If you’re reading this, that means you made it through the tumultuous and transformative 2020. We’re happy to join you!
We all know 2020 was a year like no other and caused a lot of uncertainty for businesses. However, Facebook has continued to provide community support and digital marketing opportunities for entrepreneurs to boost their marketing efforts.
From a way of connection and communication among family and friends, Facebook metamorphosed into the interaction interface between businesses and their audiences and communities.
No one can deny the power and sustainability Facebook holds and the role it plays in your overall marketing efforts.
With a new year, you can take this as an opportunity to refine and advance your marketing strategy to get more patients in your door. An obvious way to start is with Facebook.
Now that we’re already over a month into the new year, dig into these crucial tips that will help you set up your Facebook page for success in 2021.
Create Engaging and Facebook Compliant Ads to Reach More Patients
Facebook advertising is a highly effective and personal way to connect with your audience and reach targeted local patients for medical and dental practices.
Facebook ads are targeted to users based on their location, demographic, and profile information.
That means Facebook ads can get your message in front of the people who are most likely to want your services. Being able to target ads towards a specific demographic and area can make sure your advertising is seen by the right people, making it a cost-effective way to market your practice and drive new patients to the door.
Plus, it’ll never cost you more than you have to spend. You can set a reasonable daily Facebook budget so you don’t exceed what you’re able to spend.
Each ad may require a different investment depending on the goals you have set for the campaign. As a rule of thumb, starting a campaign at around $8-10 a day is a good first step, as you can see what comes from it and refine and build from there.
Also, Facebook Ad Manager allows you to easily monitor your result so you can build more effective campaigns moving forward.
Trust us, the cost-efficiency of the platform and results will astound you.
For instance, with our clients, we have set inexpensive monthly budgets dedicated to paid advertising and we see fantastic results.
Example from Facebook Insights
The visual above shows the analytics of a few of our clients’ Facebook posts that were ‘boosted’ with budgets of $40-50 spanning over 2 to 5 days.
For example, looking at the top-left box, our client was able to reach 3,675 people in 5 days. That’s 735 people in 1 day for only $10. That’s impressive!
With that said, Facebook advertising is key to having a successful Facebook marketing strategy for the new year.
Build and Leverage Facebook Patient Relationships
As you may know, Facebook is the perfect forum to interact with your patients and the public.
Since medical practices cater to the public and doctors are viewed as guardians of our wellbeing, it’s logical to interact and engage with patients on social media.
Building patient relationships is all about delivering value to your followers. New patients want to see social media posts that highlight your work, process, and results.
You need to provide helpful, informative, and entertaining content so people will want to connect with you.
Healthcare social media is plagued by repetitive, overly sales-y content that gets little to no engagement online and most practices aren’t adjusting their strategies for better results.
Healthcare providers, physicians, hospitals, and all others in the healthcare value chain should include building patient relationships through Facebook as a part of their marketing plan.
You should focus on fulfilling patient needs, wants, and desires by listening, responding, and creating a personal connection.
There are plenty of ways to create a personal connection when building patient relationships on social media. For instance:
Introduce people to your staff with photos, bios, names, and stories.
Adopt a fun and friendly tone in your messages, complete with emoji if it fits your brand.
Take part in trends and discussions that your patients are interested in.
Utilize patient testimonies and reviews.
Share updates about any accomplishments or recent awards won.
Respond to patient comments on your posts with a friendly personalized conversation.
Share heartwarming local news stories.
By creating that personal connection and encouraging open communication, you can build a positive relationship with your patients, which in turn will help you understand what they feel about your practice.
This involvement creates loyalty, satisfaction, and a positive patient experience and should be a major element in your 2021 Facebook marketing plan.
Content Consistency Is Key To Your Marketing Strategy
Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to posting on Facebook.
How frequently you publish posts and when you post them is vital for your Facebook marketing activity. This means creating a balanced posting schedule.
Posting too often might irritate your followers. On the other hand, not posting frequently enough might reduce your chances of credibility and authenticity. Striking a good balance between the two is the key to a strong Facebook presence.
Consider posting 3-5 times a week or creating anywhere from 30-40 posts a month. If you want to post closer to 50-60 posts a month, go for it! We recommend experimenting throughout periods of months to see what works best for you.
It’s also important to remember that the value and quality of your content you are posting needs to be consistent as well. Your content needs to be on a level that identifies well with your practice’s brand and attracts potential patients.
Ideally, you’re sharing content created by your practice, including blogs and interactive tools. However, it’s fine to share content from other sources, such as health magazines, medical journals, and health segments from the news.
In 2021, your patients want to hear the message of a person, not a company. And they want to hear from you often and consistently.
Crafting Compelling Visuals
Visuals are essential to creating content that will help your practice stand out and draw in patients.
Not only does imagery help make text-centric content more readable, digestible, and memorable, but it can be used to craft compelling messages that speak volumes without using a single word.
Sure, there’s not one good way to create a compelling visual. However, there are some basic best essentials to take into consideration:
Keep it simple. Make sure your visual is easy to understand. No need to add your logo to every corner of the image or have an overflow of text in your video.
Have a clear subject. It’s usually best to have a single focal point or message in your image or video.
Light on the filters. If your image is too dark, it’s harder to see. If it’s harder to see, people will not care what you have to say and will keep scrolling
Choose complementary colors. Get familiar with a color wheel. Make sure the person handling your Facebook content is using colors associated with your medical practice in the best and easiest way to go to have a continuous theme.
The right images can catch people’s attention. They also help you get the message across, creating the context for the patient to take action.
Track Metrics and Set Goals
A comprehensive Facebook strategy cannot be complete without understanding how and where users interact most with your business across your Facebook page.
One of the advantages of Facebook is how much data comes with it. You can track plenty of metrics, as well as collect audience data.
Based on these metrics, you can set goals to consistently aim for greater success on Facebook. If you are aimlessly posting without setting goals or knowing if your content is performing well, you are not utilizing Facebook like your competitors.
Facebook analytics will help you analyze how well the goals you set are performing and whether you’re increasing your ROI.
You can only get a clear picture of your post’s performance by studying Facebook Insights.
Overview of Page Insights
Your insights help you to determine which posts made the greatest impact on your patients’ news feeds by showing you post impressions, click, likes, shares, etc.
Example of Post Insights
Take a look at your content is performing well and ones that aren’t reaching as many people. See what’s working and what’s not.
Knowing which types of posts your patients respond to best can help you to formulate impactful posts in the future.
Conquer Facebook Marketing in 2021
Strategic social media marketing is essential to growing your practice, with Facebook being one of the most impactful channels available.
By following the aforementioned tips, you’ll ensure that you promote your business to the widest number of people on Facebook, and position yourself as a trustworthy brand.
For more helpful Facebook tips and guides, check out our previous blogs:
An apple a day might keep the doctor away, but a powerful marketing plan that implements savvy digital techniques will keep patients happy.
Do you already have a Facebook marketing strategy, but you’re not sure if it’s delivering the way it could be? It might be time to review your entire digital marketing strategy. This may sound like a lot to manage.
If you need a dedicated team to take your medical practice digital marketing to the next level, get in touch with our experts at Koda Digital.
Our experienced digital marketing experts and social media managers have years of experience creating and managing strategies across a variety of platforms, and they can do the same for you.
If you're ready to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your
digital marketing efforts, without all the confusing techno-babble, then enter your healthcare website below.
