Established Leaders

EHR Lead Generation: Using Inbound Methods to Increase Site Visitors

Attracting health and medical professionals to your website is no easy task. And yet that’s precisely what you must accomplish as a provider of electronic health and medical records. This article provides EHR lead generation tactics to help you increase site visitors.

Aside budget-busting online advertising campaigns, traffic won’t simply appear. But there are ways to avoid these costs and still increase your traffic many times over. This approach requires some hard work, but the methods are amazingly effective.

We’re talking about Inbound Marketing, and here are a few ehr lead generation strategies you can use to get begin drawing the right visitors to your website:

1. Blog Consistently

Not all your ideal customers are struggling with the same challenges, and it’s your responsibility to provide the content that addresses those varied concerns.

Search social media and relevant forums for pain points your ideal customers are discussing. With those insights, you can begin to write the blog posts that provide them solutions. And always use extensive keyword research to optimize these posts so that your ideal customers find them when searching online.

By consistently posting these high-value, keyword-optimized blog posts, you will begin to organically attract the right B2B decision makers to your website and enhance brand recognition.

Augment your content with how-to guides, eBooks, white papers, and more. You can take a look at the definitive guides produced by B2B company Marketo for examples.

2. Enhance your content with long-tail keywords

Don’t make the mistake of using highly-competitive keywords. With your competitors already using them, they’ll be too difficult to rank for.

Instead, dig deeper in your keyword research for long-tail key phrases.

For example, rather than use “electronic records platform,” maybe try something more focused like “how to engage patients.” The latter is more likely to increase organic traffic to your website.

3. Get featured on review websites

A recent survey from Bazaarvoice found that over 70% of customers turn to online reviews when making decisions about a product or service. By publishing on review websites, you expose your brand to your target audience and encourage them to visit your site.

Review websites are where many decision-makers go when comparing options they believe will solve their problems. And finding these sites is easy – just search Google for something like “top electronic medical records services.” Many of these sites are free, but some require a fee for featuring your company’s service or product.

4. List your company in online directories

Listing your website in online directories is another proven tactic for attracting the right traffic. But don’t waste your time trying to list with every directory you find – there are thousands, and not all of them are worth your time.

Find the most appropriate directories by searching Google with a query like “electronic health and medical records services in Illinois,” or whatever state or region is most relevant to you. And then weigh the directories for the ones that have the most authority.

You can weigh authority by downloading the free Moz Toolbar extension for your browser. When Google provides you with search results, the toolbar will give a domain authority (DA) score for each site listed. The higher the DA score, the more authority the directory holds.

5. Submit guest blog posts

HubSpot discovered that 47% of consumers will explore content from multiple sources before finalizing their buying decision. And one of the easiest ways to accommodate these buyers is to publish content on multiple sites.

Authoritative blogs are always looking for quality content with a fresh perspective. And when it comes to your industry, you are in the right position to provide the content these blogs desire.

Begin by listing the biggest blogs reads by healthcare administrators and other potential buyers. Make notes about possible blog topics that might appeal to these editors. And read their guest blogging guidelines – ignoring them is a sure way to have your submission ignored.

Finally, be sure to include a short bio and links back to your website with the submission.

6. Engage blog readers in the comments section

Make time every week to read content on others’ health and medical blogs. And, more importantly, take the time to leave positive comments.

Using comments to engage and educate readers has been shown to build trust, whereas self-promotional comments can often turn away would-be leads. This doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t provide backlinks to your site (you definitely should!) – just educate first, promote second.

7. Participate in industry forums

There are forums galore for every imaginable interest and industry. You can find them by querying Google or by searching BoardReader.com.

As with all other things marketing, not every forum is worth your time. Investing your time in a forum that no one reads is a waste of energy. Instead, browse the forums to find the ones most active.

  • How many members are on this forum?
  • How frequently are members engaging on the forum?
  • What are topics receiving the most engagement?

Answering the above three questions is a great start. When you’ve found forums worth your time, be sure to use your company name as your username. And go beyond offering only advice. Whenever possible, share real examples and provide links to resources that will best help the members.

Over the years, forum participation continues to prove an effective means of boosting credibility and attracting more of your ideal customers to your website.

8. Take advantage of infographics

A study from Social Media Examiner found that 37% of marketers agree visuals are the most effective form of content. After all, we’re only human, and humans have incredibly short attention spans when it comes to internet usage.

This is why infographics have become indispensable marketing tools. They are far more effective than a lengthy text report in helping your ideal customer comprehend complex data. And this is especially true in helping them to make buying decisions.

Bonus: quality infographics have a better chance of being shared than many other forms of content. You can also post them to sites like Pinterest with links back to your site.

9. Publish on LinkedIn

When it comes to B2B marketing, LinkedIn reigns supreme. Unlike other social media, LinkedIn preserves its professional atmosphere, and tools like LinkedIn Pulse allow you to publish long-form content targeted toward your industry.

Frequently publishing to LinkedIn helps build credibility and drive your target audience to your website. And, yes, you can share your LinkedIn content to other social media, too.

10. Repurpose webinars

Successful inbound marketing involves repurposing old content. In fact, Contently found that 60% of digital marketers repurpose the same piece of content as many as 5 times.

An example would be to take an old but evergreen webinar and repurpose it as:

  • A series of blog posts
  • Newsletter content
  • An eBook
  • A SlideShare deck on LinkedIn
  • A source of quotes for social media posts

The more you can extract from your quality content, the more traffic you are likely to draw to your website.

Summary

Creating high-quality, effective content that attracts the right traffic is foundational to Inbound Marketing. This methodology has proven powerful for turning website visitors into qualified leads and nurturing them into happy customers.

Implementing and Inbound Marketing strategy can overwhelm most companies. But that’s what we here at Responsify do. We partner with Electronic Health Record (EHR) software marketers to develop the strategies and provide the help and support their companies need for taking advantage of everything Inbound Marketing has to offer.

We have helped countless marketers, and now we’d like to help you.

Request your free strategy session now. We’ll help to evaluate your assets, offer free insights and suggestions to get your moving in the right direction.

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