Around your medical practice, you probably still do most of your work on laptops and desktops. But that’s definitely NOT the devices your patients use to find you. About 80% of traffic to our clients’ sites comes from mobile devices, and each year, phones continue to gobble up a bigger and bigger piece of the pie. So let’s take a look at some of the best ways to reach this mobile audience.
SMS/MMS Marketing
One of the best ways to market to your current patients is through mass texting, also known as text message marketing or just text marketing. The open rates are sky-high (especially compared to email blasts) and you can now send longer messages and include multimedia content to make your messages that much more impactful.
But what content do you share with your patient base? After you’ve decided to give text marketing a try, this turns out to be the most important question. By far, we find that promotions, specials and offers are the best way to get text readers to reach out. The sweeter the special, the more response you’ll get. We find it’s particularly effective to put a time or quantity limit on your special – “one week only” or “valid for the first 15 customers.”
Since text messages are so short, it’s usually a good idea to include a landing page link for all your offer details and fine print. And to comply with ever tightening laws about text message sends, make sure you are sending from a verified number and offer an easy way for all recipients to opt out.
Mobile Ads
Google pay-per-click advertising can be particularly important for mobile searches. Even if you have good organic rankings, many mobile users are not going to take the time to scroll through a boatload of search results. Google bases their entire primary revenue stream on this. They are counting on users clicking ads on their platforms first, and that’s exactly what they’ve prioritized on search pages and screens.
With this in mind, you can target mobile searchers specifically in your medical PPC setup. By sculpting your campaigns to focus on particular devices, demographics, on- and offline behavior, and interests, you can be the top result for relevant mobile searches in your area. You can also retarget on mobile and show a relevant offer to folks who are sitting on the fence.
Social Media
With the typical user spending hours per day on social media, it’s a key place to get your message across. It all starts with authentic, personal content that’s entertaining and eye-catching. From there, set aside a budget each month to boost the posts that are performing the best. That way, you can continue to reach new followers. And it pays to invest in video content that can perform well on both Instagram and Tik Tok (yes, you need to be on both platforms, in addition to Facebook for the “olds” – ha).
Location-Based Marketing
We get questions fairly often about how to “geotarget” to the people closest to a client’s location. It makes sense on the surface, but when you dig in a bit more, geotargeting is not as relevant in the medical space as it is for traditional retail, restaurant or event businesses. One setting where it can pay off is medical spa businesses located in high-traffic areas. You can create a special and blast that out to everyone who passes by, enticing some of them to come in for an on-the-spot treatment. But the logic breaks down when you talk about surgical or other more involved medical procedures that take some advanced thought and planning. You won’t ever get someone signing up for a spur-of-the-moment tummy tuck just because they’re in the area.
Mobile Apps
When you browse the web, you get hit with so many sites promoting a switch to their app experience. Does this mean your medical practice needs an app too? Probably not.
First off, there’s the cost of building a dedicated app. While this can be pretty affordable for a very bare-bones app, keep in mind that you get what you pay for. A basic app is basically unlikely to draw much attention or use. So now you need to start thinking bigger picture about what you want an app to do. Do you want it to show your before and after photos? Provide a treatment planner? Do some other whiz-bang thing to keep your prospect entertained? That all involves custom coding, testing, and maintenance. Is it really worth all the added cost?
Next, you’ll need to come up with a separate marketing strategy for the app. This involves promoting it on social, on your website, in the app stores, and more. It’s a big additional cost. If there’s something you’re considering building an app for, first ask if the app would solve a problem that can’t be solved any other way. Chances are, there’s an easier way at a much lower cost.