A person’s health and wellness journey will often involve the support of a wide variety of healthcare professionals. For example, if a person goes to see their primary care physician after a sprained ankle, the physician will likely refer them to a physical therapist who can help restore the ankle’s mobility.
If you run a healthcare practice, patient referrals can play a key role in patient acquisition. But if you’re having trouble establishing a network of other providers who trust you to take on their own patients, it could be time to partner with a healthcare marketing consultant.
Read on to learn about what a healthcare marketing consultant does and how they can boost your patient referrals.
What to know about a healthcare marketing consultant
A healthcare marketing consultant is a marketing expert who specializes in helping medical practices acquire and retain the patients they need to grow.
By partnering with a specialized consultant, you can collaborate to create and implement a comprehensive marketing strategy that will help to increase patient referrals. It may include:
- Provider-centric keyword research
- Quality, credible content
- Technical SEO to improve user experience
- Google Business Profile management
In the next section, we’ll go into detail about how these services can help to increase your patient referrals.
How a healthcare marketing consultant can increase patient referrals
Word of mouth goes a long way, but trying to build a network of referring providers requires a bit more than that. A healthcare marketing consultant can use their expertise to help you establish connections that will bring patients of fellow providers through your doors. Here are a few ways how:
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Managing and boosting reputation
Your reputation, especially online, plays a significant role in how you’re perceived by the search engine algorithm, as well as patients and referring providers. Staying on top of your online presence enables you to cultivate an image of authenticity and compassion that will lead to trust from other providers. A healthcare marketing consultant can help your reputation by:
- Gathering and responding to Google Business Profile reviews
- Keeping a consistent brand voice and tone across all distribution channels
- Creating content that’s transparent and proactive for important healthcare topics
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Creating a backlink network
A backlink is a link of your site that’s posted on another source. Having a network of backlinks is like having a stamp of approval on your content by other trusted providers. When fellow healthcare providers trust your content enough to link to it, it can strengthen your credibility and support future referral opportunities.
A marketing consultant can help you create a backlink network in a few different ways, such as pitching guest posts and finding broken links on other sites.
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Streamlining the process online
If it’s not easy for a user to contact you or book an appointment on your site, then your fellow providers can’t either, and that can impact your conversions and acquisition rate. A marketing consultant can help make the process as straightforward as possible. They can make recommendations, such as a separate tab for referring providers or creating a digital portal.
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Showcasing credibility and authority in your specialization
Credibility is always a top priority for a provider looking to refer their patients to another practice. You want to be seen not only as a trustworthy, patient-first practice, but also as a provider who has the expertise to specifically handle the referral.
A healthcare marketing consultant can help you to show your specialized credibility through data-backed content, review responses and putting patient testimonials on your site.
Want to attract new patient referrals? BURG+CO. can help with our team of healthcare marketing consultants
When you’re trying to boost your patient referrals, it’s important that your marketing targets providers just as much as potential patients. If you’re not sure how to put that approach into action, the healthcare marketing consultants at BURG+CO. can help — from launching the efforts to analyzing the data.
Our team has years of experience in helping healthcare brands improve their digital presence to attract new patients and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more potential patients to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help.
Want expert support with your digital marketing? Connect with BURG+CO. today to explore how we can help your healthcare brand grow.