Marketing Medical Practices

Marketing medical practices on the Internet is becoming increasingly more common, and for good reason. More and more people are using the Internet to search for medical- and health-related information and to find qualified medical professionals. In fact, research indicates that n early 75% of Internet users use the Internet for medical research. With over 200 million U.S. Internet users and over 650 million users worldwide, that's a large audience of potential patients that you're not tapping into if you're not marketing your practice on the Internet.

Of course, those hundreds of millions of Internet users may not all be interested in plastic surgery. Nevertheless, research indicates that a large portion of them are. The following searches were conducted on Yahoo during the month of August alone:

It's clear that by marketing your medical practice on the Internet, you can reach new patients, both at home and across the country. Further, you can reach them when it's convenient for them, even if it's at 3am while your practice is closed.

Marketing medical practices on the Internet is different in many ways from marketing medical practices through more traditional channels. These differences can often translate into benefits. One of the greatest of these benefits is that Internet marketing is far more targeted. An advertisement that may appear on a billboard, in a magazine, or on television or radio is capable of reaching a large audience, but that audience typically isn't a targeted one. Not all of those people stuck in traffic and staring at the billboard that's part of the marketing plan for your plastic surgery practice are going to be interested in plastic surgery. On the Internet, however, the audience that you reach, particularly through the search engines, has a genuine desire for and interest in your services. After all, they're conducting searches using terms related to your practice and the services you offer. In addition, unlike traditional marketing campaigns, Internet marketing can tracked and measured to determine what works and what doesn't.

If you're still uncertain about marketing your medical practice on the Internet, consider your competitors. They're most likely marketing their practice on the Internet since having a website has become an expected and essential part of most businesses today. And if they're marketing their practice, they're most likely tapping into hundreds of thousands of potential patients that you're missing out on.