Online marketing for medical practices: choose your provider carefully!

This morning I did a quick free website review for a potential client, a solo practitioner in the health care field. They use a service “specialized in their industry” for web development services. No doubt they are charged a monthly fee of some sort for SEO (search engine optimization) and website maintenance. I don’t know for sure. The site, while pretty generic, was appealing enough on the front end, the part patients and potential patients would see. Short of suggesting that an email marketing signup form could be a helpful addition, along with some social media interaction, I didn’t make many design recommendations. But within three minutes of reviewing their website, I found this information in their back-end code:

1. Over 100 keywords stuffed on the home page.

There should be less than this number of keywords by a factor of about 90%! Among the “helpful” keywords jammed into their code: “doctor, Doctor, DOCTOR, help, Help, HELP, hospital, Hospital, HOSPITAL,” … you get the picture! This was not a surprising result to me, as it used to be a common “seo” practice. However, it’s a big “no no” as Google is hip to these shenanigans. What the practitioner might be surprised to know: this code can actually result in the website being penalized by search engines. Why pay for that? I did, however, get a healthy free chuckle out of “help, Help, HELP.” I happen to know that the Hippocratic oath contains advice to practitioners

2. Local search keywords missing completely.

Of the more than 100 keywords on the home page, the number that related to the practitioner’s name, location, or service area? You guessed it: zero! As a practice with a small, local service area, they are missing the boat here. Patients searching for them after a friend recommended their name, or knowing they practice in a certain town, will surely enter that information when doing an online search for a medical practitioner. Information on name and location are important keywords in marketing a practice online.

3. Misleading (I’m being polite here) keywords.

Marketing the practice online shouldn't be a headache.

Ok, so this is a healthcare practice. Their focus is on health maintenance and wellness for families. Keywords on their About page included “myspace, paypal, Viagra, Zoloft, Alli, Chantex, Advil” and other basically irrelevant topics. No doubt the practitioner did not request to be advertising for “myspace,” is not focusing on only providing wellness services to those taking “Viagra,” and wouldn’t want the practice name and location to be handled as an afterthought – which it is. The page has nothing to do with “myspace,” “Viagra,” or even “Advil” and again Google will see that its keywords and on-page content do not jive.

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What bothered me most is that if I had not taken a quick three-minute peek into the website as part of a complimentary website audit, this practitioner would have no idea about these results. Why would they? They’re busy serving patients, not looking over the shoulder of their website maintenance service – which is as things should be! This is why practitioners like this hire firms like SmartSite Consulting – so they don’t have to become experts in online marketing, search engine optimization, etc. I have years of personal experience in the healthcare industry myself, and know many medical doctors, specialist practitioners, and associated wellness practitioners (nutritionists, chiropractors, massage therapists, etc.). They are busy enough serving patients in this crazy health care environment we keep trying to reform. One would have hoped that a service specializing in their industry would at least offer best practices in internet marketing, helping practices be most successful. Call me Pollyanna, but I don’t think Viagra needs this kind of marketing help. Surely their pharmaceutical marketing budget far outweighs what this small local practitioner can afford for some online marketing of their practice!

Before you ask yourself how much your marketing spend should be this year (and where it should be allocated), ask yourself what your measurable goals are. Management guru Steven Covey advocates for beginning any activity with the end in mind, and this is a perfect example of why. Begin with the end goal in mind, and make it as specific as possible. What are your marketing/sales targets, and how will you know if the many elements of your marketing spend helped you get there? If you aren’t measuring this, you can’t know which tactics are most effective in driving sales, and therefore deserve the most investment.

Marketing is becoming more and more measureable with the internet marketing tactics like social media, website promotion, blogging, pay-per-click advertising, link building, and (more effective than you may think…) email marketing. Tactics are also creating better lead qualification and, therefore, clearer follow-up sales opportunities with yet more measurement options to consider.

Marketing Makeover #1: “I want more business.”

Of course, but how much more? What kind of business? Do you need one good repeat customer, or one hundred quick sales? Are you looking for more volume or more margin? Do you need more business or better business?

The Reveal:

 “I want X number of brand new customers who will buy X number of products or services from me. The tactics most likely to get me there are: _____________________________________________ “

Fill In the Blank options may include: 

• adding targeted landing pages to my website
• creating a professional PPC campaign
• launching an effective blog to drive traffic to my site

Marketing Makeover #2:  “I need more customers.”

Have you also considered selling more to existing customers? How effectively are you assessing the changing and growing needs of your existing customer base? Creating new products to meet those needs? How often are you reaching the right decision makers within existing customer organizations? Are you sure they know everything you can do for them?

The Reveal: 

 “I need X number of new customers and these tactics are likely to bring them in: _______________”

Fill In the Blank options may include:

• create more online advertising
• improve effectiveness of my followup
• use social media to increase inbound marketing efforts

“I also want X number of existing customers to buy X% more products or services from me. I’ll likely make this happen by: ____________________________”

Fill In the Blank options may include: 

• launching a quarterly email newsletter
• offering special discounts on new services purchased by existing customers
• surveying existing customers twice this year to assess their needs

Marketing Makeover #3: “I need to spend more so I’ll get more traffic to my website.”

Do you need more traffic, or better traffic? Do you know how much traffic you have, where it’s going, and whether it’s turning into new business? How do you measure whether traffic is turning into sales? Have you assessed where your traffic is coming from?

The Reveal:

“I need X number of website visitors to do this every week:  ____________________________”

Fill In the Blank options could be:

• fill out a contact form for my sales staff to follow up on
• request a quote on a particular item or service
• get a personal followup phone call from a qualified salesperson

“I also want to inform my spend by:  ____________________________”

Fill In the Blank  options  should include:

• tracking traffic sources more closely
• seeing what content attracts the best leads
• reevaluating my keywords for relevance

“Then I’ll know where to spend $X:  ____________________________”

Fill in the Blank options might be:

• SEO enhancements and some PPC ads
• organic search improvements with better content development
• new conversion forms and some inbound linkbuilding

Marketing Makeover Realization:

Unless you know what you want to achieve, you can’t know how to achieve it effectively.

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