Running a podiatry practice in today’s healthcare environment is not easy. In fact, it is fair to say that many podiatrists feel underpaid, overworked, and disillusioned with the industry. It does not have to be this way though. With effective marketing, your practice can not only survive, but exceed every one of your highest expectations.

The importance of marketing your podiatry practice cannot be understated. In this day and age of digital prowess, competition for patients is of the utmost importance and has taken a new direction.

Why doesn’t traditional advertising work anymore? That’s a great question. Radio, television, and newspaper advertising isn’t the only game in town anymore. People went digital a long time ago and have not looked back. With traditional outlets you’re unfortunately shouting into a void. There is no way to know if you’re effective or reaching your target audience. In a world that is over-saturated with ads, you must stand out.

Here’s the thing, marketing your practice is not about you. Your current and potential patients only care about your experience, education, and technology if it benefits them. And it’s not because people are terrible, they’re just busy. They don’t have time to think about you – UNLESS it benefits them in some way. If you’re not solving a problem they have, you’re not important.

However, if you are not yet convinced that diving into the depths of marketing is something worthwhile, consider the goals of digital marketing. They include implementing best practices aimed at reaching new target markets, maintaining contact with your patients and converting passing site visitors to ardent believers, which then translates to increased patient leads.

Why Many Podiatrists Are Failing When It Comes To Podiatry Marketing

Now, here’s a big secret that you may or may not be aware: industry-wide, there are few podiatrists who effectively harness digital marketing effectively.

Those that do stand out and are flooded with new patients or sell more orthotic related products while other practices are being left far behind. For you, this means there is great potential to catapult your practice into the upper echelon.

And what is the #1 reason why podiatrists’ efforts with digital marketing are lacking? Because they don’t have the time. They’re busy (rightfully) attending to their patients. The practice’s that get ahead let digital agencies do all the work.

Of course, when it’s about people’s health, the conversation can be uncomfortable when it turns to making profits. But we all know at the end of the day your practice is still a business.

Below are tips that will help your practice/business grow.

1.      Determine your Business Goals

In business, as in life, you need to establish goals. A good place to start is by grasping the difference between your marketing targets and your business principles. The latter helps in making profits while the latter aids in helping you achieve that.

A proven way to do is by ensuring they are SMART, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time bound.

2.      Business Goals Determine Marketing Goals

Your business goals should chart a clear path for the marketing plan with the key focus being branding within the boundaries of the aforementioned SMART goals.

3.      Know your Patient’s Journey

As it has been glossed over in the acronym ‘SMART,’ particularly under Awareness, Consideration and Decision, knowing your patient’s journey is important in helping them understand why they need you.

The patient’s history will help you understand the problem and propose long-standing solutions.

4.      Who is your Perfect Patient?

It goes without saying that not all patients will benefit from your podiatry business. That’s why your marketing plan should focus on your target patient demographic. This can only be achieved by defining a patient who ticks most of the boxes.

It could be those that have perennial pain during winter, or sportsmen with a history of ankle pains. Or maybe it’s a senior citizen with gout. It is important that you are brutally honest with yourself when thinking about this. If you can identify your target audience, then it will make marketing 100% easier.

After that’s done, you can now channel your marketing campaigns towards those people and maximize your ROI (Return on Investment). A simple way is by using online ads.

5.      SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis simply means dissecting your business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. You simply cannot wish it away from your podiatry marketing plan and succeed.

The reasons are simple: make the most of your strengths, deal with your weaknesses, know which opportunities to work on and address any threats that may face your business. Detail all this information when you are working on your marketing plan.

6.      Your Competition and the Key Differentiators

Having detailed SWOT Analysis is half the job, the other half involves knowing your competition down to a fault and knowing the main differentiators.

You will need to visit their website and social media platforms to understand their reach and understand how they use online ads and keywords to gain leads.

Knowing who and what you are up against helps you know how to address any existing loopholes.

Furthermore, if your competition is not engaging with their patients via social media and online advertising then there is an immense opportunity to corner the market.

Harsh as it may sound, podiatry businesses are not charities. Once you understand your competitors, you now need to know what separates you from the rest of the pack.

The Podiatrist is a podiatry practice based in Toowoomba, Queensland. They are an excellent example of how to engage with potential patients on social media. If you check out their Facebook page you will find their content is engaging, frequent, and interactive. Additionally, their website is state of the art and hits all the right buttons as mentioned above.

7.      Create a Unique Selling Proposition

When patients come in for a check-up or a regular consultation, what is the one thing that is unique from the next clinic down the street? This is the Unique Selling Proposition.

Granted, the ‘Selling’ bit in the name doesn’t sound right but your patients need to know that they are in the right hands from the onset.

Your USP should be concise and cover all the important information such as key differences. What makes your practice the best? What makes it unique?

8.      Scrutinize your Current Marketing Efforts

Everything from online ads, social media marketing and lead generation tools should be placed under the microscopic eye of deliverables. Two ways of going about this is:

·         Auditing the digital marketing strategy to help you establish your plan’s goals.

·  After implementation, assess whether you have achieved your goals and make amendments where necessary.

You also need to honestly critique your website. Does it offer all the information patients need, at a glance? Is it beautiful and well-designed and easily navigable? Does it convince site vistors to refer patients?

9.      Your Brand

As it has been mentioned above, your podiatry practice is a business. This means that it has to have a brand like any successful one.

Branding is geared towards creating trust and allowing patients to, without second thought, notice your business.

In the example mentioned in #6 shows a great brand. ‘The Podiatrist’ is short, simple, and effective.

10.  Plan Your Podiatry Marketing Strategy

Planning your marketing strategy involves thinking about how you are going to reach and attract patients. This includes all marketing elements such as social media, online ads, blogging and email. You need to fully define how these elements mesh into an actionable plan and what targets you will realistically achieve.

A great idea is to create a social media post that directs people to your landing page to claim an offer. In the process, you can build a database which can be used for email marketing.

11.  Consistency when Branding

We have already established that branding will help you create trust and increase reach. This cannot be achieved if you are not consistent with your branding and marketing campaigns.

A lot of time needs to be spent on your logo, the detail and message it conveys, right down to the colors you have opted to use.

Subtle things like fonts, and the voice you use in emails and blogs will also be key in the success of your brand. Once those have been established, you need to stick to them. Consistency does not only include churning out content, it also means that you maintain the same approach every time.

12.  Involve your Staff in Podiatry Marketing

One recipe of failing from the onset is by trying to do everything yourself. Involve your staff by:

·       Assigning them responsibilities within your marketing plan depending on their skill sets and talents. Writers should stick to coming up with compelling taglines for your email campaigns, well-researched blog posts and posts on social media accounts.

·         Provide a conducive environment for them to work so that they can naturally be inclined to participate in office events and follow the business on social media platforms, etc.

13.  Use Local Listings to your Advantage

The general public should be able to find your business both offline and online. We have already addressed what you need to do online; offline, local listings are the true north. Search engines help in determining the legitimacy of your podiatry practice. This has a direct impact on the performance of your website.

You will need to ascertain that the information on these listings is accurate. Ensure that the phone number, address, name of practice, working hours and any other crucial information is accurate.

14.  Stick to Best Practices for Content Marketing

Your marketing plan will only be successful if you use best practices. There are two facets to it:

1.   Ever-changing practices.

Search engines are always changing their algorithms for the purpose of their profitability and users, and determining website ranking and search results. In the past, short content was favored more than long. Now, search engines rank content according to their quality.

2.   Those that remain the same.

How you present your information is key to ensuring that you get the best results. It includes understanding readers’ psychology and how you plan your work.

15.  Start a Podatry Marketing Blog or Rework It

If you don’t have a blog, start one. If you do, rework it. Successful blogging should help you:

·         Establish yourself as an authority in the niche. This will show your site visitors that you have the required experience and knowledge to solve all their podiatry problems. 

·         Increase engagement. Compelling content increases engagement and makes your site visitors spread the word to people within their network.

·         Improve your site’s performance in search engine ranking pages (SERPs). This means that your blog, and by extension your business ranks high in search engines such as Google.

16.   Think about your Audience

It is always important to understand your audience and know what appeals to them. Who are they? What solutions are you offering to their problems? How can you easily reach them?

After determining the above, create content that is relatable with your audience. Content that will make them feel valued and, ultimately, draw them to your business.

Conclusion

All these tips will come to naught if you do not work with your marketing team. The business belongs to you, but you’ll need to give them some freedom. That’s the only way they’ll put their best foot forward.