Spring is the perfect time to clean out your healthcare service office, get those lobbies looking fantastic, and whip away the grime of winter from your windows. It’s also the perfect time to do some online presence spring cleaning for your business.
Healthcare service companies, like eye doctors and med spas, need to tend to their online presence just as they would their office. You need to provide a way for new patients to get to know your practice, the services you offer and, ultimately, the info they need to make a decision to book an appointment. If you’re consistent about posting on social media and building a strong connection with your patients, your practice’s online presence will grow.
Sometimes, though, it helps to refresh it. By applying several core strategies to your current healthcare service online presence, you’ll be better able to meet prospective patients’ needs and build a stronger local brand.
Create a Strong Foundation for Your Healthcare Service’s Online Presence
Having an online presence indicates your practice has a website, blog, social media profiles, and Google Business Profile. If you have not created those yet, it’s an important time to do so.
- Build a website: Consumers want to learn about the practice on the website, which provides information about the doctors, the services provided, and the types of conditions they treat. This establishes credibility.
- Create a blog: A dentist’s online presence may include a blog that creates ways to add new content to the site consistently. This helps with search engine optimization (SEO) for your practice. Blogs are also a foundation you’ll use to create content to share on social channels.
- Social media sites: A med spa’s online presence should include social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. These allow you to demonstrate your services, share before-and-after photos, and interact with prospective clients while they are browsing social media.
- Set up a Google Business Profile: Consider building an optometrist’s online presence with a Google Business Profile. When people learn they need to see an eye doctor, they perform a quick search to determine who is available in their area. That profile helps your optometrist office come up in local listings, encouraging calls.
If you do not have these components in place yet, start here. And, if you do, you’ll still want to do a bit of spring cleaning to ensure your healthcare service online presence is exactly what you want it to be.
Check Your Digital Existence
One of the next steps to take as a healthcare service provider is to check out your online presence across all platforms online. Citations are mentions of your business in various areas online. For example, a dermatologist’s online presence may include professional listings on a local or national dermatology association’s website or in a local listing service for skin care providers.`
Locate all mentions of your practice online. Ensure that:
- All listings have the same name, address, and phone number (NAP). This helps Google link all of them together.
- Determine if you should be added to any local directory listing for your healthcare industry.
- Ensure your website, blog, social media sites, and Google Business Profile all have the same core details (name, address, phone, URL, email, etc.). Details matter here!
Build Reviews for Your Healthcare Service
The next step in your spring cleaning for your online presence is to look at how often your healthcare business is acquiring new reviews. Online reviews – including for eye doctors, med spas, and other healthcare services – help ease the concerns of prospective patients, and provide them with an effective way to learn which provider is likely the best choice for them.
Reviews for healthcare service providers are critical, but how do you get them? First, start by looking at your Google Business Profile. This is the ideal place to funnel reviews. Here are several steps to take to do that:
- Create a profile for your business if you do not have one yet. Then, ask your patients as they receive service from you, to leave a review.
- Provide a QR code that patients can scan while they’re at the office and invite them to share their feedback about their experience.
- Ask your routine patients. If you have patients that you see on a regular basis, they are the perfect party to leave a review.
While online reviews for healthcare services companies are very powerful, it is what you do with them that can matter the most. For example, when a patient leaves you a stellar review about their skincare appointment or the services you provided at your med spa, take note of that. Use their first name and thank them for trusting you with their care. Avoid too many specifics, but make it just personal enough as to avoid any HIPPA regulations but that you don’t seem like a bot.
Then, tackle the less-than-perfect reviews. A negative review could be a big worry for you, but most consumers expect companies to have some unsatisfied customers. Use their review as a guiding post. For example, if they are not happy with the length of time it took to book your service, apologize for their delay and thank them for their interest. Ask them to contact you for more information so you can attempt to make the situation better. That helps the initial patient, but it also demonstrates your willingness to support your patients on an ongoing basis.
Don’t Overlook Testimonials as a Part of Your Online Presence
If your services are changing the lives of your patients, and they love the results, let your patients tell others about your services.
- Use a short video testimonial from your patients on your website (with their permission, of course).
- You can incorporate before and after photos of the services that you offer.
- Create a short demonstration video with your patients that helps others learn what to expect when they come in for an appointment.
These types of reviews and testimonials are a fantastic way to build a strong online presence and to help you demonstrate your abilities to prospective clients. If you haven’t done any updated services yet, now is a great time to do so.
Perhaps you have a new product or testing tool in the office. You may be offering a new type of skin care service. Creating new content to post online through your Google Business Profile, blog, and social media sites like this encourages new clients to learn and want to book an appointment with you.
Other Steps to Spring Clean Your Online Presence for Healthcare Professionals
Now that you have some solid basics in place, it’s time to consider some additional strategies that can help you build a stronger online presence this spring. For healthcare services, consider the following:
- Sharpen and clean up your brand: If your brand image isn’t clean and clear – and you have not refreshed it in some time – now is the time to do so. Be sure the visual esthetics, messaging, and the tone of your brand resonates in the same way across all platforms. Take the time to add new cover photos on your social media profiles.
- Boost your Instagram presence. Medspa service providers, for example, can build a strong following of local clients if they have a consistent Instagram presence. Dial into your target audience for the best possible experience here.
- Consider LinkedIn. If you haven’t done so yet, ensure your healthcare service has a LinkedIn presence. Though it is often thought of as a B2B service, many of your patients are likely using LinkedIn and are on the site. They also want to verify your doctors and providers to find out as much as they can about your service. You may want to consider other platforms you’re not on, as well.
- Refresh your keyword strategy. If you have not done so recently, it’s time to take a closer look at your keywords and which opportunities you could be missing. Look for gaps in your competitor’s strategies that you can leverage. Make sure you’re researching what your ideal patients are searching for, not just what you believe they are.
- Engage within your community. Any of these healthcare services’ online presence is bolstered by creating a strong local community. Showcase the sponsorships, the community-led health events, the senior workshops, and other services you are offering as a member of the community.
By taking these initiatives and others, you can build an improved online presence for healthcare service businesses that fosters a better sense of who you are. Once you have your brand image, create your messaging, and start posting content, it’s critical to ensure you’re paying close attention to what’s working and what’s not. Make changes over time, being more creative as you go.
To put in place a new, spring-optimized online presence strategy for healthcare service companies, turn to Surefire Local. Our platform offers a robust range of features that can provide you with the insights you need to make smarter marketing decisions.
Attend a Surefire Local demo now.