IMPROVING MEDICAL WEBSITES

Companies like Amazon and Tesla predicted major technological advances 10 years ago. They saw an opportunity to inform consumers and innovate their respective industries, becoming authorities online, before most Americans had smartphones.

Today, we see the impact of this foresight. Yet, industries like education and medicine have fallen behind. Some dermatologists are incorporating online consultations and live chat. However, most medical practices are still denying that technological advances are on the horizon.

The days of asking a patient to wait 6 weeks to be seen by the doctor are over. Today, you can almost guarantee the patient will head to a competitor. Attention span has declined, loyalty has declined, and there are way too many options on the market that your credentials won’t have the same effect in the next decade. If you remain in the digital dark ages, you’ll miss out on scaling your business for a reasonable price.

A PEEK INSIDE THE HUMAN “MIND”

Humans are not objective creatures.

Our beliefs & past experiences shape how we perceive the brands we buy from.

The reticular activating system is a short, pencil-sized piece of the brain located just above where the spinal cord is attached to the brain. It acts as the gatekeeper of information between most sensory systems and the conscious mind. 

It acts as a filter, and that filter has already created an internal scoring system for making & validating decisions. This system works as an invisible force in consumer’s minds, directing all thoughts, actions, and feelings, both good and bad, throughout every moment of life. It controls how we evaluate everything and is largely driven by the subconscious mind.

And most people never consciously set this up. Instead, it’s the result of years of experience, and hard lessons learned. Therefore, it cannot be accurate or inaccurate, but the success of your business heavily depends on your ability to get through each patient’s subconscious filter and then make a profound difference in their lives.

The five major functions of this system:

1. Establishing core beliefs & unconscious rules
2. Establishing core values
3. Determining people of reference & authority figures
4. Asking habitual questions that support the system
5. Choosing emotions & the overarching moods we experience on a daily basis

NEUROSCIENCE IN MARKETING

This “filter” works with the confirmation bias to validate existing perceptions and beliefs, especially when it comes to online advertising. Modern consumers are bombarded by over 5,000 ads per day. We often learn about new companies without meeting the business owner or hearing about them from a trusted friend or family member.

This means that modern users are hyper-sensitive to the content they learn about online. When a prospect learns about you digitally, you have one shot to send all the right signals, earn their trust & get them to buy from you. This ability to subliminally influence is the foundation of neuromarketing. It saves time & money on scaling a business, but negative associations with your brand can also hold the business back while competitors scale.

MODERNIZING MEDICINE

In 2017, we began working with physicians around the country who desired a unique approach to medicine. We helped scaled a plastic surgery center’s conversion by 15% and acquired about 142 new patients in 72 days ($806,000 in revenue).

Our founder wrote this quick read, sharing insights on the plastic surgery candidate’s mindset.

After speaking with hundreds of patients and interviewing physicians around the world, the biggest challenges in medicine are:

Physicians: Time & Money

Patients: Miscommunication & Malpractice

Patients want 24/7 access to their doctor, which is impossible. No physician has the ability to cater to each patient’s unique fears, insecurities, and desires – and achieve a work/life balance – without burning out.

Physicians want to simplify the documentation process and hire staff to handle the business, but this is quite difficult because of the knowledge gap between physicians and less educated, less experienced employees. Often leading to HIPAA compliance issues, and further miscommunication with patients.

We’ve found that incorporating small conveniences like a live chat, article repository, or segmented email list, will help position and educate patients without having a one-on-one encounter.

Similar to dating, the objective is to make you appear so attractive online that prospects approach you first. This brings the prospect into your velvet ropes and helps you maneuver the patient through your funnel with ease. Our goal in re-developing your brand is to get users to trust you and then post-purchase rationalize why they chose to trust you, once they’ve become your patient.

This lessens the likelihood the patient will leave a negative review and makes you seem more approachable, even if the patient can’t have access to you 24/7.

INCORPORATING NEUROSCIENCE INTO YOUR PRACTICE MARKETING

Here are a few cognitive triggers we’re used on client websites & in their marketing campaigns. The best part is, we understand the busy schedule of a medical doctor. Neuromarketing is hands-off for you, and with time and trust, we can accomplish a ton of progress without much direction or communication.

• highlight benefits/expertise (authority),
• show testimonials (social proof),
• publish articles (relevance),
• add calls-to-action (urgency),
• incorporate a press archive (authority),
• create an email funnel (to stay relevant),
• optimize pages for mobile devices (mobile-friendly), and optimize pages for Google’s algorithm (attract & convert organic traffic).

Neuromarketing is a science and like all scientists, we’re constantly conducting experiments, staying abreast of the latest research and best of all, none of it involves scary white lab coats or testing on adorable bunny rabbits. An SEO campaign allows us to be an extension of your marketing team, not just once a month, but full time because the internet is open 24/7. Further, ranking in Google search will attract users organically – prompting them to contact you first, as a trusted authority & confidant.

THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE

There’s so much more to this process, but it all begins with making a crucial decision: you must decide where you want to be 5-10 years from now. I’m not just talking about whether you’ll be in practice, or how many patients you’re seeing each week. I’m talking about the kind of lifestyle you want for yourself & your family. What kind of home do you live in? What other streams of income have you built?

Answering these questions may save you years of time, and hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a physician, and business owner, there’s no denying the number of lives you can impact over the next decade. It’s up to you how many lives are impacted, and where that impact begins. View some of our physician interviews by clicking the button below.

PHYSICIAN SUICIDE RATES

In a November 2015, an article by Dr. S. Dallas Prevost, MD., found factors that contributed to the rises in physician suicides, such as: the exponentially increasing patient loads and regulation changes (ie Affordable Care Act), reduced staff, lower insurance payouts and reimbursements, and easy access to scheduled drugs.

Over half of the doctors recorded in this survey reported ‘burn out,’ increased & consistent feelings of stress, or depression.  Over 400 physicians committed suicide in 2017.  And according to a presentation at the 2018 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, physicians now have the highest suicide rate of any profession.

For the last 150 years, suicide rates have been very high amongst physicians, but coupled with enormous student loan debt, less income potential, an increased workload, and the technological advances & resultant expectations of physicians, medical school students are reporting cases of depression before they’re fully credentialed and working in the field.

We can only imagine how much worse things have become in the medical profession, and we empathize as several of our clients and family members are medical doctors.

DIVING DEEP WITH DOCTORS

We created a series called “Diving Deep with Doctors” designed to debunk poor bedside manner, and get to the truth behind why doctors communicate with patients in a certain way. Initially, we wanted to understand our clients better.

After that, we received referrals from physicians around the world and began an even deeper journey. This series sheds light on the human nature behind the credentials & in the sterile exam rooms. It offers patients another way to view and relate to their physician – and physicians, another way to brand themselves in the patient’s eyes.

This series has been one of the many ways we are helping rebrand the medical industry. Another way is by helping our clients innovate their internal processes. We help them to stand out in saturated markets and build brands that modern users trust & respect, in a modern way.

Rather than relying on referrals, we give our clients a unique brand angle that speaks directly to their target demographic.

The greatest fears in medicine are malpractice & miscommunication. Most physicians are steering clear of lawsuits while miscommunicating with staff members & patients on a daily basis. We create websites & campaigns that speak directly to the subconscious needs & desires of all parties involved, which leads to clear & transparent communication, higher conversion, greater retention, and hands-off scaling for medical practices.

Click the button below to watch some of our interviews.