Keeping Up With Your Practice's Competition

When it comes to healthcare, patients have choices to make. If you are in a field such as ophthalmology, otolaryngology, plastic surgery or aesthetics, which often requires patients to pay out of pocket for services not covered by insurance, then you are more aware of this than most providers. Competition can be tough, and sometimes it can make your practice feel less like a place of treatment and more like a place of commerce. But many providers forget that we no longer live in a market driven by the practice with the ever-present or most persuasive ad campaign. Most patients search for doctors online, where information is available at their convenience. Medical marketing is now about going to the patient, not bringing the patient to you.

Online and social media marketing is not about doing it "right." It's about doing it "better." What is working for one practice may not work for you. When doing a Google search for practices similar to yours, you may find your website farther down in the search results than many of your competitors. Though your first reaction may be to emulate your competition in order to boost your ranking, you must first understand what is and is not working for you.

Take a look at your website's statistics. What is generating the most traffic? Which parts of your website garner the most views? Are potential patients coming to your front page and immediately navigating away? Are they reading your blog posts? Are you giving them useful content, like FAQs, graphs, charts - things they can share with others?

Once you understand what you need to address in order to maximize your website's content, then you can begin to research your competition. When analyzing a competitor's website, several key pieces of inbound marketing need to be addressed. You should understand what keywords are brining the most traffic. Evaluate the content - this includes the copy, the social components, and the aesthetic value. Take time to examine the number of links and how they are used. Find out if others are linking back to this competitor and why.

Then ask yourself: Is your website using the appropriate keywords? Are they being used effectively? Is your website's content unique? Does it address or introduce ideas in a manner that appeals to your audience? Are you answering the important questions that patients may have? Is your website easy to navigate? Are you being social? Are people talking about you online? If not, what can you do to get people talking? And if so, what are they saying? How are you addressing it?

A truly engaging website can be the foundation of a successful healthcare marketing strategy. Is your practice's website keeping up with your competitors?