Medical Marketing for Women’s Health Services

We are excited to share how to market women’s health services because so many of our clients have this specialty or are treating women. 

In this blog, you will learn:

• The pillars of the Dr. Marketing Blueprint for marketing women’s health
• How to attract more of your ideal patients and which social media platforms are best for your target market
• How to educate your patients and be seen as the local expert through events and webinars
• How to generate referrals from both doctors and patients
• The ONE Thing you could be overlooking that is impacting your results

If you would rather watch our webinar with this valuable information you can do that HERE.

PLUS Click the button below and Enjoy a free gift!

Let’s first talk about attracting more patients. 

Your healthcare marketing strategy should position you as the go-to expert in your specialty, especially for women’s health. Many women would not change their women’s health care provider just because another provider offers a different service. That may be part of the reason, but positioning yourself as the expert in your specialty is going to be what causes that change. 

It’s not enough to have the best training and the best equipment. There is more to becoming the expert than purchasing a new device and being trained on it. 

Your marketing must position you as the go-to office in your local area. You will hear us stress this a lot! Why?

Because, as we mentioned previously, people don’t just change doctors. Potential patients are looking for the results they could receive from your exact treatments, but they may not understand the actual treatment. They may not even realize those treatments exist. 

It is never safe to assume any of your patients understand and know everything that you do. Glenn Akins and Lori Werner, the founders of Medical Marketing Whiz, both have a background in medical device sales. They know from experience that whomever you are selling to needs to hear about your product or service seven times! Seven times before it starts to click that this is a service they need.

There is a lot of competition out there. You must stand out! Make sure that you and your office stand out. Be sure your staff understands this as well. This will have a significant impact on becoming known as the local expert. 

The Dr. Marketing Blueprint contains the four key things you need to market your women’s health practice. This successful program is designed to help you engage with your patients, stand out in your community, and grow your business. 

We feel it's important to mention what you DON’T want to do. When we do strategy calls with offices, we often see these similar mistakes. 

Let’s say you purchased a women’s intimate health device, but you just aren’t getting the number of patients you desire. Below are some of the common reasons why you may not be seeing success:

1. Only relying on your website to bring you new patients
2. Waiting to talk to patients during their annual exam
3. Just handing out brochures or having flyers around the office
4. Another expensive magazine/newspaper ad that doesn’t get results
5. Another event where no one shows up
6. Relying on your staff to do all the marketing
7. Using a marketing company that is unsure about your niche >> (A marketing company that also markets for local restaurants or tire shops may not understand the proper way to present your message for women’s health services).

The Dr. Marketing Blueprint for successfully marketing women’s health services has four buckets outside of your website. We recommend addressing these four buckets on a quarterly basis:

1. Local SEO Blueprint
2. Social Media Blueprint
3. Nurture & Convert Blueprint to convert leads into patients
4. Events & Webinars Blueprint to educate patients

1. Local SEO Blueprint

We encourage all of our clients to focus their local search engine optimization and reputation management on Google My Business (GMB). It is very important to be seen locally. 93% of local searches feature GMB listings.

*#1 ranked websites are now appearing on the second page of search results (see example below).

*68% of people contact a business directly from the Google My Business listing. 

Notice the image above where we have searched for a “gynecologist near me” on our phone. This screenshot shows the GMB listings and map. It’s important to understand that all of these businesses listed are showing up because they have claimed their GMB listing, and they are asking for reviews. GMB then ranks your business listing according to how you are optimizing it.

What do we mean by optimizing?

Double-check these simple things:

-> Be sure your office hours are correct. Make changes for holiday hours.
-> List the services that you offer at your practice so Google can identify you in search results.
-> Post to Google My Business

**This is different from posting to your website or blogging. Your GMB listing shows up above your website.

For example, your friend recommends you see their gynecologist, Dr. Smith, and you then search for "gynecologists near me" on your phone. If Dr. Smith comes up in your search results but only has 2.4 stars, would you call that doctor?

No, you would look at others on the list with better rankings and call the gynecologist with 4 or 5 stars.

Reputation (how many stars you have) and where you show up in the search list are both very valuable. Remember, these GMB listings show up above websites.

If you have been spending thousands of dollars a month on marketing but did not know about your GMB ranking importance, your marketing won’t convert. It stops right there at your GMB listing.

That is why we are adamant about getting this message out as a #1 priority for your office.

Think about other shopping experiences. When shopping on Amazon, for example, you search for an item and then look at the number of stars that item has. Then you check out the other options.

This is what GMB is doing for you as a provider. It is allowing potential patients to search for a specialty near them or treatment near them. You want to make sure you have as many reviews as possible.

*88% of patients use this as social proof and are making a decision based on your google review. Patients tend to take those google reviews as seriously as they would if it was word of mouth from a friend.

The bottom line is you need a system in place to obtain more reviews and to reply to them. This will help improve your search ranking and overall results.

Let’s talk about results. 

This shows a "before and after" of one of our clients. Before working with us and then after working with us for 90 days.
You can see the number of times they appeared in a google search drastically increased. This was not by using paid ads, but by implementing what we have mentioned in this blog.
The google results also showed a significant increase in search reviews. These before and after numbers illustrate how this office is seen as the local expert in their area.

2. Social Media Blueprint

What is the goal of doctors' social media marketing?

Social media marketing aims to produce content that users will engage with and share with their friends. This will increase the exposure of your business.

Notice we do not mention the word “selling.” Social media is about building a relationship, not selling. The goal is to turn cold leads into warm leads before they even know you.

As previously mentioned, you must position yourself as the local expert. If you want a patient to change providers and come to you for bioidentical hormones, OB services, or women’s intimate health treatments, they must believe you are the local expert. Social media can help you do that.

Social media is also the perfect platform for educating people about women’s health.

It is crucial to understand the social media algorithms and how they work. To keep it simple, think about creating posts for five days a week.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday should be an educational, motivational, or inspiring post.
An example of this would be a testimonial, an inspirational quote, and a healthy recipe. These posts will bring value to your followers. You can talk about your services or post a video about a treatment you offer.

On Tuesday and Thursday, post something personal. Examples would be a picture or video of you or your staff. This has to do with the algorithms, and we will share more about this below.

Keep in mind, when you are marketing gynecologic health or women’s health treatments, you cannot say the word “vagina” or “sex” in your social media posts. Facebook or Instagram will flag your account. We have seen accounts get shut down because a marketing company started boosting posts about “vaginal rejuvenation.” Facebook policies do not allow the use of these words, and could shut down your ad account.

Instead, talk more about the problem. Use words such as “feminine wellness” or "intimate health." There are many ways to talk about it with approved and Facebook-appropriate words. It is vital that whoever is doing your social media posts understands these rules.

Also, remember not to “sell” on social media. Use posts that educate and inspire people and make them want to follow you so they don’t miss your content.

When creating your personal posts, video is a great way to connect with your followers. In this example pictured above, the doctor posted his first video addressing patients' questions about the coronavirus.

The video reached 39,377 people and had 12,590 engagements. It also had 59 comments and 766 shares! As a result, their Facebook page grew 28% in just two weeks.

Another excellent idea for personal content: pictures with our selfie signs. These have great results with increasing reach and engagement.

When you post these personal images or videos, the algorithm sees how well the post is performing. Then the very next post is providing education about a product or service you may offer and Facebook or Instagram will show that post to more people because you posted something successful the day before. This is why it’s so important to understand that you don’t post “just to post.” You need a strategy for your social media posting.

Facebook Ads

You can be running paid ads on Facebook and Instagram. Here are a few examples:

1. Webinar Ad  (watch our full webinar HERE)

If a potential patient has no idea who you are, but they see your ad and opt into your webinar, they will get to hear from you and start to get to know you. This will help convert that potential patient to one of your patients a lot better than just posting “Get $200 off our feminine health treatment.”

2. Virtual Consults Ads

You can run these ads to the exact patient you would like to see it. For example, if you are running an ad for menopausal patients you can target all women over the age of 45 within a 20-mile radius of your office. You can target them by income level or hobby and fit the exact patient you want to reach.

3. Lead Generating Ads

With this type of ad, you are giving something away for free. For example, you may be giving away a guide to menopause. This gets people to join your email list and follow you on social media. Soon, that cold lead turns into a warm lead, and they become a patient because you delivered so much value to them through social media.

Facebook ads are a cost-effective way to target an audience and reach a lot of people. As a comparison, the cost to reach 1000 people using Facebook ads is 25 cents instead of spending thousands of dollars each month on google ads.

3. Nurture and Convert Blueprint

This is a crucial part of your marketing. It is best to start your strategy with those clients and patients who already know, like, and trust you. 

We can’t stress this enough. 70% of these patients will opt into or show interest in a new treatment or procedure that you are launching. Plus, the acquisition cost is zero because they are already a patient, and the relationship is already established. 

How is this accomplished? 

1. Monthly Newsletters
2. Lead Generating Email Marketing Campaigns & Automated Sales Funnels
3. Referrals

Monthly email newsletters are not for selling. The purpose of a monthly email newsletter is to provide value for your patients. Inspire them, share health tips with them, keep them up to date on important health topics. 80% of your newsletter should provide value, and then 20% can be geared towards a device or promotion you would like to share. The goal is to have your patients want to open your email each month. Giving vs. selling is a successful approach! 

*Bonus tip: Include a healthy recipe each month in your newsletter!

Lead Generating Campaigns start with a simple email to pique interest. The patients then opt-in, which takes them to a landing page where they enter their information and will be added to a list. 

Your office will then receive that list of people interested in the service. When a patient fills out the form, they will be directed to the broadcast room to watch a short video with more information about the service, including patient testimonials. The purpose is to get them excited about what this new service can do for them and how it can help. This video will also help answer questions, so when that patient does come into the office, they already have information about the service. 

Digital marketing isn’t the only way to share your practice. Patient referrals, or word of mouth, are a fantastic way to have your practice shared. As you build relationships with patients, they can tell their friends about you. The cost for patient referrals is zero! 

You can offer an incentive for patients who refer friends for a treatment you offer, such as vaginal rejuvenation. For example, for each referral, a patient could receive $50 off her yearly maintenance treatment, and the friend would receive $50 off as well. 

Relationships with other medical professionals could also provide referrals. Establish relationships with internists or family physicians, nurse navigators, breast cancer support groups, nurse practitioners, and sex therapists. They need to know you offer a solution for women. The key is to establish a relationship! It will take more than just reaching out to these providers one time. 

4. Events & Webinars Blueprint

We recommend doing a patient education event or webinar every quarter. These give you an immediate return on investment, plus a pipeline of people to follow up with in the future.

Events can be online or in person. These events bring in new as well as existing patients. Make sure you have some kind of a “bring a friend,” or “tag a friend” incentive. We have seen offices double their RSVPs by asking current patients to bring a friend.

Events inspire people to take action! They can learn more about your treatment or device, hear testimonials, and see a demo of the treatment. That allows patients to feel more comfortable and more willing to sign up that day.

Your event marketing should include:
-Event marketing graphics that are professional
-A registration page
-Event invite email campaigns
-Social media marketing (2x/per week leading up to the event)
-Marketing on multiple online channels (local community calendar)
-Bring-a-friend incentives

Client success story: 

Practice size: 2 Providers

Flint OB/GYN purchased a vaginal laser to grow their practice and offset declining reimbursement for OB/GYN services. They were concerned about not getting patients and turned to Medical Marketing Whiz to help them launch the device. Before Medical Marketing Whiz, they relied on word-of-mouth and thought their website would generate leads.

Medical Marketing Whiz implemented the Dr. Marketing Blueprint using the critical strategies explained above: local search engine optimization, social media marketing, nurturing with email marketing, and a launch event to introduce the vaginal laser to their patients.

Results: $53,800 in vaginal laser revenue in the first two months.

Why is a webinar the ideal way to attract patients?

*Reach people online.
*Educate people on sensitive topics.
*Positions you as the local expert.
*New patients can meet you without leaving their homes (privacy can help when speaking on a sensitive topic).
*Provides a path to collect deposits for future services.

Webinar topic ideas may include:
-Women’s intimate health
-Erectile dysfunction
-Urinary incontinence
-Mommy Makeovers
-Functional Medicine (inflammation, gut health, etc.)
-Weight Management
-Body Sculpting
-Hormones
-Regenerative Medicine (stem cells, PRP, etc.).

Learn more about webinars and how they work by clicking HERE!

How to implement the Dr. Marketing Blueprint

Are you ready to implement the Dr. Marketing Blueprint for your practice? Trust the healthcare marketing professionals at Medical Marketing Whiz! 

Medical Marketing Whiz can become your Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and implement the blueprint for you. 

This would include:
*Weekly calls with your CMO
*Local SEO
*Reputation Management
*Facebook & Instagram content
*Setting up Targeted Social Media Ads
*Monthly Email Newsletter
*Lead Generating Email Campaigns
*Lead Magnets
*Sales Funnels to nurture leads
*Quarterly Event
*Evergreen Webinars

Medical Marketing Whiz is here to implement these marketing strategies for you! With the above tools and strategic plan, you will successfully market women’s health services for your practice.