Amer Khalil, MD, discovered that the patient marketing done on his behalf at Cleveland Clinic and Boston-based New England Baptist Hospital during his residency and fellowship didn't exist at Orange County, Calif.-based UC Irvine, and now he needs to create a strategy to promote himself to patients in his area.
Lucas Richie, MD, is part of a successful practice in Nashville that has an excellent website and thriving marketing program, but his practice is based in a community outside the Nashville metro area where the search engines don't seem to promote as much. Dr. Richie needs to address this gap and build a presence for himself and his practice in his area.
Drs. Khalil and Richie are both seeking an individual presence in their community, but each has their own distinct challenges in creating a strategy that works, and that shows a return on investment. Let's look at the options for building an identity for both private practice and hospital employees, and the pros and cons of each approach.
Do it yourself
DIY solutions, like Wix and Squarespace, offer lots of templates to rapidly create a web presence. The one thing they do not offer is content and customization. So, while it's easy to create a website, and very inexpensive, we need to look at the objectives and how well you can meet them.
The common factor for both physicians is the need to create content, and lots of it, on a regular basis in order to drive the website up the search ranks. Content creation requires time and SEO experience, which not every physician has. Your time is valuable and the implied cost of content is extremely high. Consider creating 40 articles at $100 an hour. How long will it take you?
At first glance, these DIY sites are your cheapest option, with costs ranging from $5 to $50 a month, but the overall cost in terms of time and quality are much larger. Bear in mind the old adage — you get what you pay for.
Local talent
It's rare to find an independent developer that knows medical marketing, so you are solely responsible for the structure of the website, SEO and content. Costs for local developers range, but assume you'll be paying anywhere from $500 to $2,500 for a competent developer, not counting the implied content costs. Your monthly costs should be low, but your ad hoc monthly costs for posting content can vary wildly. And if you're in a hurry, this is not the best way to go, as most developers are doing this work on the side.
Medical marketing companies
Most medical marketing companies have huge libraries of content across all spectrums and the articles are focused on delivering high search engine results. This content immediately fast tracks you to show up across service line and treatment/condition areas. These are searched more often than your name, and if you aren't showing up in those areas—because you don't have content—then you won't have the growth needed for a successful strategy.
Costs for most medical marketing company websites range from $4,000 to $9,000 in order to build the site. Monthly fees range from $50 to $700, based on number of hours and features. Ad hoc professional services can cost $75 to $200 an hour. These costs deliver a complete package of content and analytics that are far more professional than a DIY or local developer. Your side job of being a medical writer is no longer needed, and your implied costs of content creation drop to zero.
Advertising agencies
My advice to anyone who is considering working with an advertising agency that is not 100 percent medical focused is, to run. And keep your hand on your checkbook. Typical agency engagements start at $10,000 and work their way up. The agencies typically outsource your development and SEO and mark up costs accordingly. Their metrics of success are often skewed and wrong, and don't translate to actual patient growth. Healthcare marketing is not the same as advertising cookies, shoes or fast food restaurants, and without substantial experience in the healthcare field, you are looking at less than stellar results for an exceptionally high price.
If you're just starting out in practice, or have a niche to fill, the DIY websites may make short term sense, or using local developers to build a more customized presence might help if you have some content to share, but a longer term strategy that has a measurable ROI is always best served by a professional team. Just remember to ensure you own your own domain, and have full access to everything you create, and always keep your options open. Most medical marketing companies offer free consultation and will gladly share their knowledge. For more information or questions, please contact info@voxmd.com.