How to leverage branding in healthcare to attract more patients

According to Google, 70,000 healthcare searches are conducted every minute. More than 77% of patients search online to discover healthcare providers. As patients increasingly rely on online reviews to find and pick their doctors, the role of branding in healthcare and a robust digital presence has become more important than ever before. 

In this article, we're digging deep into healthcare marketing and branding, focusing on digital touchpoints. 

Keep reading to discover actionable ways to improve your Google Business Profile, optimize your practice website, and strategically use social media to expand your reach.

We’ll also explore:

At its core, a branding strategy is about taking control of your brand’s narrative and proactively influencing how your practice is perceived. Within the healthcare industry, branding is synonymous with building trust, fortifying patient-provider relationships, and cultivating the patient experience, all with the ultimate goal of fostering enduring patient loyalty.

As core branding elements, your logo, mission statement, and taglines form the backbone of your brand’s narrative. However, the overall perception of your brand extends beyond these integral elements. Adopting a more holistic approach requires a broader perspective, taking into consideration how your brand comes across at every touchpoint. 

From this vantage point, healthcare providers can obtain a more realistic perception of how their branding comes across, providing valuable insights that can be used to elevate an average experience into an exceptional one. Providers will be able to nurture loyalty and referrals from current patients while attracting those seeking reliable and trustworthy care.

Healthcare branding plays a crucial role in differentiating you from competitors, effectively conveying your brand’s value proposition, and actively molding patient perception. Even seemingly minor elements, such as the color of your logo, wield considerable influence over how your brand is perceived. 

In the healthcare realm, blue is a prevalent choice, symbolizing authority and trustworthiness — 2 fundamental pillars in the industry. Incorporating a blue color palette into your branding further underscores the reliability and quality of care you provide, fostering patient confidence and trust.

Beyond critical brand selections such as color and font, as a healthcare provider, the patient experience should form an integral component of your overall brand. In our digitally-driven world, this experience begins long before they walk through your front doors.

It begins online, often in the form of a local Google search. Consequently, your brand’s online presence and reputation become the initial touchpoint in patients’ quest for quality healthcare and require strategic management.

Healthcare providers and office managers who proactively manage their online platforms can significantly enhance their brand’s online visibility and recognition — both of which are key to attracting more patients and filling providers' schedules. 

So, how do you build a strong brand for healthcare? To effectively establish your medical practice's brand, begin by defining your brand identity. Dive deep into your practice's core values, mission, vision, and what makes it stand out from the rest.

Think about: 

Remember, this process is about creating a brand that reflects your practice's values, showcases your expertise, and connects with your patients on a personal level.

As patients increasingly seek information and reviews about healthcare providers online, it's crucial that these foundational elements permeate throughout your brand's online presence. Sustaining consistency and visibility online allows you to position your practitioners as industry leaders, extend your reach to a wider audience, and cultivate the trust necessary for patients to confidently place their health in your hands.

If you’re overwhelmed by managing your brand’s online reputation, it’s best to start with the basics. In this section, we’ll explore the best practices for your Google business page, website, and social media so you can take ownership of the digital spaces your potential patients visit the most. 

As much as you’d like your website to be your brand’s first impression, it’s more likely that potential patients will find you on Google first. Even if you’ve never provided business information to Google, they likely already have a listing for your practice. Unfortunately, if this information is outdated or inaccurate, you may be losing out on potential patients without even knowing it.

With 77% of patients searching for doctors online, taking control over how your brand appears on Google is one of the fastest ways to attract new patients. To start, you’ll need to set up your Google Business Profile. Once verified, you can turn your attention to optimizing your profile.

We recommend focusing on the following best practices:

Although this step may seem too simple to make a difference, many healthcare providers don’t have a local listing. By ensuring your brand shows up accurately on Google, you’ll automatically set your practice ahead of the rest.

While aesthetics may be your initial focus when considering your website and branding, Tebra’s 4th annual Patient Perspectives survey found that patients appreciate seeing services offered (32%) and appointment availability (31%) on practice websites above all else. As crucial as visual consistency is for your overall branding, concentrating on these website essentials will be more impactful for your practice.

Describe your services

This should be the first thing patients see when they land on your website. Describe what your practice does clearly and concisely. Include any specialty services you provide. To streamline the booking process and encourage appointments, be sure to add a direct link to your online booking portal.

Introduce your practice

Create a short bio for all healthcare providers and staff, including their credentials and a recent photo. This humanizes your brand and makes patients feel more comfortable booking their first appointment.

Highlight the reasons for choosing your practice

This is where you can include patient reviews and testimonials that highlight the quality of care you provide. Keep in mind that this will be what convinces prospective patients to pick you over your competition, so carve out some extra time for this section. 

Don’t have available patient testimonials? Consider sending out an email to patients to encourage them to post on Google Reviews or complete a simple form.

With these essential sections firmly in place, you can turn your focus to visual branding elements and SEO best practices that improve your chances of showing up on Google.

According to Tebra’s 2023 Patient Perspectives Report, 75% of patients would follow their doctor on Facebook, highlighting just how integral a social media strategy can be for fostering patient-provider relationships and brand awareness. 

In response to this trend, an increasing number of physicians are integrating social media into their marketing strategies, with 65% currently using these platforms for professional purposes. However, posting occasionally on Facebook or Instagram is no longer sufficient. Posts need to be frequent, intentional, and guided by strategic content pillars to achieve optimal results.

To craft an effective social media marketing strategy, begin by identifying your overarching goal for each platform. Do you want to advertise your services to attract new patients, engage with current ones, or simply gain credibility by establishing yourself as an industry leader? With these healthcare marketing goals and your target demographic in mind, you can more easily identify the platforms that will help you get there.

Once you’ve identified your goals and the social media platforms you’ll use, it’s time to focus on your approach. Decide which formats you’ll use (video, audio, or written), how often you’ll post, and the types of call-to-actions you’ll use to support your goals.

From there, it’s all about consistency, engaging with your audience, providing valuable content that positions your healthcare brand as an industry leader, and tracking your performance.

Not sure where to start? Check out these healthcare providers who are succeeding on social media for a healthy dose of inspiration.

Patient referrals are one of the best patient acquisition strategies for healthcare providers. However, many healthcare providers don’t know that their online presence can significantly impact how often they receive referrals. Here are a few things you can do to facilitate more referrals.

Satisfied patients are more likely to recommend your services to those close to them. Dedicate the time to attentively listen to your patients and respond to their inquiries. Showing sincere empathy and compassion goes a long way toward ensuring your patients feel heard and genuinely valued.

​​It's also imperative to acknowledge how instrumental your front office is to the patient experience. As the initial point of contact when patients enter the door, they serve as your brand ambassadors, shaping the overall patient experience and reinforcing a positive perception of your brand.

Demonstrating authentic empathy is crucial to making your patients feel validated in their health concerns. A study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that doctors spend a mere 11 seconds listening to a patient's concerns before interrupting. By dedicating time to actively listen before interjecting, you ensure your patients feel genuinely heard and understood.

Fostering a genuine connection involves taking an interest in the personal lives of your patients. Inquire about their families, include pertinent details in your notes, and refer back to them at their next appointment. This approach not only strengthens the doctor-patient relationship but also contributes to building long-term trust and loyalty.

Don't be afraid to ask your patients for referrals. This can be done at the end of a successful treatment protocol or during routine follow-up appointments.

Keep in mind that even your patients won’t refer you if they don’t know you’re accepting new patients. Make a point to routinely let them know you appreciate their trust and are happy to help their loved ones too.

Automate the referral process by including it as part of routine patient communication. Incorporate a review link in your follow-up messages and offer discounts for both the referrer and the referee. This not only simplifies the referral process for your team but also motivates patients to refer others by making the process convenient and beneficial.

While patient referrals are an important component of your healthcare marketing strategy, 3 in 4 patients say online reviews are extremely or very important when choosing a provider. Seeking positive feedback from current patients and reading patient testimonials provide the social proof potential patients need to make an informed decision about their health.

Admittedly, asking for patient referrals and reviews can feel a bit awkward — but it doesn't have to be. After all, Google is jam-packed with reviews for restaurants and hotels, so why shouldn’t healthcare providers be part of the process too?

When searching for healthcare providers online, patients look for more than 10 reviews with an average star rating of at least 4. However, 93% of people consider reviews older than 3 months irrelevant, so maintaining an ongoing review strategy is essential for long-term growth. The tips below will help you do just that.

Seeking patient feedback has become a natural part of the modern customer-service provider dynamic. And, unlike local restaurants and hotels, you’re keeping patients healthy, which is the most valuable service you can provide.

Patients are 2.3 times more likely to proactively write an online review when asked to do so, and you need reviews to expand your practice. So be confident in the value you bring your patients, and simply ask.

The simpler you make the review process, the higher the chances that your patients will leave one. Add a link in email or text follow-ups and reminders, or put a QR code in your waiting room so your patients can easily leave a review while they wait.

Reputation management software automatically sends your patients emails or text messages to ask about the patient experience. To stay compliant with HIPAA regulations, keep your questions neutral and don’t include any details about their visit.

Yes, even the bad ones. Not only can a thoughtful response turn a negative experience into a positive one, but Google rewards businesses that interact with their customers.

While online reviews play a crucial role in acquiring new patients, you can also use this patient feedback form template to help you continuously monitor satisfaction levels among your existing patients.

Many practices create a patient feedback form that covers various touchpoints in the patient journey, including appointment booking ease, wait times, communication, staff friendliness, the practitioner visit, and the clarity of follow-up instructions or care.

Conducting a patient experience survey not only provides valuable insights for your practice but also offers an opportunity to collect reviews and demonstrates your practice's genuine commitment to patient feedback.

Everyone loves a good story, which is why storytelling is such an important component of branding in healthcare. Patient testimonials and success stories provide a powerful tool that healthcare practices can leverage to build trust and attract new patients.

Using video testimonials adds a personal touch, allowing potential patients to witness and hear the genuine emotions conveyed by the speaker and boosting the impact of these stories. 

To make the most of these videos, create a testimonial page on your website, post them on your social media channels, or include them in your email marketing campaigns. Sharing stories about how your practice's medical expertise and care have positively impacted patients' lives and helped them achieve health-related milestones fosters an emotional connection with current and potential patients. 

Patient success stories can also be used as educational content. Providing insights into health conditions, available treatments, and the advantages of seeking medical care can encourage someone experiencing symptoms to seek medical care — and potentially save lives.

Regardless of how you choose to share patient stories, patient privacy and keeping testimonials HIPAA-compliant should be top of mind. By ensuring the protection of patient privacy, maintaining diversity in representation, actively sharing content through various channels, and keeping the narratives up-to-date, healthcare practices highlight their dedication to the well-being of their patients and humanize their brand in the process.

At a time when a significant portion of the patient journey unfolds in the digital realm, the foundation of robust branding in healthcare hinges just as much on your online presence as it does on traditional healthcare marketing components.

Practices that dedicate themselves to fine-tuning how their brand appears on prominent search engines, tailoring their websites to align with customer preferences, actively encouraging patient reviews and referrals, and engaging with their intended audience on social media will organically attract more patients and expand their bookings. 

However, retaining your current patients is equally as important as acquiring new ones, which is why successful healthcare practices keep a pulse on the ever-evolving customer experience through surveys and genuine patient-provider interactions.  

As you align your healthcare branding initiatives with your online presence, it's vital to recognize that it’s a continuous, adaptive process. By staying attuned to evolving patient preferences, maintaining unwavering consistency, and placing the patient at the core of your strategic efforts, you can establish a memorable brand narrative that resonates with patients and fosters enduring loyalty.