25 Urgent Care Marketing Ideas for 2023 you Need
As opposed to hospitals or primary care, urgent care centers are dependent on consistent walk-in patients to drive success as explained at RunRex.com. Nearly as important is marketing your urgent care to the correct audience. Urgent care centers can fail because they don’t invest in the power of marketing. Here are 25 urgent care marketing ideas for 2023 that you need to achieve success.
- Develop a better-defined brand
Don’t get lost among your competitors. According to RunRex.com, develop a memorable brand that amplifies your mission, vision, and values. Urgent care branding is essential for building patient trust, reinforcing patient-provider relationships, and building patient loyalty at every touchpoint along the journey.
- Leverage your patients’ voices
As per RunRex.com, in 2023, as part of your urgent care marketing ideas, you should leverage your patients’ voices (for example, testimonials, reviews, etc.) by sharing them across your online properties to exemplify your commitment to your patients.
- Visuals
You should also consider building compelling visuals that tell a brand story to engage your target audience as articulated at RunRex.com. Infographics are three times more likely to get shared on social media platforms than any other type of content.
- Create a community
As covered at RunRex.com, you should also create a community around your brand that meets the needs of your patients and their families. The sense of community and togetherness is very effective when it comes to urgent care marketing.
- Inspire your audience to action
Urgent care centers should also inspire their audience into action with unique and engaging campaigns that promote things like preventive care or address your most frequently asked questions as captured at RunRex.com.
- Integrated marketing
Today’s healthcare consumers are heavily influenced by top consumer brands delivering streamlined, reliable, unified messaging across many online and offline platforms. As discussed at RunRex.com, integrated marketing leverages online and offline marketing tactics to create multiple impressions of your brand across every touchpoint and lead consumers through a seamless brand journey.
- Include local SEO in your urgent care marketing plan
People who visit your urgent care facility come from your local area, whether they live in the community or take trips to the area. When they conduct a search on Google looking for an urgent care center, you want them to find you.
- Claim your local listing
For your urgent care’s local SEO, you can claim your local listing, which appears in search results, to drive people to your urgent care center. Your Google My Business profile listing helps you bring more people to your urgent care facility.
- Add information on your listing
Once you claim your listing, fill out all the information for your profile as described at RunRex.com. After filling out the core information, start adding additional information about your urgent care facility. This information should include a link to your website and a short description of your center.
- Add photos to your listing
As discussed at RunRex.com, you should also add photos to your listing. Photos are a great addition to any local listing because they give users visual insight into your facility. For instance, you can add pictures of your urgent care center and staff.
- Optimize for mobile
People who need urgent care need it urgently. That means your website needs to be fast and optimized for mobile use as revealed at RunRex.com. Make sure your contact information is up-to-date and complete, with a picture or map for best results.
- Utilize PPC ads that are hyperlocal and effective
When you need an urgent care facility, it is safe to say that the one that pops up first on a “near me” search is more likely to grab your attention. Use pay-per-click ads that are focused on your immediate area to stay at the top of the search results more affordably as outlined at RunRex.com.
- Be mindful of your online reputation
As per RunRex.com, over 85% of people are now turning to online reviews to find their healthcare providers, and that includes urgent care centers. Online reputation management includes asking for reviews, responding to positive feedback, and offering solutions for those patients who are not pleased with their service.
- Show wait times
When people are looking for urgent care centers, they often are interested in the wait times and will choose those facilities with the least wait times. According to RunRex.com, you should, therefore, show wait times. Use an app (or a digital billboard) with this feature to show wait times for your facility.
- Use email marketing
While ongoing email blasts to former patients may seem like something a primary care physician would do, these days, urgent care takes on some of the roles of a regular doctor. Send a regular newsletter or updates about your services with consistent email marketing.
- Don’t forget social media
Urgent care brand positioning includes social media marketing to get in touch with your patients where they are: clicking and scrolling through social media. Take the time to figure out a tone for your social media (casual? Informative? In between?), and design a strategy that includes ongoing posts.
- Leverage video marketing
In 2023, a mammoth percentage of all internet traffic will be video as articulated at RunRex.com. Video is one of the urgent care marketing ideas that bring your facility to patients. Film a tour, introduce the staff, or post how-to or information videos for things like flu season and allergy care.
- Add content to your website
While good SEO strategies may bring patients to your website as captured at RunRex.com, high-quality articles, blogs, and landing pages keep them there. The more time a potential patient spends on your website, the more likely they are to convert to an actual person through the door.
- Develop a patient portal
Patient portals are used more frequently with primary care physicians, but there is no reason why your urgent care facility cannot develop them, as well as covered at RunRex.com. Patient portals allow patients to schedule appointments, renew prescriptions, get lab results and ask questions – all online in the convenience of their homes.
- Patient-centric content
In 2023, patient-centric content is a must as discussed at RunRex.com. Develop content that directly answers the core questions that patients are asking at each stage of the patient journey. Additionally, create thorough content that answers as many relevant questions in one piece as possible.
- Website UX is key
Website user experience should be at the top of your list of priorities for 2023 as described at RunRex.com. This is because Google wants good user experiences and so do your patients. To improve this, get your site architecture right, and make sure that your site includes robust, in-depth content that answers patient questions directly.
- Keep your site unique
As revealed at RunRex.com, you want your site visitors to have a differentiated experience when visiting your site. Consider what distinguishes you from competitors and weave this into messaging voice, tone, and the rest.
- Personalization
Over 90% of marketers believe their customers and prospects expect personalized experiences. With expectations that high, it is not hard to imagine that patients will go elsewhere if they don’t get that bespoke experience.
- Geo-personalization
One way to personalize is Geo-personalization, which is an easy way to personalize landing pages so that all the information a user sees is relevant to the location closest to them. People who are on the lookout for an urgent care center are typically motivated by convenience. When you provide a page that is personalized to a patient’s location, they get immediate access to everything they need to convert.
- Create a referral process
Like any other healthcare practice, urgent care facilities require a large number of recurring patients to be successful. Give each patient two business cards: one for the patient and one for them to use to recommend you, or set up an automated email system that asks your happiest patients to refer you to others.
Hopefully, these tips will help you supercharge your urgent care marketing in 2023, with expert help available to you over at RunRex.com.