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By Victoria C. | Solution21 | Director of Content Marketing |
With 2018 just a few days away, you’re probably somewhere between trying to enjoy the holidays and thinking about your medical or dental practice digital marketing strategy for the new year. To help you plan, here is Solution21‘s top four important digital marketing trends that we think will dominate 2018.
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising or pay-per-click (PPC) helps keep your practice name in front of your current patients beyond their appointments and it also helps acquire new ones. Furthermore, paid advertising on social media helps establish your authority amongst your followers. Most non-medical businesses have great success using paid advertising on search engines and social media. Now, dental and medical practices are getting in on the action. Paid advertising can promote your special offers or discounts, in-house financial plans, new technology you just acquired or additional service to your target audience. It also gives you another opportunity to compete with your competitors, who are most likely already advertising their practices.
Website Security and Patient Privacy
As a dental or medical practice, you are legally obligated to ensure that security of your patients’ personal and financial information. Identity or information theft have legal implications. Website security must be a top priority for healthcare websites because they are susceptible and constantly preyed upon by data thieves. At Solution21, we make sure that website we design and develop are visually appealing, intuitive for ease of use, HIPAA-compliant and highly protected from security threats. We never lose track of our clients’ security needs, and we remain focused on maintaining a reputation marked with responsibility for cyber security matters. Having a secure website makes prospective patients visiting your website feel reassured, knowing they will be safe when engaging with your website or making an electronic appointment request. If your site does not display security verification (SSL), potential patients are more likely to look elsewhere for treatments. Furthermore, having a secure site will also boost your online ranking.
Reputation Monitoring and Management
The reputation of your dental or medical practice depend heavily on how much attention you pay to your online reviews. To help grow your practice in 2018, it is imperative that you keep a proactive approach in managing and monitoring your online reputation. Solution21 provides integrated tools such as Review Monitoring and Reputation Management to help manage and monitor what patients say about your practice and systematically build positive reviews.
Mobile Apps
There’s practically an app out there for everything now. It’s been around for nearly a decade, but it’s only now that consumers are starting to rely on them for everyday things, such as transportation, food, reviews, set-up appointment, etc. With increasing dependence on smartphones for convenience, your dental or medical practice can take advantage of that. From your own custom mobile app, patients could check their billing history, schedule their appointments, review your practice, see your special offers and more. Your app means your patients can interact with your practice 24/7, which means more convenience for patients and better patient retention for your practice.
More than trends, these are digital marketing necessities that will help grow your practice in 2018 and beyond. If you don’t have these in your arsenal, now is the right time to audit your 2017 strategies, and start preparing a budget for 2018.
Contact Solution21 at (949) 336-7575 today to get help planning for your 2018 digital marketing strategies!
