Marketing for Health Practices: Be Seen, Then Get Booked

It is 9pm, someone in Hamilton has a back that has gone, and they type "physio near me" into their phone. They will book with one of the three clinics the map shows them, and they will pick the one that looks open, close and trustworthy. That is local marketing for a health practice: be seen when someone needs you, then look good when they find you.

This guide is for dentists, physios, chiropractors, osteopaths, optometrists, podiatrists and the other practices patients choose for themselves. It covers what to fix, and the rules in New Zealand that shape how you can do it.

A referral still gets checked

Say a GP suggests a physio, or a friend recommends a dentist. The patient still searches the name before they ring. They look at the star rating, whether you are open on Saturday, how far away you are and whether they can book online. If anything looks off, the next clinic is one tap away.

Patients with no referral at all work entirely from the search. Someone new to Tauranga types "dentist Tauranga" and chooses from what Google shows. A runner with a sore knee searches "sports physio Riccarton" at lunchtime. Neither of them has heard of you, so your listing and your reviews are the whole first impression.

Google is not the only place they look. Healthpoint, the directory many GPs and patients use to look up local health services, is worth checking too. If your practice is listed there, make sure the hours, services and referral details match your Google listing word for word.

Be seen: your Google listing

When someone searches "dentist near me", Google shows a map with a short list of practices under it. Three things decide whether you are on it: how well your listing matches the search, how close you are, and how established you look. You cannot move your building, so put your effort into the other two.

Start with your primary category. It should be the plain name of what you are: "Physiotherapist", "Dentist", "Chiropractor", "Optometrist". A clinic filed under "Medical clinic" or "Health consultant" is competing for the wrong searches. Add secondary categories only for services you really offer, such as "Sports massage therapist" or "Paediatric dentist".

Then the details patients act on. Your hours, including late nights and Saturday mornings, and special hours for public holidays like Matariki and the Christmas break. A booking link that goes straight to your online diary. The accessibility details Google asks about, such as a wheelchair accessible entrance and parking, because patients in pain or with mobility issues check them.

Your description is your one chance to say what you do in your own words. Name your main treatments, your suburb and who you see. If you can lodge an ACC claim on the spot, say so plainly, because many people searching have just been injured and want to know they can come straight to you.

Look good: reviews, within the rules

Health reviews get read more closely than almost any other kind. Patients skip the stars and read about wait times, whether the practitioner explained things, and how reception treated them. A steady run of recent, detailed reviews tells them more than any claim you can make yourself.

Ask every patient the same way, at the end of a course of treatment rather than in the chair. A short text or email with a direct link to your Google review page is enough. Never offer a discount or a prize for a review, and do not ask only the patients you expect to be happy. Google's own rules forbid both.

Reviews on Google are one thing. Quoting them in your own advertising is another. The Medical Council and the Chiropractic Board bar patient testimonials in advertising altogether, and the Advertising Standards Authority's Therapeutic and Health Advertising Code bars testimonials about treatment outcomes. Your website and your Facebook ads count as advertising, so check your own board's advertising standard before you paste a review onto either.

Replying is where practices get caught out. The Health Information Privacy Code covers a public reply as much as a patient file, and even confirming that the reviewer is your patient discloses health information. Thank them, say you take feedback seriously, and invite them to call the practice. Never mention a treatment or a condition, even when the reviewer has.

Your website: answer the questions before the phone call

Patients on your website want four answers fast: what you treat, who will see them, what it costs and how to book. Most are on a phone, often uncomfortable, so a site that makes them pinch and zoom loses them. Put the phone number and the booking button at the top of every page.

Give each main treatment its own short page. "We offer a full range of dental services" says nothing. A page each for check-ups, fillings, children's dentistry and emergency appointments tells patients you do what they need, and tells Google what to show you for.

Introduce your practitioners with their qualifications and what they focus on. Every registered practitioner in New Zealand sits on their board's public register, and a link to it is a quiet sign of trust. Be clear about fees, including what ACC covers and what the patient pays on top.

Your action plan

Where Marketbase comes in

Marketbase checks your practice against every other practice like yours in your city, the way a patient sees them: your Google listing, your reviews, where you show on the map and how your website holds up. Find your practice by name and your free report shows what is working, what could move and where you stand.

Open your free 7 days and you get the how for every finding, in the order that gets you the call. Sort it yourself, or we'll do it for you.