Online marketing has become a necessity for elective surgery practices. But with a growing number of websites, online advertising options and web-focused consultants, it can be tricky to determine where your money is best spent. If you take some time to prioritize your spending and track the results, you can create an effective online marketing strategy that will attract new patient without wasting precious practice resources.

Back to Basics

With so many opportunities to invest in online marketing, it can be overwhelming to decide how and where to spend your marketing dollars. Following is a prioritized list of expenditures I recommend for cosmetic practices:

1. Build a well-formed website. You don’t need to create the most beautiful site or offer the most pages, but you do want to make sure that your site offers relevant information to your audience and that it does not use black hat marketing techniques (i.e., keyword stuffing, doorway pages, invisible text, etc.). You should have a quality website that includes the range of treatment options available, the treating physician’s biography and CV, a range of before-and-after images of your patients, and clear “calls to action” on every page that direct visitors to call, email or submit a contact form. If you enjoy writing, creating a doctor’s blog can help capture more attention online.

2. Track everything. You (and your vendors) should track everything related to your website and online marketing efforts. This includes using a statistics package like Google Analytics to track visitors, referral sources, bounce rates and the most popular sections of your site.

3. Search Engine Optimization. You also want to track your Google and Bing search rankings. First, determine the most searched keywords for your market. You can find this information by searching under “Google Key Words” or “Bing Key Words.” Once you’ve identified your key words, write search engine optimized content for Google and Bing. Track your website performance for these keywords by manually entering them into search engines on a monthly basis. It’s important to track the exact same keyword phrases each month.

4. Implement conversion tracking. To help ensure that you are receiving a satisfactory return on your online marketing investment, you need to determine how many leads are coming from your website. Use a custom phone number for online marketing to create a full picture of your online investment returns. Staff members should also be trained to ask new patients how they heard about your practice.

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