The One Thing Orthopedic Practices Can Do to Level Up Their Digital Marketing

There is no shortage of articles about how to market your orthopedic practice. Read a handful of them and you’ll see a few common themes:

Invest in a strong online presence to attract new patients.

Forget outdated tactics like television and print advertising. Focus instead on implementing more cost-effective online campaigns.

We live in a digital age – market your practice accordingly.

I’ve spent many years in healthcare marketing and I agree with each of these wholeheartedly. But one crucial point is missing from every article, and it’s one that can make the difference between an average online strategy and one that transforms your practice:

Focus your marketing efforts on making connections.

Making a Connection Changes Everything

I love this story about the birth of my friend’s daughter. It perfectly encapsulates how using digital marketing to make a connection can turn a prospect into a patient.

There’s no question that online marketing is the best strategy for increasing patient volume and improving conversion rates. In our webinar 2019 Orthopedic Marketing Trends, Rod Thomas and I share the very latest tactics and tools for how to do this effectively.

One throughline for every tactic is the importance of forming a connection with patients in order to build trust. You aren’t selling iPads, you’re providing life-changing healthcare services. Therefore, building trust is essential for landing new patients. If they trust you, you’ve got a shot. If you fail to connect with patients and earn their trust, they won’t come through the door.

How to Earn Trust

Because your website is often the first point of contact patients will have with your practice, investing in your site is one of the best ways to earn trust.

Your site should be modern, responsive, and reflective of your credibility, competence, and authority.

When your website is fully modernized, think about putting money towards digital marketing mainstays like paid search, social media, and content marketing.

Why? Well, before picking an orthopedic practice, patients will scour the Internet for information—the more touchpoints your practice has, the more reputable it will seem and the more effective it will be in forging a strong connection with the consumer (e.g., your newest patient).

And don’t forget about building a collection of high-quality reviews because nothing will build trust faster than a strong online reputation. When potential patients turn to the Internet to learn about an orthopedic practice they always spend a great deal of time reading online reviews left by previous patients on websites like Yelp.

Those Who Connect Win

To be successful in 2019, your orthopedic practice must connect with new patients. But if you aren’t online, how will they know you exist? Implementing a modern digital marketing strategy will help you form the connections that lead to new business.