Pediatricians often face the challenge of trying to distinguish their practice from generalist primary care physicians and family practices. In the constantly changing healthcare environment, pediatric practices must beat out the competition with savvy digital marketing in order to be successful. Parents selecting medical care for their children want to make the best possible choice, and it’s your practice’s job to make sure that you’re connecting with these families and showing how your practice stands out. We’ve put together a more detailed look at the building blocks to using digital marketing successfully to ensure you connect with families and turn them into loyal patients. 

Understanding Your Target Market – New Parents 

The first thing you must do to market your pediatric practice successfully is to understand your target market – parents. While your patients are children and adolescents, it’s their parents that you must target with your digital marketing efforts. Parents are your target audience, but how can you reach them? You also need to understand how parents today are connecting with medical practices. Primarily, people head to the internet whether they’re searching for a restaurant or a doctor. In fact, Americans are searching online more than ever, with statistics showing that Google processes more than 40,000 search queries each second. That’s more than 3.5 billion searches each day.

Your practice also needs to keep in mind that a large section of your target audience is now made up of Millennials. Research shows that 40% of millennials are now parents, which translates to over 32 million people. According to Forbes, millennial parents behave differently in the way they consume services, and most of them do turn to the web when deciding on buying choices of any kind. In short – what worked in the past may not work when you’re trying to attract today’s parents to your practice. 

Ranking Your Pediatric Website on Page One of the Google Search 

You know that today’s parents are searching online for pediatricians, and more than 300,000 Google searches are done every month in the U.S. for pediatricians. The key to harnessing people looking for a local pediatric practice is ensuring that your practice’s website shows up on page one of the Google search. Most people won’t move on to page two.

How do you accomplish this? Good SEO is critical. You need to optimize your website with the right keywords to increase your rankings for specific markets and keywords. One of the best ways to do so is to make sure you’re ranking well in local searches so your website is at the top when parents start looking for a local pediatrician on Google. 

Designing a Pay-Per-Click Campaign for Your Pediatric Practice

Many pediatric practices find that a well-designed pay-per-click campaign comes with big payoffs. With paid search, you can target your ads to the specific consumers you’re trying to bring into your office. Geo-modifiers can be used to ensure you’re eliminating casual browsers so you’re only paying for the right leads. 

Harnessing the Power of Social Advertising 

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, social media and social advertising offer some unique opportunities for marketing your business. It’s critical to have an effective social media presence so you’re able to connect with people across various social platforms. With the use of social advertising, it’s possible to enhance your branding efforts. If you’re not already harnessing the power of social sites like Facebook and Instagram, it’s time to learn how if you’re going to connect with millennial parents. 

Improved Website Design for a Better First Impression 

It’s not just important to ensure your website is ranked on the first page of Google – you also have to make sure your website makes an excellent first impression. The first impression parents get of your pediatric practice is often based upon your website. Your website should be user-friendly, engaging, and informative. It’s not enough to get people to your site – you have to make a good impression and engage them once they’re there. Some tips for better website design include: 

• Optimization for mobile devices (since many parents are searching from a smartphone or tablet)
• Patient portals
• Chatbots that answer patient questions 24-hours a day
• Online appointment booking
• Social integration 

Reputation Management for Pediatric Practices 

Since many parents are now searching for pediatricians online, your practice’s online reputation really matters. Millennial parents often make their decisions based upon the reviews they read of practices online. Negative reviews have the potential to cause serious harm to your business. You work hard to build a great reputation – it’s an essential asset. Maintaining it is critical. Reputation management includes practices like monitoring online reviews, setting up profiles and monitoring reviews at online healthcare marketplaces like ZocDoc or Healthgrades. Asking happy patients to leave reviews of your practice can also help you build an excellent online reputation.

In today’s competitive healthcare marketplace, it’s important for your pediatric practice to have a good digital marketing strategy in place. From knowing your target audience to ensuring your website makes a great first impression, these strategies can help you acquire new patients and generate referrals, growing your business in 2019. To learn more about how M-Scribe can help your business grow and boost revenue, contact us today for more information.

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