Geo-targeting is one of the fastest ways in which healthcare practices can reach out to potential patients. In today’s competitive market space, any business wanting to make its mark needs to focus on incorporating geographical targeting within its online marketing program as this can offer increased visibility within the local target market.

Should Medical and Dental Practices focus on Geo-Targeting?

Typically, you will find a certain kind of people living within a particular geographical area. It is possible to infer to a large extent certain criteria such as the age, income, or even carry out psychographic profiling of individuals within specific geo-region using information such as the postal zip code. Armed with this information, it becomes easy to create targeted marketing campaigns which appeal to a certain group of consumers. So yes, by using geo-targeting, marketing experts can easily target a specific audience who offer a higher conversion rate within a given geo-region. Again, this also allows marketers to limit exposure of marketing campaigns and ads to those regions where conversions don’t readily happen saving on marketing efforts and resources.

Geo-Targeted SEO – What you should know

Healthcare practices keen on maximizing their traffic need to be mindful of the following before they go ahead with a geo-targeted online SEO marketing program:

• Your practice website should be hosted in the same regions; if you are based in the US it is always better to have a host who is also based in the US

• Make sure your domain names match with your region

• Specific geo-targeted keywords can boost your campaign effectiveness so make sure you use them

• Expanding on the above point – make sure you pepper your ads as well as your landing pages with native vernacular of the given location

• Don’t ignore Google Places

Geo-targeting Applications – Expanding Marketing like Never Before

Technology today has created a digital fence which makes it possible to connect potential consumers with specific brands and offers anywhere, and at anytime. Thanks to the rise of smartphone usage, location-based services, GPS-enabled devices, and apps marketers can collect massive amounts of geographic- and behavior-based data.

This data can be used to create meaningful relationships with potential consumers at the most important place within the purchasing cycle – this is where Mobile Geo-fencing comes in. As an example, take a plasma TV shopper; now a retailer can create a smart geo-fence around his competing stores so as soon as the consumer enters within that geo-fence, he will receive a message with a coupon for a special sale at the location of the advertiser; it’s a no brainer to guess where the consumer is most likely to make his purchase.

The ability to match products and services with the needs of a potential customer can lead to greater engagement potential. This however, comes with a caveat – not everyone will be open to having their privacy invaded through geo-fencing. So marketers need to ensure they have permission for pushing content out to consumers.