Instagram has clearly been a social media platform that has influenced many Australians today. In February 2024, it was said that 13,940,800 Australians owned an active Instagram account. Instagram stands out for its visual-centric approach, making it an excellent tool for healthcare social media marketing.
Because of that feature, Instagram should be leveraged by doctors and medical practices to share visual stories with their existing and potential patients. It is also a great platform to engage with patients and showcase their facilities.
Are you looking to skyrocket your online presence using Instagram marketing? Keep on reading.
Why Use Instagram for Your Medical Practice?
Instagram is an influential social media platform today with over a billion monthly active users. For medical practices, Instagram offers unique opportunities to connect with current and potential patients through engaging visual content.
In medical practice marketing, Instagram can give you loads of benefits as a doctor.
Benefits of Instagram for Medical Practices
- Visual Storytelling: Instagram’s focus on visual content allows you to tell stories that can tickle your audiences’ feelings about your practice, services, and patient success stories.
- Increased Engagement: Utilising visual posts on Instagram can help you improve your engagement rates compared to other types of content on different platforms.
- Brand Building: Consistent and professional visual content helps build a strong brand identity and establishes trust with your audience.
- Community Building: Instagram fosters a sense of community through features like comments, direct messages, and interactive stories.
Instagram Marketing for Medical Practices in Australia
1. Define Your Goals
Before diving into content creation, you should be able to define your goals first. What do you aim to achieve with your Instagram marketing? Are you looking to attract new patients, educate your audience, or enhance your practice’s visibility? Try to establish clear objectives to guide you with your strategy and ensure your efforts are focused and effective.
2. Understand Your Audience
Another step you have to do first is to understand your target audience. Understanding what your audience could resonate with is very important for creating content on Instagram. You understand your audience once you have pointed out the demographics and interests of your target audience.
As a healthcare provider who’s setting up Instagram for doctors, your audience might include potential patients, existing patients, and other healthcare professionals. Crafting your content to their needs and interests will make it more relevant and engaging.
3. Craft Compelling and Compliant Content
Because Instagram lies on visual posts, creating visually appealing and engaging content in there is the key to your success. Using the data you got after you defined your goals and understood your audience to create your content.
However, it is also important to keep in mind that your content should also adhere to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) guidelines. Here are some tips to consider:
- Focus on educational and informative content. Share informative posts about common health conditions, preventative measures, and general treatment options, ensuring all information aligns with reputable sources like the Department of Health.
- Showcase your expertise. Post short videos (under 60 seconds) featuring your doctors or nurses discussing health topics in an engaging way. Remember to avoid discussing specific diagnoses or treatments.
- Highlight your team. Share photos of your staff interacting with patients (with their permission, of course!), showcasing the human side of your practice.
- Leverage high-quality visuals. Eye-catching photos and infographics can significantly improve engagement. Ensure all visuals are royalty-free or properly credited.
- Humanise your practice with a touch of humour. Use light-hearted content (avoiding medical puns!) to connect with patients on a more personal level.
4. Leverage Instagram Stories
Instagram stories are a fantastic way to connect with your audience. These short, fleeting posts let you share daily updates, behind-the-scenes moments, patient testimonials, and so much more. Plus, using features like polls, questions, and quizzes in Instagram stories for medical practices can make your stories interactive and get your followers involved.
5. Engage with Your Audience
Communication is a two-way street, and so does your social media engagement with your audience on Instagram. Encourage your audience to interact with your posts by asking questions, responding to comments, and acknowledging feedback.
You can also utilise Instagram’s direct messaging feature to have private conversations with your patients, answer their queries, and build a stronger connection.
6. Monitor and Adjust Your Strategy
When trying to improve your Instagram page for your audience, take note that the platform is not a set-it-and-forget-it endeavour. Maintaining a strong online presence needs regular maintenance of your account as well to ensure your audience is satisfied.
So, when using Instagram to showcase your medical facility and your expertise, try to regularly monitor your account’s performance using Instagram Insights. Track important metrics such as engagement, reach, and follower growth. Try to understand these metrics and use this data to adjust your strategy so you can continuously improve your results.
Eventually, once you get a hang of your audience and their behaviour, you can see that more and more patients seek your help.
Boost Your Instagram Page with Attractive Visuals
Sharing appealing visuals and engaging with patients can help strengthen and improve your Instagram presence as a medical practice. With the help of a well-crafted and thoroughly researched Instagram marketing strategy, there’s no doubt your Instagram page can reach new heights!
Let our team leverage your Instagram marketing for the benefit of your health practice! Medical Marketing Australia has multiple years of experience helping doctors around Australia with effective and AHPRA-compliant social media management.
Book a demo with us now, so we can talk more about what your medical practice looks like with our help.
