Top Marketing Trends for Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology Practices

Are you marketing your diagnostic imaging center using all digital marketing channels? If not, perhaps it’s time to start considering the many benefits of integrated online marketing in the digital age. With information at their fingertips, patients are now 100 percent involved in their healthcare choices.

If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that we never really know what’s around the corner. The key to adapting to changing times is to be aware of how the market is changing and what your imaging center needs to do to stay ahead of the competition without falling behind with respect to patient expectations.

We’ve put together this list of the top marketing trends for diagnostic imaging and radiology practices in 2022 to help you understand where your market is going so you can take action on it.

Digital Ecosystem – being more strategic

The trend of healthcare moving online will continue, and diagnostic imaging practices need to be ready. This doesn’t just mean setting up a website (although, it’s important to do that). But if you want your practice’s digital presence to work well together with your entire practice, there are some things you can do now.

You need to audit your online channels and, based on what you find, create a digital marketing plan to guide your activities in 2022. This involves some upfront work but it will save you time throughout the year and significantly boost your online presence. At the end of last year, our team received an influx of requests to complete digital audits and create digital marketing strategies for a range of diagnostic imaging practices. Each company wanted to know where their online presence needed improving, which channels and content would produce results, and where they could find opportunities online to connect with their clients.

Creating a strong digital ecosystem starts with an audit of your online presence. And not just yours. You should audit at least 3 of your main competitors to see what you’re up against and where you could find an edge.

You need to answer:

1. Which digital channels are being used and which have the highest engagement. Are there channels where your competitors are active and benefiting from lots of engagement that you’re not leveraging?

2. How well are you (and your competitors) ranking for:

• Branded keywords like your business name
• Non-branded keywords such as medical imaging services ( CBCT Dental Scans, Abdomen CT without Contrast, MRI etc) – if a competitor is ranking higher for non-branded keywords, they’re probably outstripping you on Google and attracting the majority of search enquiries to their website, meaning you’re missing out on these visitors

3.How recognisable your brand is online. Is it easy for someone to recognise your brand from your logo, imagery, statements and values? Is your brand and messaging consistent across all your online channels? 

Once you’ve completed your audit, you’ve got a clearer picture about your online performance. You can see what’s driving or limiting your business growth. That will allow you to think more strategically as you plan your marketing activities for 2022.

Encourage Word-of-Mouth Marketing

According to Statista, 66% of Americans trust recommendations from friends and family. Word-of-mouth marketing is a cornerstone of consumerism. For practices looking to increase revenue through referrals, a strong marketing strategy can produce new patients who are already primed with a positive mindset regarding your practice’s services. To encourage word-of-mouth marketing, create personalized patient experiences, enhance your online reputation with patient reviews and build content assets that are tailored toward addressing customer service concerns or suggesting specific procedures for new patients who share certain characteristics.

Google rankings and page experience

Last year, Google rolled out a new algorithm update that affects all websites but comes down particularly hard on health and medical websites. Your website absolutely must meet these new standards to rank well on Google. Here are the 5 things you need to pay attention to:

• Relevancy: Choose the right keywords and make sure that each page you write targets a particular one and is the best possible/most relevant page you could write for that keyword.
• Core web vitals: This refers to 3 technical factors (largest contentful paint, cumulative layout shift and first input delay) that really come down to your website speed. How fast does your website load? Patients are horrendously impatient. They hit the back button within seconds if a site loads slowly. And Google wants, most of all, to deliver a positive experience to its users so it doesn’t want to recommend irritating sites that load too slowly. That’s why site speed is now a big ranking factor.
• Mobile-friendly site: Google predominantly uses the mobile version of your site for its indexing and ranking. That’s because the majority of searches are now done on mobiles. So, it’s vitally important that your site is mobile friendly. Design it mobile-first and check that the layout looks good on a mobile.  
• Site security: You must have a secure site with https enabled. If you don’t, your visitor will receive a warning that your site isn’t secure and they’ll immediately go elsewhere.
• No intrusive interstitials: Remove annoying pop-ups wherever possible. Users hate them – and so Google does too.

Video-first content

Video-first is what’s trending in 2022. It’s not unique to healthcare but it’s a strategy that all healthcare businesses should adopt.

Statistics show the strength of video:

• 59% of content marketers use video
• 76% of marketers who invest in video testify to its effectiveness
• 1 in 3 content marketers say video provides the strongest ROI. 

 Video is an exciting, fresh way to engage patients about a medical imaging procedure. This not only can help with reducing anxiety about the exam, but also aid as educational tools to ensure a great patient experience. For example, informational videos can be made that provide pre-procedure tips and reminders on how best to prepare for the upcoming medical imaging test.

For better rankings, focus on local SEO

When doing SEO, it’s often tempting to cast your net as wide as possible. After all, that’ll help you catch more clients won’t it? 

Not necessarily. 

Start thinking of yourself as local first. Market yourself well to patients and referring physicians within your local area. You’ll rank better in organic Google searches and show up in the local maps pack. 

It means that if someone searches for Angiogram CT your diagnostic imaging center service page should appear high in their search results and your practice’s name, contact details and map location should show up on their screen too. All they have to do next is click on your site and book. 

Leverage Google Business Profile: Upload relevant local content and photos that show you’re part of your community. This helps draw in more highly relevant clicks to the local maps pack, giving your business an edge over your competitors.

Get A Free Internet Marketing Strategy Evaluation

If you would like to have me and my team personally review your online marketing strategy and show you where you are ranking, where there is room for improvement and how we can work together to build your online authority and trust with referring physicians and potential patients, then click here to schedule your Internet Marketing Session.