Let’s be honest: Building and protecting the online reputation of your medical practice is neither easy nor cheap.
Online reputation management (ORM) is a complicated process that may cost you thousands of hard-earned dollars depending on the severity of the reputational damage, the extent of harmful online content that needs to be handled, the size of your medical practice, and the range of ORM services you opt for.
If you are on the fence about hiring an online reputation management agency, or if you are wondering whether ORM is worth the effort, let’s take a look at the cost of neglecting your online reputation.
Cost of Neglecting Your Online Reputation
According to research, medical practices risk losing as many as 22 percent of their patients from just one negative review or comment online. If three or more negative comments pop up in a search query, the potential for lost patients increases to almost 60 percent. Have four or more negative reviews about your medical practice or services appearing on a third-party review site? You’re likely to lose 70% of potential patients.
Regardless of your medical practice size, a 22 percent to 60 percent reduction in patient volume will have a significant effect on your bottom line.
Given the viral nature of social networks, it takes only a few days for bad online reviews to cause severe damage to your brand.
Related Blog: How Much Will a Bad Online Reputation Cost Your Medical Practice?
On the other hand, studies reveal that a robust online reputation means more revenue for your medical practice. According to the Harvard Business Review report, a 1-star increase in online star rating can result in a 5-9% increase in your bottom line.
So, are you willing to jeopardize your career and years of hard work by ignoring the comments about your medical practice online?
If the answer is No, then the rest of the blog is for you!
What is the Real Cost of Managing Your Medical Practice’s Online Reputation?
Let’s be very specific.
Whether your medical practice is under fire from a local competitor, or a dissatisfied patient is posting bad reviews on third-party review sites, make sure you fight back.
At Practice Builders, our online reputation management services are designed to help you take control of your online reputation, rebuild it, and protect it – one step at a time.
To know more about our most popular and online reputation management services, click here. Our experts will be happy to share existing ORM packages or build a customized plan to suit your specific needs and business goals.
By choosing an online reputation management plan from Practice Builders, your medical practice will strap on the gloves, get in the ring, and start throwing punches. Every time your brand will throw a new punch, it will not just take down a negative review — it will also make it harder for other harmful reviews to come on top of the search results.
Building and Monitoring are the golden words here!
These two words are the foundation of our approach to online reputation management. We will not leave one stone unturned to go on the offense and build up your defense so you can come out of the ring swinging- until you have won!
We continue to monitor your online reputation, making sure all that harmful content doesn’t make its way back to the first three pages of search engine results. And if it does, our experts are trained to deal with it – quickly and successfully.
In other words, our online reputation management services will keep your medical practice strong against potential attacks. We will have your back and go the extra mile to make your brand look credible online.
Why Should You Opt for a Customized Reputation Management Plan?
One of the best ways to exert control over your online reputation is with a reputation management plan.
A typical online reputation management plan includes digital marketing tactics like search engine optimization (SEO), content planning, website optimization, paid ads, email marketing, review management, and guest blogging. All of these strategies play a crucial role in protecting and defending your online image.
The best thing about customized ORM plans is that they are both reactive and proactive – meaning they build your online reputation while responding to existing and potential threats. For instance, a plan might strengthen your reputation by encouraging patients to post more positive reviews online while suppressing the existing harmful content. Another plan might use email marketing to contact your patients after their appointments, offer them complimentary services, and ask them to follow your healthcare brand on social media. Each of these plans works on building, protecting, and managing your online reputation effectively.
Regardless of the critical strategies listed in your customized reputation management plan, every plan focuses on monitoring what is being said about your healthcare brand online. For instance, if someone posts a negative comment about your medical practice, an alert is received. These alerts help respond and resolve the issue before the damage gets out of hand. Online reputation management plans use a variety of tactics to bolster and protect your online image.
Conclusion
Investing in building and protecting your practice’s online reputation is worth it. It is an easy way to rank in the search engine results, build credibility, gather social proof and acquire more patients.
As mentioned above, the cost of online reputation management can vary based on the size of your medical practice, the number of ORM services that you want to subscribe to, and the extent of harmful content available online for your brand. At Practice Builders, we offer different plans for medical practices with unique needs and different goals.
We recommend that you contact our online reputation management experts for customized online reputation management plans and see how our services can help you achieve your business goals.