Your medical practice is struggling to attract patients. You’ve purchased an ad in the phone book, secured a slot in the local paper, and handed out leaflets in the community. You continue to deliver quality care and ask patients to send referrals your way.

And still, you’ve got patient volume problems. It’s time to turn your attention to digital marketing.

Indeed, half of the people now go online for information on health concerns and healthcare providers; over three-quarters use the internet to book appointments! The message seems clear:

Effective medical lead generation strategies have changed. These days, acquiring leads online is essential for attracting new patients and running a thriving service.

The next question becomes how to do it! How do you go about driving a steady flow of quality online leads to your practice? If you’ve already started down this path, then fantastic! But there’s always room for improvement.

Keep reading to discover a selection of tips for getting more online leads.

1. Leverage Content

Content is king. This now infamous phrase came straight from the mind of Microsoft founder Bill Gates; if anybody understands the internet, it’s him!

The quote’s become something of a mantra for marketers. Why?

Because content can become a driving force behind your lead generation attempts.

Termed ‘content marketing’, the idea is that you use content to solve your target audience’s problems, and to answer their questions. Get that content to rank in search engines and people will find it, read/watch/listen to it on your website.

Once there, you’ve got their attention! You can then tell them about your practice, invite them to subscribe to your newsletter, get them to book an appointment, and so on.

Convince them to provide their contact information and, voila, a steady stream of new leads.

The next question is what content you should use in this endeavor. We’ll go through a couple of options in the coming points…

2. Start a Blog

Blogs have been a cornerstone of content marketing for years now.

The written word exploded in popularity online from the outset and continues to drive quality leads to this day. In fact, 4 million new blog posts are published every single day!

If you don’t already have one, then get one set up ASAP.

The trick to using blogs (and all other content, for that matter) to best effect lies in search engine optimization (SEO).

Now, SEO is a large and in-depth topic.

However, the basic idea is to optimize your website and content such that search engines can find, crawl and rank it more easily. In a blogging context, this begins with effective keyword research.

Find keywords that lots of people are searching for, but few other webmasters are targeting. From there, publish a detailed and insightful post on the topic that’s engaging and easy to read.

A few backlinks later and you stand a good chance of ranking highly on Google.

Here’s a post that will shed further light on the process.

3. Create Video Content

Not much of a writer but feel comfortable in front of a camera?

Video content might be more up your street.

Even better, video content is big right now. Countless hours of video get consumed every single day on the various platforms that host it. Think Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to name but three.

Use this form of media in the same way as a blog: find the keywords, create the content, and get it ranking (on the platform itself and in search engines).

You could create a YouTube channel dedicated to solving the medical problems of your target demographic. As people start watching your videos you’ll gain newfound exposure and start to develop a well-known brand.

Put links to your website in the footnotes and talk about your practice in the video. More leads will come your way.

4. Master Local SEO

Not all SEO is created equal.

As a whole, it’s a form of marketing that gets your site ranking on Google. Local SEO takes that same concept but gets it in front of the people in your local area.

You can imagine how that’s important for your practice.

After all, few people want to travel far to see their doctor. People want convenience; the closer, the better. It’s in your absolute interest to rank highly in the search results of people in the vicinity of your practice.

Be sure to include local search terms in your content and on your webpages too. For instance, you could write blog posts on subject matters pertaining directly to your area, such as dominant health issues. The more relevant the posts are, the better it is for driving leads.

Let people know where you’ve located at every opportunity. Incorporate and map and contact details on your contact page.

5. Improve Your Website

Your website is the key to your internet lead generation.

This is digital marketing 101: without a website, you aren’t going to get very far generating leads online. Don’t have one? Head over to WordPress now to set one up.

However, it isn’t enough to simply have a website.

Your site must be optimized to make lead generation more likely. Again, a lot goes into this, and SEO is at the core of the process.

One point of primary concern, though, is the site speed. Your webpages need to load as quickly as possible if they’re ever going to fire on all lead generating cylinders.

Peoples’ attention spans are incredibly short these days.

Lacking the patience to wait for a slow-loading page, they’ll click back within seconds and head to elsewhere. Having done well to earn their click, few things are more frustrating from a marketing standpoint than losing it again (especially if the user ends up on a competitor’s site!).

Optimize your site to run at super speeds and your lead gen efforts will be rewarded.

6. Make It Mobile-Friendly

Here’s another quick website-related tip:

Make sure it functions just as well on mobile.

This is pivotal for driving leads because the majority of web traffic now comes directly from mobile phones. Websites that are clunky, visually unappealing, and hard to navigate on mobile perform far worse.

Conversely, mobile-friendly websites work much better.

7. Leverage Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

People (online and offline) tend to be bad at thinking for themselves.

Few things would get done in the absence of instruction.

Think about city streets and all the signs telling you what to do and what not to do: ‘Do not enter’, ‘Remember to wash your hands’, ‘Grab your sandwich here’…these are all real-life CTAs that guide peoples’ behavior.

Those signs are vital for the desired effect to be achieved.

The same is true for your website! Including CTAs lets users know what you want them to do. Fail to include them and a huge proportion of users will fail to comply.

‘Subscribe here’, ‘Register now’, ‘Book your appointment’, are examples of CTAs you could try. Match your CTAs to your specific goals and include them throughout your website and content.

8. List Your Practice on Medical Directories

Medical directories provide another important source of potential leads.

Indeed, many potential patients skip the search engines and go straight to these directories. Imagine if the practices in your area had a listing but yours didn’t. Your practice might be more suitable for their needs and provide better quality care.

But they won’t know that unless they can find you on the directory.

Be sure to populate these listings with as much information as possible. Think of it as a CV. Basic details such as name, address, and specializations are fundamental inclusions. Go one step further and add your level of experience, insurance details, and so on.

Do what you can to convince somebody to come to your practice over another.

9. Use Social Media

Social media is another mighty tool at your lead generating disposal.

Literally billions of people are on one or more of the social platforms out there. It’s your job to ascertain which platform (be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and so on) your target demographic frequents most.

From there, create a profile and set about delivering helpful, interesting, relevant and entertaining content.

Tell people about updates to the practice, crucial notifications, and the people working behind the scenes. Link out to your website and landing pages to drive leads; use it to grow your brand and generate newfound exposure in your area.

Think about running ads as well.

Driving organic engagement on social is becoming far harder. Putting some ad spend behind your efforts will be an enormous help.

Time to Get More Leads Online

Lead generation methods of old no longer work.

In the digital era that we’re living in, getting leads online is pivotal to running a thriving medical practice.

Hopefully, this post has provided all the insight required to start generating a steady flow of new prospective patients your way.

Want professional support with the process? Contact us today to get some help or more information.