Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1:
Introduction
In today’s technological world, there are many channels available for marketing the business. But, digital marketing is gaining immense popularity over the traditional ways of marketing. The new marketing channels are found to be very beneficial for all kinds of businesses. Everyone is trying to mark their presence in the ever-growing digital world.
In order to compete in the modern business world, it is important for all the organizations to develop a virtual presence of their company. Even the healthcare industry has started making use of digital marketing to promote their facilities. IVF clinics also use digital marketing to grow their business across the globe and to create awareness amongst the patients.
In India, there are 10-15% of couples who suffer from infertility and are unable to conceive naturally. India is emerging as one of the most important countries to provide infertility treatment. Patients from all across the globe come to India to avail world-class treatment.
What is IVF Clinic?
IVF is the abbreviation for In Vitro Fertilization. The IVF clinics are medical clinics that help and assist the couples to become parents. Some couples wish to embrace parenthood but due to some medical reasons are unable to achieve this naturally.
In such cases, IVF clinics come as a savior. They carry out various diagnostic tests to perform advanced medical treatments in order to achieve conceptions and pregnancies. They diagnose both the male and female to identify the problem and work accordingly.
Significance of Digital Marketing in IVF
Discussing infertility is a taboo in our country and due to this, patients hesitate to visit the IVF clinic. They are not ready to discuss it openly. Many IVF centers are finding new ways to create awareness regarding infertility. Digital marketing is being used as a tool to create awareness about infertility and acquire new patients for the clinic. It is the present and the future of IVF.
An appropriate and well-planned solution plays a vital role in digital marketing. The IVF clinics along with a digital marketing company can work wonders in attracting patients and breaking the taboo of infertility. Internet marketing for fertility centers is completely based on the patient experience, community connection, and transparency of information.
Digital Marketing helps in growing and maintaining the increasing competition in the IVF practice. There are numerous strategies available like advertising, content marketing, website development, etc. that helps in standing out from other fertility clinics.
CHAPTER 2:
Scope of IVF Clinics in Recent Years
IVF is a major treatment procedure and is a highly utilized treatment option for assisted reproductive technology. There are many advances in the field of IVF in the past years and has become very popular amongst those who are unable to become parents. The first child through IVF was born in 1978 and since then, there is no stoppage in the IVF business.
Present Condition
IVF has come a long way since the first baby is born. More than 60,00,000 babies have been born all around the globe with the help of IVF since 1978. IVF has touched millions of lives and has helped people to overcome infertility. But, the awareness towards IVF is still low in India that hinders the growth of the IVF market in India.
Future Scope
There is much new research taking place in the field of IVF that will help in understanding what IVF holds for us in the future. The age of the patient has a major impact on the success of IVF. There is research going on to find an innovative technique that will help the women in the late 30s and early 40s to conceive through IVF.
There are chances that it will be covered in health insurance plans or national health services. If not fully, there are chances that at least some of the costs will be covered by the insurance company. Some countries like Ireland have already taken the initiation to provide financial help to couples struggling to become parents.
The medical fraternity is working towards many new innovations that will help in the advancement of the IVF technique. The development is at a rapid pace and it is difficult to pinpoint where the IVF goes in the future but it will surely be amongst the most practiced medical field.
CHAPTER 3:
How Digital Marketing Will Help Doctors to Achieve Success?
There was a time when marketing campaigns meant running ads on the radio and giving it in newspapers. But, as the world is moving forward, everyone including the doctors is taking the help of digital marketing. Digital marketing has proven to be the most successful and powerful tool for effective marketing. It has proven to be invaluable for medical fraternity.
All modern practices are taking the help of digital marketing in promoting their expertise. In some cases, digital marketing combined with traditional marketing strategies is sure to bring maximum results. Statistics have shown that digital marketing surely brings results regardless of the specialty and practice size. There are a few reasons that justify why digital marketing is important for doctors.
More Patients are Online
Today most people use the internet and social media network to search for their healthcare provider. A survey was done in 2016 that showed that nearly 54% of the customers search for their doctors online. This figure is likely to increase in the year 2020 along with the time that the patient spent online. Hence, it is important for doctors to create an online image to attract more patients.
Easier to Target the Right Audience
The one-size-fits-all approach is an old concept. In today’s digital era, a customized and precise marketing strategy is the new demand. There is a customer for every product available in the market. These customers can be easily targeted by digital marketing. There are many online channels and social media platforms available to target the specific audience.
Cost-Effective Strategy
All practices have a pre-defined budget for marketing. The doctors who have a small practice are always reluctant to spend a lot on marketing. But, digital marketing offers equal opportunities to everyone.
The proper use of relevant tools like SEO, content marketing, online listing management, and social media marketing is a very cost-effective way to position medical practice online. Digital marketing also offers a wider reach across the globe.
Easy Interaction with the Patients
The demands and expectations of the patients are increasing day-by-day. In order to build a successful practice and attract more patients, it is important to meet these ever-changing preferences. The information is crucial for marketing purposes and for paving the way for future offerings.
Online marketing offers a great opportunity to interact and engage with potential and existing patients. This interaction with the patients helps in gaining insight into their preferences and building a stronger healthcare marketing plan.
Develop an Online Reputation
For the success of the medical practice, branding is a very important aspect. It creates a positive brand image in the minds of the customers.
Digital marketing helps in positioning the doctor in the market and building a strong brand name. The online channels are a great way of advertising and creating a great user experience. Branding is a combination of patient engagement, pre & post-treatment care, and value for money.
To Compete in the Market
Today there is a lot of competition in every field. Most of the medical practitioners are taking the help of digital marketing to build a reputation in the market.
If you do the analysis, you will surely find many of your colleagues taking the help of digital marketing to promote their expertise and services.
The main trick is to do better than the others. The digital plan should fit your ideology and goals to attract more patients in a limited budget.
CHAPTER 4:
Challenges Faced by IVF Clinics in Attracting Patients
While working with the clients we came across many challenges. These challenges posed a roadblock for the digital marketing campaign and in achieving the objective of the IVF center. It was a great learning experience from a digital marketing and content creation perspective for the IVF business.
It was very important to understand the challenges in depth so as to carry out digital marketing with ease and procure more success in the long term. Some major challenges faced by us were:
IVF and Taboo
After marriage, if any couple is unable to conceive after a few years, then society starts questioning the marriage and the inability of the wife in bearing the child. India is a male-dominating country and people always assume that the wife is suffering from some kind of fertility issues. They never blame the husband.
Instead of giving some logical suggestions, they suggest various home remedies. They suggest going to quacks who can solve their problems. In today’s world, where technology has reached a new height, people are still afraid to talk about surrogacy and IVF.
They find it a taboo topic to discuss with anyone. It is a sensitive topic and people are reluctant to discuss it. This was the biggest challenge faced as people were not able to talk and accept the fact that they might have some problems and require help. It was important to find ways to make them talk and explain about IVF.
Passive Search
Most couples are ashamed to admit that they have a problem. The male ego and social stigma are the biggest hurdles that come in between a couple and IVF or surrogacy. But, sometimes, due to social pressure, they may search for various options online. They may find consultancy options for IVF but are reluctant to contact them.
They gather all the information but are reluctant to share their own confidential information. The couples usually find it difficult to develop trust in the doctor. They even doubt the authenticity of the IVF clinic. So, it was a huge challenge to convince them to visit the doctor to solve their problems.
Use of Keywords
IVF is a very sensitive issue and involves the use of many risky keywords that may lead to negative publicity of the brand. The use of keywords like female infertility, male infertility, how to get pregnant, become pregnant, etc. are very risky for the brand image. These keywords may trigger negative publicity and tarnish the reputation of the brand.
There was also stiff competition from the e-aggregator websites. It was important to follow a step-wise procedure to overcome these challenges. There was a need to find proper solutions that will help the IVF clinic to bloom and convince the patient about their authenticity.
CHAPTER 5:
Solutions to Overcome Challenges
It is very important to overcome the challenges in order to gain success and attract more patients. Once the clinics overcome the above-mentioned, there is no looking back and success is definite. Some solutions that will surely help in growing the fertility clinics are mentioned below.
Website Development
The clinic’s website plays a vital role in creating the first impression in the minds of the patients. It should have a professional and well-crafted appearance. The site design should be responsive to all devices like desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. It is important that the website display and functions well on all of them. The website should be easy to navigate and should have the ability to provide a great user experience.
The website should have an aesthetic appeal with visual images, text, and white space. It should not confuse the viewers. It should load quickly as the visitor tends to leave the website that loads slowly and bounce to the next search engine result. There should be a visible call-to-action and forms available on every page of the website that helps in capturing the important contact details of the visitors.
Investing in an excellent website designing company is very important as any website is the face of the clinic. DigiBrood excels in providing a website that is a pleasure to the eyes and can be accessed from any technological gadgets.
Microsite Marketing
A microsite is a fairly static site that is developed to target a specific high-converting keyword. In most cases, the domain name is the same as the targeted keyword. It has a simple design with minimal content and does not require a lot of maintenance. It is relatively cheap to develop a microsite. If it ranks well for the targeted keyword then it plays a vital role in producing creative leads.
The main advantage of a microsite is that it clogs up the search results with multiple listings. All these listings lead back to the main company website. The main company can launch multiple microsites for effective marketing. The cost of the microsite can be controlled by using template themes and incorporating minimum content.
DigiBrood had developed three microsites for a fertility company that served the following purposes:
- Two microsites out of three ranked exceptionally well for their target words.
- When the visitors searched the site on Google, it provided another lead source.
- All microsites provided linking opportunities that diverted the visitor to the main website.
- Microsites helped in providing an additional digital platform to share content.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
According to statistics, 93% of the time, internet users make use of Google to start their browsing session. It is very important that the patient finds whatever they are searching for easily. SEO plays a vital role in increasing traffic to the website. If you want to reach the users who are looking for information about the fertility clinics then your site should appear in the search results and that too at a good ranking.
There are many factors that affect the ability of ranking in the search engine results. One of the major elements that help in a better ranking is the incorporation of keywords and phrases that the patients usually search for. It should be incorporated throughout the pages of the website. These keywords help the search engine to have a better understanding of the page and thus, helps in delivering your site as a result of relevant searches.
DigiBrood makes sure that every page on each site can be found easily by the search engine. We monitor Google Webmaster Tools for any issues that may hurt the performance of the website. We keep a track of hosting and technical issues and address the problems as quickly as possible. Thus, the performance of the search engine is not hampered.
Content Development
Content development is an important part of internet marketing. Original content like blogs, audios, videos, articles, etc. goes hand in hand with SEO as the content helps in better search engine ranking. When any user searches for any keyword related to the IVF clinic, they will land on the website’s main page. If the content of the website satisfies the visitor, they will surely want to learn more about the clinic.
The content on the website related to the fertility issues should give them useful information and actionable advice. This helps in building a reputation of the clinic for being knowledgeable and trustworthy. There are chances that people may book appointments at such clinics who have gained their trust from the website itself. It is very important to optimize every single content before publishing it on the website.
In order to create high-quality content, it is important to focus on the keywords of content and blogs. The existing content on the website should be reviewed continually. If there is a need, then new keyword phrases could be added. Outdated information can be updated or removed. Blogs play a vital role in enhancing the SEO and also help the clients to learn about the topics that interest them.
Promotion on the Social Media Platform
This is a social media age. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin are widely used by most people. Social media is found to be very effective in providing referral traffic and has become a marketing institution. An account should be created on various social media platforms that the potential clients may use. The content related to IVF and fertility should be shared on a regular basis.
These contents help in sharing information about fertility and also helps in establishing a relationship with the followers. If a patient knows their doctor and clinic well, then they are sure to become patients. Social media has emerged as the perfect place to engage the people and interact with the patients when they comment or respond to the posts. The reviews left by the old patients also help in attracting new patients and responding to these reviews whether negative or positive shows the followers that you care about them.
- There are some social media facts that cannot be ignored and proves the importance of social media marketing for IVF clinics:
According to statistics, people spend about 27% of internet time on social media platforms. - Social media generates 13% more leads as compared to traditional methods.
- 52% of the IVF clinic who uses Facebook as a social media platform says that they have at least one new patient through Facebook.
- Almost half of the online users make use of social media platforms for getting reviews regarding any clinics.
These statistics cannot be ignored and hence, social media is found to be very beneficial in generating leads. One can also go for paid social media advertisements that help in expanding online presence and reaching new users.
Managing Online Reviews
The online reviews give the patients an image of the clinic without even giving a visit. The online reputation of the clinic is directly proportional to the patient’s experience. If the patient has a bad experience while visiting the clinic, then no amount of marketing can help in saving the online reputation. On the other hand, if a patient is extremely satisfied with the service and care provided by the clinic and its staff, then the fame is sure to spread.
Having online interaction with patients is an integral part of any practice. Online reviews and responses to them help in building the reputation of the clinic. Most of the patients make use of online reviews to select fertility clinics and this number is increasing tremendously. It is crucial to respond to all types of reviews whether they are positive or negative.
Responding to both positive and negative reviews makes the visitors feel comfortable and give them the impression that the clinic cares for their patients. If you respond only to positive reviews and leave the negative reviews unattended, then the patient will not trust the clinic and it will harm the reputation of the clinic.
Patient reviews cannot be hidden and search engines rank them highly so that the patient can find the experience of other patients easily. This is one of the main factors that help them in deciding whether to opt for the clinic for the treatment or not. Some statistics that prove the importance of online reviews is:
- About 35% of patients select a clinic on the basis of good ratings whereas 37% of patients have avoided going to a particular doctor because of the bad ratings.
- About 68% of patients take the help of online reviews to select a clinic in order to go ahead with the treatment.
Email Marketing
Email is the king of content and helps in generating unbeatable ROI as compared to other marketing channels. Email marketing is found to be very effective in branding, generating traffic, and getting referrals. It is one of the most versatile tools used to attract patients. The email helps in assisting a customer’s movement from one stage of the value journey to the next.
Email provides a long-lasting way to connect with the users. A personalized email is very beneficial in developing and maintaining a relationship with the patients. It is also a cost-effective way to promote the services provided by infertility clinics. It keeps the patients up to date with the recent development in the field of IVF and its cost. All the important news that may benefit the patients can be shared through emails. It is also an effective way to promote educational events related to infertility.
Some statistics that show the importance of email marketing in attracting more patients are mentioned below:
- Email marketing is 40 times more effective in generating new leads.
- It has the highest conversion rate of about 66% as compared to other digital marketing channels.
- The readability of email is five times more as compared to SMS or any social media posts.
- About 72% of people prefer promotional content through email.
- About 91% of users check their emails at least once a day.
Conversion Rate Optimization
The CRO is gaining immense popularity as it is a way to increase sales profits without any extra expenditure. It is the process of optimizing the sponsored search, website design, and the landing page in order to increase the rate of conversion. It aims in converting the visitors into customers.
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who have been converted into customers. The IVF clinic wants the patients who have visited their website to schedule an appointment. Even if a single patient gets converted, it can generate a six-figure revenue. The CRO ensures that the qualified leads are targeted. Some CRO marketing strategies that ensure success for the IVF clinics are:
● Including a text-based Call to Action in a blog post helps in converting more visitors into patients.
● Adding lead flow (pop-ups) in the site can attract the attention of the patient and offer value.
● A landing page is very important for CRO and hence, it is important to run A/B tests that help in identifying the best design and content features for the audience.
● Helping high-intent visitors to immediately become a marketing-qualified lead (patient).
● Building automated workflows with the help of marketing automation software to enable your team.
● The use of live chat software in high-performing web pages can offer support and guidance to the patient.
● It is crucial to optimize the blog content and identify the posts that have a high level of web traffic but a low conversion rate.
We at DigiBrood, make use of heat map software and regularly monitor the results to determine how the people are interacting with the website. We observe the sections that are most clicked by the visitors and are making the site popular. We pinpoint the way people use the site and their requirements. We try to give the user an enjoyable experience by allowing them to navigate the site faster.
PPC Campaign Management
Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns are popular due to various reasons. When PPC is implemented in the marketing strategy, a direct advertisement can be done to the patients who are already interested in your clinic. The results achieved are usually immediate and cost-effective. Most clinics do not implement PPC as they are unaware of the benefits and you can be amongst the first few who use it to generate more leads.
The PPC is effective only when you have collected enough data after doing a thorough research and analysis. Implementing a few methods can help in gaining immense success in the clinic through PPC. It requires patience and consistency. Things that need to be done:
Use of Google Ads
Google Ads is an excellent platform for creating an impactful PPC campaign. Keyword research and competitor analysis can be done using Google Ads and its different tools. It gives results in a short time and can with little investment.
Focus on Keywords
It is important to learn about the keywords and focus on them. A tool called Google Ads Keyword Planner helps in researching about your keyword. You can also learn about the frequency at which the keyword is used which is referred to as the search volume.
Evaluate the Competitors
You can do research on your competitive clinics by using Google’s Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool. You can see the type of ads used by your competitor and you can give a unique twist to your ads so as to attract more patients. There are various tools available online that can also help in doing more research about the competitors.
By using all the above-mentioned methods, you are sure to achieve more success with the PPC campaign. We at DigiBrood offer you a wide range of services and help you in building your PPC campaign.
Quality Link Building
Creating links is a gradual process and incoming links cannot be created instantly. The quality and authority of the pages where the link is built play a vital role in determining the rank of the website in the search engine results. There are many ways to build links and for the IVF clinic, the best way is to submit the website to hundreds of internet business directory and industry niche directories.
There are a few strategies that are useful in building links and scoring a high position in the search engine. They can help the IVF clinic to stay productive and mindful of their ranking in the search engines.
- Making use of strategic guest blogging can help in generating an average of 97% more inbound links and 55% more site visitors.
- Creating and distributing info graphics play a vital role in link building strategy and generates 37.5% more back links.
- The use of resource links from trusted sites helps in generating quality links and drive traffic.
- Replacing the broken link with a link that is similar to the content on your site can be very helpful.
- Building your clinic brand can help in linking more people.
- It is important to know where the links of the competitors are coming from and do a complete competitive analysis.
- Linking the roundups are very beneficial for networking and link building.
- It is very important to keep a track of the back links on your website and monitor their status.
We help the IVF clinic to gain more links by monitoring Google Alerts and by reaching out to their business partners. Building new relations, increasing the authority, and increasing the traffic are few advantages of link building.
Relation with Referring Providers
Referrals can play a very vital role in fortifying and growing any healthcare organization. Having a well-managed relationship with the referring providers is very important for the growth of the IVF clinic. Infertility is a medical condition that cannot be treated by all doctors and infertility clinics takes pride in solving this problem. The referrals providers should be updated periodically about your services.
Blog articles, newsletters, success stories, etc. can help your clinic to stay at the top of the mind of the referral partners. It may also help in reaching new potential partners who can refer patients to your clinic. The referrals from gynecologists, MD, or physician count for a tremendous share of new patients.
It is important for the referral partners to have confidence in your work. They themselves should be confident enough that you can be compassionate and proactive with your communications and deliver promising results. You need to remind them that you are always ready to help the patient in every phase of the treatment. Once the referral partners know you and your ability well, they are sure to send new patients.
Building relation takes time and is a critical part of growing the IVF clinic. We help you in creating a valuable relationship with the referral provider and share your value and sincerity with them in order to gain their trust. We very well understand the empathy that is required to meet your audience.
CHAPTER 6:
Results on the Basis of Case Studies
There are various case studies to prove the results of digital marketing in attracting more patients to the IVF clinic. We have done digital marketing for a few IVF clinics and their results speak for themselves.
Orlando Fertility Clinic
Dr. Randall Loy from the Orlando IVF fertility clinic contact us a quite long time ago with the hope that they will boost their online presence. They wished to capture more leads through form submissions and turn those leads into happy and satisfied patients.
The clinic already had a website but it was not able to generate a good response. The doctor had been receiving only 48 form submissions and was performing about 1-3 IVF procedures in a month. They seriously thought that they could do better.
The entire website was redesigned with the purpose of raising the online presence of the clinic in order to increase the number of form submissions. There was launching of the PPC campaign and implementation of a monthly SEO program. The website was optimized continuously to maximize the leads and increase user engagement.
In a short time, the marketing strategies starting giving results. The clinic soon started performing 11-13 IVF procedures per month. There was a tremendous increase in the form submissions that were received. They received about 589 form submissions in the first year, 823 form submissions in the second year, and a whopping 1026 form submission in the third year.
Shrikhande Fertility Clinic
With so many IVF and surrogacy specialists in the city, the clinic was finding it difficult to mark their position in the IVF market. They approached us to help them build an online presence for their IVF center.
We went through their existing website and found that the design date was expired. The website was not mobile or tablet-responsive. There were no contact forms available for patients to make an instant inquiry. The content was not very good and the loading speed was very slow.
The whole website was re-designed on the basis of the target audience. It was also supported with technical SEO and social media marketing. An email marketing campaign was launched and included a call-to-action icon.
The results achieved were beyond imagination. About 5000 visitors visited the website for a duration of 4 months. The objective for the initial campaign exceeded by over 127%. There was 20% less CPA (cost per action) and 70% more ROI (Return on Investment).
Barbados Fertility Center
The Barbados Fertility Center was a leading provider of in-vitro fertilization and aimed in distinguishing itself on a global stage. It was in search of an effective way to reach and engage its target audiences. They wanted to build brand awareness and consider prospective patients and convince them to carry out the treatment.
They carried out an online campaign and had achieved tremendous success. They made use of search and display ads in concert. They offered a fertility guide that helped the visitors to learn more about the procedure. This guide attracted more visitors and many patients even got themselves registered at the clinic.
All this planning and execution helped the clinic to grow their practice. They had about 150 requests for information and consultation in just a month. There were about 5000 people who visited their site in 3 months. Digital marketing has helped them in achieving success rapidly.
Boston IVF Clinic
There is ever-increasing competition in the modern business environment. Every hospital aims in developing their virtual presence. The Boston IVF Clinic is amongst the leading fertility clinics and is known for its award winning doctors and impressive success rates. It decided to jump in the digital world and go online to create awareness and counter the competition.
In order to ensure the ongoing success and maintaining the relationships with the patients, they contacted the digital marketing agency to optimize their purchase of marketing technology. The display campaigns and optimizing paid search programs were the key for lead-generation.
All this planning and execution helped the clinic to grow their practice. They had about 150 requests for information and consultation in just a month. There were about 5000 people who visited their site in 3 months. Digital marketing has helped them in achieving success rapidly.
CHAPTER 7:
Conclusion
There is a lot of change and evolution going on in the Digital Age. The media and technology used by the patients for communication and gaining information also changes dramatically. We live in an era where patients have access to information, various channels to get connected, and public platforms to share their experience.
The success of an IVF clinic depends on the way they meet the needs of the patients. Different software, analytics, and real-time data have made it easy and convenient for the people struggling with infertility to gain more information about IVF. This helps them to get convinced and go ahead with the treatment.
The field of infertility requires different social behavior and content as compared to other fields of healthcare. The effectiveness and fame of an IVF clinic mainly depend on the patient’s experience. An effective and correct digital marketing strategy helps in growing the practice of infertility clinic with measurable results.
It is important to understand that before investing in digital marketing, it is necessary to ensure that the patients are consistently delighted with your clinic. Qualitative input from old patients can have a great impact on new patients. The reviews and shared experiences help in linking the individuals together to form communities across social media.
Social media provides the greatest word of mouth potential for attracting more patients. It is important to create the content that the visitors want to read. Many patients believe and follow the online reviews and testimonials of the patients who have already undergone treatment at the clinic.
Delighted patients connect with each other that adds more value to the patient experience. When technology is used to provide transparency of information, community connection, and patient experience, there is scope for long-term sustainable growth and success in the IVF market.
CHAPTER 8:
Grow your Fertility Clinic 300% Every Year
The fertility market is growing rapidly and many patients are looking for information on fertility-related problems. Hence, it has become very important to establish an online presence and take the help of digital marketing to grow your fertility clinic.
We will help you to target the right audience and show them your success rate. We will make them comfortable enough to book an appointment with your clinic. We will boost up your practice in such a way that your fertility clinic will grow 300% every year.
Our IVF Digital Marketing expert will provide a complete solution to grow your clinic at a rapid pace. Our team of experts will take care of everything right from creating a website, content, images, videos, SEO ranking, etc. We will manage your social media campaigns and do complete branding of your clinic.
We assure you complete success and deliver excellent results right from the first year. We are just a call away to solve all your queries and to take your clinic to a new height.
