Topic: 11 Medical Marketing Myths

Physicians and medical practices are evolving their approach to marketing. They have to. Patients are becoming more digitally savvy. Yet many doctors are held back by misconceptions about the limitations and possibilities of digital marketing. In this article, I cover the most common myths I hear.

1. HIPAA prevents digital marketing.

While the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is important to protect patient information, it doesn’t prevent you from digital marketing. It’s never been easier for a practice to launch digital marketing strategies that are HIPAA compliant and protect sensitive patient information. In fact, as many patients now rely on digital channels for research, digital marketing has become a necessity for medical practices.

2. Your reputation as a physician is enough.

The reputation of a physician is one of the most important assets a practice has. Reviews are an important part of convincing potential patients to reach out. But a great reputation doesn’t guarantee that you’ll reach new people. In fact, it’s not always the best physician that gets the patient, but the physician that’s in the right place at the right time with the right message.

3. You have to rely on physician referrals.

Physician referrals have always been an important channel. Some medical practices invest far more in physician liaisons to drive referrals than in marketing. But that’s because they don’t realize that you can attract far more patients at a lower cost through paid digital advertising. In fact, we recently worked with a practice that generated 70% of new patients from digital advertising.

4. Advertising is too expensive.

Advertising costs vary from specialty to specialty, but how “expensive” something may be is subjective. Think about advertising costs within the context of your return on investment. If you pay $100 to acquire a patient through advertising that returns $3,000 in revenue to the practice, is that expensive? Many digital advertising channels allow you to only pay when you receive a click or allow you to get very specific in terms of the types of patients you target, which eliminates waste and unnecessary spending.

5. Remarketing is intrusive.

We’ve all seen remarketing ads that show up after we’ve visited a site. They’re some of the most targeted ads you can buy because they’re based on a potential patient’s behavior. While some may see remarketing as just intrusive, it’s often an essential medical marketing strategy because the patient journey often involves in-depth research over many days. Remarketing allows your practice to stay top-of-mind for potential patients as they explore their options.

Topic Discussed: 11 Medical Marketing Myths

Read Original Article