As a Private Practice owner, you know that online marketing efforts are essential for success. While traditional marketing methods, such as newspaper, radio, and television ads, can be expensive and may not produce the desired results for your health business.
If you’re looking for ways to grow your business without breaking the bank for paid traditional or online advertising, then you’ll want to read this blog post.
We will discuss 10 effective online marketing methods that you can use to reach more potential patients and coach clients without spending a lot of money on advertising. Keep in mind that some of these methods may require a bit of marketing effort on your part, but they are worth it in the long run!
What is online marketing?
Online marketing, also known as Internet marketing, refers to any strategy that promotes an organization’s product or service through the Internet.
According to Neil Patel, New York Times Bestselling author and named by Forbes as one of the top 10 marketers. “Online marketing is any effort to spread the word about your company that uses the Internet to reach people.”
Companies who use online marketing campaigns aim to reach potential customers in a particular location where people spend a great deal of time online. Different marketing strategies, such as search engine optimization, email marketing, and content marketing, can be used to create online marketing campaigns.
Marketing online is an art and science of selling products and services online. The science aspect is the data research, gathering of information and analysis which are necessary to measure the effectiveness of one or more marketing strategies. While the art aspect is the creation of marketing strategies that appeal to your potential customers.
Nowadays, due to the ongoing pandemic, online marketing is a great way to promote your business to potential customers without having to spend money on traditional advertising methods. There are many different ways that you can market your business online, such as by creating a website and building marketing campaigns that attract customers at little to no cost. Yet, you’d need to experiment with different methods to see which ones produce the best results for your company based on consumer behavior.
Online marketing vs. traditional marketing
Online marketing is different from traditional marketing. Online marketing is a great way to grow your private practice without spending too much money on traditional marketing methods or paid ads.
Online marketing involves providing value to your target audience through informative blog posts. For example, when you write blog posts about your private practice, these blog posts will educate customers about a specific treatment method or coaching process and help increase your website traffic through organic search. This type of marketing is often more affordable than traditional methods and can be very effective in reaching new customers or targeted audiences.
Traditional advertising is when you place an advertisement in a newspaper, which can be expensive.
Online marketing vs. digital marketing: What is digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a way to promote your business using digital channels. Digital marketing is simply all forms of online or offline marketing through different digital channels and technologies, regardless of its use of the internet. Examples of digital marketing strategies can be electronic billboard signs, telegrams or text messaging. Digital marketing strategies do not need to use the internet.
Benefits of online marketing
The internet is a great way to promote your products and services. Online marketing has many benefits over traditional marketing that you may want to consider for your business.
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For one, online marketing is much more affordable. You can reach a larger audience with online marketing than you could with traditional advertising.
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Online marketing also allows you to target your audience more accurately, which means that you are more likely to reach your target market whether you use social media marketing or not.
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Online marketing campaigns can target your efforts specifically at those people who are most likely to be interested in what you’re selling, which includes social media marketing.
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Also, it’s a great way to connect with potential customers all over the world through search engines.
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It makes you feel connected to a global community of customers.
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There are a few types of free online marketing tools that you can use to grow your business.
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Online marketing moves at the speed of light, using your website or other online resources to get the answers to your potential customers or target audience questions. And makes it easy for potential customers and patients or clients to find your business and get more information at any time.
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It has a simpler way to measure how well your marketing is working. This makes it easier to improve your business. You can measure how well each marketing campaign works, and this will help you create better strategies.
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Web marketing improves customer relationship management, delivers communications faster, and also helps with customer service, which is important for a successful business.
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With the help of an internet connection, anyone can start their online marketing by creating their own website and start building customer acquisition campaigns. No matter what your skill level is or how much money you have available to invest in your online marketing efforts – there’s always a room for everyone!
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Online marketing gives you a competitive advantage over your competitors by allowing you to know what they are doing for their business promotions.
Limitation of Online Marketing
The main drawback of online marketing today? The lack of tangibility — potential customers can’t try items out or even view them in real-time, unlike when shopping at stores which have dressing rooms available and the high risks of missing out on human interaction.
Is online marketing expensive?
If you’re looking for a way to get your business noticed, online marketing is an excellent option, whether it’s through free or paid traffic sources.
There are free traffic sources for internet marketing but these could be time-consuming and hard work. And it can be overwhelming if you do not have enough skills and understanding of people’s behavior and lack of marketing strategy for your online promotions.
While managing paid ads requires money and patience while waiting to see if any results come about after spending money on ads.
How Does Online Marketing Work?
Online marketing uses a variety of digital, online channels, and electronic means to push a message to current and potential customers. The message might be crafted as an image, a piece of text, or a video, and distributed in any number of places. Internet marketing could be as simple as a social media feed or it could be as complex as you want to be.
Do you feel like you’re hustling for patients all the time? Check our blog here, 5 Physical Therapy Marketing Tips to Stop Hustling for Patients.
What types of online marketing are there?
Oberlo’s blog mentioned 7 main types of online marketing or internet marketing, which include: Social media marketing, Influencer marketing, Affiliate marketing, Email marketing, Content marketing, Search engine optimization (SEO), and Paid advertising.
It’s important to note that some companies may use multiple channels in their efforts. Marketing is always changing and so should your approach to it.
A website is the cornerstone of all your promotional efforts and choice of digital marketing tactics. It can be used on its own to acquire organic traffic, but it’s also necessary for executing many online campaigns that range from email to social media and more online channels!
Here are some free online marketing methods that you may want to consider for your business:
1. Partner up with another expert in your field.
Consider joining forces with another brand. You can then offer a more substantial product together than either one of you could offer alone.
In addition, you’ll automatically get the attention of both audiences, resulting in more sales and adding more leads to your email list. In the future, these new leads could drive more sales of another one of your products.
Partnering in even one marketing campaign can bring long-term benefits to both of you.
2. Utilize content for internet marketing.
The best way to get your company or brand noticed is through content marketing. This form of online marketing can be used in nearly every other type of digital marketing campaign because it requires companies and brands to create high quality information on their website pages as well as increase awareness, and provide potential customers with valuable insights they may not know about before.
Content marketing is an effective way to build business by driving traffic to your web pages. You can use it in conjunction with any other digital advertising strategies you have been implementing, like social media, search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine marketing.
Encourage user-generated content marketing. If you can acquire user-generated content through your content marketing efforts, your website will grow without you having to create your own content. This type of content also increases your website visitors. Enable comments on your website and contribute to the potential customers’ discussions.
Allow visitors to submit their own articles and encourage guest posts from other experts.
3. Be active on social media.
Social media platforms are an amazing tool for content marketing to help increase brand awareness and website traffic. It’s huge for internet marketing and search results online. This topic deserves an entire guide. If you want to become more successful with social media marketing, then you should follow Gary Vaynerchuk. He is one of the most reputable internet personalities.
There are millions of users visiting the various social media platforms daily to help you generate leads and increase sales, so it makes sense to use social media marketing to help your business search engine results.
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Share funny or interesting images or videos that are relevant to your business.
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Post insights and valuable information on social media posts or stories.
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Let your audience know when you have a sale on your products. Give your social media followers coupons or discounts.
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Encourage engagement by participating in discussions. Ask questions and answer them.
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Running a survey, poll, or contest on your social media networks news feeds will help you understand consumer behavior.
Don’t forget the word “social” in social media marketing. You can’t just post ads to sell your products or services on social media channels without taking the conversation into account. Social media advertising is best when used as a way to engage with consumers, and promote content that they will enjoy!
Social media marketing is a great way to connect with your audience and get them excited about what you have going on. The key thing here, though (especially if we’re talking specifically within the realm of social media platforms), isn’t just posting things to get a “like”, yet it’s about engaging people in conversations they’ll feel connected enough that their own sense of community can grow stronger by hearing from others who share similar interests or concerns as themselves.
In turn, your social media channels’ contents will then be shared by your followers, increasing your reach, improving website organic traffic and ultimately resulting in more sales of your products or services using the free social media platforms. It’s easy to create your Facebook page or Instagram business account and start using social media today!
DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, which I may earn compensation when you click and purchase through my links, at no additional cost to you.
4. Use free digital marketing tools.
There are plenty of tools online that can help your business marketing strategy, such as conducting keyword research and email marketing, like ConvertKit freemium plan for sending emails to your customers.
You can sign up for websites that will enable you to create free surveys and you do not have to pay a premium to receive top-notch service.
5. Change and reuse old advertisements and/ or social media posts.
Rather than going through the expensive route of creating new articles with every marketing campaign, try reusing parts of an advertisement that worked well in your past marketing strategy. This will save you time and expense from creating content.
Plus, keeping a consistent brand imagery and creating high quality content through every marketing strategy will help with keyword research and brand recognition too.
6. Build an email list.
If people are visiting your website, chances are good that they are interested in what you have to offer. Make a form available for them to join your email list and be kept in the loop about future product releases or special offers.
Once they’ve signed up to this email list, you can send emails to these prospects and the target audience with news and further information about your products. Let them know whenever something goes on sale.
Email marketing, which some already consider an old-school marketing strategy, is one of the best ways to drive sales. Treat your list members like gold, because that’s what they are to you and your business. Email is still one of the most effective online marketing channels and you can use free email marketing tools such as ConvertKit. Once your target audience has given you permission to contact them, you can email them at any time, providing value and asking them to buy when the time is right.
Consider using different email marketing strategies and tactics, such as writing newsletters that deliver valuable content to your customers.
7. Create some video content.
If you want to create lasting impressions with your audience, video content marketing is a must. There’s no better way to make your brand stand out to your customer base and get seen by search engines than by creating video content. StreamYard offers a free plan for video marketing multi-streaming to different social media platforms.
As video content becomes incredibly important for nearly every business and a more popular type of marketing strategy nowadays, it is important to provide engaging videos. This will help your website get seen on search engines and create interest in potential customers who are looking at different social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook lives or Instagram reels.
Consumer behavior has shown that they would rather watch a video than read a blog post. Also, video content marketing will help your website get seen on search engines. If you can create interesting videos, you’ll create interest in your brand.
8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a powerful strategy for increasing the visibility of your website. It can be used in tandem with content marketing, which helps you rank higher on search engines by using keywords that are specific to what it is exactly about. In this way, people find out more information when they enter a “keyword” into Google or Bing! With SEO at an all-time high due to its influence over digital channels today, many companies have turned towards improving organic revenue as opposed to old-school advertising methods like TV commercials, because there’s less wasteful spending involved (and sometimes even better search results).
There are many strategies that companies can use to improve their search engine marketing optimization. The first thing a business needs is an internet presence and it should focus on content marketing efforts with keywords for these search engines.
9. Start a Blog or Podcast
Starting a blog or podcast is an effective way to promote your brand and communicate knowledge about the services or products you offer.
Blogs and podcasts are also a great way to build your authority, get seen as an expert in your industry or niche and create a strong online marketing presence.
High quality content that attracts a targeted audience will help increase awareness, build relationships with potential clients as well drive traffic back onto your company’s website and generate more leads for business!
On a side note, make sure you have the legal disclosures on your website to protect your business legally. Disclosure: I’m not a lawyer, and you need to contact a legal professional to help you in this area. Your hard work of building your practice deserves solid legal protection not only offline, but also online, and you don’t have to break the bank for it. That’s why I’m recommending to you the legal contracts drafted by a lawyer which I use for my websites.
Protect your business with these lawyer-bundled templates! The high quality and affordable price will ensure that you get solid legal protection, no matter what the budget. This product has been used by thousands of bloggers, coaches or freelancers who want to save time on paperwork while protecting their work from lawsuits.
10. Write a guest blog and/or be a podcast guest.
Are you looking for a way to get your voice and ideas out there or share your expertise with a larger audience? If so, consider writing a guest blog post or being a guest on a podcast. With writing AI software nowadays, you’d be able to say good-bye to writer’s block. Try my favorite copywriting AI for FREE trial PLUS receive a bonus of 10,000 words output. Click HERE to get the bonus.
Guest blogging and podcasting can help you reach a new audience, build credibility, share your expertise with the world, help grow visibility and grow your business.
Guesting can be done on any number of blogs, podcasts or other media outlets that would love an interview from experts like you.
CONCLUSION
Online marketing is a necessary part of any successful business. The issue with traditional advertising, such as newspaper, radio, and television ads, is that they can be expensive and may produce little or even no return on investment.
It’s certainly possible to do online marketing without spending money. Some of these methods might take some time and effort to implement, though, before you see profits. For example, it can take a while to build an email list. However, once you have a list, making sales can be as easy as sending out an email to your list.
Also, when you’ve established a social media following, making sales can be as easy as making a post on your social media channels.
If you want to see an immediate ROI, like for a special promotion, you may want to consider paying for ads online. But if funds are tight, you’ll need to be patient as you put these free non-paid ad strategies into place, and soon you’ll have plenty of ways to make a profit for free.
Contact Dr. Alena Matig-a, when you or someone you know needs support and guidance to develop your online marketing campaigns and wants to have a streamlined and strategic social media effort based on your unique personality, genius zone and business level you’re at.
How do you think online marketing can benefit your private practice?
If you’re a PT, OT or SLP professional who is looking for a community of business-minded and kind-hearted health entrepreneurs, I invite you to join my private Facebook group.
