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Writer's pictureDaniel Madhan

Bariatric Marketing for Gastroenterologist Practices

Updated: Oct 11, 2023

Introduction: Importance of bariatric marketing.


Marketing is one way a business can provide information about its products and services to potential customers. Through marketing, consumers will have a basic idea of what your product or service is all about.


Overall, marketing is essential for every brand. While many people might not see the need for marketing in healthcare, thinking if people need to seek healthcare, they will reach out to a professional, so there's no need for marketing.


That isn't true because people won't know that you offer a service even better than your competitors if you tell no one about it.


The need for efficient bariatric surgery marketing has never been greater than now with the increase in weight loss patients. If you own a bariatric clinic, it's important to market your services and its benefits.


Marketing is the only way to distinguish your practice from other clinics. It's how you can get more people to know you and seek your practice. With marketing, you can market the real health advantages of weight-loss surgery and draw qualified patients to your clinic.


Marketing can educate many people about your bariatric services, and your revenue will increase when people are well-informed about your product.


Reputation is everything for a brand, and implementing marketing strategies is key to building a good reputation for your bariatric clinic.


2. Target Audience: Understand patient needs.


Identifying your target audience and their needs is the first step you can take toward successfully marketing your bariatric clinic. Understanding your patients’ needs is something every medical practice, including bariatric clinic owners, ought to do continuously.


You need to know what patients want from your practice, how they want it, and what price they are willing to pay. Studies have shown that many medical practices don’t pay much attention to the needs of their patients, and most times, these practices don't last.


Understanding what your patients want will help build stronger relationships, which will strengthen brand loyalty and help grow your bariatric clinic. The most effective methods you can adopt to understand your patients include analyzing your current patient database and carrying out a survey.


Conducting patient research and analyzing your competition bariatric clinic can also help understand your target audience's needs.


SEO: Optimize for terms like "ESG" and "Gastric Sleeve"


SEO simply means making your website appear on top online search results. The better visibility of your website in search results, the more likely you are to be found and clicked on. An essential component of SEO is keyword research and optimization.


Certain terms are mostly used when patients search about bariatric clinics, such as ESG, Gastric sleeve, weight loss surgery, and bariatric care; you can discover more relevant keywords using keyword research tools.


After identifying the relevant terms, it's important to optimize for these terms.


Keyword optimization involves researching, analyzing, selecting the keywords and driving qualified traffic from search engines to your website. Producing content that adds value for your target audience depends on keyword optimization.


You could either center content around the keywords that people are searching for. Or you can do some keyword research first and then decide which keywords would make great content. It’s important to avoid keyword stuffing in the process of optimization.


More keywords often result in higher search rankings; however, if those keywords are overused, the content will be of poor quality, and the effect will be the opposite.


Facebook Ads: Use targeted ads, testimonials, and retargeting


Facebook has millions of users, and with its reach, it's not surprising that it's one of the best social platforms brands use for marketing. The best marketing campaigns reach the target audience and not just anyone.


Besides Facebook's reach, the app is a powerful marketing tool because of its flexibility. Facebook allows brands to run targeted ads. Facebook ad targeting helps you define the audience that will see your ads.


It can improve the effectiveness of your campaigns and increase the quality of leads you get from your ads.


In addition to using targeted ads, you could also implement ad retargeting. Ad retargeting is the process of advertising to people who have already visited your website or interacted with your brand in one way or the other.


Facebook retargeting can encourage these people to return to your site or take a specific action. You can also make your satisfied patients do the talking and impact your ad's conversion rates.


Providing real-life testimonials is one of the most effective ways to accelerate the decision-making process for your new and potential patients.


Weight Loss Funnel: Create effective landing pages


The goal of building a landing page is to compel a visitor to take action, whether to give you their information for email marketing or to book a consultation. A good landing page can also help improve your ad campaign. Each landing page must have a single purpose to help guide new patients on the action you want them to take.


Landing pages are associated with a high bounce rate. To keep that number low, your visitors need to know and understand the benefits your bariatric clinic can offer them instantly.


The headline is an important component of the landing page. It should clearly and concisely communicate the value of your practice. Also, ensure the page is optimized with relevant keywords for your paid campaigns and organic search.


When someone searches for your key phrase, they should find your landing page. A strong landing page can help target specific audiences, increase your conversion rates, and boost the overall results from your landing page.


SMS & Email Automation: Engage and remind potential patients.


SMS automation is the pre-written text that brands send customers or subscribers. On the other hand, Email automation is the pre-written emails that brands use for their businesses to communicate with their customers.


Bariatric clinics can also use these two to engage and remind potential patients. Email and SMS automation are powerful tools that you can use to streamline the marketing efforts of your bariatric clinic and drive growth.


With automation like SMS and Email automation set in place, you can easily set up campaigns in advance and save time and resources. You can use it to build brand awareness and drive sales by segmenting and sending personalized messages to old, new, and potential patients.


Automating repetitive tasks like welcome emails and follow-ups increases efficiency and allows you to focus on optimal patient care. Automated campaigns offer you the opportunity to improve audience targeting and remind patients about your services.


Video Funnel: Showcase success stories


A video marketing funnel guides your target audience through the patient journey. Creating video testimonial ads can lure more prospective patients seeking bariatric treatment services into your funnel.


It captured the essence of what we do clearly and concisely. This is an effective approach to creating funnels. The video funnel strategy will attract new leads.


Patient testimonial videos can boost conversion and persuade visitors to take action. This is because it’s a recommendation from a real patient who sought your service and has been satisfied with the results.


Plus, it’s a video that makes the review more credible. Before using patient testimonial videos in your funnel, ensure you seek permission and don't force your patient to do anything.


Patients who have experience with your practice and have been satisfied with your services will most likely grant you permission to use their success stories for marketing.


Consultation Offer: Provide free consultations, leading to procedure sign-ups.


Offering free consultations can be a valuable marketing strategy. It gives you a chance to connect with potential clients in a personal way.


As a bariatric clinic owner, you can offer free consultations to help you form valuable relationships with potential customers, increase their trust in you, and boost conversions.


To make this strategy successful and effective, you must carefully structure your free consultation process to keep it organized.


When offering free consultation as a part of your marketing strategy, you’ll need to drive potential clients to a landing page where they can book a free consultation.


You can do this in various ways, whether using social media, email marketing, your website’s SEO content, or paid campaigns. Lastly, have a goal you want to meet at the end of the planned consultation.


You could sign up or book an appointment. Having a clear idea of the next step in your marketing strategy can help you focus on attracting more patients.


Conclusion


There's more to digital marketing for bariatric practices than just coming up with an ad and wasting your resources.


You need to come up with solid marketing strategies after identifying consumers’ needs. Implement the strategies discussed above for your bariatric marketing.


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