Do you know before confirming an appointment with a physician, 77% of new patients look for related information online? More than 80% of consumers believe that a doctor with a dynamic online presence is more dynamic or better than a doctor with less or no online presence. That means before coming to your chamber, your patients want to know you. Today personal branding of a doctor is as important as getting rid of a disease. How? Of course, you know better that human beings are psychosomatic creatures. When a typical patient would feel that the doctor he is about to meet is dependable, he would feel better. Those feelings would affect the remedy of his disease. It is scientifically proven. Your Google My Business(GMB) review and/or other social media review would help you to come forward. It would increase your popularity as well as the number of patients.
Personal branding of doctor [ Local SEO for doctors ]
When you were a medical student you probably did not even think that one day you would have to attract patients and go through your marketing through personal branding. The hard reality is being a registered physician and having a chamber is not the only thing to attract patients. Why would patients come to you? You will have to know the answer accurately and convince your potential patients in that context. Personal branding does not mean that you are a commercial doctor who only prioritizes money and takes his service as a business. Rather, it means you are concerned about your patients, your career, the community, and the country.
Your branding as a doctor would help your patients to make easy decisions to come to your chamber when there were a good number of other options available.
It builds and spreads your popularity, positive image and credibility.
It would help to build a platform wherein your distinguishing features would spread by your existing patients. Simply, word of mouth plays a vital role here.
It helps to build emotional bonds within or between you and your patients. As a doctor of course you know the negative effect of exaggeration. Please avoid it.
It assures that you are dependable.
Steps to build your brand
>Ask yourself your vision: It is very natural to expect that generating money is not solely a motivating factor of your career. You have a clear vision that reflects life, career, your community, country etc. In the way of your branding, spread that vision convincingly.
>Know your patients and communicate with them accordingly: Let me think that you are a Gynecologist. Your marketing approach would not be the same as the marketing approach of a doctor who is from a Neurology background.
>Build a value proposition: Everyone is unique in his way. Of course, you know that every registered doctor who is from an approved medical college is good. But your strong value proposition would say why you are different and more dependable. Here, you have to make it clear what value and benefits you would provide to your patients.
Think smartly, think digitally
Have a user-friendly interactive website and rank it: You should have an efficient and functional website. The website should be simple yet informative. It should describe you, your service, your achievements, patient review, videos, blogs and more. In sum, it would be a convincing platform to convince your potential patients to depend on you. It is important to bear in mind that having a website is not full of the story, rather making it visible to your target group is important to a large extent. SEO would help your target group of patients to organically find you. Paid promotion is not always wise to run always. It is SEO that helps you to get rid of paid promotions on a large scale.
Invest time in Google My Business(GMB) profile: Before working on GMB, you as a business owner or strategic manager have to be convinced to the point that GMB works. It helps to improve engagement, brand loyalty, trust, and most importantly sales. It positively impacts your local SEO ranking. It helps Google to realize what you exactly do and from where you do operate your business operation. It allows you to appear on the map. Of course today you know how effective the reviews are. It is GMB to leave or encourage a review about your business. It has been often learnt that 93% of your potential customers might have the chance to make a decision based on online reviews. That means there is a very positive correlation between buying decisions and online reviews. It minimizes your operational cost and location barriers. It builds trust.
Your business name should be there: It is important. You should use the actual name. Don’t try to show your creativity here. For example, the brand name of KFC is simply KFC. It is unwise to select the name ‘KFC-the best-fried chicken in your town’ while selecting the business name in the GMB profile. Otherwise, there is a chance of being suspended from the GMB listing. The point is to write your actual brand name.
Describe your business category: Yes, it is also an important place where you should pay attention. Here you have to select one primary category. You can also select at most nine secondary categories. It would describe your business. On local search, the primary category has a direct impact. In terms of the primary category, you have to select the most specific and concrete category that fits best with you. For example, instead of selecting a medical practitioner, it is more accurate to select a surgeon and most accurate to select an Orthopedic surgeon, provided that you are an Orthopedic surgeon.
Your business location should be there: Provide your full mailing address even if it is not so visible. As a business person, it is our responsibility to show our business identity to the customers concretely. Sometimes customers are too lazy to find you. To maximize customer experience, Google always wants a specific location. It also affects the Search Engine Result Page(SERP). Put every detail on the business location page of GMB. You would not use a general location here. For example, in place of using Kalabagan, Dhaka, you have to use 148-2-48, North Kalabagan, Dolphin Goli, Dhaka.
Mention your business hours: You should keep in mind that possessing a GMB profile is to also help your customers. You have to provide the relevant and necessary information. As a medical practitioner surely you have a schedule to maintain, and you have separate visiting hours when your patients are allowed to meet you. In your GMB profile, you have to mention it. That’s it. It is important for Google ranking also. It helps also to grab positive reviews from the group of your patients. Providing every detail means you are responsible for your profession.
Mention your phone number: Sometimes business owners don’t provide a phone number. Sometimes they do it intentionally as they are not so interested in communicating with people one by one. In the long run, it is not so fruitful. You should mention your phone number in your GMB profile. Yes, it is also true that as a doctor you are not so free to attend every call made by your current and potential patients. You can assign another person to do so. Always provide an active number.
Add your website: Your GMB profile does not contain every detail you deal with. Your website contains almost everything related to your service and profession. For example, on your website you may have hundreds of blogs kept for promoting your service, helping your patients, serving the community and more. But, on the contrary, you may not keep blogs in your GMB profile. However, the good news is you can promote your website as well as a blog from the GMB profile by simply including it here. If you don’t have a website, you should get one.
Social media presence: As mentioned earlier, your social media presence makes you more dependable to your target group of patients. You can be present on
-Facebook: Your Facebook page is surely a good platform for your branding. Here, you can come up with a regular post. You can make yourself aware of your community by posting posts describing prevention tips. The post can be in video or text format.
-YouTube: The same video you can publish both on Facebook and YouTube. You can also post positive reviews or feedback on your present patients.
-Instagram: It is a popular platform for all, and so is for physicians. Here, you can also move with the trend. Using hashtags is also important here.
-SMS marketing: It is popular, convenient and effective. It helps to spread your popularity at a good pace.
Blog marketing: It would be very effective for you. Blog marketing is a strategy that helps your community and increases your popularity at an unbelievable pace. The simple business notion is your target group of consumers would surely look after your business interest provided that you and your brand look after their interest. The blog is the platform where and by which your target group can feel attached. For example, in the blog, you can focus more on prevention than cure. The impact of those blogs would be outstanding in spreading your popularity. A blog would be your lifetime asset. You can share it from your other social media pages. In your blog content, you can also say success stories of your present or past patients.