The 10 Minute Healthcare Marketing Podcast

How Much Time Should You Spend on Social Media

What was discussed?
Quote of the day: “You can’t expect to hit the jackpot if you don’t put a few nickles in the machine.” – Flip Wilson According to a recent study, 64% of marketers are on social media for 6 or more hours a day. Only 45% of marketers think that what they’re doing (at least on Facebook) is effective.
Set Some Goals
When you go into social media, you need to have goals in mind. Typical goals would be to earn new business, gain exposure, build relationships with other businesses or potential patients, generate leads, reduce your marketing expenses by ranking well in the search engines from those social profiles, increase traffic to your site or develop loyal fans!
Choose Your Platforms
After determining your goals, figure out your main platforms. Focus on a few platforms that you feel most comfortable with and know that your audience will be browsing.
Plan Your Posts
A study was put out (LINK) by Broadcast to World which talked about how often you should post on different social platforms that showed that Facebook posts should be around 5-10 posts a week (1 or 2 a day), LinkedIn is about 1 time per day, Twitter is 7-10 times per day, Google+ around 5-10 times a week, and Instagram 3-5 times per day.
Remember Your Customers
When you develop your social media plan, keep the customer service angle in mind. Failing to see complaints on social media can have serious consequences. You need to be sure that you’re addressing the issues and making the customer feel like their complaint was heard.
Distribute Your Time Equally
Make sure your time is well distributed and that you’re spending time on all of the platforms that you’re committed to. It’s unlikely that you’ll spend too much time on social media. As long as you’re working to expand your audience and engage with your current customers and fans, any time put towards that will help you reach your goals. How much time you’ll realistically be able to spend is a different animal.
Consider Getting Help
You’ll want to make sure that you’re checking in regularly on social media. If you’re doing it yourself, you’ll want to spend around 5-10 hours per week responding, interacting, engaging, creating posts, and scheduling posts. If that seems like way too much, consider hiring someone to manage your social media for you! If you feel like you can handle it alone, just make sure that you have your goals in mind and your plan and strategy set.        If you need help with Social Media, we’ve got a free download for you! It’ll help you develop a Social Media campaign from A-Z and lets you know exactly what you’ll need to do to run a successful campaign. If you fill out the form there, you’ll receive one of our most popular free reports that we have which will tell you what platforms to be on, how to get started, how to engage on Social Media, and how to use Social Media to generate new patients. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TitanWebAgency if you enjoyed this podcast! Have you considered hiring a company to help you market your practice? If so, be sure to check out this free report I put together called: The Consumer Awareness Guide to Choosing an Online Marketing Agency. Learn the exact questions you need to ask to ensure you don’t get ripped off.  You can pick it up at: http://titanwebagency.com/report  Check out the show notes at: titanwebagency.com/podcast/089
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5 Tips to Increasing Your Practice Revenue

What was discussed?
Quote of the day: “Feeling blue? Change your color.”
1. Control Costs
Controlling your costs might seem obvious but they can easily get out of line if you aren’t careful. Upgrading your software, giving yearly raises, or hiring new staff are just a few ways that costs can sometimes sneak up on you. You have to take your costs seriously, even if some might criticize you or call you obsessive -- at the end of the day it’s your business and the costs do matter. Controlling costs should be a focus throughout the growth of your business. Medical office employees often fail to accurately verify recorded write offs and they fail to properly handle charge reconciliations. Ensure that your office staff doesn’t become complacent in these areas. Try to go through the books at least every other month, line by line, and check how much you’re spending.
2. Listen to your Patients
Listen to your patients and what they’re actually looking for from your practice. Take a look at your online reviews and see what your patients are saying about your practice. Often times a practice will receive a negative review not because of the practitioner, but because of the office staff. Complaints against your staff can impact patient volume and how often they’re coming back.
3. Offer Ancillary Services
Having a specialty is great but it’s extremely important to offer additional services that can grow your practice and help your patients. At least 31% of Anesthesiologists, 20% of Family Practitioners, 20% of Internists, 19% of OBGYNs, 33% of Orthopedic Surgeons and 18% of Pediatricians offer additional or complimentary services. Additional services include pharmacy services, physical therapy, toxicology tests, alternative treatments, allergy treatments, urgent care services, cosmetic services, and more.
4. Look at Benchmarks
Pay attention to your key metrics and compare them to regional and specialty providers in your area. Looking at medical practice benchmarks will help you determine how much other providers are charging, what they’re charging for, and how your own prices add up. If you’d like to find out more information on this topic, check out our blog post.
5. Use Smart Scheduling
Unfilled appointments and no-shows are inevitable, but need to be minimized as much as possible to maintain and increase revenue. Consider moving away from Wave Scheduling to Modified Wave Scheduling. Wave Scheduling is when appointments are scheduled at the top of the hour. Modified Wave Scheduling sets two appointments at the hour – one at quarter past and the other at half past. This allows doctors to use the last part of each hour for documentation and follow up calls. By optimizing the doctor’s time, patients experience better care and will be happier which will lead to better reviews and an increase in revenue. Try to take at least one or two items from this list to help you grow your revenue and your practice. Put them in place and see what kind of improvements they make! If you need assistance with increasing your revenue, contact us today so we can see if we’re a good fit for each other. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TitanWebAgency if you enjoyed this podcast! Have you considered hiring a company to help you market your practice? If so, be sure to check out this free report I put together called: The Consumer Awareness Guide to Choosing an Online Marketing Agency. Learn the exact questions you need to ask to ensure you don’t get ripped off.  You can pick it up at: http://titanwebagency.com/reportCheck out the show notes at: titanwebagency.com/podcast/088
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Why a Thank You Page is Important

What was discussed?
Quote of the Day: “You create your own opportunities.” A Thank You page is a page that you redirect people to after they visit a landing page or fill out a form on your website.
Build Trust
According to survey from Demand Gem – 97% of B2B buyers said that they gave more credence to content that includes user generated feedback & peer reviews. The Thank You page is one of the best places for you to include your feedback and user reviews. You can include reviews from patients who have already been to your practice which helps to build trust with a client who has yet to come in. Building trust through reviews, testimonials, accreditations, awards you’ve won is really important. Including the reviews on your Thank You page is a great way to ensure that they get a chance to see the reviews and the awards you’ve earned. You can also try including a video of yourself giving the client an overview of what to expect next as videos are incredibly effective at building trust.
Talk About Your Services
Customize the Thank You page so that it is tailored toward what the lead has just contacted you about. For example, a lead fills out a form for some counseling services to help with some marriage issues at your office. On your Thank You page you can include a short message about the Top 10 reasons counseling works (or doesn’t work) or links to your most recent blog posts on that topic. You can provide additional value on the Thank You page that reinforces what they were just requesting information on.
Connect with Them
Thank You pages allow you to connect with clients who are requesting additional information. You can include links to your social media or prompt a visitor to subscribe to your newsletter. Including links to social media, relevant blog posts, or subscription prompts on the Thank You page is much more effective than placing those links on other areas of your site.
Allow them to Explore
 When they are redirected to the Thank You page, remember to include the navigation menu so that visitors can check out other areas of your site without having to type in your URL or cycle through the back button. Make it easy for them to get back to where they started.
Increase the ROI for Every Interaction
You could just say “Thanks for filling out our form!” but it doesn’t give the person who contacted you any further information about your business and it doesn’t build a relationship with them. Provide some social proof or some additional information by having an additional Call to Action (CTA). This could be in the form of a free report or even a coupon after they provide a little more information. It allows you to provide value to them and further establish a relationship with them. If you need assistance with creating a Thank You page, contact us today so we can see if we’re a good fit for each other. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TitanWebAgency to keep up to date on all of our latest news! Have you considered hiring a company to help you market your practice? If so, be sure to check out this free report I put together called: The Consumer Awareness Guide to Choosing an Online Marketing Agency. Learn the exact questions you need to ask to ensure you don’t get ripped off.  You can pick it up at: http://titanwebagency.com/reportCheck out the show notes at: titanwebagency.com/podcast/087
Connect With Us:
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How to get started with Content Marketing

What was discussed?
Quote of the day: “Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting.” – Christopher Morley Content marketing is marketing your practice through content like blog posts, videos, and more.
Start Blogging
First, head to titanwebagency.com/blogging for some information on how to blog and why it’s so important to blog. We’ll help you figure out how to measure your blog’s traffic, promote it, and generate traffic. Blogging is a fantastic way for you create content and get people to your site. It’s a place on your website where you can write content that’s relevant to your practice. Here are some ways to leverage your blog: • Keyword Research: Determine what people are searching for and how to integrate those keywords into your blog posts. For more information on keywords and how to use them, check out our blog post. • Custom Graphics: You can create graphics for each blog post or you can create infographics that are unique and shareable. • Share Your Posts: Share your posts on social media and with others in your industry. • Call to Action: Request more information, ask visitors to leave their feedback, comments, and thoughts. Traffic doesn’t happen overnight. It takes consistent writing (at least 1-2 posts a week).
Repurpose Your Content
Take a blog post that you wrote and use it in a different way. Don’t just plagiarize somebody’s post, or use exact, word for word versions of your old posts, publishing them anywhere you can find.. Create a Slideshare or PowerPoint presentation that’s a summary of your blog posts. Maybe you created a beautifully researched white paper with some statistics, turn that into a blog post or even an infographic! Make sure that you are using stuff that will remain relevant and won’t be considered outdated. Common sites to share your infographics on include Pinterest and Scoop.it.
Show Some Personality
You don’t want your content to sound unhuman. Be shocking, controversial, or just share some of your personality! Try expressing a strong opinion, even an unpopular one. Remember that people don’t want to hear from robots. Humanize yourself, your content, and your practice. Don’t be extremely opinionated on political pieces or go on rants, but be sure to show who you are. Have you considered hiring a company to help you market your practice? If so, be sure to check out this free report I put together called: The Consumer Awareness Guide to Choosing an Online Marketing Agency. Learn the exact questions you need to ask to ensure you don’t get ripped off.  You can pick it up at: http://titanwebagency.com/report Check out the show notes at: titanwebagency.com/podcast/086
Connect With Us:
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·And on Facebook: Titan Web Agency Facebook Page
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Do Ugly Websites Work Better?

What was discussed?
Quote of the day: “Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.” – Kyle Chandler 94% of first impressions are influenced by the design of a site – Research Gate Ask yourself: Is it better to be Fancy or Functional? You can have both but when you start adding a bunch of fancy add-on to your site, you risk the possibility of losing conversions. According to KissMetrics, a website that has even a 1 second delay can lose 7% of conversions or more.
Put User Experience First
Be focused on User Experience above everything else. How easily can someone find what they’re looking for when they come to your site? How clear is the message you’re trying to portray? If someone can find exactly what they need within a second, their chances of getting in contact are much higher. It’s important that that information is presented front and center.
Show Off
Let people know why they should do business with you. What separates you from other practices? Put your value proposition and social proof in an easily seen spot on your site. Social proof can be in the forms of awards you’ve won, recognition received, AAA rating with BBB, and reviews from patients.
Experiment Elsewhere
Your main practice’s website isn’t the place to try new and funky things. Your main website is where you want to have something that you’ve already proven works. Test out new themes, designs, and content on another site that is for experimenting! If you’re thinking about redesigning your website, check out our free report at http://titanwebagency.com/website. The report will go over the Top 10 SEO mistakes that people make when redesigning their website and how to avoid them! Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TitanWebAgency to keep up to date on all of our latest news! Have you considered hiring a company to help you market your practice? If so, be sure to check out this free report I put together called: The Consumer Awareness Guide to Choosing an Online Marketing Agency. Learn the exact questions you need to ask to ensure you don’t get ripped off.  You can pick it up at: http://titanwebagency.com/reportCheck out the show notes at: titanwebagency.com/podcast/085
Connect With Us:
·Follow us on Twitter: @titanwebagency
·And on Facebook: Titan Web Agency Facebook Page
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How to Build an Amazing Online Reputation

What was discussed?
Quote of the Day: “I’m not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey It is extremely important for a doctor or dentist to have an excellent online reputation, especially in today’s world. According to internet research, 80% of Americans will use the internet and search for health related information. About 80-85% will trust an online review as much as a recommendation of a friend.
Claim Your Profiles
Go to these sites and set up your profiles - Doctor.com, Healthgrades, Yelp, RateMDs, Zocdoc, etc. Make sure you’re on these sites so that you can get reviews! Make sure you have an updated profile and that it’s consistent across all sites. Complete your profiles and make sure that you include images on your profiles so that people can make connections with you. Images are important in building trust, authority, and a good user experience. A complete profile should include contact information, your URL, how long you’ve been in practice, a description, languages, images, and services.
Encourage Feedback
People aren’t just going to leave a review because you’re amazing. You need to specifically ask for feedback from patients. Ask them to leave their comments and a review for you on your websites. Put a review site badge on your site where people can click a link and people can easily leave reviews. Having a Review Portal on your site makes it easier for everyone to locate the places to leave the reviews.
Project a Friendly Image
You want to be approachable, warm, and caring. Ensure that this image is consistent both in person and online. Be sure to train your staff to embody this same caring and friendly image as they are the first face that patients see when visiting your practice.
Properly Manage Reviews
Most businesses aren’t going to get 100% positive reviews. If you’re confronted with a negative review, make sure that you respond positively and professionally to the review. If you can find the person who left the review, contact them personally and resolve the issue. People are more likely to give you a second chance if you personally reach out to them, let them know how important they are, and let them know that you care. (Warning: Be sure to comply with HIPAA policies. Make sure that you do not confirm/deny that someone is in fact a patient.) Follow these steps to successfully navigate a negative review: 1.    Thank the reviewer 2.    Write your response in a human voice 3.    Apologize if necessary 4.    Address the issue 5.    Consider future readers
Train Your Office Staff
A lot of reviews don’t have anything to do with the service you provide. A lot of reviews are about the experience they had with your office. That starts with your front office staff! Make sure that your staff is fully trained and is aware of the importance of your reviews.
Provide Old-Fashioned Care
We have social media and online presences, but it’s the old-fashioned bedside manner and listening skills that dictate a great patient experience. Patients want to feel cared for and respected, and this should be the priority in every interaction. It’s hard to please everyone, but it doesn’t hurt to try to make everybody happy! Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TitanWebAgency to keep up to date on all of our latest news! Have you considered hiring a company to help you market your practice? If so, be sure to check out this free report I put together called: The Consumer Awareness Guide to Choosing an Online Marketing Agency. Learn the exact questions you need to ask to ensure you don’t get ripped off.  You can pick it up at: http://titanwebagency.com/reportCheck out the show notes at:
titanwebagency.com/podcast/084
Connect With Us:
·Follow us on Twitter: @titanwebagency
·And on Facebook: Titan Web Agency Facebook Page
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7 Steps for Rebranding Your Practice

What was discussed?
Quote of the Day: “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale
1. Assess Your Needs
Do you really need to? If a practice has been in business for quite some time and has a solid reputation with a recognizable name, re-branding might not be the best choice.
2. Understand What It Takes
It will mostly likely cost around $10,000 for a successful rebrand and there are a few questions you should be asking in order to understand how much it’ll cost. Do you need a new website domain? Are you going to have new signage outside of your office? Are you going to need a new logo? All of that adds up. Understand that you’ll need to do all of that plus market your new name as far as local SEO goes. Google, Yelp, Yellowpages and so on will need to be updated with the new business name, logo, and a description explaining the name switch. It’ll take a lot of money and a lot of time to rebrand the business.
3. Have a Vision
Where do you want to be in 5, 10, 20 years? What’s your exit plan for the business? What do you want to portray with your redesign? Who do you want your potential patients to see you as? Ask yourself these questions and ensure that you have a strategic plan put in place to navigate the re-branding.
4. Do Your Research
Think about colors and how they affect people’s emotions, especially when designing your new logo. Research the psychology of colors and how they impact the choices of potential patients. Get a sense of what’s working and what isn’t working. Reach out to patients and others in the industry and get their opinion as well.
5. Rethink Target Customers
Maybe your practice has focused on family practice and you’d like to switch to cosmetic services. Think about that when creating your new brand. You’ll want to come up with a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) – for more information on developing a USP, check out our blog post! Once you’ve created your USP, make sure that your rebrand is in alignment with it.
6. Create a Plan
Build a checklist of all the things that you need to keep track of. The best thing to do in a rebranding is to have a soft launch, initially have your original website domain redirect to the new domain. Put an image that says something to the effect of “Previously Known As” or “Now Known As”. Send out a press release once you’ve completely rebranded. Make sure you go by your plan so that you can strategically implement your rebranding strategy.
7. Communicate Clearly & Consistently
Ensure that the same message is going out across all lines of communication. Make sure that your front office staff is giving out the same information as what’s available online (social media, email, visits, etc.). You want everything to be as clear as possible. If you need assistance in improving your online presence or are feeling overwhelmed, fill out our free Consultation Form and let us know what you need help with. We’ll set up a time where we can talk and we’ll be happy to help you. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TitanWebAgency to keep up to date on all of our latest news! Have you considered hiring a company to help you market your practice? If so, be sure to check out this free report I put together called: The Consumer Awareness Guide to Choosing an Online Marketing Agency. Learn the exact questions you need to ask to ensure you don’t get ripped off.  You can pick it up at: http://titanwebagency.com/report Check out the show notes at: titanwebagency.com/podcast/083
Connect With Us:
·Follow us on Twitter: @titanwebagency
·And on Facebook: Titan Web Agency Facebook Page
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Why You Should Consider Hiring a Marketing Company

What was discussed?
“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” – Dalai Lama
Improved User Experience and Copywriting:
Good SEO and good marketing understands that the design of the user experience of your site plays an integral part in your campaign. When you have increased traffic to your site that isn’t turning into actual patients, then you have a problem. Effective marketing companies will have experience in Conversion Rate Optimization and will place an emphasis on that so that your money spent on developing a great website and online presence eventually turns into new patients!
Improvement in on-page SEO:
Your expertise is more than likely in what you do for a living. While you could learn to do all of the things an internet marketing agency does, it’s not necessarily at the front of your mind. When a website is designed by a marketing agency, they’ll focus on making sure that your website can be read well by the search engines (which is called on-page SEO). Improving the on-page SEO is a very important part of improving your online presence. If you’d like more information on this subject, check out this blog post on Ten Reasons to Hire an SEO and Social Media Management Company.
Helps you avoid pitfalls:
Any experienced online marketing company has been able to identify what’s most effective and should be staying up to date on all of the latest changes from search engines. If you’re not experienced in this area, are unable to keep up to date on all of the latest changes from search engines, and don’t have experience in other industries and online marketing practices, then you’re simply going to miss some of the crucial information that these companies have access to. By hiring a marketing company, you’ll be able to avoid some of those pitfalls. If you are more focused on the SEO aspect of things and not a holistic approach to your marketing campaign, and you are a dentist, then be sure to read this post I wrote about hiring dental SEO companies, and what you need to watch out for.
Let someone else be the expert:
You probably know your specialty and industry extremely well. But ask yourself – how well do you know the conversion rate aspect of marketing? How well do you know on-page SEO? How well do you know web design best practices? User design best practices? Link building, competitive research, blogging, outreach, and best online marketing practices? You might have some experience in many of these areas, but not as much as an experienced internet marketing company should.
Remember that experience and knowledge impacts results:
An experienced online marketing company will be able to take what’s worked best for other businesses in the same industry as yours and will be able to apply it to your business. They’ll look at what’s worked in the past and what hasn’t and will be able to craft a campaign that’s meaningful and that works! If you have someone that’s working in the industry day in and day out, then you’ll be able to get better results than if you just went in blindly and attempted to do it all by yourself.
Take advantage of their keyword and industry knowledge:
For example, you may think that you want to rank on search engines for the term “dentist in (your location)”. However, it may be extremely hard for you to rank highly for that keyword since it’s so popular and already has businesses ranking for it who have been there for longer than you have. An experienced internet marketing agency will be able to identify keywords that people search for that apply specifically to your business. They’ll be able to narrow down search results that will lead to actual patients rather than just broad search results that won’t lead to actual patients. For example, they’ll work to get you ranked for search terms that are specific to your practice like “invisalign salt lake city dentist”. Or if you’re in a neighborhood that’s called something specific, they might advise you to create specific pages that will allow you to rank for those searches which are less competitive and will provide better results.
Better Results:
If you’re working with someone that’s keeping up to date with the changes in the industry, search engine updates, marketing best practices, and can use all of that knowledge to help you accomplish the vision that you have for your business – how much better do you think your results are going to be? For example, let’s say that with a marketing agency you get 10 new patients per month and without them you get 5 new patients for month, does that justify what you’re paying them? More than likely, yes! If your average new patient brings in $1000 in revenue which (with 5 new patients) is an extra $5000 per month and you’re paying the company less than that, then it makes sense to hire someone and stay with them so that they can get you the best results. If you’d like to know more about how you can increase traffic to your website so that you can show up higher in the search engines, check out our free SEO Analysis form. Every website has a score and you’ll need to know what yours is! We’ll compare you against your competition, look at your main keywords and see where you rank, look at your social interaction (and that of your competitors), and we’ll look at your backlinks! This report is manually done and manually reviewed and we present all of the information you’ll need in a beautiful PDF report. To pick up the report, head to our Analysis page and we’ll be happy to get started. If you need assistance in improving your online presence or are feeling overwhelmed, fill out our free Consultation Form and let us know what you need help with. We’ll set up a time where we can talk and we’ll be happy to help you. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TitanWebAgency to keep up to date on all of our latest news! Have you considered hiring a company to help you market your practice? If so, be sure to check out this free report I put together called: The Consumer Awareness Guide to Choosing an Online Marketing Agency. Learn the exact questions you need to ask to ensure you don’t get ripped off.  You can pick it up at: http://titanwebagency.com/reportCheck out the show notes at: titanwebagency.com/podcast/082
Connect With Us:
·Follow us on Twitter: @titanwebagency
·And on Facebook: Titan Web Agency Facebook Page
·Join our Facebook Group
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