Now that you have established your medical practice, the next step is getting people to come in your door. Traditional advertising and marketing methods have changed considerably thanks to the introduction of the internet, but the old-fashioned word-of-mouth is still the most effective. The trick is to augment this form of advertising without pushing it, which may seem counter-intuitive at first, but that is the best way it works. You’ll also want to augment your revenue cycle management by incorporating medical billing services that provide you with the expertise needed while paying lower fees compared to hiring the staff yourself.

Incorporating the Internet: In addition to medical billing outsourcing to cut costs, you’ll want to use the internet as the basis of your marketing efforts. This is because the internet is inexpensive, present 24/7, and allows you to change directions with your marketing efforts quickly to take advantage of new opportunities. Here are a few ways you can use the internet to your advantage.

SEO : Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the most popular form of passive advertising on the internet. By putting in the right keywords to your content, it will appear on search result pages for people who are looking for your services. You can do the SEO yourself if you have time or hire an expert in search engine optimization. Either way, the content you place on your website combined with effective SEO techniques will help build up web traffic.

Interact on Social Media : Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide you with a means of marketing and interacting with potential patients. The key is to emphasize interaction by building up your audience by providing information, encouraging feedback, or even running contests so you can build up followers. The more activity, the more people will be driven to your social media pages. Facebook is the largest and arguably the best, but you should also use Twitter for announcements and LinkedIn for your practice. You can incorporate other social media pages as you see fit. Remember, your goal is to build up “likes” for your posts so that they are shared with others. Every “like” will bring you closer to friends and family members of your followers who in turn may become your patients.

Independent Review Sites : When people are looking for your practice, they will often start by going to review sites of physicians in your area. The better impression you can make on review sites, the more people will visit your practice. Keep in mind that people are looking for the best provider in your area, not one who is perfect. So, while a few negative comments are common even for the best physician, your job is to get your patients to comment so that people will think of your services.

The more you can pursue an internet-based marketing effort, the more productive your advertising will be in reaching the right people. Combine this with cost-saving measures such as medical billing services and you can spend less while getting the most out of your expenditures.