Is Your Practice Stuck in the Dark Ages?

It used to be that you could just hang a sign outside your door and the patients would come. Medicine and the medical industry have come a long way since then. It’s not just medicine that has become more sophisticated. Patients now have a rudimentary understanding of medical terms provided they can figure out how they are spelled. As patients have become more knowledgeable and connected, they’ve become more discerning as well. That’s fair enough. After all, as we’ve gone from four medical universities in the known world to 20 universities in Australia alone, they now have the power of choice. As a consequence, a simple sign will no longer suffice. Not even a flashing LED sign will do.

Instead, we need to find a way to understand the ever shifting and evolving landscape of technological and social change. How do you get the right information across in this age of data overload?

Now more than ever we see the importance for the medical industry to practice consumer psychology, strategic marketing and communication design. The good news is; you can implement a range of marketing strategies with several free online tools so you don’t have to be an expert in consumer behaviour to position your practice effectively.

We have put together a list of some of the useful tools that you can put into action right away. These tools will help you reach more potential patients, increase visibility of the results of your marketing efforts and streamline time consuming marketing tasks:

• Website Grader: Get a quick analysis on how strong your website performs in terms of speed, design and search engine friendliness by using website.grader.com
• Google Search Console Tools and Google Analytics : Receive insightful reports on the visibility and traffic of your website
• Wufoo: Creates contact forms, web surveys, and invitations so you can collect helpful data, registrations and online payments without writing any web code.
• Unbounce: Build, manage and test your marketing campaigns with landing pages that look professional and you don’t need to know how to code.
• MailChimp: Manage your email newsletters with one of the simplest email platforms with plenty of support and templates available to help you reach out to your patients.

Putting just some of these tools in place will enable your practice to utilise marketing insights that will allow you to make informed decisions about your marketing strategies moving forward. While employing such tactics is a great step, if you do find yourself becoming overwhelmed by it all, it does help if you have some specialists in your corner.

Here at Vividus, our specialised understanding of the healthcare profession means we can bring your marketing out of the dark ages and into the light of modernity and are always available to discuss your needs and provide consultation.