Customized website is a valuable marketing tool for healthcare providers

The patient will see you now. Yes, doctors and healthcare providers, the tides are shifting. Patients who want information and want it fast are turning more and more to the Internet. They are talking to people on blogs, forums and message boards before they even call your office. Because doctors can't be everywhere at once, they should be harnessing the power of the World Wide Web to work for them. Aurora Information Technology (Aurora IT), a medical website design and medical marketing company advises that doctors and healthcare providers need to ride the wave of this trend and start spearheading these searches and conversations.

A customized website that is both interactive and educational is a valuable marketing tool. Yet some practitioners might be too "old school" to adapt to this new way of treating patients. The advertising of yesteryear has changed. According to a PRWeek article, ("Healthcare communications needs to get more personal," Bob Pearson, October 1, 2009), "how people consume content is trending toward video, yet we still place most of our focus on creating new written copy." Effective outreach efforts now encompass both offline and online media.

Aurora IT, based in Garrison, NY, creates highly interactive websites that feature blogs, message boards and contact forms. They believe that an informed patient is a doctor's best patient. The most effective websites also contain comprehensive medical information and multimedia such as photos and videos. Doctors need to realize if they are not disseminating this information, the patients will find it for themselves. While knowledge is power, sometimes the Internet has too much information, which can create panic, anxiety and lead to an irrational self-diagnosis.

Patients prefer the "word of mouth" method in choosing a doctor or making a healthcare decision. But this peer- or self-diagnosis could be dangerous, not only for the patient but also for the practice's marketing efforts. This is why Aurora believes that doctors need to be in constant communication with patients even when face-to-face communication is not possible. With an effective search engine optimization (SEO) plan, a doctor's strategically key-worded websites will rank high in organic search results, and can do most of the talking for them. As SEO experts, Aurora IT knows that these searches can draw in the modern, tech-savvy customers that they otherwise would not have gotten through more traditional advertising methods.

With these websites, doctors should not only be talking and informing, they should also be listening. With regards to patient communications, it's important to communicate in their language. The PRWeek article stated "ten languages reach 90% of the online world, not one or two." Aurora IT advises that healthcare providers should redefine their methods of communications with their patients by providing interactive and informative websites that are translated into different languages, providing a wider reach of audience.

Medical website marketing is effective in emphasizing prevention and education. According a recent New York Times article, "If All Doctors Had Time To Listen," there is a trend from physicians to educate patients on prevention so that there are less referrals and visits to specialists. This outreach effort is invaluable and this type of healthcare is not only patient-focused but also cost-effective. Doctors can use technology to "streamline processes and reduce administrative costs" with regards to appointment scheduling, medical records and prescriptions, all through their websites.

So if you think you can do without an Internet presence, Aurora cautions you to think again: because your competitor is coming up in the searches where your practice should be found.

SOURCE: Aurora Information Technology, Inc.