Digital Marketing for Dermatologists: Attracting Patients With a Multi-Channel Approach
Picture this scenario for your dermatology practice:
- Your appointment calendar for patients is fully booked
- Your phone is ringing off the hook with requests for initial consultations
- You consider expanding your practice to keep up with patient demand
- You have complete clarity on how your digital marketing performance is going
The good news for you is that there’s no catch! With the right digital marketing agency on your side, all of this is possible. In this guide, we will explain the process behind how The Houston Marketing Agency executes its digital marketing campaigns that turn your dreams into a reality.
We’re a Marketing Agency Specializing in Dermatology
We have years of experience creating campaigns for dermatology practices, and we know what works and what doesn’t.
Contact The Houston Marketing Agency for a free, no-strings-attached initial consultation to see how we can help you grow your practice.
The Holistic Playbook for a High-Performing Dermatology Digital Marketing Campaign
Our clear-cut, proven processes and strategies have made us a top-performing Houston Marketing Agency.
Your digital marketing journey will focus on three critical components:
- Setting up data analytics so you have the power to track your campaign’s performance.
- Driving inbound traffic to your website.
- Converting website traffic into patients.
Seems easy enough, right?
The process is straightforward, but your results must be measurable to be meaningful.
Thinking about your digital marketing campaign, ask yourself these three questions (if you can confidently answer them, skip ahead to the end!):
- What is your website’s conversion rate?
- How many organic visitors did your site get from Google last month?
- What is your cost per qualified lead from Google Ads?
If you read those questions and were left lost and confused, that’s okay! This is where we step in and help you.
The Houston Marketing Agency is here to offer expertise to guide you through each step of the process so you understand how it all works.
We are a digital marketing agency, but we are also a data agency. This means we can help you understand what is successful and what isn’t, so you’re left with a holistic, personalized, high-performing campaign.
Phase 1: Build Robust Data Analytics
Trackable KPIs
Trackable data is the foundation for a successful digital marketing campaign. If you are making decisions for your practice based on unreliable data or a gut feeling, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are important pieces of data that can be analyzed for digital marketing.
Some important KPIs you should be tracking as a dermatologist are:
- Patient retention rate
- Monthly new patient growth rate
- Labor cost percentage
- Revenue per patient
- Appointment no-show rate
- And more
In addition to KPIs specific to your dermatology practice, some KPIs are focused on digital marketing that you should also be tracking, such as:
- Number of website visitors by channel
- Costs per channel:
- Cost per website visitor
- Cost per lead
- Cost per qualified lead
- Cost per conversion
Data Fidelity
The Houston Marketing Agency prides itself on perfect data tracking. Unfortunately, many other agencies and freelancers aren’t as meticulous regarding data fidelity. We’ve seen and inherited campaigns fraught with issues such as:
- Double-counting conversions.
- Not tracking every step of the funnel to understand drop-off and conversion rates.
- Tracking irrelevant conversions, such as someone making a direction request from Google Maps to your office.
When we create your digital marketing campaign, we will ensure that all the data we use and analyze will be completely relevant to your dermatology practice.
Phase 2: Maximize Affordable Inbound Traffic
Google has become people’s go-to for looking up information online. As such, this is a great place to start when analyzing your dermatology practice’s digital marketing data.
Looking at the results above, you can see that 648,000 people are searching for “dermatologists near me” every month. If you do the math, that’s almost 8 million people a year.
Also, a significant number of people search for dermatologists in specific cities. The above data shows that around 2,600 people per month are searching for dermatologists in Houston alone.
Why is this information important to you?
Imagine if this were your cit,y and all of these potential patients were directed to your website. If you aren’t performing well in organic and paid traffic, you are missing out on potential patients for your practice.
Organic
There are two places you can rank organically on Google for keywords such as “dermatologists near me.”
The first is known as the Google Local Pack.
So, how can you get your dermatology practice to rank in the Google Local Pack?
Local SEO is complex, and there are a lot of moving parts that make it work, but the basic formula is:
- Have an optimized, highly reviewed Google Business Profile.
- Have plenty of localized content on your website.
Below the Google Local Pack on the results page, you’ll see the organic results.
So, how can you get your dermatology practice to rank in the Google Local Pack?
Local SEO is complex, and there are a lot of moving parts that make it work, but the basic formula is:
- Have an optimized, highly reviewed Google Business Profile.
- Have plenty of localized content on your website.
Below the Google Local Pack on the results page, you’ll see the organic results.
Paid
Not all paid channels will perform the same. How well a paid channel performs depends on your company, prospective clients, location, and various other factors.
When it comes to the budget for your digital marketing campaign, here are some places where you may consider investing your resources.
Google Ads
If you’re having trouble ranking organically, Google Ads is a paid option that boosts your website to the top of the results page with the word “sponsored” next to it.
If your digital marketing agency plans your sponsored ads correctly, potential patients will see your website early in their search, click your link, and become patients.
However, keep in mind that not all Google Ads are the same. We can test different types of Google Ads to see which performs the best for your practice.
Some of the different types of ads include:
- Search
- Display
- Performance Max
- And more
YouTube Ads
YouTube Ads are a great way to visually connect with potential patients. Not all dermatology offices and practices are created equal. You can set yourself apart from the rest by crafting a high-quality video that showcases your beautiful office, your professional team, and the cutting-edge services you offer.
Did you know that statistics show that YouTube has 2.53 billion active users per month? This is a huge customer base that you can drive to your website as potential patients.
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok Ads
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of social media ad campaigns, it is important to understand that each platform has a different target audience.
There aren’t any hard and fast rules, and of course, there will be overlap in users of different generations, but for the most part, you can assume that:
- GenX prefers Facebook.
- GenX and Millennials prefer Instagram.
- Millennials and GenZ prefer TikTok.
You can use this information to your advantage by knowing which age group makes up most of each social media platform.
For example, in your dermatology practice, you offer a wide range of services targeting different demographics. TikTok is a platform that is widely popular amongst the GenZ demographic, so creating ads targeting issues common to them, such as hormonal acne, would be a better use of resources than targeting age spots.
Being popular amongst GenX and Millennials, Instagram may be a good place to create ads targeting early maintenance cosmetic treatments or issues relating to newborns and children, since the target audience is of childbearing age.
Phase 3: Increase Conversion Rates
So far, we’ve discussed strategies to drive more users to your website. This is an important first step that lays the foundation for your digital marketing campaign.
But it’s only the beginning. The next step is to convert these users into patients and keep them loyal for future services.
So, how can we make this happen?
Use CRO Best Practices
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of improving a website to increase the percentage of visitors who take a desired action—in your case, turning potential patients into actual patients.
Some important CRO factors include:
- An easily navigable website that is also mobile-friendly
- Using images and videos that are authentic, high-quality, and unique
- Reviews and testimonials from past and present patients
We can’t get into every possible strategy here, or you’d be reading for days, but these are some things your dermatology practice can focus on to increase your conversion rates.
Split Test Landing Pages
Split tests are the fastest way to determine if your website copy, design, and other on-page elements are increasing your conversion rates.
What is a split test? Here’s how it works:
- Landing Page A is the control page.
- Landing Page B is the test page. (Take Landing Page A and change one component.)
- Example: Changing the buttons on the page from “Contact Us” to “Schedule an Appointment.”
Now, you can compare your control page to your test page to determine which components attract more users. Doing this consistently can help you increase your conversions.
Clear CTAs
When a potential patient visits your website, they should see clear, easy-to-understand calls to action (CTAs) throughout your page.
These may include:
- Schedule a consultation
- Call the office
- Fill out a contact form
- And more
Whatever steps you want patients to take to lead to conversion should be simple and direct.
Increase LTV on Autopilot
Once you’ve converted a user into a patient, you’ve done most of the work—but not all! Acquiring new patients is half the battle; keeping them as patients to increase their lifetime value (LTV) is the other half.
Dermatology is a great field to be in when it comes to the LTV of a patient. Many services you provide aren’t one-off services, meaning patients should be coming back for routine checkups, maintenance, and other additional services as their skin ages and changes.
Dermatology is also set up to be successful through word-of-mouth recommendations and positive referrals from patients.
Email Automation for Repeat Services and Referrals
One of the easiest ways you can continue to increase the LTV of a patient is through automated email and text message reminders. Stay at the forefront of your patients’ minds by sending out emails to remind them to schedule their annual and biannual skin checkups.
Meanwhile, remind them of any referral programs or incentives you have in place to keep them motivated to refer your practice to their friends and family.
Digital Marketing for Dermatologists Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
The Houston Marketing Agency is here to help local and national dermatology practices reach their goals through a successful digital marketing campaign.
We will help you increase your inbound traffic and conversions using strategies specific to dermatologists and their practices. We stand behind our work and are confident enough to offer a 100% refund if we don’t improve your performance within three months.
Contact us today to get started.