Social Media Should Be One Part of a Marketing Plan

Posted on by ASCENT: Administrator Support Community for ENT

Would you rely solely on a magazine advertisement or billboard to market your practice? Probably not. So why would you rely solely on social media to get your name out there? We’ve talked recently about branding and the importance of repetition. Just like with any other type of consumer, the more a potential patient sees your brand the more likely they are to use your services. While there are billions of people using social media on a daily basis, there are lots of effective placements that can generate more revenue.

Where should you market?

Firstly, your marketing plan should be diverse with as many placements or platforms that are appropriate. Within this group, there should be a hierarchy of places where you will market. Historically, email typically delivers the best return on your investment. According to Experian, transactional emails have eight times more opens and clicks than any other type of email and can generate six times more revenue.

But you should also consider where your potential patients are on a regular basis. Are they frequenting the local high school football games? Do they go to the community center regularly? Thinking about this will help you think more strategically about where to market.

So where does social media fit in?

Social media should be just one place where you market the same brand messaging and advertising. Let’s use a pediatric oriented practice in a mid-size city that wants to reach new patients as an example. Even though the kids may be on social media, it would be better to reach out to the parents. After all, they will be the ones scheduling the appointments. A practice such as this could market in these place:

  1. Sports programs – Parents who attend games will look through these booklets during and after the games. This is a great place for parents to see your brand.
  2. Community center or library – This is another great place for parents to see your brand. There are often community boards where anyone can post a flyer. You could also inquire about other opportunities such as an ad in their digital newsletters or maybe providing book bags to toddlers at story times.
  3. Local TV morning news – Many parents watch the morning news, and it’s another great place to be seen if you can get your local news to do a story on your practice or about a service. Maybe a story with a physician at the beginning of the school year talking about ear infection and myringotomy?
  4. Facebook and Instagram – Chances are many of the moms and dads in town are on one of these social networks. To reach the parents of new patients, you could run an ad or boost a post. Maybe a shared link to your myringotomy story on the local news?
  5. Email – Even though you don’t have their email addresses yet, you could collect them and send follow up emails. That link to the morning news video could also push traffic to a landing page where people fill out a form for more information or maybe your practice newsletter.

But no matter where you market, your message and brand should be a cohesive message created for your target audience.