Advertising as an orthopedic surgeon may feel as hacky as realtors’ faces on bus benches, but marketing is critical to all professions. We aren’t telling you to get promotional frisbees and calendars, though. In this day and age, the best way to expand your reach is digitally. Maybe the tech world isn’t your forte and maybe you’re not a social media person — we get it, you spent the last God-knows how many years with your head buried in a textbook.
But there are many interesting, professional ways to expand your digital reach as an orthopedic surgeon.
Website
While having a website is an obvious step to take, there are nuances to be considered. The website shouldn’t just feature yourself; it should feature all senior physicians in your practice. Show the public that you’re not a small operation — no pun intended — but rather a collective of brilliant minds in the field. Moreover, your website can inform visitors of the medical staff’s educational background, areas of specialty, a list of publications, and even fun personal information. All this helps build the practice’s ethos and makes clients willing to come in for a check up or consultation.
Making people actually find your website is a little trickier. There’s a sea of competition out there and standing out is like being a needle in a haystack. But needles are easy to find if you have a strong enough magnet. You can use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make sure your practice is among the top results shown potential patients search for your medical services. The folks at https://www.digitallogic.co/blog/orthopedic-marketing/ brilliantly explain how to optimize your website for search engines. There are even marketing agencies that will do this for you if you find it too tasking.
Blog
We are well aware that the early 2000’s are over and that blogs aren’t ‘cool’ anymore. But they’re actually very effective in expanding your digital reach. So while denim on denim may be out for good, blogs are here to stay. Blogs are a great way to educate the public and draw in traffic to your website at the same time. People often research their symptoms before consulting a physician, and having a well versed blog covering a wide array of topics is an excellent way to drive traffic to your website where you can then advertise your services.
Social Media
You don’t have to be too extreme with this; no need to showcase your morning routine or post inspirational quotes unless you want to. Think of this tool as a bite-sized visual blog post. You can reach an even broader group of people with social media as not everyone reads blogs. Short videos with health tips or posts with medical advice can be a great way to engage the public. While you can expand your outreach by creating varying content and becoming a social media influencer, you can, nonetheless, achieve great results with certain targeted posts.
Newsletters
Patients that come in or visit your website and provide you with their email can opt-in to receive a newsletter. You can use this as an opportunity to show off any awards your medical staff or practice was awarded, include snippets from your blog, and advertise any new services offered. This can also be useful in addressing communication details; phone numbers, hours of operation, etc. Try to make newsletters more informational than promotional. No one likes ads and they are unlikely to read on if they feel they are being advertised to. Make your newsletter regular enough to keep your practice in people’s minds but not so regularly that they become a nuisance as that is a sure-fire way to have them end up in email spam filters.
There are countless ways to expand your digital reach without hindering your professionalism or being hokey. Having an online presence in this day and age is unavoidable. While word-of-mouth is beneficial, it is not sufficient on its own. Expanding your digital reach doesn’t have to be too time-consuming either. If you would rather focus on just being an orthopedic surgeon, there are firms that are fully capable of handling your online presence for you or your practice. They can ensure that your website is professional, informative, and interactive. They can also ensure that it is optimized for search engines. But do attempt to maintain your digital content yourself as patients will appreciate seeing your character shine through. There is no better way to engage the public and attract new patients than reaching out to them through the various digital platforms discussed.
I operate memory care homes in Central Florida. Most of our fellow care providers are so focused on social media that they have forgotten about putting the same effort into their websites and blogs. You don’t mention it in your post, but using tools like Google My Business is essential for getting our local business to appear in local search and maps.