How to Analyze Your Healthcare Website Like a Pro

So you’ve built this awesome website and now you’re ready to start attracting new patients. You make it live and sit back, waiting for the appointments to start rolling in. But just like when you were 15 and waiting for your crush to call… the phone just doesn’t ring. (Oh wait, that’s just us? Moving on.) Where did you go wrong? What could you have done better? Is it you? Is it them? Why does my health care practice’s website not attract patients?

You are not alone. The process of reaching patients is a challenging trek.  It’s not easy, you have to build an engaging website, battle for organic and paid search space and grab the attention of leads. How can you make it through the second two steps though, if you haven’t successfully completed the first step? It’s time to take a good hard look at your website and poke holes in its weak spots.

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Tip 1: Look at your website from an unbiased perspective. If you designed your website you probably put a lot of time, energy, money and tears into it, so it might be best to get an outsider’s opinion. Get an online reputation and website evaluation done by someone who knows what to look for.

Tip 2: If you want to do the research yourself because you’re determined like that, start out by doing a crawl of your website to look for any error codes, missed meta descriptions or empty title tags. Screaming Frog SEO Spider is simple and easy to use if you know how to read the reports. You can download a free version here.

Tip 3: Hubspot also has a free website grader you can use to evaluate your website. Don’t get too hung up on the 1/100 grade they give you, but it can give you a very topical idea of how your website stands up against others. This can help you see how well Google sees your website as it searches for an onsite blog, lead generation forms and meta descriptions.

Tip 4: Don’t stop there, you can stalk your competition too! See how well they are doing online so you have an idea of how well you stack up against them. Knowing your enemies’ weaknesses can sometimes help you prevail. I’m fairly confident this was a lesson from Disney’s Mulan or The Art of War, but it still rings true in healthcare marketing.

Tip 5: Do some good old fashioned searches. Think like your potential patient. Ask yourself what their needs are and what they would type into Google to find your practice. If you aren’t coming up in the organic searches or your Adwords ads aren’t showing up, take note. You need to capitalize on those missed opportunities and find ways to incorporate those key terms into your website content so you will show up in potential patient search queries.

You too can act like a website marketing pro. Another bonus tip is to never stop learning. Subscribe to our blog and other tech websites to stay up on best practices to continuously improve your website, whether you are a medical practice, hospital or healthcare organization. 

The Importance of a Mission Statement in Health Care Marketing

Recently we decided to revaluate our mission statement to determine if it was still in line with our company culture. What we found was that our mission statement was so broad, that it was falling flat. It wasn’t doing what we created it for; which was to hold our employees accountable and remind us why we do what we do. So, we decided to go back to square one and redevelop a mission statement that would effectively showcase what Atlantic Health Solutions is all about.

Does a mission statement really matter?

Initially, I had some apprehension regarding developing a new mission statement. As the Communication Director, I knew how effective a great mission statement could be for large companies but I was unsure if it was worth our time and attention. Now I know, no matter how large or small your organization is, having the right mission statement and encouraging your employees to truly adhere to it, can make all the difference in the world.

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Why a mission statement matters:

• Helps keep your staff accountable and on track
• Clearly explains your culture to potential clients and partners
•  Let’s others see what sets you apart from your competition
• It can help with future growth and new staff
• Forms a template for decision-making and strategic moves

How to write an effective mission statement for a medical practice or hospital:

• Be clear and avoid medical, clinical or marketing jargon.
• Ex: Specifics regarding procedures/diagnoses, terms regarding reporting, turn around time, accreditations, terms like “strategic alliance” and “exceptional service” because it doesn’t really say what you do.
• Make sure to say what you “aspire” to be, rather than bragging about how great your practice already is at what they do.
• Let your mission statement be unique to your center. If it’s too broad or looks like it could belong to just about anyone in health care, you need to be more niche.
• Don’t make it too lofty. Goals should be specific and somewhat realistic and the same goes for your mission statement.
• Keep it short and simple. Nobody likes a diatribe of you going on and on about your doctors and staff.

Check out our new mission statement:

“At Atlantic, we live to inspire. Our mission is to uniquely serve patients by changing the way they engage with healthcare providers. We adhere to a culture of hard work, integrity and innovation. We nurture our team and our community by giving back and growing those around us. We understand that with a positive attitude and the undying desire to never stop learning, we will thrive.”

Marketing to Gen Y Patients

Hannah Horvath, the main character from HBO’s both widely criticized and praised hit television show GIRLS said, "I think that I may be the voice of my generation. Or at least a voice. Of a generation." Well, I don’t claim to be the all encompassing voice of my generation, but after working for four years in the progressive startup space and in health care digital marketing and collaborating with Millennials across the country, I’ve learned a lot about our Gen Y slice of the pie.

Generation Name - Birth Year Ranges

GI Generation - Born 1901 – 1926

Silent Generation - Born 1927 – 1945

Baby Boomers - Born 1946 – 1964

Generation X - Born 1965 – 1980

Generation Y/Millennials - Born 1981 – 2000

Generation Z - Born after 2001

How we spend our money, how we are perceived in the workforce, how we engage with others and how we make an impact on society can be viewed negatively and positively depending on who you ask.  There’s a lot to be said about how other generations view Millennials and the way we view ourselves. Others might say Millennials are:

• Over-privileged
• Ill-prepared for the future
• Lazy, not hardworking
• Cheap
• Overly passionate
• Disobedient

Those perceptions however come with a distasteful side of disdain and an extra helping of misunderstanding. Sure, some Millennials could be classified in those ways, but so many of us could also be called:

• Innovative
• Loyal to brands and loved ones
• Healthy, to avoid issues we’ve seen in the past ie: obesity, cigarette smoking
• Intelligent
• Driven and passionate about our careers
• Respectful and empathetic to others, despite their background

Growing up in a digital environment, our generation has been awarded limitless opportunities unavailable to previous generations. Due to this fact, the way we get information, how we socialize and how we act as consumers is automated, streamlined and unlike ever before. In our time, we’ve seen the evolution of travel with websites like Expedia, digitized shopping capabilities with eBay, automated financial management with PayPal and now even instant gratification from online shopping with Amazon’s introduction of drone delivery.

It’s no wonder we handle things like money management differently than our parents. The things our Baby Boomer generation would save money for, such as homes, cars and health insurance aren’t really on our radar. So why is it that the Gen Y population is seemingly unconcerned with health care coverage, despite the spotlight “Obamacare” has put on the issue?

Reasons why Millennials don’t love the idea of paying for health insurance:

1. Invincibility: We are fairly young and healthy, so we don’t think we’ll get sick and need the insurance
2. Anti-Conformity: We don’t like to take the first answer given to us and we don’t like to be told what we have to purchase, which means we will ultimately try to beat the system.
3. Consumerism: We are accustomed to having the power to use the internet and social media to connect and make decisions about the brands, products and services we spend our money on. In health care, that can be a challenge.

We are the future of health care, but this sad fact remains: 40% of Millennial employees say they would not be prepared to pay out-of-pocket for health expenses if something came up. Additionally, only 13% of Millennials said they are actually satisfied with their employer-provided benefits.

So what can our health care industry do to improve access to quality, affordable care ourselves? We believe the first and most important step is to accept price transparency and quality transparency. Making it easier for patients to compare their options and select physicians based on what’s most important to them. Our online market place, Save On Medical, gives patients the power to actually shop for medical procedures online the way they shop for travel with Expedia.

As more innovative startups continue to develop the health tech space with the support of leaders like Florida Blue, we predict that Millennials will spark a health care revolution. We’ll pave the way for generations to come. If the innovation we’ve seen over the last decade is any indication, it’s going to be a wild ride. 

Fill out the form below to get a grading report from our marketing team, telling you how well you're marketing to Gen Y/Millenial patients:

Can Radiologists Be Social?

Working in radiology marketing, we've learned the in’s and out’s of the industry. We have become well-versed in radiology specific terminology, learned more about Toshiba and Hitachi technology than we can fathom and found out how to use various forms of marketing to attract patients and referring physicians.  The biggest lesson we have learned though, is how to bring the actual radiologists to the table for marketing success.

A joke in our niche industry is that radiologist physicians chose their specialty because they in fact don’t like patients and would rather sit in a dark room all day powering through their work, than ever have to see a single patient.  It makes sense; being that radiologists are compensated for the amount of interpretations they get through, rather than their amount of daily positive patient interactions.  As a result, the radiologist is not normally well known for exquisite bedside manner.

That being said, many imaging centers and radiology departments end up marketing their centers the same way. Using crutch-terms like “24-hour turnaround time” and “ACR accredited” plastered all over their advertisements and signs, doing nothing to stand out against their competition. By finding unique ways to actually market your radiologist, you can take the road less traveled in radiology.

So what can you do to market a physician that rarely interacts with patients and referring physicians?

-       Build an online persona for your physician through LinkedIn and Twitter

o   Share posts and become a thought-leader in radiology by posting valuable content, studies and blog articles.  As a marketing pro, you can help extend the radiologist’s reach through these two social mediums.

-       Patient-focused ghost writing

o   Write original content for patients from the perspective of your radiologist, advising them on the differences between procedures, how to prepare and how to understand diagnoses.

-       Brand journalism for your radiologist

o   Take the ghost writing a step further and reach out to local media and industry publications to explore whether they need an expert in radiology to consult on medical news and healthcare changes.

-       Video interviews and how-to’s

o   If you’re lucky enough to have a radiologist that wants to get involved with your efforts and feels comfortable being filmed, you can package short videos of the doctor explaining their services. Video content is great for SEO and is much more manageable for patient education than long white papers and jargon–riddled blog posts.

To discuss some ways to transform your practice’s marketing, fill out the form below: