. It may not be possible (or advisable) for your practice to perform all of the internet mechanisms discussed by yourself, as some can be very time consuming. There are professionals for outsourcing that can maintain your cost effectiveness and your sanity!

You should ride the internet to success!

During the book I have interspersed a real life example to place the concepts discussed in real life. This example is my own as an owner and administrator of a pain management practice in the Southwest that generated over 75% of new patients from the internet. People's jaws drop when I tell them that number, and after about the 100th time I realized I was on to something and I could help other practices be able to achieve the same numbers in a cost effective way.

A medical or dental practice is a business, with revenues, expenses, and a bottom line just like a manufacturing company. Doctors tend to forget this, but practice managers don't! What you will see here is an outline for turning a necessary expense, your marketing campaign, into an internet horsepower of acquisition that is cost effective, consistent, and able to grow with the evolving landscape of the online health revolution.

And with that... let's get started!

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Main Body

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Push versus Pull Marketing

There are predominantly two different kinds of marketing that businesses put into place. The first kind of marketing is termed Push marketing, or Outbound marketing. Think of a company like Toyota, Lexus, or BMW. How many times a day do you see a commercial on television, or an advertisement in a magazine for one of their cars that evidently makes you get an awesome spouse while feeling marvelous and living a life of luxury (and maybe there's a puppy involved)? Those advertisements are being pushed on you, as the car companies want to keep their brand at the top of your mind.

When a buying decision time comes around for a new car, the various car companies want their brand to be the first one you think about. Most of the time, people are not in the market for a new car so the advertisement is worthless right? Wrong! Big companies have the resources to continually push their brand into the marketplace and ingrain their products and services into consumers' minds, potentially generating buying decisions. They typically have the resources from their affiliates and franchisees to make this a cost effective overall marketing medium. When the time comes that your car breaks down for the last time or your spouse needs a new car, one of those ads may be sticking in your subconscious and influence your buying decision.

Radio and television are classic Push Marketing techniques.

Push marketing can get extremely pricey. Participating in television, radio, print ads, and newspaper ads can add up to tens of thousands of dollars a month for a medical or dental practice. This may be acceptable to a