Medical Marketing

Hey guys. Quick question, have you ever been referred to a doctor and you've gone to see them on the expectation that they're going to be an expert in X, Y or Z, and when you arrive they just go, "Oh okay, it's really interesting that, thank you for bringing this problem to me, however it's not my area of interest." Worse, have you ever referred somebody to a doctor and had that experience? Patient comes back and goes, "You referred me to such and such for my joint pain and they don't look after joints." It's a really bad position to be in because it costs the patient money, it is a pain in the ass that wasted their time, and maybe it delayed a diagnosis.

Why am I mentioning this? Because what I want to talk to you about is something that you can easily set up within the website of your practise that will make a big difference and that, as I've taught many times before, is introduction videos for your patients. What I really, really, really recommend is that in your practise every doctor should be videoed and should have a brief video introduction that explains their area of interest.

Why would you do this? One, is to avoid the problem that I mentioned. You will have patients who come to you because you have expressed your area of interest and that will work out very quickly that if you're a gay mental health specialist they're probably not going to come to me for a pap smear. The other thing is, and I've taught this before, is that the decision on whether or not you are going to sue a doctor if there is a bad outcome is made in the first six seconds of an interaction.

That's usually when a patient is walking from the waiting room to your room, that six seconds. If they don't like you they will make the decision that if something goes wrong they're going to sue your ass. By making a video, what you're actually doing is you are creating a pre-interaction, a pre-introduction of yourself to the patient and they can decide whether they like the look of you, whether they like the sound of your voice.

What happens is that when the patient actually meets you everything is so much smoother and so much happier because they feel like they already know you and you've eliminated the people that you don't want to see sculpt in your practise to a group of people that you really like working with. That, for me, is the most important thing. I highly recommend you create introduction videos for every single doctor in your practise, that way people who are looking for a doctor of a particular interest will be able to go, "Ah yes, I saw Rebecca's video and she's fantastic with kids," or, "I saw George's video and he's got an interest in gay men's health."

This makes a massive difference and I'm urging you if you would like to learn how to make these videos it's really straight forward. Just tell your story, two minutes, nothing longer, nothing shorter, just get in there and get a talk and I would recommend that this is a massive difference to your practise. You will be amazed how quickly your patient group transforms to a group of people that you love spending time with. Have a great one. See you guys.

Hey Guys, a quick post on what I consider essential pages for medical websites for doctors.

Probably the most important “money making” page is the contact page. This is where patients will be able to find your practice as well as be able to call or contact via email.

This page should include:

• Your phone number
• Physical address of the practice
• Google map – your own practice listing for the Google map

Other pages that are useful for all medical practices:

• An individual page for each doctor that includes:
  • a video introduction of the doctor
  • their particular medical specialties and interests
• Practice FAQ’s and SAQ’s. These should include:
  • Practice policy for results, scripts, follow up
  • How to book appointments
  • Prices of appointments
  • Privacy policy
• Medical FAQ’s and SAQ’s if you are a practice that has “speciality areas”.
• A welcome page for the front of the website. I’d recommend this contains:
  • A beautiful photo of the front of the building so people know what to look for
  • Links to every other page on the website
  • Your address, phone number and how to contact

This is the basic structure I have used for many medical websites. These style of sites rank very well and have good patient engagement. They are modular and can grow over time.

If you would like to learn more about creating websites you can review my training products available via my teaching platform: Medical Marketing Training.

Dr George Forgan-Smith