If you’re like most physicians I know, you find yourself a few weeks into this COVID-19 pandemic with more time on your hands than usual.
Elective surgeries have been postponed. Office consults have been reduced or postponed altogether.
Without a doubt, this moment in time is unique and unfortunate for all of us.
But, what opportunities are there today for you to work on growing your practice that wouldn’t have existed had the Coronavirus pandemic not happened?
Not at all to minimize what’s going on in our world today, but one of the things I have always been coached to do is to take a step back and ask, “What does this make possible?”
So, is it possible that with this extra free time, you can take more action to market yourself that will pay off in the months and years to come?
I believe the answer is yes. And here are three areas of focus I would recommend for you during this time:
1). Focus On Your Personal Website
If you don’t already have a personally branded website, this is the perfect time to get one set up. Even if you work for a healthcare system or larger practice, it’s a wise investment to have and market yourself with your own website.
Given that close to 80% of patients use Google before scheduling an appointment with a healthcare professional, your website needs to be the home base for all of your marketing efforts.
I do have a resource available that you might find helpful. It’s called 8 Steps To Creating An On Online Marketing Platform. You can’t buy this guide, but you can download it for free by clicking here.
If you already have a website set up, this is a great time to review and update. Here are a few things to look for:
- Am I showing up on page 1 in local Google searches for my specialty?
- Does the style of my website look up to date?
- Are all of the images and links displaying correctly?
- Does my website render well on mobile devices?
- Is my personal branding clear and well defined?
- Does any of the content need to be updated?
- Are all of my social medial profiles listed on the site?
Once you have your website created or updated, it’s time to move on to the next focus area.
2). Focus On Creating Content
Content is king—both in the eyes of your patients and Google.
In fact, if you aren’t continually updating and adding new content to your site, Google will see that as a negative and your SEO rankings will decrease.
This is why having a blog section is still a winning strategy for digital marketing today.
I would encourage you to spend as much time as you can, creating as much content as you can. Click here for some insights if you’re wondering what to write about.
Once you have several pieces of content built up, think through the scheduling and release of that content.
You don’t want to put everything up right away. Believe it or not, Google sees that as a negative as well. Instead, you will want to release 1-2 new pieces of content per week on your website.
Keep in mind how your schedule will likely look the remainder of this year. It’s likely that you will not have as much time in the coming months to create content as you do now. There likely won’t be a better time to create and schedule the rest of the year.
3). Focus On Your Social Media Profiles
Social media is an excellent opportunity to take your message to where the people are. For this reason, many people are tempted to jump right into social media first rather than the website, but this is a mistake.
The reason being, you own and control your website, but you don’t own or have any control over any of the social media companies. Don’t “build your house on a rented lot.”
Once you have your website set up and content created, then it’s time to share that content via social media. Make sure you have professional pages created for yourself on each of the leading social channels, even if you may not use them all.
This is such a great time to share helpful messages with patients. People are looking for stability and information now as they’re mostly stuck at home too.
The physicians who provide the most value during this time will be the ones who succeed the most as things return to normal and going forward.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has been terrible, and like everyone else, I wished it never happened, let me encourage you not to let this opportunity to create or enhance your personal brand slip by.
It’s unlikely you’ll ever have as much time to focus on this area as you do right now.