Today, people are not fully aware of the benefits of integrative health services. You, as a healthcare provider, have the chance to teach them!

Healthcare experiences could be improved by thinking of them in a more holistic way. If your business is in the health and wellness industry, using educational marketing is a great way to help it grow. If you’re looking for creative ideas to market your healthcare business and inform consumers about your integrative methods, here are a few places to start. There are many ways to market medical practice, including SEO marketing, localized Facebook ads, timely newsletters, podcasts, social media posts, blog content, direct mail, and more. In order to discern which marketing approaches are best for an integrative health practitioner, it is necessary to consider what tactics are most likely to result in desired outcomes.

Here are 18 effective, affordable, and easy-to-implement marketing strategies and tips. Use these marketing techniques to create a thriving integrative health practice.

Creative marketing tactics for integrative healthcare practitioners:

1. Define your audience and patient avatar.

If you want to get your message to as many people as possible, you need to focus on a specific target audience. This is especially important if you don’t have a lot of money to spend. Have you defined your target audience? Think about the type of client you want to work with and what they would be looking for in a service provider. Consider what qualities and skills you have that would appeal to that type of client. It can be helpful to build a patient avatar or persona.

2. Build a bright and welcoming SEO website.

Your website should be filled with clear and concise explanations of how your integrative center can supplement conventional treatments. Keeping your site up-to-date with SEO blog posts and other content will make it more visible to potential patients. Make sure your website has plenty of pictures and videos of your staff. This will make it more original and interesting. If you want to market your practice to your community, giving a prospective patient, a sneak peek of what you do can be very helpful.

3. Create custom content for your website to attract patients seeking specific procedures & services.

If you want your SEO plan to be successful, you need to make sure you’re using quality custom content. You can create custom content, such as blog posts and articles, to inform patients about your practice, qualifications, procedures, and services. This content can help you attract new patients and build trust with existing patients. Some practices have their own in-house content writer, but you can also hire a content marketing agency to help you create and curate content.

The quality of your content is important for your search engine ranking. Being an expert in your field improves your chances of ranking for relevant searches. If you want to appear in search results when local patients are looking for a hip replacement surgeon, you should create a page that explains your expertise in hip replacement and answers common patient questions.

Please, don’t try “shortcut” tactics. They can actually hurt your chances of ranking. Instead, create content with your patients in mind. What information do they want and need to know? Keyword stuffing, or loading a webpage with so many keywords that it becomes difficult to read, is no longer an effective way to improve your website’s ranking on search engines. This is because search engines have become sophisticated enough to determine whether or not the content on a website is high quality. If you have well-written content with accurate, descriptive information, it will be recognized by search engines and you will be given a better ranking.

4. Regularly update your website so patients can always get the latest information about your practice.

Your website should be kept up-to-date with accurate information, or potential patients may become frustrated and look elsewhere. You should check for updates every so often to prevent this from happening. If you have a content management system for your website, it should be fairly easy to update your content.

You also need to make sure your website is using the most up-to-date technology. If your website is very old, it might not be up to date with the most recent security and performance standards. This could result in frustration and mistrust among patients, which could lead to a loss in search engine ranking. Google Chrome has started to label websites that are not secure with a “Not Secure” warning in the browser bar. We recommend getting a website platform that releases updates on a regular basis so your website can always take advantage of the latest technology.

5. Start a blog to share helpful tips and information with your patients on your website.

If you’re looking for a way to keep your website updated with fresh content on a regular basis, blogs are a great solution. This content should differ from your other website content. It is more beneficial to talk about topics that your audience would be interested in rather than spend time explaining your procedures and services. Relevant topics could include health tips, innovations in healthcare, or injury prevention tips.

After improving your website’s mobile-friendliness, SEO, and other content, we recommend trying blogging as an advanced strategy.

6. Try out podcasting.

Not into writing? You don’t have to be! To build your brand online, you need to create high-quality audio content. Podcasts are booming in popularity. Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular, with over 700,000 active podcasts and 29 million episodes available. This means that podcasts are just as popular as attending church services. You can build strong relationships with potential and current clients by podcasting. This will help create a higher level of trust.

7. Advertise locally on Instagram & Facebook.

Facebook ads can be very effective in marketing a local business to the community. Local businesses say that, with over 69% of American adults on Facebook, Facebook is the most effective form of advertising available to a small business. This is in regards to both cost and result. Facebook is a critical marketing channel for integrative healthcare. If you want to stand out and engage potential patients, you need to use the right tone and content for social settings.

8. Start a patient referral program.

How do new patients find out about your practice? People will recommend you to others and talk about you if they are happy with your service and think you’re doing a great job. This will result in an influx of high-quality patients. Implementing a patient referral program in your holistic practice is a great way to help grow your practice and extremely affordable.

Before you start offering gift cards or incentives to patients who refer other patients to your practice, you need to make sure that doing so does not violate any laws or provider ethics.

9. Team up and promote your practice with a local business.

Ever thought about partnering up with another local business? The coffee shop down the street could be a massive employer in your community. Working with a local business you are already familiar with is a great way to expand your business. Developing partnerships with local businesses will allow you to connect directly with potential patients.

• Make an appointment to meet with local business owners.
• Discuss opportunities to do talks with employees.
• Write informative articles for the corporate newsletter.
• Participate in health fairs or employee lunches.
• Place brochures in common areas.

10. Mail out promotional postcards.

One way to market your medical practice is to mail letters to advertise new treatments and potential deals, remind patients about recommended wellness checks, or let them know you offer free flu shots in the winter.

If you don’t know who your target audience is or are just starting a business, there are a few companies you can look into that provide mailing lists based on demographics, lifestyles, buying habits, and personal interests. This can help you attract new customers to your business.

11. Share a wellness or fitness challenge on social media.

When you first create a business Facebook page, it may be difficult to see how it can be beneficial. A Facebook or Instagram page is a great way to promote your practice and challenge people to be more fit or well. Get involved in social media to harness the power of community and grow your patient base. Encourage your patients to start a wellness challenge and share their progress through social media by tagging your organization and using a branded hashtag.

12. Let your clients or patients book appointments online.

One of the biggest challenges a potential new patient faces is making an appointment by phone. You can make this process simpler by using a free online scheduling tool. Reminders can be set up to send automatically, so you don’t have to confirm with calls or emails.

13. Use review sites like HealthGrades and RateMDs to establish your reputation online.

An increasing number of patients are taking to review sites such as HealthGrades and RateMDs to get insights into their doctors. Patients can write reviews about their experience with your medical practice, which can help new patients make decisions about their own healthcare. As more and more people are posting online reviews, they are becoming more and more important and may even affect your search engine ranking.

If you don’t have time to get reviews from patients, you can use a service like ours to get them in-office and post them on key review sites.

14. Send out appointment reminders to remind patients when to come into your office.

Patients appreciate the extra attention, like appointment reminders. This also helps to ensure that your patients will attend their scheduled appointments. If your practice uses a system that complies with HIPAA regulations or an electronic health record, it is quite easy to automate appointment reminders. Reminding your patients of upcoming appointments could be a helpful way to keep your smaller practice running smoothly. If you have the staff available to make calls, this could be a simple and effective way to stay organized. Now is a good opportunity to keep patients up-to-date on any changes in procedures.

15. Offer take-away items to reinforce your branding and keep your practice top-of-mind for patients.

Everyone loves a freebie! Make sure your patients go home with items that have your practice’s branding. It can be something small and inexpensive like pens, magnets, and notepads. Include your practice’s phone number so that they will always have it accessible. This is a reminder for patients about their healthcare practice so they know who to contact when they need medical assistance.

16. Focus on what sets you apart from other practices to differentiate yourself.

It is important to be visible online if you want your practice to succeed, especially if you are in a competitive area. When a patient is looking for a new doctor, they want as much information as possible so they can make an informed decision if your practice is the only one in your city that offers a certain technique or treatment approach that sets you apart from the other 5 orthopedic surgeons.

This can be accomplished by creating content that is interesting and useful to your target audience. Your website should be informative and highlight what makes your practice unique. The following details may be what decides if a patient chooses your practice over others in the area.

17. Know your peak season to figure out when to invest in marketing.

If you provide services in an area that is popular for vacations, you can direct your marketing to potential clients who are visiting the area. Some patients living in colder areas may spend the season in a warmer area and as a result, may need a local doctor. These patients are often called snowbirds. If you want to attract patients who are going to winter retreat destinations, you should start advertising before the season begins.

18. Get on YouTube to share videos with your patients.

You can use YouTube videos to enhance your website and as educational resources for your patients. Websites that provide information about doctors can help new patients get to know the doctors before they book an appointment. Having a face and personality to go with the information can help patients make a decision about which doctor to choose. YouTube videos can be a helpful way to share health and medical information with patients. For example, videos can be used to demonstrate procedures, explain services, or show the results of treatments (such as a patient walking after a knee replacement).

Be sure to avoid anything too graphic when choosing content for your waiting room, like a video of a surgical procedure. Some patients may find this type of content off-putting.

Think outside the box when promoting your practice.

The convenience, personalization, and accessibility of integrative health services make them well worth the cost to the consumer.

No matter what your goal is–whether it’s attracting new patients or expanding your private practice–having a well-thought-out marketing plan is essential to achieving it.

Which of the following tips do you think you will try first?