Ready to step up your podiatry online marketing? Today’s prospective patients do almost everything online and that trend is only going to increase going forward. As a reminder, there are Four Great Pillars in Marketing:
- Online marketing
- Referral marketing to sources surrounding your practice
- Internal marketing to your patient base
- External marketing such as advertising, sponsorships, and broadcast
All are equally important and relevant. Our focus here is Online Marketing.
Why is digital marketing for podiatrists so important? This pillar in marketing your podiatry practice helps you pinpoint and attract new patients, while driving traffic to your website and converting those visits into booked appointments. Even after you’ve booked new appointments, digital campaigns can help you keep in touch with existing patients, preventing turnover and increasing referrals and reactivations, in turn leading to multiple new appointments.
There’s more to digital marketing than signing up for Facebook and Instagram accounts and forgetting they exist. In reality, podiatry online marketing requires dedication and planning…but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Not sure where to begin? Just follow this 24-step online podiatry marketing plan from our experts at Top Practices. Then, if you still need more support once you’re through, reach out to our team for additional guidance and help with marketing and managing your podiatry practice.
Podiatry Online Marketing: Plan Before Jumping In
Before you begin creating or expanding your practice’s online presence, it’s important to spend some time setting goals and target outcomes. Why is that so crucial? When you begin with the end in mind, your marketing plan becomes much more effective. The following steps should all be conducted before you create a single practice profile or shoot off one new email.
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Create business goals for your practice
What is your practice’s most pressing need right now? Do you need more patients walking in the door? Or, would you prefer self-pay over Medicare visits? Maybe you just want to see patients with specific ailments, such as heel pain, whose visits yield more revenue. Sit down and really think about setting a goal that could make a difference to your business. Then, you can create a podiatry marketing plan that will help you meet that goal.
Your marketing goals should always help you achieve your business goals. Just make sure to get very specific with those targets—use wording such as “I see 15 more heel pain patients each month.” This makes it easier to track your progress and assess whether your marketing efforts are starting to pay off. -
Be specific and clear about who you want to see
As we hinted at when helping you set business goals, not every patient visit is equally profitable to your practice or equally rewarding. So, before you start online marketing, stop and think about your practice’s ideal patient. For some podiatrists, a perfect patient will be a busy mom who loves to work out, but heel pain is keeping her away from the gym. Once she comes in and you help her recover, she’ll think of you when her child has an ingrown toenail, or when her husband drops something heavy on his toe. Other practices may prefer patients with fungal toenails, since they’ve invested in treatment lasers. And still other podiatrists will find their ideal visits are with patients whose large bunions require surgery.
Every practice will have a slightly different version of the perfect patient. And that’s just fine. The key lies in identifying the patient who will best support your business goals. Then, craft all your podiatry marketing online to speak directly to those individuals. -
Stand up and stand out
There’s just one more planning step to take before you begin marketing your podiatry practice. In today’s interconnected world, patients will see posts and ads from countless other sources like The Good Feet Store, or Dr. Scholl’s Kiosks in Walmart. So, how can you convince new patients they have to come into your office? The key here is to figure out what makes you different from everyone else.
Maybe you have the best reception room in town, complete with free cappuccinos and a well-stocked snack cart. Or perhaps you were the first podiatrist in your market to start performing lapiplasty bunion surgery, making you the most experienced provider in the region. Whatever it is that helps you stand out from the crowd—also called your key differentiator—will be crucial to your online podiatry marketing plan. Make it a focus of your posts and campaigns, to help patients understand why they’d be foolish to visit any other medical/non-medical options or even other podiatrists.
Marketing Ideas for Podiatrists: Create Your Roadmap
Now that you’ve highlighted your goals; identified the patients you need to help you meet them; and pin-pointed the key differentiator that will bring those patients through your doors, it’s time to create a marketing plan that’s built around those key elements.
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Pick your platforms
It’s impossible to go from zero to sixty when you’re talking podiatry marketing online. If you try to master every digital marketing avenue at once, you are bound to fail. So, when crafting a digital marketing strategy, strategically plan which avenues you want to begin with: will you add a blog to your website? Do you want to start emailing your patients with more regularity? Perhaps you want to become the next big TikTok podiatrist? When crafting your personalized list, there are several factors to consider. First, what is your practice already doing—if you have a blog, and patients mention your posts when they come to the office, that’s something to stick with. But if you’ve asked patients about updates you’ve shared in recent emails, and they have no idea what you’re talking about, maybe this isn’t the best digital marketing platform for your practice.
Also, you have to once again think about your ideal patient before you pick a list of online marketing platforms to work with. If you’re hoping to get that busy mom in the door, Facebook might be a great place to connect with her. But if you prefer to see bunion patients—a population that tends to skew older—an emailed newsletter or detailed blog post might be a better option. Got your list of platforms ready to go? Now you’re ready to take action! -
Get your website in fighting shape
The goal of any online podiatry marketing should be to direct traffic back to your website, where interested patients can contact your office. (Or, better yet, make an appointment—we call this converting a lead in marketing speak.) Of course, prospects are less likely to convert if your website is a mess. So, look it over carefully, making sure it loads well—on a phone and a computer. Check that all your services are up-to-date, and that the content on each page is error-free and easy to read. Need a bit of work on your website? You can speak to Rem Jackson, Top Practices CEO and Founder, who still works personally with every Top Practices member. He will be happy to talk to you in a complimentary consult. Just email Dave Ryan at [email protected] or call him at 717.725.2679 Between 9AM and 5PM Monday -Friday EASTERN and he’ll set it up. The guidance you get in this call will help you cut through all the misunderstanding and confusion about online marketing and websites. -
Drive traffic with strong CTAs
Your online podiatry marketing will only be as strong as your CTA, or call-to-action. This is the part of any social post, blog or email campaign that tells your prospects what they should do next. There are many ways to craft a CTA, but placement will be crucial. Don’t pitch your prospects too early in your digital marketing, before they’ve had the chance to accept your expertise or appreciate your key differentiator. Even better, try to work CTAs seamlessly into your digital content, so patients won’t feel like they’re being sold when they interact with your practice online. -
Make an offering
On their own, CTAs can drive traffic to your website. But when they’re combined with a special offer that patients may claim by heading to a landing page on that website? Or by submitting their email address? All of a sudden, conversions are far more likely to happen. Still, not every offer is equally enticing to prospective patients. So, how can you choose the right carrot to dangle?
While every podiatrist is different, many of the doctors in our Top Practices Mastermind Group have had tremendous success when providing free e-books to their patients. This offer is a highly effective marketing idea for podiatrists because it establishes your expertise on a subject, while differentiating you from competitors—you can literally say, “I wrote the book on Heel Pain!” (Not sure how this works? Check out a great example of expertise through e-books here, on one of our top performer’s websites.) -
Ensure consistency
Now that all the pieces are in place to help your online podiatry marketing succeed, it’s important that you start the process—and stick to a regular schedule. Let’s say you’ve decided to write blogs, send out a newsletter, and build an Instagram following. The last thing you want to do is post five blogs in the first week of your campaign, promoting each one on social media and in your newsletter, only to disappear in the weeks to come.
Instead, create a marketing calendar before posting anything, anywhere. How often you update your blog, social media or email list matters less than picking a manageable cadence and sticking to it. And, to create that consistent content calendar, simply take your list of content channels—in this case, your blog, Instagram posts, and emailed newsletter—and create a clear, organized schedule for what you plan to produce for each platform, and when you plan to post that content. Top Practices has developed THE definitive marketing calendar tool that makes conceiving, organizing, planning and posting actually easy. -
Now, speak to your people
Finally, it’s time to start actually drafting content. Once again, when you’re writing, make sure to address that ideal patient you conjured earlier in our podiatry marketing plan. Any blog post you write, or social interaction you present, should address the following concerns:
What interests relate to that patient? What problems are most likely to hold that individual back from doing what she or he loves? How can you help your perfect patient overcome a problem to get back to that preferred interest?
With those questions clearly answered, you can create content that your ideal patient really wants to hear. So, if you’re trying to get that busy mom through the doors of your practice, you’ll now decide to craft a 1000-word blog post on preventing running-related heel pain. And you’ll probably skip the post on healing diabetic foot ulcers…at least for this month. Top Practices has the resources and guidance to show you how to get this content written and posted without you doing it yourself. In fact, we believe that's a poor use of your time. You should always be working at the top of your license doing that which only you can do and delegating everything you can, including this marketing work to others. -
Make each post matter
People are stingy with their time when it comes to reading through digital content. Make sure your prospective patients find your posts worth reading by providing them with concise, informative and valuable information. Obsess about having interesting subject lines in emails and titles that grab their attention and then jump right into what they are interested in to improve the odds of their getting to your CTA. And be sure to craft content that is your original work, not reposted or repurposed from a competitor’s website or social media feeds. Finally, always proofread your posts before publishing. It will be hard for a prospective patient to accept your expertise if your work is plagued by spelling errors or grammatic inaccuracies. -
Be yourself
When it comes to online podiatry marketing—especially when you’re engaging with social media—showing authority and medical expertise is crucial. To that end, include useful and accurate medical information in all of your digital content. Craft it with words that a non-physician audience can digest. But make it clear that you know what you’re talking about—this will inspire confidence in your ideal patients, and further urge them to come and see you for medical help when they need it.
At the same time, digital marketing for podiatrists is also about creating human connections with your patients. So, it’s a great idea to show some personality in your online marketing campaigns, whether that means cheering on your favorite sports team or bragging about your child’s latest achievements with your online community. -
But keep content relevant
Updating your Instagram account with your team’s logo right after a big night’s win? That’s a great idea. Writing a full blog post about the star pitcher’s unfortunate toe injury? That’s an even better idea! Digital content that’s anchored to current events is likely to feel outdated in a few months so we recommend that you work with marketing ideas for podiatrists that never get stale—we call this evergreen content—as they will keep your website feeling relevant and up-to-date. -
Make old posts new again
If that last tip has you panicking, don’t worry—updating old blog posts with new information is actually a great way to boost your SEO rankings, all while making sure that your website remains relevant. And don’t think that you have to create unique content for every digital platform on which you maintain a presence.
What do we mean by that? Let’s say you regularly update your blog, but you haven’t found the time to start a patient newsletter. Instead of reinventing the wheel, excerpt valuable content from that old blog you just updated and make it the lead article in your monthly newsletter. Next, take a particularly relevant pull-quote from that same blog, paste it onto a pretty background (you can find a range of templates with a free Canva account) and post the image to your Instagram grid or Facebook page. All of a sudden, you’ve rolled out a fully integrated digital podiatry marketing plan, and all you had to do was update one blog post that was already on your website! -
Know when to cut your losses
While some old blog posts can be salvaged with updates, not all content is worth saving. If your practice website has tons of content, that could slow loading times and cause search engines to lower your Google SEO ranking. A better solution? Go through old site pages and blog posts with a critical eye, deleting or combining content that isn’t generating much traffic to the website.
Social Media-Specific Podiatry Marketing Plan
While the previous tips were relevant to all digital content platforms, these suggestions will focus specifically on strengthening online podiatry marketing through social media.
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Cross-promotion is key
Of course, you want to build a following for your social media accounts. So, it’s fine to share those adorable kitten memes every once in a while. But you always have to remember where you started your online podiatry marketing journey—with your business goals—and ask yourself how any update you make can help you achieve those goals.
One great way to make social media work for your business? Use these platforms to meet prospective patients where they’re at. Then direct them back to your practice website. How can you do that? There are so many different options. Consider promoting your free e-book giveaway on Facebook, then linking the image of your book directly to a signup page on your website. Try using that image of a blog pull quote to direct traffic directly to the full post on your site. Or check out our Top Practices social feed to get some inspiration that works for your particular practice! -
Make sure to stay engaged
The beauty of social media is the chance it gives us to directly engage with patients. So, if you aren’t engaging with followers on your social platforms, you’re missing the point of this digital marketing platform. What does effective engagement look like? First, sticking to a regular posting schedule is critical. But that doesn’t go far enough. If followers like or comment on a post or picture, reply back or drop them a heart. You can even give top fans a return follow—just don’t go overboard on this front, as professional social accounts should have a higher number of followers than people or accounts that they follow. On that note… -
Be mindful with your likes and follows
We’re not telling you to be stingy in this arena, just be strategic about the likes and follows given out from your practice pages. Show your local philanthropy by liking pages for important community organizations; expand your audience by joining groups or communities favored by your ideal patients—local running groups are a great place to start. Then, once you join, be sure to maintain a presence, liking contributor’s posts and sharing your own relevant content when appropriate.
Email Marketing for Podiatrists: Simple Dos and Don’t
Now you’ve got social media covered, let’s nail your email marketing efforts. Growing your email list and sending regular updates is one of the best ways to build or maintain a connection with current patients, while showing prospective office visitors what they can expect by choosing you as their podiatrist.
Email marketing still works despite opinions to the contrary and the fact that people’s emails are flooded. They aren’t flooded with good, well-written emails which still get seen, read, and acted on. In fact, we teach our Top Practices members how to market their podiatry practices sending multiple emails in a week. It can be done and when done well is a podiatry practice marketing secret weapon.
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Start with a newsletter
Always send a monthly newsletter to your patients and prospective patients via email. Use this as an opportunity to greet patients with valuable information—covering podiatry topics as well as other timely subject matters. But also view it as a chance to really relate to your practice community, showcasing practitioners’ personalities while also sharing personal updates. Top Practices makes this easy with our monthly podiatry practice newsletter program in which we do all the work for you and completely customize it to your practice. -
Share updates, as well
Timely, news-driven emails are also a great way to keep patients up-to-date on important practice information. Did you receive local recognition for your podiatry practice? Has a new office location opened? Are you closed due to inclement weather? Let those who need to know in on the update with a quick email blast! -
Boost your open-rates
Sending out emails with valuable info is worthless if they go unopened. Sadly, a successful email campaign will only enjoy an open-rate hovering around the 20% mark. Yet, some of our top-performing podiatrists enjoy email open rates that hover around the 80% mark. How do they do it? Well, for starters, they make sure that the people on their lists recognize their authority, and gain value from every email sent (no spamming allowed.) But they also put tons of thought and effort into crafting subject lines that demand readers’ attention. What should that look like for your practice emails? Every audience is different, but a key to keep in mind is this: your subject line should make a promise that you keep once patients follow through and open your email. -
Be brief inside
Once you’ve gotten patients to open your emails, you don’t want to lose their attention—or, the privilege of future openings. So, say whatever you have to say as briefly as possible in your emails. And, if you need to expand on the topic, let them choose to read more—and drive traffic to your website—by directing readers to click on an external link for additional, relevant information.
Online Podiatry Marketing: Final Thoughts
While there are many digital marketing ideas for podiatrists to try, one thing is clear: video must be incorporated into your podiatry marketing plan for 2023 and beyond. As one of the online marketing tools with the highest Return on Investment (ROI), it’s essential to add videos on to every digital platform where you have a presence. However, videos only work when they’re done well, so make sure to follow these tips for maximizing conversions with videos.
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Make videos visually appealing
When you’re filming, avoid jerky camera motions or distracting back drops. Try to keep a steady view, and eliminate any visual distractions that will detract from the message of your video. -
Sound quality matters, too
Shoot your videos in areas where there’s no background chatter, and where your words will come across loud and clear. -
Now, make things fun
One of the reasons why videos are such an effective online podiatry marketing tool is that people like watching them. But that’s only true when your content is engaging and entertaining. To keep your audience’s attention, focus on subject matters that are relevant to your ideal patient. Relax and lean into producing great engaging videos each and every month. You can do this in only one hour each month so you DO have the time to do this. Top Practices teaches its member how to do this in our Marketing Mastermind Group Resources. If you get this right it can add hundreds of new patients to your schedule.
Of course, online podiatry marketing is an involved process. And we get that most podiatrists didn’t devote years to their medical training, only to become part (or full) time marketers. Want to boost your practice’s digital presence while still seeing patients and making it home in time for dinner with the family? That’s where we come into the picture.
Save Time on Marketing and Focus on What You Do Best!
Contact a Top Podiatry Marketing Specialist
We know that owning and effectively managing a podiatry practice is challenging. It’s more than likely that your existing responsibilities are enough to leave you feeling overworked, overwhelmed and under-appreciated. The Top Practices Marketing Mastermind Group led by Rem Jackson teaches you how to take these tasks off your plate, so that you can get back to seeing patients and thriving in your practice. All you have to do is reach out and ask for help!