Inbound marketing refers to the strategy of creating compelling content in the form of blog posts, webinars and eBooks, coupled with search engine optimization (SEO), with the goal of attracting potential patients to your pediatric practice.
While outbound marketing is a good way to attract new patients and retain existing ones, inbound marketing is becoming the most efficient technique for reaching a wider target audience who may not even know you but who are looking for services similar to yours.
Inbound marketing is one of the most efficient ways to help you grow the online presence of your pediatric practice. This is because inbound marketing focuses on educating patients through dynamic content. Some of the most common types of content include e-books, blogs, podcasts, social media posts, white papers and email marketing. Inbound marketing can play an integral role in helping you differentiate your practice from your competitors’.
Embrace the new process
The ultimate goal of inbound marketing techniques is to move things from a push model to a pull model. You should focus on creating high-value content about your practice and strategically place it where you expect current and potential patients to notice it and benefit from it.
According to experts, five actions that describe the process of inbound marketing are: attracting new visitors, converting visitors to leads, closing the deal by converting leads to patients, delighting your patients and making them your brand advocates. This entire process can be carried out using various blog posts, social media profiles, keyword generation, email campaigns, call-to-action buttons and e-books. The results are then analyzed and improved using online reporting systems.
The following inbound marketing tips will help you grow the online presence of your pediatric practice:
Compelling website design: One of the basics of inbound marketing is building a useful website that makes it easy for existing and potential patients to find the information they need. An easy-to-browse website will help retain existing patients and attract new patients, and a good design is essential for this.
Do not ignore SEO: Once your website is live, you need to make sure patients can find it. This is where SEO can help you. When you “optimize” your website for search engines, you are trying to manage how well your site ranks when a potential patient searches for a service you provide or asks a question related to your practice area. There are many ways to optimize your website, including cross-linking and using keywords. However, there are no shortcuts. You cannot improve your website’s ranking without adding high-quality, relevant content.
Start blogging: Blogging can help you establish and improve your online presence. You can start by creating a blog and posting to it often. If you are not sure about what to write, look for other pediatricians who are creating content and see what they are doing. For instance, you can write about what parents should look for before committing to a pediatrician. You can ask nearby daycare centers to link to your blog in exchange for you writing about their service and linking back to them. This combination of relevant content and linking will help improve your SEO considerably.
Promote your website: You can build the most useful website and write the most informative blog posts, but unless you promote them, your patients will not be able to find them. In order to promote your website, you must include a link to your practice website in the signature field of your email and social media profiles. You can also promote your website through your blog posts and in your email marketing messages.
Publish quality content: If you want to establish your online presence, you will have to pay extra attention to your content offerings. To begin with, you can look through your blog posts for common themes and try putting them together in the form of an e-book. This kind of content has real value, and because you are utilizing existing content, it will not consume much time. It will provide your potential patients more assurance that you are an expert in your field. You can also create vaccination schedules and diet options for babies. Providing high-utility content on your practice website will help attract a steady flow of visitors.
The bottom line
Building your practice website and drawing traffic is the ultimate goal of inbound marketing. By creating content that is relevant to your target audience, and building a website that is easy to navigate, you can attract visitors and motivate them to trust your pediatric practice. If done correctly, inbound marketing can enhance your online presence and produce new referrals.