By Stewart Gandolf, Chief Executive Officer
Do you want to compete in each of your local markets?
Do you want to position your healthcare products and services where your target audience actively seeks them?
If so, you need a custom digital marketing strategy and budget for each location.
We like to call this budget the “minimum daily requirement.”
Why is this so important? Unless you have a solid local strategy, your business will not show up online where and when it matters most. This means you’re missing out on a significant portion of high-intent users and potential revenue.
No matter how many locations you have, you must remember that each is its own microcosm and deserves a unique marketing strategy and budget.
Here are a few things to consider when building your local multilocation marketing plan:
- Competitive situation—analyze the strengths and weaknesses of competitors in each area
- Facility—highlight the unique features that set your services apart (e.g., location, amenities, equipment, etc.)
- Staff—showcase your provider expertise and specialties to attract more patients seeking those specific services
- Provider levels—promote the different levels of healthcare providers at each location
- Referral patterns—Understand how referrals flow in each location to target them more effectively
- Services—highlight specific service offerings at each location
“How much should we invest per location?”
As we have seen, every location deserves some love. The first step is to determine what your “minimum daily requirement” will be.
For example, let’s say you have 100 provider locations and have determined each location needs local SEO, reputation management, and a highly targeted paid search campaign for each location. After the appropriate due diligence, let’s say your Marketing Director recommends a minimum budget of $1,000 per location per month, or $100,000 monthly for all locations.
Is $33 per day per location too much to spend on marketing? Not if that marketing builds provable, trackable ROI.
Now, let’s add some more perspective.
If an average location brings in $1,000,000 a year in revenue, a $1,000 monthly marketing budget ($33 daily) would equate to 1.2% of the annual revenue for each location.
Are you willing to invest a small percentage of revenue back into each location (as needed) to protect each business from local competitors, increase brand awareness, draw in more high-value cases, and increase your monthly revenue? And if not, are you willing to stand by when local competitors inevitably rush in to fill the void?
Even if many of your locations are at or near capacity, we still recommend investing in the “minimum daily requirement” for each location. After all, when consumers are looking for care near one of your locations, do you want to show up on the search engine results page (SERP) – or not?
Please keep in mind, however, that minimum budgets are just that—the minimum.
Of course, some locations may require more than the minimum. For example, you may want to invest more budget to support underperforming locations or take advantage of new opportunities like local grand openings, new providers, and priority service lines.
Marketing Support for Each Location
We recognize marketing budgets are not infinite, especially when you have tens, hundreds, or thousands of locations to consider. However, there are certain levers you can pull to achieve business objectives in target markets.
Here are nine ways to achieve your business objectives in each target market.
1. Unique Website or Landing Page
Having a unique website or landing page on your corporate website for each location is crucial. A customized approach allows you to tailor content and patient experiences to the individual needs and preferences of each local audience.
This also supports local SEO because search engines, like Google, prioritize websites with location-specific information, which can significantly boost your visibility in local searches.
In short, it makes it easy for high-intent potential patients to find you.
2. Local SEO
Ensure your organization appears prominently in local search results with organic, location-specific SEO strategies.
Here are a few ways to attract patients searching for healthcare services nearby
- Claim your Google Business Profile (GBP) and optimize it with appropriate information
- Engage on social media and add posts to your GBP
- Optimize online directories and maintain consistent NAPW (e.g., name, address, phone number, and website URL) information
- Improve your internal linking structure to help search engines understand and index your content properly
- Create local content for your website or landing page (e.g., local events, trends, updates, etc.), and include target cities throughout your content.
3. Reputation Management
High-quality reviews and ratings are key influencers for patients. Focus on reputation-building digital marketing strategies to build healthcare consumer confidence in your providers, products, and services. This requires ongoing monitoring, reviewing, and responding to ensure a positive online reputation.
4. Paid Search
One of the most important digital marketing strategies is paid search. Allocate some budget to target specific keywords and search terms highly relevant to each location. This ensures visibility to potential patients seeking healthcare services in their area.
Paid search is a fast and efficient way to attract more of the patient cases you want. It can also provide measurable ROI, a valuable metric for your marketing strategy.
5. Organic and Paid Social Media
Leveraging social media for each provider location helps you engage with local communities and share local-specific content about events, promotions, and relevant health information. It also ensures your brand is visible to nearby patients seeking your services.
Paid social media campaigns can further amplify your brand and target specific demographics and keywords in each location.
6. Traditional Advertising / Direct Mail
Traditional advertising tactics, like direct mail, can complement your digital efforts and draw in segments of your target audience that are not as active online.
Tailoring your message to each location allows your business to address local health concerns and events and showcase the expertise of your medical providers.
7. Local Events
Budget and human resources permitting, you can establish a strong local presence, connect with communities, and build trust by participating in, sponsoring, or hosting local events. These events improve brand awareness, allowing your business to promote its products, services, and expertise.
They are also extremely useful for generating buzz and local referrals.
8. Professional Referral Outreach
A professional referral outreach strategy is crucial for establishing trust and nurturing relationships among doctors and specialists in your geographic area. This is especially true for healthcare organizations that rely on referrals.
9. Internal Marketing / Patient Experience
Businesses prioritizing internal marketing, patient experience, and patient-focused care have higher retention and referral rates. These three factors are crucial for the long-term success of any healthcare organization.
Build a Scalable and Flexible Marketing Plan for Each Location
When building your multilocation medical marketing plan, we encourage you to address these “minimum daily requirements” and tailor them for each location. They can help increase visibility, cultivate patient loyalty, and attract a larger patient base in your local markets.
At Healthcare Success, we understand that multilocation clients are not just one client but potentially hundreds or thousands, depending on the number of provider locations you operate. We treat each one individually, analyze their unique competitive landscape, identify their marketing needs, and tailor our strategies for maximum impact.
This post appeared on the Healthcare Success Blog and is shared with consent: https://healthcaresuccess.com/blog/healthcare-marketing-agency/multilocation-healthcare-marketing-minimum-daily-requirements.html
