Medical Marketing Enterprises, L.L.C.

Website Optimization, SEO, Reputation Management for Medical Practices

Guest Blogging to Increase SEO and Backlinks

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Guest blogging builds SEO and backlinksShare your knowledge on other websites.  This can result in increased website traffic to your own site and improve your SEO.  By contributing content to other websites, you expose yourself to a new and different audience and get better website rankings.

Guest blogging, HARO and participating on community forums are just three examples, but there are more.  The basic message is that you might consider sharing your expertise on OTHER websites and make sure your contributions are cited in the form of hyperlinks back to your own site.  These hyperlinks are called “backlinks.”

Quality backlinks can significantly improve your SEO.

Help A Reporter – HARO

This is a database where JOURNALISTS find reliable SOURCES when researching an article or story.  Journalists post queries looking for expert SOURCES who belong to the site.  Health providers (you) function as a SOURCE.

HARO sends out 3 daily emails of journalists looking for Sources.  If interested, you will respond via email, thus connecting you with the journalist.

Usually a short interview is conducted via email or phone.  If your content is used in the final story, your contribution should be cited.  You gain exposure to a new audience.  Ideally, you will also get a link to your website.

The HARO website is www.HelpAReporter.com.

Guest Blogging

As a “guest” you will write an article for someone else’s website.  Ideally, you will write an article on a related website, i.e. health related website, on a topic of which you are an authority.

The article will be written exactly as if you were writing on your own site, but with the exception it will be published on a foreign website.  In return for creating content for the host, you, the guest, should insert 2-3 hyperlinks (backlinks) to your own site.

Again, this gives you exposure to a new community AND, through backlinks, improves your SEO.

Forums, Chat Rooms and Bulletin Boards

There are many forums, chat rooms and bulletin boards where patients share information about health concerns or ailments they have in common.

As a healthcare authority, you may choose to join in their conversations to educate this community to share your knowledge and educate this new audience.

As with the other examples, this will expose you to a new community and give you the opportunity to build backlinks.

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

Using Facebook to Market Your Practice

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Facebook Marketing | Rob Melendez, MD | Healthcare and Medical Internet MarketingIf you head over to “RussandRandy.com” you’ll see that this weeks podcast episode is an interview with Dr. Rob Melendez, a comprehensive ophthalmologist and refractive surgeon at Eye Associates of New Mexico.

Rob and I have known each other for several years, crossing paths at the annual American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting as we have common interests in social media and marketing.

Rob loves Facebook and social media to promote himself, his brand and his practice.

Take Control of Internet

Rob advocates that doctors must take control of their own marketing.  If you are not actively promoting yourself and your practice, patients looking for your goods and services must rely on information for secondary and tertiary sources.

Dr. Melendez “takes charge” and contributes his own information to the Internet via his website, but especially through social media platforms such as Facebook.

He takes a multi-faceted approach.

Claim Review Sites

As an example of “taking control,” Dr. Melendez recommends you claim as many of the review sites as you can.  There are probably dozens of aggregator sites (business sites which ask for reviews of the businesses or doctors listed on the site) which list you and your practice.

Examples are Healthgrades, RateMd, Yelp, etc.

Claim these accounts and upload pertinent data and information.   What services to you provide?  What hours of operation?  What are your practice goals?

Be bold and upload a headshot!  Not only are you providing accurate information about you and your practice, but you have the opportunity to outshine your competition who likely ignore such opportunities.

Don’t be Afraid of Social Media

Patients naturally want to find out information about their doctor.  Most doctors are uncomfortable about sharing information about themselves.  Patients are interested in finding out “who you are” in addition to “what you are.”

Dr. Melendez points out that social media is simply an extension of what we are already doing face to face in the office.   How are you?  How was your vacation?  I’ve got a graduation in the family.

Improving Facebook ROI

“Facebook advertising is a marathon, not a sprint.”

Rob has 4 tips to improving your ROI with Facebook.

  1. Increase “Likes” by boosting certain (interesting) posts
  2. Increase “Likes” by paying for ads
  3. Consider using Facebook Coupons
  4. Take advantage of Lead Generation with “Lead Ads” on FB

By keeping track of money spent in the fashion outlined above, you should easily be able to track new patients to your practice…giving you your ROI (return on investment).

Use Your Waiting Room to Improve Patient Retention

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Patient Waiting ExperienceDo you like to wait?  Did you know every patient is laden with anxiety while waiting for you?

The patient waiting experience can be transformed to be a positive and memorable interaction for your patients.  It can also lead to improved patient retention and engagement.

Podcast on Medical Internet Marketing

This is an interview published on our podcast “RussandRandy.com.”  Russ Faust, M.D. and I started “Russ and Randy,” a podcast on Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing.  In this interview with Karen Decuir-DiNicolo, affectionately known as Karen D3, Russ explores how the waiting experience can be fraught with anxiety, creating anger and resentment in your patients, but it can be turned around.

I hope you like “Interview with Karen Decuir-DiNicola of WaitWell.”  You can find us on iTunes.

Karen D3 founded WaitWell to use the waiting experience as opportunity to better heal and understand our patients’ needs.  In turn, medical practices and hospitals may benefit from increased patient retention and engagement.

Who is Karen D3

Kathy is many things.  She is a corporate professional of over 27 years working with the likes of GM where she created a Stress Workshop that supported the GM employees.  She also developed an Organization Development internship program saving the company millions in consulting fees.  She is a mom, wife and an ice hockey scorekeeper.

For us, Karen is a two time cancer survivor.  She knows full well the agony and anxiety of the waiting room and the stress it causes to the patient and their families.  She is an expert on waiting.

Think of the surgical or emergency waiting room.  What will happen?  What will the doctor say?  I am sure you will be surprised to learn how much anxiety exists in your own waiting room.

Improve Your Patient Experience

Karen created WaitWell after recognizing an opportunity for healthcare to further help our patients.  By improving the patient waiting experience, we are improving the overall patient experience, a rising factor in CMS reimbursement (but also the “right” thing to do).

Karen remembers the cold and  caustic environment of the waiting room.  Sick and surrounded by sicker patients, she describes the insult of avoiding the psychological impact of her experience.  “No one ever inquired about my psychological state,” she says.

Listen how she advocates transforming the “elephant in the room” to a positive and memorable can improve your patient experience, improve patient retention and engagement.

All the best!

Randy

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Your Reputation is Your Brand

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Your Culture and Reputation | Healthcare and Medical Internet MarketingThe term brand refers to your reputation.  Your brand is neither your personal reputation nor your exceptional ability to deliver healthcare.  Your brand is the resultant sum of all the experiences your patients have from every touch point or interaction they have with your office or institution.

Creating a Brand

Your brand is defined by every interaction a patient can have with your office or institution.  The sum of of any and every encounter creates a perception…that’s  your brand.

For example, in a typical medical office “touch points” include message hold, receptionist answering the phone or greeting you in person, complicated parking directions, newsletters, staff interactions, etc.  Your brand is a reflection of ALL touch points a patient experiences.

The doctor and healthcare provided are a mere single touch point, that is, the doctor patient relationship is not a major contributor to your brand.

Your brand is not the same as the personal reputation of the physician.  The personal reputation of the physician is included or is just a part of your brand.

Optimize Your Touch Points

You can’t buy a brand.  This is not an advertising campaign for purchase.  Your brand reflects a perception.

What can you do?

Identify your touch points.  Analyze the touch point from your patients’ perspective and find ways to make improvements.

Caution.  There are some touch points which you can NOT control, such as a crowded waiting room.

Why Brand Matters

Your brand matters because it is your reputation.  Your brand also matters because it serves as a foundation for which your patients become your best ambassadors.  Your brand is ALSO the perception or culture of your employees.  One person can not deliver a great brand.

Patients love to brag about their doctors.  Give them an exceptional patient experience.  Give them “5 star” material to tell others!

All the best,

Randy

 

 

 

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