Russ And Randy Podcast | Healthcare's Prescription For Web & Social

There are only 3 types of websites.  Static websites, those which rarely get updated, function as online business cards and are known only to your existing patients.  Static sites have no marketing value because they will not get ranked by Google.  Dynamic sites, those with fresh content, have marketing value because they can get ranked.  Dynamic and interactive sites, those with fresh content and which allow comments to be asked have marketing value and are most likely to engage and convert your next patient. Russ and Randy Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

No one likes waiting.  Do you? This episode provides a deep-dive into improving your Patient Experience by improving their Waiting Experience. Karen D. DeCuir-DiNicola (Karen D3) is a two-time cancer survivor. In other words, she has plenty of experience with waiting rooms either for her doctors or in the hospitals.  Listen how she can show you how to optimize that waiting room experience to provide an optimal patient experience! In this episode of Russ & Randy Podcast, we chat with Karen D3 about the potential of your waiting room to ... educate your patients reassure your patients distract them from their worries better prepare them for the exam room The benefits to your practice or hospital are unexpected, yet many.  Take a listen to hear about the benefits, and how you can achieve them for your practice or hospital. Russ and Randy  Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the

This is an introduction to the value of analytics.  Analytics, once installed on your website, gives you data about the behavior and preferences of  your website visitors.  Similar to TV rating sites, this information tells you what your readers like to read.  Knowing the most popular browsers and devices to visit your website allows you to ensure that your website looks and performs...on most popular ways to visit your site.  Analytics is free and an SEO requirement. All the best! Russ and Randy  Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

Do you have a brand?  Russ and I introduce the concept of "brand" in preparation for an upcoming interview with Duane Knapp...world-class brand strategist. Your reputation is your brand.  Every doctor, medical practice and hospital has a brand.  Your brand is difficult for healthcare providers to understand because the quality of the actual healthcare provided is but a tiny fraction of what we call brand. Your brand is the sum of all the "touch points" a patient has with your business, office or medical institution.  Every encounter and every interaction a patient has with "you" constitutes your brand. We discuss our own experience with brand and how important it is to grow your practice.  All the best! Russ and Randy  Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social  

Lead magnets and value offers are marketing terms used to define the process of engaging your visitor to your website.  What can I give you (the reader) in exchange for your email address? A lead magnet is an irresistible bribe to exchange something of value for their contact information.  In the healthcare world, our "value" can be health information, eBooks, recipes (healthy eating), etc. Listen as to how this is integral to relationship develop and building your practice. All the best! Russ and Randy     Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social  

Use images in your articles, aka posts, to increase the number of views.  Articles with images are much more likely to be read than those without.  We discuss other advantages to images including attracting attention, adding meaning and information, improving reader retention, etc. From an SEO perspective, there are "best practices" on how to use stock images most effectively to improve your website rankings. We also review proper use of images on the Internet and reveal low-cost/free sources of royalty free images. All the best! Russ and Randy     Thanks for listening. See you next week!  If you have a question or comment, please ask here or on our website. Please download us at iTunes and leave a review. All the best! Russ…and Randy Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social

In this edition, you'll learn why we encourage you to email your patients regularly. Collecting email addresses in order to stay engaged with your patients and attract others is one of the most powerful ways to grow your practice. Everyone needs to be collecting email addresses.  Website or not, you should collect addresses now. Email addresses are an easy way for you to keep in contact with your patients and those prospective patients who have expressed an interest in you and your website. Engage Your Patients Patients and your followers appreciate learning more about your practice and their health.  Your periodic email newsletters can keep your audience up-to-date about; 1.  Practice news;  new hires, birthdays, etc. 2.  New Associates 3.  New diagnostic tests or treatments available 4.  New office technology such as an EMR system 5.  Health information - educational articles provide value 6.  Increase your brand Your existing patients, those with whom you already have a relationship, will become bigger amb

Ever sign up for anything online?  If you did, it was probably a result of a "call to action or CTA. "Call to Action" is a marketing tool where an instruction is given to initiate an immediate response. There are examples of "Call to Action" everywhere; TV, radio and the Internet. CTA marketing is very important to Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing, too. Listen to this episode of Russ & Randy Podcast to find out what your ultimate Call to Action is for your website.  Read on. Purpose of Your Website? You have a website to grow our practice.  How does a Call to Action grow your practice (see below...)? It's very simple, in order for you to grow your practice via your website, you need to have potential patients; 1.  Sign Up to your email subscription list 2.  Call to schedule an appointment These are the two ways a website can grow a medical practice.  Building an email list and generating patient appointments are the only call to action examples you will need.  A Call to Action simply invites your

In this episode, Isaac Porter, M.D., a solo practitioner in Raleigh, North Carolina is interviewed.  Listen how he uses his website and video to successfully market himself.  Learn his most effective digital tool in helping him get new patients. Isaac and I met several years ago as we share a common interest in Internet marketing and social media.  This interview was recorded at the recent AAO meeting in October 2016. Elephant in the Room Well not actually in the room, but just outside our "quiet" office space we found in the McCormick Place in Chicago was a construction zone.  The background noise is from a helicopter lifting generators to an adjacent roof top. While the background noise could not be digitally cleaned, he has some great "pearls" and insights on how he successfully implements YouTube and reviews to market his practice. Enjoy! Who is Isaac Porter? Isaac is an ophthalmologist and cornea specialist.  He is now in solo practice after having purchased his practice from his senior partner.  Isaac d

Both Russ and I are physicians who independently wandered into Internet Marketing over the past 10 years. Russell Faust, MD, PhD is a pediatric ENT surgeon and I (Randall Wong, MD) am a retina specialist. In this episode we talk about ourselves and how it is that two physicians are collaborating to create a podcast on Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing. Though we preach about the About Page, we have neglected to be fully transparent about ourselves...until now. About Russ The condensed version is that Russ became annoyed with patients arriving in his office with reams of health MIS-information from Dr. Google (the Internet).  His mission was to provide his own information about pediatric ENT health maladies on his own website, BoogorDoctor.com. In a short while, he was noting traffic ranging from 20-30k per month.  Using his experience, he forged into the Internet Marketing world, first helping friends and the like and found his niche in brand strategy for healthcare systems. Russ may be contacted by v

Nothing makes you an authority like writing a book.  A book can establish you as an expert.  Writing a book for your patients can be the catalyst you need to successfully market yourself. And it's not as difficult as you think. There are many advantages to writing your own book, even for doctors and other healthcare providers. Russ interviews renowned healthcare author and speaker, Lynda Goldman in this episode. Exceed Your Own Authority Writing a book makes you an authority, it makes you an expert in that field.  Even for healthcare providers, including doctors, writing a book can establish you as a leading expert in your particular niche. Writing a book, directed to your patients, can educate them and your community.  Lynda discusses how educated patients can improve office efficiency and how they can become happier and healthier. Advantages for YOU The obvious advantage of writing a book is to grow your practice.  In doing so, your professional brand improves perhaps leading to speaking and consulting opp

How do you convert patients from the Internet?  There is an actual process by which a "follower" becomes a patient.  In this episode Russ and I define the 3 components that will allow you to understand how your website and your content can engage your next patient. We talk about the need to establish yourself as an authority, provide value and developing trust. Authority We are healthcare authorities.  We are healthcare experts. The content you provide on your website must be credible and clinically accurate.  Fortunately, as healthcare experts, this should be natural. In addition, our readers understand us to be authorities on healthcare.  In any other industry, the website owner (us) has to earn or prove authority, but we are deemed natural authorities based upon our professional degrees. This can take extra time. Value Every successful website must provide value.  If not, no one would visit.  Think of every website you visit and figure out the value you receive.  Travel directions, movie listings, recipes,

Your brand in the digital world depends on much more than face-to-face time with your patients! Your brand depends on more than merely how great a physician you are. If you are skeptical, go check out your doctor ratings on vitals.com, ratemds.com, healthgrades.com, or any of the other doctor-rating sites: note that the majority of questions that determine your online rating have nothing to do with the doctor! Most of the questions that determine your online reputation - your brand - depend on factors out of your control.  Or are they? Are those factors out of your control?  Duane Knapp tells us how to control those factors that build your online (and offline) reputation. He tells us how to optimize your brand! 

Did you know you can update your website and social media platforms with a single click?  Just one. "'Killing two birds with one stone' is wrong Dad, it should be one throw!" Regardless if you think my then 8 year old son is right, are you maintaining and updating your website and social media platforms as efficiently as possible? Are you doing everything you can to automate and streamline your web presence? In this episode of Russ and Randy, we talk about ways to streamline and automate your various platforms and website.  In addition we talk about some time saving tools to make your work more efficient and fun. Finding time to write one article is hard enough.  By connecting your website to your social media platforms (usually with something called a plugin) you can automatically post a link to your new website article on your social media accounts! After every article we write gets published on RussandRandy.com, a link goes to Twitter and Facebook announcing to our followers on those platforms that we have

In this episode, Russ and I talk about the different ways our patients and listeners learn.  We discuss Google, YouTube and podcasts and how they differ by the different types of content they provide. Different Platforms Google is the largest search engine in the world.  Most content on the Internet is in the form of text, that is, you have to read articles posted on websites. Youtube, the second largest search engine, produces video content.  To consume videos, you listen and watch. Podcasting has exploded over the past few years (hence, "RussandRandy").  Upwards of 20% of adults have listened to a podcast within the last 30 days according to Edison Research.  You can listen to a podcast anywhere. Different Learners One explanation of the popularity of these platforms is that we are all different learners.  We all have a preference for learning a certain way.  If you like to read, you search Google.  You like to watch content, go to YouTube.  Because you are here, you must like to listen to your content. Rus

Patient experience is a huge component of your brand.  In this episode, Russ and I talk about 5 common ways, or touch points, which likely cause anxiety, frustration and even anger our patients, thus worsening the patient experience. What is Brand? In the next few episodes, Russ will be interviewing Duane Knapp and discussing brand.  Brand is your reputation.  Russ and I like to define brand as the summation of all encounters and experience with anything from you and your medical practice.   Today, we want to talk about a small component of brand, that is, patient experience. Brand = Patient Experience This may be an over simplified definition of brand as we should also include the physician/patient interaction, but for our purposes, we are NOT including the physician's role in the overall patient experience. A majority of the time spent with your office is without the physician, so we all need to be aware of certain stressors or "touch points" which usually negatively impact the overall patient experience, a

Every great website needs content.  Regardless if you have a healthcare or medical website, you need content. Whether you have a solo practice, or you're responsible for marketing for a hospital, your biggest challenge will be CONTENT.  In order for patients (and future patients) to find you online, you must have content that will be ranked by the search engines.  Every healthcare and medical website needs relevant content to attract readers and to outrank your competition (SEO). What is Content? Content refers to any article you might read, any video you would like to watch or share, any audio file you would listen to, any graphic you find appealing....anything that you might produce on your website which is interesting, or relevant, to your readers. There are many forms of content:  files containing text (the best and most common for our purposes because they are easiest to optimize and thus rank) such as articles, posts or pages, video, audio, Power Point presentations, etc. And it can't be just any old co

What's the difference between advertising and marketing?  Is this important for a medical practice or hospital? Most of us hate the notion of advertising.  Most of us equate marketing with advertising.  Historically, there had been a ban on healthcare advertising. In this episode Russ & Randy help you understand the differences between marketing and advertising.  There are important differences.  What is Healthcare Marketing? Here are some terms that may help with your understanding of marketing: Advertising is the act of producing " commercials" - "ads" - for products or services. We all know advertisements when we see or hear them.  Marketing is the understanding of your patients' needs and providing a solution.  In addition, marketing can also involve promoting your services (i.e. ads). Market Research involves the process by which you understand the needs or problems of your patients.  Service is the helpful work you provide as a provider or institution.  Most of us in medicine provide the service of

The most important aspect of your website is the content. Content attracts new readers (aka patients).  Content is the only way to get great rankings of your webpages. Unfortunately, creating content, such as writing articles, is a huge turn-off and can make your digital marketing strategy go down the tubes...writing is just not fun for healthcare providers. Keep in mind, copying or using someone else's content already published on the Internet is a huge SEO no no.  Publishing "duplicate content" can actually decrease your rankings! Your content must be original and written by knowledgeable experts in your field...most likely the physicians.  This becomes the hardest challenge for any medical or healthcare website. We have some "easy peasy" solutions for healthcare providers.  In fact, those of us in medicine have the easiest sources of content in any industry.  This episode of Russ & Randy acknowledges your biggest challenge for your online brand: how can you create content onto your website that engages

This is "Part 2" of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Healthcare.  Last week we introduced the concepts of Search Engine Optimization in Part 1 and how this increases your ability to achieve, and maintain, high rankings with the search engines. There are several components to SEO; 1.  Your content 2.  Your website 3.  Inbound links Today we are addressing only how to optimize your content - it's the most worthwhile. It's your content which separates you from your competition! Optimizing Your Content The key to getting your website ranked is your content.  It's the "secret sauce."  The best content gets the best rankings. There are no gimmicks or work arounds...none.  Your content needs to be relevant to your reader (so they want to read it) and also optimized (so the search engines rank it as high as possible). Remember, that as Google "owns" search and their quest is to provide the reader with the best answer to a question on the first query.  To achieve this goal, their search algorithm is designed to ra