Medical Marketing Enterprises, L.L.C.

Website Optimization, SEO, Reputation Management for Medical Practices

3 Reasons to Use Video to Expand Your Following

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YouTube Video to Improve Patient EducationVideo is quickly becoming a preferred medium for the Internet.  YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.  Google is the largest.  YouTube is a search engine for video.

According to Fortunelords.com, YouTube:

  • 30,000,000 (million) visitors a day watch 5,000,000,000 (billion) videos a day
  • 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
  • 1.3 billion people use YouTube
  • Mobile YouTube viewing sessions are > 40 minutes

Video has a lot of appeal.  Let’s see why you should consider adding video to your website.

Appealing and Practical

Video requires different skills compared to the written article.  Watching and listening to a video is easier and more practical than reading an article.  Watching and listening is more easily accomplished when driving, riding a subway or etc.  It is also easier to do on a larger variety of devices, i.e. it’s far easier to consume a video on a smartphone compared to reading a blogpost.

Because video requires the use of different skills, it appeals to different types of learners – those who prefer watching and listening compared to just reading.  This allows you to expand your reach and increase your followers by exposing yourself to a different pool of viewers.

Video is Better

Video is much better for certain subjects than a typical written article.  For instance, I upload many surgical videos to my YouTube channel (then embed them on my website).  Surgery is much better appreciated visually.  Effectively writing about surgery is very difficult and pales in comparison to the visual form.

Visitors can see and hear you with video and is, therefore, much more engaging than a simple article.  Video conveys more information about you as a person.

Video Should be Cheap

You do NOT need to use professionals for your videos, in fact, I recommend using your own equipment and production tools.  You probably already have everything you need to upload a video to YouTube.

Use a smartphone or computer camera.  The most important elements of your video are;

  • The content – what do you have to say?
  • Visually engage – your followers can see you
  • Audio awareness – your visitors can hear you
  • Transparency – what kind of person are you?

Professionally produced videos take away from your transparency and make you less credible.  These are two crucial elements to gaining a visitors trust.

I will share some nice tips and tools in an upcoming post.

All the best,

Randy

Use Email Address List to Grow Your Practice

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Email Address Subscriber List | Grow Your Practice | Health and Medical Internet MarketingYour email address list, comprised of  your patients’ addresses and those who follow your website, is a list of your biggest fans.  Communicate regularly to build trust and your practice.  Here’s how.

Email Address List

You should be collecting the email addresses of your patients in the office.  Remember that you must specifically ask for permission to use their email address to send a newsletter.  This process is called an “opt in” and can be achieved in several ways;

  1.  Integrate to your new patient form
  2.  Ask existing patients at checkout
  3.  Use “opt in” subscription form on website

Email Service Provider

An email service provider receives email addresses directly from your opt in subscription form on your web site.  Email addresses collected manually can be easily uploaded to your growing list.

The email service provider (ESP) automates several tasks for you;

  • Stores your list
  • Sorts your contacts (if you want)
  • Receives RSS feed from your website
  • Delivers email (containing link to new website post)

Popular email service providers are MailChimp and aWeber.  While MailChimp is free (initially), aWeber has a few more bells and whistles for more sophisticated email marketing tactics.

News, News and More

With every new post, an RSS feed, an electronic notification, is sent to the ESP.  The RSS contains all the information about your new post and you can choose how much or how little of the article to include in the email.

I recommend including the title of the article and the excerpt.  The excerpt is a short summary about the article, written in a way to invite the patient to click and read the entire article, but on your website.

Remember that this address list is comprised of your biggest fans – both patients and web site followers.

Every once in a while, in addition to writing health education articles, email your followers about news of the office, including news of the staff.  Your new electronic medical system, new office, big birthdays or employment landmarks of the staff are all worthy of sharing with your list.

In general, patients love their doctors.  The more information they have about the office, their doctor and staff, the more likely they are to tell others….and grow your practice.

If you have an email newsletter, what kinds of information do you share?

 

Interview with Steve Christiansen, M.D. | Successful Twitter Use in Medicine

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Steven Christiansen, MD | Ophthalmology Use of Twitter | Healthcare and Medical Internet MarketingI recently interviewed Steven Christiansen, M.D. for my podcast “Russ and Randy.”  Steve is an ophtho resident at the University of Iowa Ophthalmology department.  Before starting residency training, he created an eye related health website (www.EyeSteve.com) and promotes himself through social media, specifically Twitter (@EyeSteve).

The episode “Interview with Steven Christiansen, M.D.” is hosted on iTunes.

Website and Twitter

Just before starting residency, Steve realized he was about to embark on a 30-40 year career in Ophthalmology.  Why not create a digital space now and see how it grows?   (Personally, it’s a fantastic idea and I can not wait to see what develops in the next 5-10 years!)

Steve’s issue – how to promote the content?

Steve started promoting his website content through Twitter (@EyeSteve) and now receives over 12,000 page views per month!

In addition to the usual search engine optimization (SEO), Steve has created a significant following on Twitter to increase the exposure of his website.  Persistent use of Twitter, consistent publications and quality writing on his website has allowed Steve to create this in such a short time.

Twitter Expert

In the interview, Steve recalls how the University of Iowa recognized his fluency with Twitter.  They asked for his help.  Unlike other departments who have successfully implemented social media to connect with their patients, Iowa wanted to keep in touch with alums and residents specifically using Twitter.

In the beginning, no one had a Twitter account, but it has fast become an important communication tool among faculty, alum and residents and is especially helpful when attending a meeting, such as the AAO.  Members are able to share information, such as:

  • Scientific information (“Great talk on XYZ”)
  • Logistical information (“What time do the buses stop?”)
  • Social (“Who’s meeting at the bar?)

From no use to a powerful communication and sharing tool.

Incidentally, Steve published,  “Twitter at the 2014 and 2015 Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Ophthalmology”, Ophthalmology, Vol. 123, issue 8, p1835-1837, published online August, 2016, www.AAOJournal.org.

The article analyzes Twitter use between the two meetings, again in a demographic naive to Twitter.  The AAO regularly maintains a Twitter account during the meetings and through the year!

Content Controversy

How do you use the same Twitter content for both your colleagues who are doctors and patients?  On one hand, how does information about the latest in scientific knowledge (discoveries, treatments, meeting attendance) relate to patients?  Also, how do posts about a new optical shop or a new EMR system, intended for patients to promote your practice, appeal to your colleagues?

Steve has a great explanation why this works for him.

There actually is some cross-relevance.  Patients get better educated about their health and about their provider.  Colleagues become impressed with connecting with patients and using a digital platform to communicate with patients!

Follow Steve @EyeSteve
www.EyeSteve.com

Many thanks Steve!

All the best,

Randy

 

Patient Persona | Target Your WritingWhat is a Patient Persona? | Write to Your Perfect Patient

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Patient Persona | Writing One on OneWhen you are writing for your website, write as though one single person is sitting in front of you.  That single person is your ideal patient and is also known as your patient persona.

Physicians and healthcare are used to addressing a large audience.  We give lectures.  We teach.  While it may seem counter-intuitive, when writing on the web, you will be more effective if writing to a single person.

You are not writing as if you are on stage addressing a huge audience, but rather you are addressing one person, your “imaginary perfect patient,” who is sitting that audience.

Your Perfect Patient

We all have our ideal patient.  Your ideal patient is your patient persona and has a specific personality, manner of learning, education and concerns.

Addressing that particular person when writing will make you more credible, authoritative and, most importantly, engaging.  Your writing becomes more personal, and thus, becomes more valuable your reader.

Close your eyes and pretend your perfect patient is sitting in front of you.  By the way, this will be even more engaging if you write in the point of view of the first person.

BTW – you will likely develop more patient personas as time goes on, but for now, start with one.

Defining Your Perfect Patient

You may already have your perfect patient in mind.  If you do not, here are a few ways to help you get started.

  1. Survey or talk to your favorite patients and get to identify certain personality types, how they learn, what kinds of concerns they might have and what they like about you.  This will help you relate to them.
  2. Talk to your office staff and ask the question, “Who is my perfect patient”?  Getting an outsiders point of view will be very insightful.
  3. Look at analytics – you can see who is reading your articles and visiting your site.  There may be data about demographics which can help you.  How are your readers getting to your site?  WebMD?
  4. Use social media (search by #) to find out what questions are frequently asked (e.g. “#diabeticretinopathy #willIgoblind)

Just as you see patients one-on- one in the office, write to them one-on-one, too.

All the best,

Randy

Interview with Dr. Andrew Doan | Early SEO Adopter | Founder Credential Protection

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Credential Protection | Reputation Management | Andrew Doan MDIn October, at the recent American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting in Chicago, I interviewed Andrew Doan, M.D.  That “live” interview may be found on my podcast on health and medical Internet marketing.

Andy and I met almost 10 years ago.  I attended one of his courses on blogging.  Graciously, he asked me to teach the course with him the following year and we’ve been teaching together since then.  It has become a very popular course and it’s likely that you and I may have met there!

Early Adopter of SEO

Andy tells the story of how he became interested in blogging and the power of SEO early on during residency.  While at the University of Iowa for his residency, Dr. Doan was the webmaster for their clinical website which posted daily grand rounds.

In his words, they’ve received millions of views.  He experienced the value of SEO by posting great content and on a very regular basis.  He recently received an award for his work as a young doctor from the university.

Reputation Management

Dr. Doan once received some undeserved negative online reviews about his practice in Temecula, California.  These bogus reviews served as a catalyst to form Credential Protection, a verified doctor review company.

Credential Protection has a unique system to generate and post legitimate reviews about your practice.  The reviews can appear on your website, but more importantly, the reviews themselves enjoy high rankings as they are hosted on the Credential Protection servers.

3 Arms of Digital Marketing

There are 3 pieces of the marketing puzzle which are equally important for your digital marketing to be successful.  The 3 pieces are;

  1. Website
  2. Engagement
  3. Reputation Management

You can’t have one without the other two.  Your website provides the content and captures attention, but then you have to engage your readers (allow them to leave comments AND you answer them) if you have any hope of converting them to patients.

At the same time, you can not ignore your reputation.  In theory, you could have a great website, engage your readers and have great rankings and SEO….but have a reputation of being a bad doctor.

Andy – Thanks for taking the time for the interview!

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