Retargeting ads exist to bridge that gap. They re-engage website visitors who have already shown intent and remind them of your services at the right time. Research shows that retargeted visitors are 70% more likely to convert than non-retargeted users, as familiarity builds confidence and recognition. Instead of starting from scratch, retargeting builds upon the conversation and enhances your brand’s visibility across multiple social media platforms and digital marketing channels.

This guide explains how retargeting works, why it matters, and where it fits into your marketing strategy as a healthcare professional. Keep reading to see how these campaigns turn interest into real patient action.

Key Takeaways

• Retargeting ads focus on users who have already interacted with your website or content and shown intent.
• Retargeting differs from remarketing in both audience type and delivery channels.
• Meta Ads and Google Ads approach retargeting very differently in terms of intent signals and ad delivery.
• Healthcare practices benefit from retargeting because patient decisions are rarely immediate.
• Successful retargeting requires correct tracking, segmentation, frequency control, and privacy compliance.

What Is Retargeting in Digital Marketing?

Retargeting does not guess interest; it responds directly to what users have already done, making your ad spend more efficient and your campaigns more meaningful.

Instead of targeting broad demographics, retargeting ads focus on website visitors who have shown genuine interest in your services. These ads appear across various digital marketing channels, reminding potential customers of your practice and encouraging them to return when they are ready to take the next step.

Unlike cold targeting, retargeting uses behavioral intent signals to guide ad delivery. It looks at actions such as pages viewed, time spent on your site, form submissions, or video engagement. Each interaction tells a story about user behavior, helping you display relevant ads that feel timely and personalized.

Retargeting vs Remarketing: Understanding the Real Difference

Strategic distinction

Every patient journey leaves a digital trail, and how you follow it determines how well you convert interest into action.

When someone visits your website, reads about a treatment, or checks pricing but never books an appointment, that’s where retargeting comes in. It reconnects with those visitors through targeted ads across Google Ads, Facebook, and other social media platforms, gently reminding them of your services when they browse again.

While retargeting focuses on users who remain anonymous, remarketing builds on relationships you’ve already established. It speaks directly to known patients, subscribers, or past inquiries stored in your CRM. Instead of relying on display ads, remarketing uses email campaigns or automated messages to share helpful reminders, new offers, or updates that bring them back to your practice.

Together, these strategies create a continuous flow across your marketing channels. Retargeting brings new patients closer to conversion, while remarketing keeps existing ones engaged. Both ensure your practice stays visible and relevant throughout the entire customer journey.

Channel and Data Source Differences

The way these two strategies collect and use data separates how they reach your audience.

Retargeting relies on digital signals, such as pixels, cookies, and ad platform data, to identify users who have interacted with your website. When a visitor browses your service pages or watches a short video, that interaction is recorded through these tracking methods.

Remarketing, in contrast, draws information directly from your own contact lists. It uses CRM data, email subscriptions, appointment records, or phone numbers to reconnect with people you already know. While retargeting works through anonymous data signals, remarketing relies on personal connections built over time.

Retargeting vs Remarketing

Understanding the contrast between retargeting and remarketing becomes clearer when comparing how each operates across audience types, data sources, and funnel stages.

The table below highlights the differences in purpose and execution of these strategies within a healthcare marketing setting.

Core Types of Retargeting Ads (With Use Cases)

Pixel-Based Retargeting

When someone visits your website, they leave behind digital signals that tell a story. Pixel-based retargeting listens to that story.

A simple line of code records what visitors explore, such as a veterinary service page, an appointment form, or a video about back pain relief, and uses that data to reconnect with them later through relevant ads. It is precision, not persuasion.

Intent is what makes this approach powerful. A person reading a blog about pet nutrition is curious. Someone browsing your dental cleaning or chiropractic care page is making a decision. Pixel-based retargeting helps you focus on that second group, where interest has already taken shape.

Recency keeps your message relevant. Ads shown within a few days of a visit perform better because the experience is still fresh in memory. By setting time-based membership windows thoughtfully, your campaigns reach potential patients while they still remember what made your practice stand out.

List-Based Retargeting

List-based retargeting begins with your own data. Instead of relying on pixels or cookies, this method uses information you already have about potential or existing patients to deliver targeted ads.

It works in two simple steps. First, you share a list of email addresses or phone numbers with a social platform such as Facebook or LinkedIn. The platform then searches for users whose contact details match your list and serves them relevant ads within their feeds.

These platforms use a privacy-safe process called hashing, which transforms email addresses or phone numbers into encrypted strings. This ensures that personal data remains secure while still allowing accurate audience matching.

In healthcare, list-based retargeting can overlap with remarketing, as it often targets individuals who are already known.

For example, you might run a campaign for patients who missed an appointment, paused treatment, or have not scheduled their annual checkup. It’s a thoughtful way to reconnect with people who already trust your practice and encourage them to return when it matters most.

Social Engagement Retargeting

Not every interaction happens on your website; many begin across social media platforms.

Social engagement retargeting captures these moments by identifying users who watched your video ads, reacted to posts, or shared educational content about your services. These touchpoints signal interest long before a form submission, giving ad networks valuable data to deliver personalized campaigns through Facebook Ads Manager, LinkedIn Ads, or other retargeting platforms.

Engagement with informative videos or native ads plays a key role in healthcare funnels. A person who watches an entire video about chiropractic treatment or comments on a post about pet care is signaling intent that can later drive targeted ads.

This form of contextual retargeting allows you to display relevant ads that nurture potential customers naturally through the customer journey. It enhances brand visibility, reinforces trust, and ensures your marketing efforts reach the right audience at just the right moment.

How Retargeting Works on Meta Ads vs Google Ads?

Meta Ads Retargeting Mechanics

Scrolling through a feed and suddenly seeing a familiar ad for a clinic you viewed earlier isn’t a coincidence; it’s Meta’s retargeting in action.

The platform is built around engagement, interest, and behavioral signals gathered from how users interact with posts, reels, and video ads. Each like, share, or video view adds a small piece of context that helps Meta create custom audiences for more precise retargeting campaigns.

This environment supports visual storytelling, where creative formats such as carousels, short videos, and native ads help humanize your brand. Meta’s strength lies in its ability to reinforce awareness rather than push hard conversions.

For healthcare professionals, it’s a space to build trust, share your brand story, and remind potential patients why your practice feels approachable. When done well, Meta Ads retargeting turns casual interest into familiarity, the foundation of every patient relationship.

Google Ads Retargeting Mechanics

Few platforms understand user intent as precisely as Google. Its retargeting system follows the trail left by people actively seeking answers, the ones comparing clinics, reading reviews, or watching videos about treatment options. Each search, click, or video view becomes a signal that helps Google identify who is ready to take the next step.

Once those intent signals are recorded, Google Ads activates across its major networks: the Display Network, YouTube, and Search retargeting.

Display ads keep your practice visible as users browse other sites, while YouTube retargeting reconnects through educational or testimonial-based video ads. Search retargeting then meets them again on the results page, reinforcing your presence right where decisions are made.

This system excels at reaching users when they are already researching care options. It bridges the gap between curiosity and commitment, ensuring your practice appears at the exact moment patients are ready to choose.

Meta vs Google Retargeting

Each advertising platform interprets audience intent differently, and those differences shape how your message reaches potential patients. Meta focuses on engagement and interest, while Google concentrates on active search behavior.

Understanding how each system retargets users helps you determine where to allocate your efforts for maximum impact in healthcare marketing.

Is Retargeting Effective for Chiropractors, Vets, and Eye Doctors?

Most healthcare decisions don’t happen in a single moment. Patients pause, think, compare, and look for reassurance before choosing a provider. Retargeting helps you stay part of that decision process.

When someone reads about spinal adjustments, checks prices for pet vaccinations, or researches vision exams, a well-timed ad reminds them of the option they were already considering, directing them to your practice.

The real value lies in what marketers call the trust curve. Each encounter, whether it’s an ad, a review, or an educational video, reduces hesitation and builds familiarity. Retargeting supports that gradual shift from curiosity to comfort by showing your name consistently in places where patients spend their time.

It also strengthens long-term relationships. Someone who schedules one appointment today might return for routine care months later. Retargeting keeps those connections active, increasing both repeat visits and the overall lifetime value of your patients.

Chiropractors

People often live with discomfort far longer than they should. Back or neck pain rarely demands immediate action, which makes delayed conversions common in chiropractic care. Retargeting ads help bridge that gap by reinforcing what patients already know, that untreated conditions usually get worse.

Educational ad messaging that highlights the benefits of early treatment or shares success stories keeps your clinic top of mind until the patient is ready to schedule. Consistent visibility also builds credibility, making it easier for hesitant visitors to choose your practice when pain returns.

Veterinarians

Pet owners tend to act only when symptoms become hard to ignore. Retargeting helps reach them before that point by offering gentle reminders and emotional reassurance. Ads that feature caring imagery, wellness tips, or client testimonials create familiarity and trust, reminding owners that professional help is available.

When the time comes to make an appointment, the name they recall is often the one they’ve seen most, and that should be yours.

Eye Care Professionals

Vision care works on timing as much as need. Regular exams, new prescriptions, or elective treatments like LASIK all depend on patient reminders.

Retargeting ensures those reminders appear just when they matter before insurance renewals, seasonal allergy peaks, or promotional periods for procedures. By combining informative ad placements with steady visibility, eye care practices can maintain a connection with patients who are due for care or considering an upgrade.

Best Practices for High-Performing Retargeting Campaigns

Audience Segmentation Depth

One of the most common mistakes in retargeting is grouping every visitor into one broad audience. A single, catch-all campaign often underperforms because it treats all website visitors as if they share the same intent, which is not always the case.

Someone who watched an educational video about posture correction is not at the same stage as a user who viewed your pricing page or started to book an appointment.

Segmenting audiences based on intent helps your ad messaging feel relevant and timely. Blog readers or social media visitors often respond best to awareness-focused ads that continue educating them about a condition or treatment.

In contrast, visitors who explored service or pricing pages are closer to making a decision, so they need ads that reinforce credibility, display reviews, or highlight convenient scheduling options. The deeper your segmentation, the stronger your retargeting performance becomes; every ad feels like it was meant for that specific user.

Creative Strategy

Strong retargeting campaigns rely on creatives that feel personal and familiar. The ads should reflect what users have already done on the pages they visited, the videos they watched, or the topics they engaged with.

If someone explores your chiropractic adjustment page, they should see an ad that continues the story with a short testimonial or a visual reminder of relief. For a visitor who reads about pet care, an ad showing a healthy, happy animal reinforces the emotional payoff of choosing your clinic.

In healthcare marketing, reassurance always outperforms urgency. Patients respond to clarity, credibility, and empathy, not pressure. Keep your ad messaging calm, educational, and consistent with your brand story. The goal is to build trust, not chase clicks, so that when the time feels right, patients already view your practice as the reliable choice.

Frequency and Fatigue Control

Even the most well-designed retargeting ad can lose its impact when shown too often.

Overexposure leads to ad fatigue, the point at which audiences start tuning out or feeling annoyed by repetitive messaging. In healthcare, this can backfire by making your brand feel pushy instead of helpful.

Recognizing when to slow down exposure is just as important as getting noticed in the first place.

Setting frequency caps prevents this problem by limiting how many times a person sees the same ad within a specific period. Pairing that control with creative rotation keeps your campaigns fresh. For example, alternate between testimonial videos, appointment reminders, and educational visuals that highlight different services.

Rotating ad formats and messaging not only maintains interest but also reinforces your expertise across multiple touchpoints, keeping your retargeting efforts effective and respectful of the viewer’s attention.

Making Retargeting Work the Right Way

Retargeting has become a core part of successful healthcare marketing, not an optional extra. It keeps your practice visible through every stage of a patient’s decision process and turns casual visits into long-term connections. When set up correctly, it strengthens trust, improves brand recall, and helps patients choose your care with confidence.

Success depends on the details, precise tracking, thoughtful audience segmentation, and full compliance with privacy standards. Each element contributes to campaigns that feel relevant rather than repetitive, building loyalty that lasts well beyond the first appointment.

iMatrix helps healthcare professionals run retargeting the right way. Our team specializes in building compliant, performance-focused campaigns for chiropractors, veterinarians, and eye doctors. We focus on strategy, not guesswork, ensuring every ad aligns with your patient journey and brand story.

If you are ready to see how professional retargeting can drive consistent growth, partner with iMatrix and let your marketing reach patients at the moments that matter most.

FAQs

How does retargeting work in healthcare marketing?

Retargeting in healthcare marketing uses pixels, cookies, or CRM data to re-engage website visitors who showed interest but did not schedule an appointment. When a user browses your service pages or watches your video ads, platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads Manager record those interactions. Retargeting campaigns then display relevant ads across multiple channels to remind patients about your services, strengthen brand visibility, and guide them back to complete a booking.

Are retargeting ads effective for chiropractors?

Retargeting ads are highly effective for chiropractors because patient decisions often involve repeated research and reassurance. By showing targeted ads to users who viewed chiropractic pages or engaged with educational content, retargeting campaigns keep your clinic visible throughout the customer journey. These ads help build credibility, address hesitation, and increase conversions by reaching potential patients who already demonstrated strong intent through their online behavior.

How long should a retargeting audience last?

The ideal retargeting audience duration depends on your patient cycle and ad goals. For healthcare practices, shorter membership windows such as 14 to 30 days often work best, since medical intent tends to fade over time. Time-based audience segmentation allows digital marketers to deliver personalized campaigns while keeping messaging relevant. Recency helps improve engagement and ensures your retargeting efforts reach users while their interest is still fresh.

How often should retargeting ads be shown?

Ad frequency should balance visibility and restraint. Showing the same ad too often can lead to ad fatigue and wasted ad spend. Most retargeting platforms allow you to set frequency caps that control how many times a user sees an ad each day or week. Rotating creative formats such as banner ads, video ads, and native ads maintains engagement and prevents ad blindness, keeping your retargeting campaigns effective without overwhelming your target audience.

Are retargeting ads privacy compliant?

Yes, retargeting ads can be fully privacy-compliant when managed responsibly. Healthcare advertisers must follow HIPAA and platform-specific guidelines to protect user data. This means using retargeting pixels, list-based retargeting, or marketing automation tools that anonymize personal information. Platforms such as Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads now rely on hashed identifiers to safeguard privacy while still allowing you to display personalized ads that align with medical advertising standards.

Can retargeting work without cookies?

Retargeting can still function without cookies through privacy-friendly alternatives like contextual retargeting and first-party data. Platforms increasingly use signals from logged-in users, search retargeting, and engagement-based data to target relevant audiences. These methods let you display personalized messages without relying on third-party tracking. For healthcare practices, cookie-less retargeting helps maintain compliance while continuing to reach potential patients through accurate, intent-driven ad placements across multiple channels.

The post Retargeting Ads: A Complete Guide to Bringing High-Intent Visitors Back appeared first on iMatrix.

When we say engagement, we don’t mean the kind that ends with a shiny ring and lots of Instagrammable sunset photos. Online engagement describes how a person is interacting with a site, program, service, or other types of online offerings. Depending on the platform, engagement can be measured in a variety of different ways. For example, on social media, this may be the number of people who like or comment on your post. On your website, engagement may be judged by the number of people who click on a call-to-action button or share your blog posts.

A healthy engagement rate tells you that the efforts you’re putting into your online presence are being well received by your audience. Similarly, poor engagement can indicate that your collateral isn’t speaking to your intended demographic and adjustments need to be made.

Want to boost online engagement on the channels you’re using to promote your practice? Read on to learn ways to encourage your audience to interact more with your website, social media pages, and business directory listings.

How to Boost Engagement on Your Website

First things first, let’s start the most essential part of your online presence: your website! Your healthcare website is an extension of your practice, providing useful information to patients or clients even when you’re outside the office. Through a list of services you offer, informative blog posts, and a detailed “About Me” page, current and prospective patients can learn what they need to know about your business.

Let’s go over two major ways you can encourage online engagement on your website.

Content, Content, Content

Producing regular content on your website can help improve your Google ranking, build credibility in your industry, and, of course, better your online engagement.

An ideal way to do this is by creating a blog on your website. Depending on your team’s bandwidth, you can post blogs weekly, bi-weekly, or even more often to supply your audience with useful information about your particular industry. An active blog can increase online engagement by encouraging web visitors to stay on your site for longer, share your content elsewhere, and follow through with calls-to-action.

On both blogs and other pages on your website, implement keyword phrases so that you can signal to Google’s algorithm that your web pages are relevant to applicable search queries. This will help boost your Google ranking naturally so that your content attracts more clicks from web users. And more clicks means more engagement!

Calls-to-Action

A call-to-action, often referred to as CTA, is a statement that urges readers to take a particular action, such as call your office to make an appointment or fill out a form. These should be included all across your website, from PPC landing pages to blog posts.

By adding calls-to-action on each page of your website, you are encouraging the type of engagement you want your audience to take. For example, on a landing page promoting a recent special, you may write a CTA that instructs patients to call you by a certain date to receive discounted pricing. On a blog post, you could write a CTA that asks your readers to share the article to their Facebook feed.

We suggest also including a CTA to call your office at the top or bottom of every page on your website so that prospective patients can easily connect with your team.

How to Boost Engagement on Social Media

Your website isn’t (or at least it shouldn’t be!) the only piece of your practice’s online presence. Engagement on your social media pages can also be beneficial to your practice by spreading brand awareness in your community, inspiring click-throughs to your website, and even converting followers into loyal patients.

Shareable Content

We’re sensing a trend, here. Content is essential to online engagement! No one will keep revisiting a website or social feed that doesn’t continuously update its content. Bor-ing, right?

When creating content for your social channels, imagine what kind of posts your audience will be likely to share. If you are a chiropractor, an image demonstrating the painful effects of “text neck” may be shocking enough that patients feel compelled to share that information with friends. If you are a veterinarian, you may create a meme of one of your silliest patients (with their human’s consent, of course) that clients will share to entertain their own followers.

Thanks to tools like Facebook Insights, you don’t just have to guess what kind of content your audience likes best. Check analytics dashboards like these to learn which of your posts are performing best so that you can replicate similar posts in the future.

Respond to Comments and Messages

Create connections with your followers by responding to comments on your posts and messages to your inbox. This will show current and prospective patients that you value their opinions and engagement with your social media posts.

32% of social media users who contact a brand expect a response within 30 minutes.

As a small to medium-sized business, you have the benefit of having the time and resources to communicate with your patients or clients on social media. Take advantage of this ability and use it to foster a community bonded together by your healthcare services.

How to Boost Engagement on Review Sites

It’s pretty difficult to garner a 5-star online reputation if people aren’t leaving your business reviews!
These days, more and more people are turning to the internet to vet a business before deciding to purchase a product or service. This is even true of the healthcare industry. Research suggests that as much as 77% of people start their search for a new provider using online reviews.

Send Follow-Up Emails

Once a patient or client leaves your office, send a follow-up email to thank them for their visit and encourage them to share their experience online. In the email, include clickable links that will lead recipients to your favorite online business listing so that they can easily leave you a rating and review.
Once you start gathering more reviews, your business listing will begin to attract more attention from web users looking for services like yours. The better your rating, the more likely you are to convert those web users into patients.

Respond to Reviews

This point is paramount to the success of your business directory listings.

It’s essential that you interact with reviews of your business for several reasons. Firstly, paying attention to what patients or clients are saying about your practice will give you a good indication of what is and isn’t working well at your business.

Second, it gives you an opportunity to repair relationships with disgruntled patients that may have had an off visit to your practice. But even if that patient doesn’t come back into your office, prospective patients will see that your team cared enough to try to rectify the situation. Thirdly, this will boost online engagement with your business directory listings!

Make Online Engagement a Part of Your Marketing Strategy

Riddle us this… if your healthcare practice has an online presence and no one is interacting with it… do you really have an online presence?
The answer to this riddle is: not really.

For your website, social media pages, and business directory listings to be successful, they need engagement! Analyzing the frequency and type of engagement your web materials are receiving will help you pinpoint which parts of your marketing strategy are working and how you can improve upon it to reach your business goals.

Now, go check your Facebook messages.

Check out these other helpful resources…

4 Content Tips to Boost Engagement
5 Benefits of Using Social Media for Healthcare Practices
How to Turn Website Visits Into Office Visits

The post How to Boost Online Engagement appeared first on iMatrix.

What NOT to do With Your PPC Strategy

Sometimes, it’s as important to learn what not to do as it is to learn what you should do. Pay-per-click advertising can be a highly efficient tool as long as it is leveraged correctly. Here are four things you should definitely not do when you are creating your PPC strategy:

1. Too Many Keywords

As we mentioned earlier, PPC advertising requires marketers to bid on keywords so that they can show their advertisements to audiences making search queries related to their products or services. However, if you split your attention and budget between too many keyword phrases, you could end up wasting resources on keywords that are underperforming.
Research shows that the majority of Google Ads accounts produce the most revenue from just 12% of their keywords. This means that the remaining 88% of keywords could be costing your business more money than they’re worth!

How to Fix It…
Firstly, make sure you are not using the “broad match” option on Google Ads. This is the default match type and may seem like a good idea since it can show your ad to more people, but it can actually hurt your campaign. This selection will have you competing for keyword phrases that are loosely similar to your target keywords, which means that you are less likely to get your ads in front of your ideal audience. Instead, go for a phrase or exact match option so that you can niche down on your target demographic.
Second, review the analytics data to see which keywords are performing best. Then, eliminate those that aren’t reaping the kinds of results you want. Google Ads makes this process fairly easy and offers tons of resources to help you navigate the platform.

2. Forgoing Call Tracking

Call tracking helps marketers identify which strategies are producing the best results. Are the majority of this month’s calls coming from a recent advertisement? Or are they originating from your website?
Many local practices use CTAs (calls-to-action) to urge potential patients to call into their office to schedule a consultation or service rather than fill out an online form. Without this call tracking, it will be harder to distinguish which ads and resources are performing best. This could cause you to invest your money into the wrong marketing channels, resulting in a loss for your business.
How to Fix It…
Implement call tracking so that you can measure the performance of your marketing collateral. This will require you to create different phone numbers or extensions for different advertisements, ad groups, campaigns, or other types of resources. It’s up to you to decide how you want to segment your call tracking, but make sure you are accurately attributing calls to each group.
Call tracking programs can help you accomplish this as well as easily create unique phone numbers for your practice. For our clients, we use Marchex to track various ad campaigns and phone calls stemming from their organic marketing efforts.

3. Not Focusing on Ad Copy

Odds are, your advertisement isn’t the only ad populating on any given search engine results page. To convince web users that your ad offers the best information, services, or products to satisfy their search, you have to stand apart from your competition.
Since most search engine ads are text-only, it’s essential that you put thought into your headlines and ad copy.
How to Fix It…
Drafting effective ad copy requires a lot of trial and error. Luckily, your ad copy doesn’t need to be static. If an ad is failing to attract the number of clicks you reasonably expected, try changing up the ad copy to see if that’s the problem.
New to writing copy for advertisements? A successful formula you can use to create a great headline and ad copy is:

In the headline, address a common pain point your target audience faces that relates to the search query your ad is populating for. Then, in the meta description, encourage web users to click on the ad to learn about how your practice can provide a solution to their problem.
You may also want to learn what other healthcare professionals are using in their ad copy to help inform your own. Find out which companies and practices are successfully using Google Ads for doctors and try to find commonalities between different ads.

4. Bidding Too Low

We know that it’s tempting to bid low on keywords, especially in the beginning phases of developing your PPC strategy. Afterall, bidding low will save you money when you’re not sure how your ad will perform, right?
Wrong.
In the end, this could actually cause you to waste more money and time on ads that aren’t receiving traffic. This is because bidding too low on keywords means that it’s less likely your new ads will populate for related searches. By bidding higher, you will better be able to determine which ads are getting the most clicks because they will be more likely to populate in SERPs.

Plus, when you have an ad that is capturing clicks, your quality score will improve. Your total CPC (cost-per-click) bid is based on your quality score, maximum bid, and the ad rank of your competitors. Therefore, a better quality score has the power to decrease the cost-per-click!
How to Fix It…
Instead of bidding low when you start a campaign, bid high. This will give you a chance to see how well other elements of your ad, such as ad copy and landing pages, are working. If you are showing up on SERPs but failing to earn those click-throughs or calls into your office, then you’ll know that there is another issue with your advertisement.
If those ads are successful, your quality score and ad rank will begin to improve. Then, you can decrease your bid as the other two components prove to Google that your ad is worth showing to web users.

Targeted Marketing Strategies for Healthcare Professionals

A well-executed PPC strategy can help you attract new patients or clients to your practice, increase web traffic to your site, and convert more of those web visitors into customers at your office. Even small-to-medium sized businesses can benefit from this marketing tool.

Not ready to tackle PPC on your own? Contact our team to learn more about our target paid advertising services, developed to appeal to local audiences in your community when they’re looking for practices in your industry.

Check out these other helpful resources…

5 of the Best PPC Tips We’ve Ever Heard
Creating an Effective PPC Landing Page
Tracking the Success of Your PPC Campaign

The post Common Mistakes You Might Be Making With Your PPC Strategy appeared first on iMatrix.

The cold, hard truth of the matter is that the majority of people don’t click past the first page of Google’s search results. Research suggests that about 75% of people never click past the first page and 67% of those clicks go to the first five results. This means that it’s vital for your website to be one of those results!

Not only does topping Google’s first page improve your online visibility, it also increases web traffic to your site, boosts brand recognition within your community, and provides more opportunities to turn clicks into clients or patients.

Do a quick Google search of keywords related to your practice, such as “optometrist in Bozeman, Montana”, “chiropractic sports medicine Dallas”, or “mobile equine veterinarian near me”. Don’t search for your practice name, as the majority of new patients or clients will not be searching for you specifically by name.

Does your website appear on the first page? Is your website on the first page, but not ranking above your biggest competitors? Don’t worry, you can change that.

In this article, we will teach you how to identify common problems that could be affecting your ranking and how to remedy those problems so you get your site on Google’s first page.

Why Isn’t My Website Showing Up on Google?

Whether your website appears at the bottom of the first search engine results page (SERP) or is relegated to the third page of results, there are steps you can take to improve your Google ranking. Let’s go over some of the most common mistakes we see businesses making on their websites and how to fix these issues.

Problem #1: Your web pages are not indexable.

Search engine optimization, better known as SEO, describes a group of marketing strategies used to increase the amount and quality of organic traffic to your website. Popular SEO strategies include keyword research, link building, content marketing, as well as technical and on-site SEO.

One of the most fundamental strategies of SEO is to create indexable pages. Google’s algorithm crawls sites in order to collect and categorize information so that when a web user enters a search, the algorithm can go into its virtual file cabinet to pull websites that meet the user’s needs. In order for the algorithm to find your web pages, they need to be indexable.

Solution: Audit your web pages to make sure they are indexed.

To check if your content is indexed on Google, plug URLs into the search bar to see if they populate in SERPs. If your web page doesn’t come up, then you know that Google has yet to index that page.

We’re not going to lie, creating crawlable pages is not the easiest task. Typically, your website designer will handle this problem. Contact your site manager and address this problem immediately so that your pages can get found by Google’s algorithm.

Problem #2: Your content is not keyword optimized.

Keyword optimization is the act of researching, selecting, and implementing keywords into digital content to drive more relevant traffic to a website. Targeting the right keywords can help you attract potential patients or clients looking for services like yours.

Solution: Research and implement keywords.

Keywords can be used in content, meta titles, meta descriptions, and alt tags to signal to Google’s algorithm that a particular web page relates to search queries that feature similar keyword phrases. Use the following tips to successfully implement keywords onto your website:

• Understand how your audience is searching for your business and target keyword phrases they use most.
• Utilize Google’s autocomplete feature to identify popular search terms.
• Invest in a keyword research tool, such as Moz or Wordstream, to view data on search terms. These tools can help you identify which keyword phrases it would be easiest for your website to rank for.
• Beware of generalized search terms. You are less likely to rank for “chiropractic care” than you are for “personal injury chiropractic care”.

• Include keyword phrases in meta titles and descriptions to appeal to Google’s algorithm.

Problem #3: Your website isn’t optimized for mobile.

Google practices mobile-first indexing. This means that mobile-responsive websites are prioritized over desktop sites when the search stems from a mobile device. This means that your website may not appear on searches made on a smartphone or tablet if you fail to optimize for mobile.

It’s not just the algorithm that discriminates against desktop sites for mobile. Smartphone users are quick to leave sites that are difficult to navigate on mobile. This will increase your bounce rate, which will then negatively impact your search engine ranking.

Solution: Design a mobile-responsive website.

Luckily, most website hosts enable you to design a site that looks as good on mobile as it does on a desktop. If you went through a web designer that made your site from scratch, be sure to ask them whether or not your web pages are mobile-friendly. The designer will need to adjust components, such as images and code, to meet mobile standards.

Problem #4: You aren’t regularly updating your content.

When is the last time you added a new piece of content to your website? If the answer is longer than a few weeks, it’s time to get to writing! Google wants to see consistent, quality content that provides value to web users.

Solution: Create quality content.

Please note that the keyword here is quality. Both web users and Google’s algorithm will be able to sniff you out if you are only updating your content to stuff web pages with keywords or to attract the maximum amount of clicks.

The goal of your content should be to provide users with value. This could be through content such as educational articles, informational videos, and entertaining posts.

Pro Tip: The average length for high ranking content is approximately 1,200 words.

A good way to continually add content to your website is to start a blog! Blogs enable you to write content that addresses common pain points so that your audience begins to see your practice as an authority within your industry. This also gives you an opportunity to target keywords that can generate interested clicks on your website.

Problem #5: Your site has a poor user experience.

User experience, also known as UX, describes the quality of the experience a person has with a website, product, or service. This can encompass components like page speed, site architecture, and accessibility of web pages. Poor user experience can contribute to your bounce rate, or the percentage of people that go onto your site then quickly navigate off of it.

Solution: Look at your website from an unbiased perspective.

When web users click onto your site, they want to find the information they’re looking for as quickly as possible. Slow page speed, confusing navigation bars, and pixelated content can prevent users from staying on your site long enough to find that information, let alone convert into a patient or client.

We know it’s hard to audit your site from an unbiased perspective, so you may want to enlist in a friend or colleague to tour your site with fresh eyes. Ask them to find various pages on your site without telling them how to navigate to those pages. If they are unable to locate them, then you know that your target audience probably can’t either.

How to Rank Higher on Google

The strategies discussed in this article are some of the top ranking factors Google uses to determine which pages rank on SERPs, We suggest using this list as a starting point to help you assess the effectiveness of your website and SEO strategy.

Rank higher on Google with these additional resources

How to Implement SEO on Your Website
What You Need to Know About Technical SEO
Better Your Google Ranking and Get Found Online

The post Improve Your Practice’s Google Ranking With These 5 Solutions appeared first on iMatrix.

In the U.S. alone, 251.8 million people have an email account. That’s about 100 million more American users than on Facebook and 150 million more than Instagram (and we thought those platforms were popular!). These statistics help explain why email remains one of the most effective tools businesses can use to communicate with their customers. It’s easier to reach your target audience through a channel they are already using daily!

Email Marketing Campaign Tips

Have you been thinking about starting an email campaign for your practice? Read on to learn how you can put this effective strategy into play at your office.

Step 1: Set your goals.

Before you begin building an email marketing campaign strategy, you first have to determine what you hope to accomplish with that particular campaign. Do you want current patients or clients to make an appointment with you? Are you trying to increase brand awareness? Do you simply want to educate your audience about an industry-related topic? Choose a primary goal and create your marketing materials around this objective.

If this is your first email marketing campaign, it may be difficult to create metrics-based goals as you can’t be quite sure what kind of reach your business has over email. However, once you become more familiar with this strategy, try setting goals based on numbers (such as email open rates, click-through rates, etc.) and tracking those metrics so that you can continuously improve your campaign.

Step 2: Choose a type of email campaign.

Now that you have a goal in mind, you can construct a campaign that will serve that objective.

Here are a few common types of email campaigns that can work for your local business:

• Welcome Emails – This campaign will include one-off emails sent to new patients and email subscribers. Welcome emails give you a chance to build credibility, showcase your brand, and establish a relationship with your audience.
• Promotional Emails – You are likely familiar with this type of campaign. Maybe you even have a few promotional emails from your favorite brands in your inbox right now! This type of email campaign allows you to inform subscribers of sales, promotions, offers, or new services you are currently running at your practice. You may send only one email for each promotion, or you may send several for a monthly campaign.
• Educational Emails – Think newsletters, blog post updates, and educational resources. These emails are not used to generate sales, but rather to keep patients updated on relevant practice or industry news.
• Reengagement Emails – Are there a few patients that need to come in for an appointment? Send patient recall emails to re-engage your clientele.
• Seasonal Emails – As a local business, you have the benefit of creating closer relationships with your patients or clients. Sending emails during holidays or on your email subscribers’ birthdays will help you maintain those relationships.

Step 3: Build your email list.

Constructing an awesome email campaign won’t do much good if you don’t have anyone to send those emails to! A good place to start when creating your email subscriber list is to add all of your existing patients to your master list. This can then be segmented based on the campaign or group of customers, such as new patients that you want to send a welcome email to and existing patients that have graduated to reengagement emails.

When you have new patients or clients come into your office, make sure to get their email addresses so that you can add them to your list.

Remember to include an unsubscribe button in your marketing-related emails. This is a legal necessity to avoid violating the CAN-SPAM Act.
Looking for more ways to grow your email list? Check out this blog post.

Step 4: Create a campaign.

After you have set your goals, picked a campaign type, and set up your desired email list, it’s time to create those emails!

First, determine how many emails you will need to send for this particular campaign. Is this a promotional campaign that only lasts a few weeks? Or is this an ongoing campaign that will be sent monthly? Whatever you choose, be careful not to spam your subscribers with too many emails.

You also want to choose consistent dates for email sends in a particular campaign. For example, if you are sending a newsletter, choose a specific date, like the first Tuesday of the month, to send these emails. This way, your subscribers know when they can expect these communications from you.

Follow these additional email marketing tips for a successful campaign.

Draft a great subject line.

The purpose of your subject line is to convince your audience that they should click-through to your email. A weak, spammy, or uninteresting subject line can cause your email to go directly from the user’s inbox into the trash folder.

When drafting a subject line, try to keep these best practices in mind.

• Keep it Brief – Subject lines will display differently depending on the device your subscriber is using. To be safe, try to use around 41 characters. These subject lines should then be displayed in their entirety on most devices.
• Incite Curiosity – Try posing a question or addressing a common pain point. This will make users want to click-through to find out more details about this subject.
• Induce FOMO – FOMO is the fear of missing out! Convey a sense of urgency so that subscribers know that they must click-through to the email to view the content or claim their offer before it’s too late.
• Be Honest – Don’t tell your subscribers that you have a new offer only to show them an email about your standard services. This will cause the user to distrust your brand and even opt-out of your emails.

Make content easy to read.

An estimated 81% of people skim online content rather than reading it word for word. So, you don’t want to overwhelm your emails with text-heavy content. Your subscribers are busy people, they want to be able to take a glance over their emails and understand its purpose. That leads us to our next tip.

Use visuals and graphics.

Include compelling and relevant images to attract the subscriber’s attention and support your message. Visuals can also be used to break up the text on longer emails and keep users interested.

For example, let’s say you are a veterinarian generating interest in a nonprofit you have started at your practice. You may use images for emotional impact, to highlight a problem, or make a statement that effectively communicates the issue to your subscribers.

Include a call-to-action.

Whether you want web users to subscribe to your newsletters, click-through to your website, or make an appointment at your practice, include this call-to-action (CTA) in the email. Draw attention to the CTA by using larger or bolded text near the top of your copy so that your audience doesn’t miss it.

Step 5: Analyze the data.

Data helps marketers determine which strategies have been successful and which need a little work. It’s likely that whatever tool you are using to create your email marketing campaigns collects data and organizes it into a dashboard that you can view.

Here are a few things that you should look at to determine the success of your campaign:

• Open Rates – This will show you the percentage of subscribers that opened your emails. A low open rate may mean that you need to rethink your subject lines, adjust your send times, or change the sender’s name.
• Click-Through Rates – This is the percentage of subscribers that clicked through to your landing page. A low click-through rate can indicate that the content of your emails need to be reworked.
• Conversion Rates – This is the percentage of people that took a desired action, such as scheduling an appointment with you. The root cause of a low conversion rate is a little trickier to spot. Try having an unbiased party read through your emails and landing pages to identify any issues that may turn web users off.

Launching a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

We hope this article has given you the tools you need to start an email marketing campaign at your practice. If you have additional questions, feel free to reach out to our team of marketing professionals to chat about your business goals.

Check out these other helpful healthcare marketing resources.

Email Marketing for Doctors: Converting Leads Into Appointments
Sending Follow Up Emails to Build Patient Loyalty

The post Launch a Successful Email Marketing Campaign With These Easy Steps appeared first on iMatrix.

A search query is the phrase a web user types into a search bar to find information, products, services, or businesses online. When users open Google, they have a specific goal in mind. This goal is known as the search intent.

Search intent, sometimes referred to as keyword or user intent, describes what the web user is looking for and why. Are they looking for a masseuse near their current location for a same-day appointment? Do they want to purchase a refill on their contact lenses? Or maybe they’re just looking for an answer to a question they are arguing about over lunch with their friends.

Once someone enters a search query, Google’s algorithm goes to work to deliver the most relevant results to the user. Understanding how your audience is searching for businesses like yours is essential to improving your website’s search engine ranking and earning more traffic to your website.

Next, we will go over the different categories of search intent and explain how you can optimize your website to meet these search queries.

What is Search Intent?

There are three main types of user intent. While some of these may be less applicable to your business than others, it’s important to understand that there is a distinction between each. This will help you identify which users you are targeting with your website and landing pages.

• Navigational Intent
• Informational Intent
• Transactional Intent

Let’s begin, shall we?

Navigational Intent

Navigational intent is used when a person has a specific brand or website in mind during their search. For example, someone may type “Amazon” into a search bar rather than entering the URL. These search queries are specifically targeting a particular business or site, so unless a current patient is looking for your practice in particular, there isn’t much you can do to appeal to this type of user intent.

However, do check to make sure you are the top ranking website for your practice name. If a Google search for your business doesn’t show your website at the top of the organic results, there is work that needs to be done! Check out this blog for the fundamentals of SEO for local businesses.

Informational Intent

Web-users with informational intent are searching for, well, information. This may be a general search like “benefits of chiropractic” or something more specific, such as “how does chiropractic relieve sciatic pain”.

While these web users may not initially be motivated to make an appointment or a purchase, they are still at the top of the marketing funnel.

There is a chance to either convert this potential patient or build a relationship with them through your content. When your audience finds your information useful, they will be more likely to see you as an authority on a certain topic and may revisit your site the next time they have questions about that topic.

Optimizing for Informational Intent

The majority of traffic that sites gain from informational search intent will go to their blog posts and articles. This is why it’s best for you to update your site with regular content and up-to-date, educational resources for your industry. For example, if you are an optometrist, you may want to update your blog with new articles biweekly to answer commonly asked patient questions.

This content will enable you to target keyword phrases with informational intent. Oftentimes, web users will plug a direct question into a search engine. Use keywords in blog titles that reflect questions your audience may be asking. You can see this exemplified in our blog title, “What is Search Intent”!

Transactional Intent

People submitting searches with transactional intent are already a bit farther down the marketing funnel. They are searching for a particular product or service to meet their needs and are hoping to make a purchase or schedule an appointment.

Luckily for small to medium-sized businesses, local searches are often made with transactional intent. This is because many people are hoping to make an in-store purchase or find a service provider in their community. Focusing on SEO for local business can help you attract these potential patients.

Optimizing for Transactional Intent

There are many ways you can attract web traffic with transactional intent. However, the best way to do this is to implement multiple strategies so you can yield the best results from your marketing efforts.

How to target for transactional intent:

1. Target localized keywords.

If you are a local business, your ideal patient or client probably lives within your community. On your website’s primary pages, such as your About Us and services pages, use keyword phrases that mention your industry and location.

2. Invest in paid advertising.

Since web users with transactional search intent are already more likely to make a purchase, investing in paid advertising will often prove to be an effective strategy. Bidding on the most relevant keywords within your ideal location will guarantee you a top spot on SERPs and attract more attention from potential patients.

3. Include specials in text headlines.

In advertisements, you may want to consider mentioning special offers or competitive pricing. This may attract first-time patients and encourage them to convert quickly.

Why is Search Intent Important?

Understanding your customer behavior is essential to your marketing strategy. When you know how your ideal patient or client is searching for a practice like yours, you are better able to target that audience online.

Not sure how your patients are finding your practice? Start by asking new clients how they found out about your business. They may tell you that they conducted a local search on Google for your services or that they found you through a business directory listing site. You can also analyze the metrics for your website to determine which of your marketing strategies are performing best.

Happy marketing!

Check out these other helpful healthcare marketing resources. 

Why Your Local Business Needs a Professional Website
10 Marketing Terms You’ve Probably Heard and What They Mean
3 Tips to be Found Locally on Google

The post What is Search Intent? appeared first on iMatrix.

People tend to form a first impression quickly. In fact, when prospective clients come into contact with your business, they tend to develop an opinion of your practice in as little as seven seconds. An opinion of your website can occur even more quickly. Studies show that people form a judgement about website design within 50 milliseconds. During that time, users will begin to decide whether they want to stay on your web page or jump to another site.

We know these statistics can be a little concerning. You may be thinking, “How am I supposed to impress my clients in a few seconds?!” That’s why we’re going to teach you how to do just that.

There are a handful of website design basics that can help healthcare professionals like you create an effective website that turns web traffic into appointments in your calendar. The best website designs share common elements that you can implement on your own site.

Stay tuned as we outline the 10 best website design tips and how they will impact your practice’s web presence.

10 Website Design Basics for Healthcare Professionals

From the visual appeal of your website to the functionality of your site navigation, there are countless ways you can design an effective healthcare website that gets results. Let’s get started.

1. Consider visual hierarchy.

Visual hierarchy refers to the arrangement of visual elements, such as graphics, colors, and fonts, in order of importance. The goal of visual hierarchy is to direct the viewer’s attention to the most important parts of an image or web page to elicit a particular result.

In this case, the intention of your website’s visual hierarchy is to keep the web user on your page long enough to generate a conversion (turn a visitor into a client at your practice or, at the very least, an appointment on your calendar).

Here are some components of visual hierarchy to consider:

• Size – Draw the eye to the most important content by making those pieces larger than others on the page.
• Fonts – Catch readers’ attention by bolding phrases and making title tags larger than other fonts.
• Contrast – Use bold colors to draw the eye to certain elements on your page while muting the tones in the background.

2. Choose a minimal color scheme.

Not only does your color scheme contribute to the overall tone of your site, but can also be used to create brand consistency. When choosing a color scheme, stick to the “less is more” principle. Select between two and four colors to work with on your website. While there will be other colors that come into play, this primary color scheme will guide your custom graphics, landing page design, and other visual elements.

3. Graphics are everything.

When you’re flipping through a magazine or scrolling through your social feed, how often do you stop at the sight of an interesting image? Compelling images have the power to enhance our understanding of written material at a glance. They catch the reader’s attention, while the rest of the content reels them in.

If you have the option to use customized graphics and images, do it! As a local healthcare professional, you may want to consider investing in a professional photoshoot at your practice. You can use these images on your website, social channels, and business directory listings to create authority and inspire trust in potential patients.

4. Use consistent fonts.

Rather than using an Arial font here and a Calibri font there, your website should maintain overall consistency in regards to typefaces. Before embarking on your web design journey, choose one or two typefaces that you will use for your content. These should be easily legible, so stay away from ornate fonts or script.
When formatting your content, use HTML title tags to outline headings and subheadings. Bonus points if you implement keywords into the title tags! This can help you improve your website’s search engine ranking and get found on Google in searches.

5. Make content easy to skim.

Face it. Not everyone has time to read your web page or blog word for word. So, make your content easy for the reader to skim and understand.
Try drafting descriptive HTML title tags so that a reader can easily find the information they are looking for. Your images should also clearly tie into your content so that readers get a better understanding of your page.

Break up text by using concise paragraphs. This will make reading your content less laborious for your audience.

6. Include calls-to-action.

A call-to-action, better known as a CTA in the marketing community, encourages your web visitor to take a specific action. For example, if you want a prospective client to make an appointment with you, feature a CTA that says something like, “Call now to make an appointment!”

The best website designs place a call-to-action on every page of their site. You may want to place your contact information in an easily accessible place on each page accompanied by words like, “Schedule Now,” or “Contact Us”.

7. Optimize for mobile or bust.

Considering over half of all internet searches originate from a mobile device, it’s essential that your website design is mobile-responsive. This means that when a web user accesses your site on a smartphone or tablet, the formatting of your web pages adjusts accordingly. Mobile-responsive sites will load quicker than traditional desktop sites on a mobile device due to the altered size of the content.

Mobile-optimized sites also rank higher when the search is made using a mobile device thanks to Google’s mobile-first indexing. Sites that fail to cater to mobile devices can incur a higher bounce rate, as smartphone users may quickly click out of a site that is hard to navigate on their device.

Mobile-optimization is especially important for local businesses. An amazing 78% of location-based mobile searches result in a purchase!

8. Prioritize site speed.

It’s not that people are inherently impatient, it’s just that when prospective clients are searching for your business, they want to find the information they need quickly. We all have busy lives, right? So, your website’s page speed should be up to par with your patients’ needs.

Web users expect your site to load in 2 seconds or less. Longer loading times may also contribute to an undesirable bounce rate. This can then negatively impact your search engine ranking. The lower your site’s search engine ranking, the lower the chance that new clients will be able to find your practice on Google.

9. Design user-friendly navigation.

We mentioned people like websites that are easy to use, right? Who doesn’t!
Design your website navigation bars so that current and prospective patients can easily find the information they need. Typically, the navigation bar will populate at the top of each page of your website.

We recommend creating individual pages for each of your specialties that are organized in a drop-down on your home page. You may also want to include an About Us page to introduce your staff, a blog to provide helpful resources, and a Contact Us page with your business information.

Make sure you are able to navigate from one page to the next without having to backtrack. That’s what your navigation menu is for!

10. Think like your ideal patient.

This may not be a design-specific tip, but it is essential to the success of your website. When a web user opens your website, do they immediately understand what you do? Can they quickly find your contact information? Will they be convinced to make an appointment at your office?

It’s easy to become so attached to your website that it’s difficult to think about it critically. You may want to ask a friend or family member for their unbiased opinion of your site, as they may be a good representation of your practice’s ideal demographic. Have them navigate to different pages on your site to discern how easy it is to use. You may get some valuable feedback!

Websites for Healthcare Professionals

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by this list, don’t worry, you don’t have to go it alone. Luckily, there are tons of services out there that enable you to create your own website, even if your degree has nothing to do with graphic design.

Better yet, search for a website provider that caters to your niche industry. We even happened to know a guy *eh hem*. Explore our page to learn how we can help you create a professional website and marketing solution that fits your practice’s unique needs.

Check out these other helpful healthcare marketing resources.

6 Ways to Tell It’s Time for a Website Redesign
10 Marketing Terms You’ve Probably Heard and What They Mean
7 Ways to Improve Your Website’s User Experience

The post 10 Website Design Basics for Healthcare Professionals appeared first on iMatrix.

Consider certain items you commonly use in your practice, such as contact solutions, frames, or cleaning products. How many of these items would you recognize if you couldn’t read the label? Logos, color schemes, packaging, website design, and other qualities contribute to brand recognition. This is the ability of a consumer to identify a business based on its branding.

Consistent branding should extend from your office, to your website, and all the way to your patients’ mailboxes! Need a little inspiration to get you started? Check out our favorite branding tips for eye care practices.

How to Brand Your Practice Online

It’s no secret that we’re nerds when it comes to websites and the digital space. It’s kind of our thing, after all. So, let’s start with how to create consistent branding online using your website and social media channels.

Build a professional website.

First things first. You won’t be able to do much with your practice’s online presence without a website! A professional website is an essential tool for your practice, allowing you to reach more prospective patients and expand your influence within your community. Plus, your website can help you convert more web traffic into loyal patients at your business.

If you already have a website, fantastic! You’re already a step ahead. However, you may want to evaluate the effectiveness of your site to determine if any areas need a little maintenance. Check out this blog post to help you spot issues you might have with your current site.

Whether you are creating your website from scratch or making changes to your existing site, follow these steps to ensure you are branding your business online.

Design a logo.

We’re willing to bet you would recognize the Apple or Nike logos anywhere, right? Logos play a huge role in brand recognition. A great logo can help members of your community spot your office from across the parking lot or recognize your brand on a piece of merchandise.

When designing your logo, choose something that relates to your practice. For example, you may work with a design that features an eye or a pair of frames. However, you don’t necessarily need to be that obvious in your design. Take this opportunity to stretch your creative muscles and have fun with it!
If you want your logo to feature the name of your practice, make sure your business name is easily legible. Custom fonts can be an excellent way for you to create a simple yet memorable logo.

Choose a color scheme.

Your logo may very well determine the color scheme you use on the rest of your marketing collateral, both on and offline. For example, if you choose blue and white for your logo, it’s likely that your website will be designed with cool, neutral tones rather than loud colors like red or yellow.

Whichever color scheme you choose, be sure to maintain consistency across your web presence and into your office. You can achieve this by using images with a similar style and color palette across your website. At your office, consider painting a wall an accent color that matches your logo or featuring your color scheme in the decor. Colors can be iconic, just ask Tiffany & Co. jewelers!

Use social media to define your brand.

Social media provides you with an opportunity to communicate with your current and potential patients in an organic way outside of your office. They can get to know you through your posts, interact with you through comments, or send an inquiry through messages. These platforms also give you an additional avenue to showcase your brand online.

Branding tips for social media:

1. Get to know your audience and curate posts for them.
2. Use your logo as your profile image or header image. Be sure to use the same image on all of your social channels.
3.  Use your chosen color scheme in your photos and images as much as possible.
4.  Develop a brand voice that speaks to your ideal patients.
5. Create a social media schedule and post consistently.

As a local business, we suggest you create a Facebook profile for your practice. In addition to features like ratings and reviews, the platform also employs Facebook Insights, an analytics tool that lets you track the success of your page.

Branding Your Business Offline

We may be partial to online branding, but that doesn’t mean we don’t see the value in building brand strategies that work offline, too!

In your office, you can use more traditional marketing methods, such as creating giveaways with your logo on them. For example, you could create goody bags with lens cloths or solution bottles marked with your brand. Or, keep a stack of pens with your logo and phone number or website at the front desk. We all know people end up taking pens home with them anyway, might as well make the most of it!

As we mentioned earlier, you can also complete the brand experience by using your color scheme at your office. If you have a modern website with lots of whites and neutral tones, carry that same aesthetic into your workplace. Your patients will be wowed by your professionalism and attention to detail.

Brand Building Strategies That Work

Looking for more insight on what it takes to brand your eye care practice? Feel free to contact our team to discuss important components like professional websites, social media management, and more.

Check out these other helpful healthcare marketing resources.

How to Create a Social Media Schedule
Using Outreach Programs to Attract More Eye Care Patients
This Importance of Branding Your Eye Care Website

The post Branding Tips for Optometrists appeared first on iMatrix.

In our recent webinar, How to Appear Multiple Times on Google’s First Page, we taught you how to increase your search engine ranking and boost visibility to new clients. However, the work doesn’t stop there. Once you get interested web visitors onto your site, how do you turn them into clients at your practice?

To help you learn how to do this and more, we decided to follow up our last presentation with a new webinar, How to Turn Web Visits Into Office Visits: Using Your Website to Convert More Patients. In this educational webinar, we cover everything from building an optimized website to creating an effective PPC landing page so that you can glean the most from your professional website.

Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the webinar and go over the most important elements for your healthcare marketing strategy.

Why You Need a Professional Website

People no longer need to open a thick yellow book or rely on recommendations from friends to find a business like yours. Instead, they take to Google to search for the products and services they need. In fact, about 97% of people open their browsers to find a local business. Without a website, you could lose out on these potential clients surfing the web.

Think of your website as a digital representation of your practice. It tells web users what your practice does, what kind of services you offer, and what sets you apart from your competitors. Between high-quality photos of your staff and regularly updated content, potential clients will be able to trust your practice before they even pick up the phone to call your office.

A thoughtfully designed, optimized website can help turn an interested click into a long-term client if you know the best practices for your industry. Next, let’s take a glimpse at what strategies will help you create the best professional website for your practice.

Optimize Your Website

Earn a better Google ranking and increase web traffic by optimizing your website. In marketing, optimization is simply the practice of making something as effective as it can be. In this case, that something is your website! To ensure that your website is performing to the best of its abilities, you need to keep both Google’s algorithm and your audience in mind.

Google’s search engine algorithm determines which pages rank for which search queries and organizes those results on SERPs (search engine results pages). Google reportedly employs over 200 ranking factors to decide which websites take the top spots on SERPs. While many of those factors remain a mystery under lock and key at the Google headquarters, we do know enough to make an impact on your website’s ranking.

Top Google ranking factors include:

1. Keywords – Keywords and phrases are used to tell Google’s algorithm and web users what your content is about. Implementing keywords enhances your site’s discoverability by signaling to the algorithm that your content is useful to relevant search queries.

2. Page Speed – Most web users expect your site to load in 2 seconds or less! Not only do fast loading times appeal to your audience, they also appeal to the algorithm. Slow page speed can contribute to a high bounce rate, which tells Google that web users aren’t finding your page useful. The algorithm then penalizes pages with a high bounce rate by decreasing their search engine ranking.

3. Mobile-Responsiveness – Google practices mobile-first indexing. Meaning websites that are mobile-responsive are prioritized over traditional desktop versions when the search is made using a mobile-device. Considering 60% of searches originate on mobile, it’s important that your entire website be mobile-friendly.

4. Custom Content To keep your website current, you should regularly update your site with custom content. This could be in the form of a blog posts, images, videos, or whatever else you think will work best for your practice.

Content marketing is dubbed as 72% of online marketers’ best SEO strategy. There are several reasons for this. One, good, custom content can increase web traffic to your site by appealing to Google’s algorithm. Second, content marketing can help convert readers into clients by establishing your business as an authority in your field and providing useful information to your audience.

Landing Pages

Appearing on Google’s first page is only half the battle. Once your site populates, you have to convince web users to click on your page. This is where your meta title and description come into play. A meta title is the main heading that appears in large, blue writing on a SERP. This tells web users what your content is about. The meta description appears just below the meta title and URL to provide more information about your page.

The meta title and description should clearly state what users can expect by clicking on your page but also be enticing enough to get them to do so. Try addressing a pain point of your ideal client so that you can propose a solution on the landing page.

Once prospective clients click-through to your landing page, secure an appointment by including a clear call-to-action. This can be something as simple as “Call Us to Schedule an Appointment” or “Get a Free Consultation by Scheduling Now!”. Be sure to feature your contact information in an accessible place on every page of your website, like the very top or bottom of the page.

Utilize Business Listings & Social Media

Your website isn’t the only lead conversion tool at your disposal. Local business directory listings sites and social media give you additional exposure and allow you to create a positive narrative for your practice online. When you make a local Google search, it’s likely that some of the top results will be from a business directory listing site, such as Yelp. Take advantage of this marketing tool by creating profiles for your practice on the most popular business listing sites for your industry.

We highly suggest beginning with a Google My Business listing. Not only will this listing help you populate at the top of SERPs for local search inquiries, it also enables you to build your business’s online reputation. Clients can leave ratings, reviews, and even post photos of their experience at your office. Be sure to monitor these reviews and respond to both positive and negative reviews. This will help you maintain a stellar reputation! Since about 90% of people check online reviews before making a purchase, great reviews will help you get more patients to your practice.

Social media is another avenue clients can use to interact with your business. As a local business, your practice will benefit most from a Facebook business profile. These pages function much like a standard Facebook account, but have additional features for businesses, such as review capabilities and an analytics tool.

Turn Web Visits Into Office Visits

Looking for more detailed information on the topics discussed here? Watch our webinar, How to Turn Web Visits Into Office Visits, hosted by Senior Digital Marketing Consultant, Ryne McNary. In this presentation, he will touch on these subjects and more as he teaches you how to get more patients at your practice.

More healthcare marketing resources

• 5 SEO Tips for Mobile-Friendly Websites

• Website Do’s and Don’ts

• How to Strengthen Your Online Reputation

The post How to Turn Website Visits Into Office Visits appeared first on iMatrix.

While you want your website to address your unique qualifications and speak to your ideal audience, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few rules to creating a highly effective website.

Maybe we shouldn’t say rules. Who likes rules? How about *highly suggested* guidelines?

Top 8 Website Do’s and Don’ts

We’ve organized the top 8 website do’s and don’ts to help you follow these guidelines to creating the most successful site for your business.

Do’s

Let’s start on a positive note. We will begin by covering the must-haves for your healthcare practice website.

Do create easy-to-use site navigation.

When current and potential clients enter your site, they want to be able to find the information they need quickly and easily. If your About Us page is only accessible through a series of other pages, they may never be able to find out what makes your practice so special!

To make it easy on web users, limit the amount of top-level navigation options (the clickable, often drop down links at the top of your home page). There should ideally be no more than 7 or so options. If you need additional pages, you can categorize sub-navigations under a primary heading.

For example, maybe you have a main page for services, but you want to create a unique page for each service you offer. The main navigation option could then be labeled “services” with each sub-navigation labeled with the specific service.

Do design a mobile-responsive website.

About 70% of web traffic stems from a mobile device, which means it’s likely that when your clients are searching for a business like yours, they are doing so from a smartphone or tablet.

A mobile-responsive website automatically adjusts the website’s format on mobile devices so that it is easier for the user to navigate. To get an idea how this might look, try looking up a popular website, such as Amazon, on both your smartphone and desktop computer. Compare how the two differ, from the size of the images to the visibility of the navigation bars.

Failing to create a mobile-friendly site may mean you miss out on valuable traffic.

Firstly, Google practices mobile-first indexing, meaning it prioritizes mobile-responsive sites when the search is made using a mobile device. AKA your site will be able to rank higher!

Plus, users prefer a mobile-responsive site. If your site isn’t easy to navigate from their smartphone, they will quickly click out and find another website. This contributes to your bounce rate, which can damage your search engine ranking.

Luckily, many website hosts enable you to create a desktop and mobile site simultaneously. Don’t forget to review your site on each device regularly to ensure your clients have the best experience!

Do prioritize content.

Content marketing is the creation and use of online materials, such as blogs, video, and images, that is employed to stimulate engagement with an audience. While content may not always be targeted towards sales, it can help build a community, educate your audience, and increase brand recognition for your practice.

An added bonus? Regularly updated content can also impact your SEO. When you create content for your website, you have an opportunity to incorporate SEO best practices into that content. Once your content gains more attention, Google will also take note of your popularity and rank your site higher on applicable search engine results pages (SERPs).

On page content for stable web pages, such as your home page and services pages, can also be optimized for search engines. Try to keep to a minimum of 250 words per page.

Don’ts

Now that we’ve covered some of the essential website basics for small business, let’s move on to the things you should avoid when building your site.

Don’t use a busy layout.

When it comes to your website design, simple, well-thought-out pages are the way to go. Overly complicated site design, chaotic colors, and irregular typefaces make it difficult for users to navigate your site.

Too many words or images on a page may also slow down your site speed. About 47% of people expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less! If your site fails to load quickly, users may click out of your page and search for another site. Not only will this contribute to your site’s overall bounce rate, but it may cause you to lose out on calls into your office.

When choosing details for your site, such as fonts, colors, and images, be sure to stay on brand. If your logo is yellow and red, you probably don’t want a purple background on your website.

Don’t underestimate the power of patient testimonials.

Reviews aren’t just for your business listings. They can also be posted to your healthcare website to show potential patients what you and your staff have to offer.

Online reviews help people compare businesses and choose the one that’s best for them. These reviews hold a lot of clout with internet users, too, with about 88% of web users stating that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

We suggest seeking multiple testimonials from clients and asking for their consent to post them on your practice website. You may even want to take it a step further and record video testimonials to post on your website and social channels!

To learn how you can gather patient testimonials, check out this article.

Don’t forget to include your contact information.

This may seem like an obvious component to your website, but it’s worth mentioning! Your contact information should be easily accessible so that users don’t miss it.

Post your office’s basic contact information on every page of your website. This may be in the form of a click to call button at the top of your site simply as your phone number and address listed at the bottom of each page.

Website Do’s and Don’ts

While we’ve covered a few website basics for your healthcare practice, we know that creating your own website from scratch can be a little intimidating.

Get a mobile-responsive website complete with professional email addresses, encrypted data, and clear calls-to-action to help your practice secure new patients while keeping current patients satisfied.

Reach out to our team to learn more.

Take control of your practice’s marketing plan with these helpful articles.

Why Your Local Business Needs a Professional Website

Tips to Convert Website Visits Into Clients

How to Maximize the Efficiency of Your Local Directory Listings

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