Medical Marketing: Facetime Counts

23 Jul Medical Marketing: Facetime Counts

Face-to-face interaction is just as important as digital marketing.

As a doctor, you work with patients every day. To suggest that you don’t would be silly; most doctors aren’t giving out diagnoses or performing surgical procedures via the Internet.

When it comes to your medical marketing strategy, however, you may very well be keeping up with the times by relying on your Internet presence. If you’re successfully marketing your practice, you’re probably active on various types of social media, updating your blog, making sure your website is SEO-friendly and maybe sending out email blasts or texts to interested parties. (Or, perhaps more likely, you’ve hired a company like HealthCare Marketing Group to handle this for you.)

MarketingLand points out, however, that face-to-face “marketing” is just as important, even in today’s technologically inundated world. You might think that you’re getting in plenty of facetime with your patients, and you are probably right, but if you want to attract even more patients, you’re going to need to get your countenance out there.

Where is “out there”? Take a look at these two ways that you can integrate yourself (your actual self, not your Facebook self) more into your community to get more patients interested in what you have to say.

Medical Marketing: Educating the Community in Person

You may have already created a webinar or a video of you talking about your specialty. This is an excellent way to reach people in their homes, and a video is easily forwarded on to others. It’s passive marketing at its best, once the video is made and disseminated.

Some people, however, are not going to sit through a video. Others are going to have follow-up questions, but they might not be inspired enough to send you an email or call the office. One way you can circumvent this is by holding an informative meeting in person. Rent a conference room at a local hotel or use the space in your office, invite the public (or a select number of community members), and give your talk to people while standing in the room with them. Answer questions afterward and hand out your business cards or brochures.

Medical Marketing: Attending Area Events

If there are health fairs or other industry-specific events going on in your community, make an effort to attend. Even better, donate a few hours to performing some type of health-based activity: Give out depression-screening questionnaires, perform some vision screenings or figure out something else related to your specialty.

Don’t limit yourself to health fairs, though. Follow your interests and attend events that have nothing to do with your work. You don’t want to be “on” all the time, but you can still be friendly, greet community members and engage in small talk. If you do get potential or current patients who want to ask you a medical question, hand them a business card and ask them to call your office or send you an email the next business day.

Getting your face “out there” can be just as important as finely honing your digital marketing strategy. Think about how you can improve your facetime in your local community, and watch interest in your area rise.

If you need help in creating a balance between your digital medical marketing techniques and face-to-face time, contact the experts at Healthcare Marketing Group. Give us a call at 800-258-0702 today to schedule a free consultation.