Facebook marketing for doctors could be the best way to increase reach, especially if you’re new to an area or just starting your career as a doctor. It solidifies your credibility and boosts your brand image. Read on to see how it works and what strategies you can incorporate into your professional life.
Photo by National Cancer Institute from Unsplash
How Does Facebook Marketing for Doctors Work?
Much like its name suggests, Facebook marketing for doctors enables healthcare practitioners to increase their reach by posting about their practices on this specific platform. Although this is more helpful for those new to an area, literally any doctor can reap its benefits.
There are several ways to advertise your services on a social media platform like Facebook, such as creating ads, making and uploading posts related to your clinic, etc.
Remember those seemingly random adverts that popped up on your newsfeed regarding some type of service that you were JUST talking to your friends about? Yep, these are all a part of the Facebook marketing scheme.
When doctors adopt this marketing technique, they are bound to catch patients’ attention - both old and new ones. Depending on how well articulated the posts or ads are, you will see a lot of new faces in your clinic soon.
Research conducted on 4000+ healthcare specialists showed that over 65% of them use some form of social media for professional reasons. And why shouldn’t they? It’s easy to use, and your messages don’t take too long to get conveyed either.
So, without further ado, let’s look at how you can leverage Facebook marketing for doctors.
Strategies for Facebook Marketing
Facebook Marketing for Doctors #1 - Make Relevant Posts
When you’re dealing with social media and the people on there, you need to stay in the know at all times. No trend goes on for more than a week at most, and this holds even for medical problems.
After acquiring sufficient information on a new topic, design your posts to discuss with your followers what they could expect from this.
To take things a step further, you could even post some videos on the issue. This helps target more people at once since your video will have a higher likelihood of coming up on someone’s Facebook watch.
If you’re not big on making videos, you could always create your posts and make them as detailed as possible. However, try to keep it concise, and don’t use medical jargon excessively.
For example, the Facebook page of Doctor ASKY posted a video explaining what brain cancer is:
Source: Facebook
Facebook Marketing for Doctors #2 - Shed Some Light On Your Journey
The trick is to make yourself seem as relatable as possible. Whenever you can, share a few stories from past encounters with your patients. Talk about a problem one of them had and how you tackled it.
Also, talk about the symptoms that the patient had come in with. This will help others know if they should reach out to you or not since it will give them a rough overview of what health issues they might have.
Similarly, post pictures of your staff or fellow physicians, and list out where their expertise lies. This will generate more traffic to your page since people will notice how versatile your clinic is in medical terms. Even something as simple as thanking them for their service for a certain period will work wonders.
Or, you can ask a few of your patients to write a review of their experience with you and then post it on your Facebook wall.
Facebook Marketing for Doctors #3 - Make Creative Content
We’re not asking you to be the next Da Vinci for this. Today, even memes are seen as a sign of high creative intellect. So, don’t make your Facebook page all plain and serious just because you deal with unwell people.
To lighten things up a bit for them, bring out that comedian in you from time to time. If that’s not up to your alley, you could always opt for the “Did you know?” posts. No one hates an informative post as long as it offers takeaway.
At times, you can even create a quiz and post it on your clinic’s Facebook story. You can urge your followers to respond to it by offering them a discount if they get all the answers right. The more responsive your posts are, the more others will know about your clinic through Facebook.
Another way you can interact with your patients is by answering their questions on your page or Facebook Live.
Take an example from Doctor Mike, who made a series playlist of videos in which he only answered his patients’ or viewers questions:
Source: https://www.facebook.com/watch/realdoctormike/498839957769942/
Facebook Marketing for Doctors #4 - Promote Yourself to Your Patients
This is especially helpful if you’re new to the Facebook marketing game. You can’t have over a hundred followers from the get-go since your patients will first have to know about your page to follow you there.
If your clinic hands out fliers, you could mention the name of your Facebook page on it. Likewise, you could add a logo along with the page’s name on your personal business card. You could go the extra mile and print a QR code on your business card to make things easier for your patients.
If you have a website or use other social media platforms, add a link to your Facebook page in the bio section.
Another great way to get more audiences to notice your page on Facebook is by going live on the platform and posting about it on your existing social media accounts. You should also try asking for help from your colleagues and promote them on your page too.
Tip: When you take to other social media platforms to promote yourself, make sure to throw in a few emojis in your posts every now and then. This helps catch the reader’s attention, and it also makes you look “cooler” in the younger generation’s eyes. However, don’t go overboard with the emojis either.
You can even post about a recent press conference you participated in, like how Doctor Mike did here:
Source: Facebook
Facebook Marketing for Doctors #5 - Be Consistent With Your Posts
Consistency is key to unlocking the best Facebook marketing experience. As a doctor, it’s obvious that you won’t be able to check or update your newsfeed every hour. Sometimes, you might even be too tired after long hours of work to bother about your Facebook page.
However, it’s way too important to keep your audience up-to-date with your life- and more specifically, with medical-related stuff. Even if it’s just another meme or a review of your services, it all counts.
If you find it too difficult to make time for this, you can either hire an assistant or get help from marketing tools online to get the work done for you for an affordable price.
Postfity is one such marketing tool. It allows you to schedule your posts, create new content and even post to multiple platforms at once! So, all you’ll need to do is spare a few hours once in a while to create your content. Postfity will take care of the publishing for you!
Facebook Marketing for Doctors #6 - Create Ads to Boost Traffic
Facebook ads are the most foolproof way to get your clinic recognized by potential clientele. There are several types of adverts that you can use for this purpose such as:
- Video Adverts
Video ads on Facebook can be a second to 240 minutes long. Standard practice for promotional videos is to not make it longer than 15 seconds. You do not need to go into details as to what services you have to offer in your ads; a simple call to action would do.
The main point is to urge the viewer to check your clinic’s page out and be tempted to hire your services. If possible, try to add a voice-over to your advert, since Facebook presents adverts to fewer people if more than 20% of it is in text.
- Picture Adverts
The second and more common type of ad that Facebook offers is the one in picture format. Unlike video ads, picture adverts will not have a duration, and they can have only one picture at a time.
For this type, make sure you choose an image that will attract the public’s eye. Moreover, you should also incorporate texts into it to make it more informative. Similar to videos, too many texts at once will reduce its likelihood of being discovered by more people.
The title of the image should not exceed 25 characters either, while the body should only be 125 characters in total. The information section of your advert can only be 30 characters in length, so choose your words wisely.
Within these limits, try making your ad as informative as possible, and don’t forget to add a call to action at the end.
Note that you cannot target your ads by illnesses since it raises a privacy issue. However, you can still choose to show your ads to a specific age group, gender, or to a certain group of people within a certain geographical location.
Targeting by geographic location is helpful since it helps you get in touch with patients who reside in the same neighborhood as your clinic.
- Carousel Adverts
These are a combination of the two we just mentioned. It allows you to use 2 to 10 pictures or videos at once in one ad. Side by side, you can also link to separate blogs on your website or posts on your Facebook page for each image/ video.
This is great for healthcare practitioners since it allows the patient to pinpoint which service they wish to know more about without having to wait for a specific ad or video to pop up on their newsfeed.
Unlike single image ads, carousels let you promote several services at once.
- Slideshow Adverts
Slideshow adverts are similar to carousels, but they won’t let you post several videos at once. You can only upload up to seven pictures, and Facebook will then create a slideshow out of them before posting it.
Facebook Marketing for Doctors #7 - Provide Forms to Fill Up
This step comes after you’ve created your adverts. You will want your patients to be led to a different page or to your website, where they can book an appointment with your clinic.
The best way to do this is to link the ad to a digital form that patients in your clinic could fill up. If you don’t have one of those, you can always create your own Google forms too. This way, you will be in charge of seeing the responses, and it also leaves less room for doubt in the patients’ minds.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Should I give medical advice on Facebook?
While it’s fine to discuss health problems on social media, refrain from giving out direct medical advice here, even if a patient asks you to.
Information provided through a screen can be misleading and defame your online presence. It might also stop patients from visiting your clinic. Similarly, it can drive them to self-diagnose since they will be sharing this knowledge with everyone, even if they do not have the same symptoms.
- How do I promote my clinic on social media?
The best way for your clinic to enter the digital realm is by creating a Facebook page for it. While other social media platforms work too, Facebook is the most widely used amongst people of all age groups.
You can start by making a page for your clinic and then move on to creating relevant posts and ads accordingly. While doing this, remember to maintain a steady flow with your posts to keep your audience engaged.
Even if you make one post a day, make sure it’s of the best quality and that it is informative enough to encourage the viewer to drop by physically.
If you can’t make time for new posts, sign up for our free 30-day trial today, and let Postfity handle your social media accounts in your absence!
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