Orthopedic Surgeon Marketing and Advertising

Innovative Orthopedic Marketing and Advertising Ideas

Do you have GAPS in your schedules? Is your patient volume inconsistent? If you want to grow your orthopedic business, you need to market your practice direct-to-consumer! When you control your orthopedic marketing, you’ll control your clinic’s growth.

But why is marketing so important?

Consider this example. Each month, 12,100 people search on the keyword “ACL surgery” on Google. You should be getting in front of these people! If you’re not marketing wisely, you’re not able to reach them.

Here’s the good news: Practice Promotions provides powerful orthopedic marketing services, including website design, SEO services, Google Ads PPC, and newsletter marketing! Click below to see an instant video demo of our services!

Common Industry Problems Surround You, Including:

Declining doctor referrals

As hospitals and large groups increase their presence, outside referrals are an UNRELIABLE source of patients for the future of your clinic.

Patients Unaware

Many patients don’t realize that they can come directly to you, and the big healthcare players don’t want them to.

A Toxic Healthcare Economy

The current healthcare landscape does not value private practices and the quality of care you can provide.

A Financial Storm

Between inflation, Medicare changes, and declining reimbursements your financial stability is at risk from factors outside your control.

Increasing Competition

The same big groups reducing your referrals increase your advertising competition with “deep pocket” resources

However, even while these industry trends continue to exist, you can still control your clinic’s growth by changing your approach to marketing. You just need to know best practices and how to get started.

Market Your Orthopedic Clinic Direct-to-Consumer

You don’t NEED a doctor referral. That is key to your marketing strategy going forward. Instead of focusing on gaining referrals from primary care doctors and others, start marketing directly to the consumer. Let them know that if they suffer with a limited range of motion, chronic bone or joint pain, or a soft tissue injury that fails to improve, they can contact you directly to make an appointment.

Use the wealth of knowledge and experience you have and convey your value directly to the consumers who need you most. In other words, speak directly to their needs.

By focusing on direct-to-consumer marketing, you can better PREDICT your patient volume. If you are currently relying mainly on doctor referrals, you’re constantly riding a rollercoaster of patient volume. It goes up slowly, then may come barreling down until the next time those doctors point patients your way.

Remove yourself from the rollercoaster ride! Establish a direct-to-consumer marketing strategy that works for you, and watch how patient gain comes your way.

By taking charge and getting off the rollercoaster of the doctor referral rollercoaster, everybody can benefit, from your patients saving both time and MONEY, and decreasing the RISK of doctors not referring!

1. Automatically gain access to expert marketing knowledge and help

You receive expert knowledge by professionals who not only understand the medical industry, but also know the elements of a successful marketing strategy and how to effectively implement each one.

2. Save on marketing costs

When you attempt to market on your own, you’ll have to hire a variety of specialists to be successful, including an experienced digital marketer, professional content creator or copywriter, an SEO specialist, graphic designer, and more.  A marketing agency will have all of these professionals and services available already, so you won’t have to go out looking and spend that extra money.

3. More efficiently utilize staff time

You will also be better able to efficiently utilize resources, freeing up those staff members responsible for marketing. They can then focus on the more immediate needs, including in-clinic promotions.

Practice Promotions can help take clinics direct-to-consumer. We offer powerful marketing services that help you attract MORE new patients. Our comprehensive services have already helped 1400+ clinic locations across North America GROW their new patients and CONTROL their clinic growth.

Our services include…

• Orthopedic website design
• SEO services for orthopedic surgeons
• Google Ads PPC to advertise your orthopedic clinic
• Done-for-you patient newsletters

Want to see it for yourself? Click below to watch an instant demo!

Your Orthopedic Marketing Strategy Needs to Be Patient-Centric

While you have undeniable accomplishments, education, training, and more, it is essential that you understand that your patients are looking for what a visit to you is in it for them. In other words, instead of focusing on who you are, you will need to be patient-centric in your marketing approach.

For example, one way to accomplish this is to pay close attention to creating headlines. A compelling headline will entice readers and, in turn, will increase your visibility and the organic traffic to your website.

To give you a sense of what this might look like, check out these example headlines geared toward orthopedic practices.

Example Headlines for Orthopedic Websites

• Stop Your Bone and Joint Pain Today!
• Get Your Life Back!
• Proven Solution to Resolving Your Joint Pain
• Take this Free Shoulder Health Risk Assessment
• Make Relieving Joint Pain Your New Year’s Resolution This Year

Great headlines capture attention, result in more clicks to your website, and can lead to an increase in patient appointments and revenue for you.

The bottom line is this: It is not all about you and your story, no matter how relevant or wonderful these are. It is about the patient’s pain.

Digital Marketing Strategies For Orthopedic Therapy Clinics

The first step to marketing your orthopedic practice is to build your online presence.

The BIGGEST place you are losing patients is on online search!

86% of all clicks on Google go to the search results listed in the top ten. If your clinic doesn’t show up in those top ten results, you will miss out on the 86% looking for what you have to offer! As a result, your competitors will benefit.

To be even more precise, it is the top three search results that get over half of all clicks (54.4%).

Your goal, then, is to reach the top three in organic search results.

Below are orthopedic marketing ideas, or sub-strategies, for how to accomplish this and boost your ONLINE presence so you can attract more patients to your website.

Search Engine Optimization for Orthopedic Surgeons

Every month on Google, 12,100 people search for the keyword “ACL or “anterior cruciate ligament” reconstruction!

YOUR clinic should be getting in front of those 12,100 people!

The way to do this is to create and follow a solid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. SEO is a process that makes your website more easily found by search engine algorithms.

The basics of an SEO strategy include the following:

1. On-page SEO: Optimize the elements on your webpages, including content, keywords, titles, links, anchor text, meta-tags, visual assets, and more.
2. Backlinks: Backlinks are those links from one website to another. They are also referred to as inbound links, and both the quality and quantity of these backlinks can affect your SEO ranking.
3. Google Business Profile: This is a free feature on Google to help you manage your online presence across Google and can benefit your local marketing efforts. The profile includes your clinic’s name, address, contact information, hours, and even includes patient reviews.

At Practice Promotions, we work to improve our clients’ SEO every month!

Top 30 SEO Keywords for Orthopedic Surgeons

Conducting vital keyword research is essential for SEO. You will use what you find by incorporating these keywords into your webpage and blog post titles, content, and more.

Below are some of the top SEO Keywords to rank for as an orthopedic clinic.

1. Service-related keywords

• Orthopedic specialist
• Orthopedic surgeon
• Orthopedic surgery

2. Condition keywords (what people search for + their monthly search volume currently)

• hip replacement surgery (33.1K searches)

• kyphoplasty (33.1K searches)
• knee replacement surgery (14.8K searches)
• shoulder replacement surgery (14.8K searches)
• acl surgery (12.1K searches)
• spinal fusion surgery (9.9K searches)
• laminectomy surgery (8.1K searches)
• trigger finger surgery (8.1K searches)
• spinal surgery (5.4K searches)
• diskectomy (2.4K searches)
• surgery for trigger finger (1.6K searches)
• acl reconstruction surgery (1.3K searches)
• si joint fusion surgery (1.3K searches)
• arthroscopy knee surgery (720 searches)
• shoulder arthroscopy surgery (480 searches)
• joint fusion (480 searches)
• ankle repair surgery (90 searches)

3. Symptoms keywords

• Back pain
• Knee pain
• Spine pain
• Numbness
• Joint pain
• Stiffness
• Restricted range of motion

Keywords are crucial to the success of your marketing strategy. We can help you find which ones are most relevant to your practice and make sure they are effectively included in your marketing strategy.

Did you find that valuable? Then you’ll find our actual SEO services even MORE valuable! Click below to watch an instant demo of our services…

Content and blog marketing for orthopedic clinics

At the heart of all marketing strategies and campaigns is CONTENT, and one way to create more of it is to start a blog.

Blog posts will help to build your online presence, credibility, and authority and ultimately attract a wider audience.

Again, keep it all patient-focused.

Speak to a pain point, concern, or interest of current and potential patients.

Use keywords in your content. By doing so, you boost your SEO, and search engine algorithms will find you and offer you up as a solution to searchers online.

Keep blog posts informational, educational, and interesting. Link them to your social media accounts so they can be shared, exposing you to more potential patients.

To help you get started, here are a few potential blog titles:

• What it Means When Your Joints Hurt
• Ways to Tell If You Suffer From Joint Pain or Bone Pain
• 3 Specific Reasons You Are Experiencing Knee Pain
• What Aching Joints May Be Telling You
• Is it Arthritis in Your Joints or Something Else?

Online reputation management – get more reviews for your orthopedic business

Your online reputation is highly affected by patient reviews, so learning how to manage these is crucial.

According to Trustpilot, the reasons that people, in general, write reviews include (1) to assist others in making better buying decisions, (2) to share a good (or bad) experience, and (3) to reward that business for the results of an interaction.

Keeping this in mind, you will want to ensure the best possible experience for each patient, from that initial contact with your front office staff to any follow-up appointments with your clinic.

You may even want to encourage them to share their experience as an online review. Help them find where to leave these reviews and thank them ahead of time. You can also ask them to share a good experience with their networks on social media.

Note, there is always the potential for receiving some negative reviews. Don’t panic when you see these, but don’t ignore them either. A patient may blast you for a billing issue, or complain of excessive pain following a procedure or surgery. Find a way to right the situation, responding empathetically, and offering a solution if you have one.

If you are unsure how to manage your online reputation, we can help also. Practice Promotions provides review reputation management software, making it easier on you and quicker to see results.

Email marketing for orthopedic practices

Email marketing is still alive and well today. As a matter of fact, it remains a top marketing channel and is an affordable, proactive, consistent, and effective way to reach current and potential patients.

The key task here is to build a list of high-quality leads for your email campaigns. For example, to help with this, you can create an eBook or some other offering on your website to help capture email addresses.

Tips for email marketing include:

• Devise a strategy for your monthly emails and create a template to make it easier to adhere to going forward.
• For each email you send out, make each subject line distinctive and informative, so recipients want to learn more. (e.g., “Stand Up to Back pain with these tips”)
• Always include a Call-to-Action in your email. In other words, tell them what you want them to do, such as “schedule an appointment today.”

The goal is for recipients to open your email.

To accomplish this, you will need to invest time in researching topics and staying relevant to patients of today.

For help with your email marketing, all PP Clients get access to our ENGAGE Email System, which includes hundreds of beautiful, pre-made templates.

Online advertising for orthopedic clinics

Online advertising is more effective than ever for orthopedic clinics, thanks to Google Ads.

The problem is: Google Ads are difficult to run. And they’re even HARDER for a healthcare business, because you had to remain HIPAA compliant!

The good news: at Practice Promotions, we are EXPERTS in running Google Ads for healthcare clinics. We can get you 10 – 15 extra new patients every day!

5 Reasons Your Orthopedic Practice Should Use Google Ads PPC

1. You’ll dominate the 1st page of Google in multiple places.
2. Google Ads target people who are already looking for a solution.
3. Google Ads are a cost-effective and fast way to get more appointments online.
4. Google Ads are location-specific, which can help a new or underperforming clinic.
5. It’s easy to track your results.

By working with Practice Promotions, you will have access to a proven clinic ads strategy. Our experts will do it all for you, including setting up each ad, optimizing your landing pages, conducting keyword research, and tracking conversion rates.

Social media marketing ideas for your orthopedic business

While straightforward SEO and Google Ads are where the majority of patients come from, don’t forget to focus some of your efforts on social media marketing.

Social media is not going away any time soon and can be a powerful tool in your marketing strategy. You’ll want to create different types of posts to share, and this all starts with understanding that social media involves having a conversation with your online community.

Create a social media profile that exposes your personality, yet remains a true representation of your practice. Next, add posts, including the following:

5 Easy Social Media Post Ideas for Orthopedic Clinics

1. Share events you sponsor, such as a local 5k fun run and other mentions of community happenings.
2. Share inspirational news and updates on any changes to your practice, such as a new doctor joining your clinic. Share something about them so the online community can get to know them as well.
3. Create content that connects the season to orthopedic topics. For example, Spring brings with it warmer weather and outdoor activities like hiking and gardening, which can lead to orthopedic injury if not careful.
4. Create posts for specific holidays, whether it be Christmas, Thanksgiving, Labor Day, or Veterans Day.
5. Post photos of events you participate in and more. Pictures speak to people and make you accessible and approachable. Use visually engaging photos and images that draw the eye.

Let your online audience get to know you behind the scenes while also maintaining your professional offerings.

2024 Roadmap to New Patients

Plan how you’ll get new patients. Crush the competition.
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Google Ads Cheat Sheet

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The Practice Owner’s Google Review Cheat Sheet

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Orthopedic Website Design and Marketing

The goal of your website content is to convert VISITORS to new patients!

If you are like most clinics, 98% of your web visitors come to your website then LEAVE without taking action (for only a 2% web conversion rate). By contrast, Practice Promotions clients, on average, convert 8% of visitors into calls.

Reasons many leave a website include:

• A website design that is unimpressive or unprofessional
• Challenging navigation, causing visitors to give up before they can find what they need
• No clear call-to-action (CTA), telling the visitor what it is you want them to do, such as “Call Now” or “Request an Appointment.”

In other words, your website design and marketing approach need to be on target when it comes to who you are trying to reach.

Want to see our website services in action? Click below to watch an instant demo!

10 key components of your orthopedic website

When creating your orthopedic website, make sure you include the following 10 key components.

1. Content that speaks to conditions, symptoms, and solutions

Focus on providing content that includes common pain conditions and the solutions you offer. These can be blog posts or video tips.

2. A dominant call-to-action

Choose one call to action to be the dominant one, using a colorful button or other eye-catching element. Make your CTA easy to understand, simple to carry out, and memorable. For example, you might make your main CTA “Book a Free Consultation. While you can include others throughout your website, such as Click Here, Read More, Learn More, this is the one you want visitors to select.

3. Social Proof throughout your website

Include social proof like patient testimonials, industry awards, and special partnerships on each webpage. Patients often rely on the experience of others online today to make decisions.

4. An easy process for becoming a patient

Share content telling visitors the process of how to become your patient. Provide a way to schedule a consultation directly on your website and list a phone number to call. Also, tell them what they can expect during this consultation.

5. Visual elements showing positive results

Images will catch the eye of visitors to your website, so make each and every one count. Showcase positive results of medical treatments you offer with photos, such as someone working out at the gym or playing with a child. Help them see the end goal in a positive light.

6. Readability

Make sure that all content is easy to read. Not only does this require exceptional writing, but also design and layout of that content. Consider font size and incorporate plenty of white space (the area around your text, making it easier to read).

7. Direct homepage headline

Keep the headline on your homepage direct and simple, letting each visitor instantly know what it is you do and offer. For example, “Orthopedic Clinic Specializing in Sports Medicine.”

8. Something for free

If you are up to it, create a monthly newsletter that includes orthopedic-related health tips or an eBook that anyone can download after entering an email address. This step is particularly important for those website visitors not yet ready to become a patient but may do so later.

9. Testing schedule for page loading

Load time is an element of webpage design that is often overlooked but can be detrimental to gaining new leads and patients. With attention spans growing shorter and shorter today, you only have so much time to make a good impression. If one page fails to load quickly enough (usually within two seconds), there is a high chance of losing many potential patients.

What can affect load time? Videos, large image files, excessive number of widgets, and features such as PDF displays or galleries.

10. Mobile-friendly

With so much traffic coming from mobile devices today, you also want to make your website mobile-friendly. In other words, make sure it loads quickly, is easy to read on small screens, and has working menus or buttons. Otherwise, visitors will lose patience and leave.

If you’re feeling overly challenged by creating a website design that is effective, Practice Promotions is here to help. Websites we have created for clients are already converting visitors into patients.

Market To Your List Of Past Orthopedic Patients

One of the most effective ways to market your clinic is to market to your list of past orthopedic patients. These patients are already familiar with you but may not be aware of all that you can offer them and/or family members.

Importance of marketing to past customer list (GOLD MINE)

Past orthopedic patients provide you with a gold mine of already built-in leads to promote your services. For example, say Bob had his shoulder operated on by you a year ago. Today, he is doing well, however, his brother is in need of ACL surgery. Who better to recommend your clinic than Bob?

By staying in front of past patients, they will not forget about you and their own experiences with your office.

Start by considering ways to continually market to your patient list without becoming bothersome. You can achieve this in many ways, including email marketing. You can also use direct mail.

At the heart of past patient marketing is the goal of increasing referrals and getting past patients BACK on the schedule.

If you don’t MARKET CONSISTENTLY, patients WILL FORGET you and go to your competitor.

Referral marketing for orthopedic clinics

Referral marketing is a specific approach to take and requires an understanding of your patients’ motivations.

You want former patients to refer new patients! These new patients are then more likely to go through with their care plan.

Another advantage of referred patients is that they require a low cost of acquisition; that is, less money spent on marketing efforts.

Provide ways for your patients to refer others to your practice, such as with a referral card or a brochure to share with others. You can even offer some incentive for referring a new patient.

Direct mail marketing

Direct mail marketing is far from dead these days, so find a way to use it to your advantage. Consider how much information is online competing for a viewer’s attention on any given day. Direct mail is a break from that and may be in the form of newsletters or postcards.

Newsletters for orthopedic surgeons

Develop monthly newsletters that you can mail out to former patients and anyone who subscribes on your website. In it, share patient testimonials and any news about your practice.

These newsletters are simple yet effective tools for getting past patients to come back to you or refer family and friends.

Stunning postcards for your orthopedic clinic

Postcards take less time to create and require less of your former patient’s time to read. They can quickly scan the postcard and gain a sense of what it is about and what it offers. Use them to reactive patients or create a desire to refer someone they know to your practice. Include an incentive if you like, such as a free gift card, to encourage them.

Practice promotions offers solutions for your direct mail approach, including newsletter marketing. We design, write, print, mail, and track the ROI. At each stage, we send for your approval so you can stay involved in the process also.

Build Local Partnerships to Improve Your Orthopedic Brand

Another crucial step in your orthopedic surgeon marketing strategy is to build local partnerships. By doing so, you will improve your orthopedic brand. Ways to build those local partnerships include:

• Sponsoring community events, such as fundraising runs.
• Offering talks to the public, such as on managing chronic back pain, in conjunction with another organization in the community.
• Serving as a team physician for a local sports team, whether professional or the local high school or university.

How Can Orthopedic Surgeons Market to Primary Care Doctors or Physicians?

One of the most important steps you can take to grow your practice is to do orthopedic surgeon marketing to doctors and physicians around your community.

Start by compiling a list of all the practitioners who have referred patients to you over the last year. Next, develop a list of potential new contacts. Conduct research online to find generalists and specialists new to your area or who are most prone to referring patients to orthopedists, such as sports medicine doctors.

With this information, create a marketing plan to include a variety of aids and ways to build relationships.

High-quality handouts

Create high-quality handouts relating to common conditions treated by orthopedists. These handouts can be perfect for leaving behind after a luncheon, speaking engagement, or visit. Such marketing aids are beneficial for distributing your content information to new medical providers in particular. You can also send these brochures out to those on your list.

Continual relationship-building

Building trusted relationships takes time and effort. Reach out to those new offices and start the conversation. Schedule a time to meet in person to get to know each other. For those offices you already know, find different ways to connect with them. Don’t let a relationship grow stagnant.

2x Your New Orthopedic Patients

If you truly want to grow your orthopedic clinic, you need to learn how to effectively market your practice! By doing so, you can control your clinic’s growth.

It’s time to make the commitment to your practice and start marketing in ways that GET RESULTS. Here is a recap of those orthopedic surgery marketing ideas that work.

• Go Digital and build a robust online presence
• Create a strong orthopedic website that converts VISITORS INTO PATIENTS
• Don’t skip marketing to past patients and increasing referrals

The marketing experts with Practice Promotions can help with all of these and more. As a full-service agency, we provide you with access to valuable tools and marketing guidance for each step of your marketing journey. A team of experts will strategize with you on best ways to achieve your goals and work on your marketing efforts constantly.

You don’t have to just take our word for it either! Request a demo of our full marketing system and see the possibilities for yourself. With the demo, you can gain a sense of how our Ultimate Marketing System can help you control your marketing efforts and grow your practice.

Benefits of Working With a Marketing Agency for Orthopedic Clinics

As an orthopedic practice, you are busy taking care of patients and looking for ways to grow. The good news is you don’t have to market your services all on your own. A marketing agency can take on the marketing for you, including your input every step of the way and helping you achieve the goals you set. From developing an overall strategy to designing a strong website to managing email campaigns to creating a robust referral program, we can help you grow your patient list in amazing ways!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you market a surgical practice?

Orthopedic surgery marketing requires three different approaches today. One is marketing directly to the consumer. No longer do patients need to have a referral to visit a surgical specialist and can decide on their own. The second approach is to continue marketing to past patients, who will be a major source of referrals to your practice.  Finally, marketing to doctors and maintaining those relationships will lead to more patient referrals.

2. How much should an orthopedic medical practice spend on marketing?

The marketing budget for each orthopedic medical practice will differ. You don’t need to have a large budget to be successful, however. In general, according to the SBA, it is recommended that you spend 7-8% of total revenue on your marketing efforts.

3. What if my time to devote to marketing is limited?

As a surgical expert, you devote yourself to patient care, and your time for marketing may be limited. To help, consider turning to an agency in orthopedic specialist marketing and let them guide you and your staff to s