A marketing colleague, social media guru and friend recently told me at lunch 'the goal of any online marketing program is to create online sign posts in the places where your customers (ie future patients) travel to on the internet and then direct that traffic towards your web site.
' The same fact (not theory) is true when you promote your practice in your local area.
Some of the smartest but most misinformed business people I've seen, believe that if they just send out one (1) postcard to a bunch of people near you will generate all kinds of business.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The same myth is being sold to doctors when creating web sites and creating social media profiles.
In today's internet environment, the public uses the Internet to find more and more information about their health and the next doctor they want to visit.
Doctors have to do more than buy a web site that you never update.
'If you build it they will come.
' A great movie line but a lousy marketing strategy.
If you build a web site, people will not come.
Why? Because no one knows about it.
And, if you create a profile page on Twitter, Facebook, Sokule or LinkedIn, you've got to do more than just update your personal information.
You've got to engage...
become 'social.
' As a healthcare marketing agent to hundreds of providers and health plans across the country, any good marketing agent worth their salt will tell you 'you must have multiple marketing pieces [ie sign posts] pointing people to your practice.
If you've ever heard the 7-11 rule - this is when you must see something between 7 and 11 times before it becomes 'TOMA' or in someone's top of mind awareness.