Making Your Rehab Facility as Successful as Possible
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your addiction treatment marketing efforts to the next level, there are many ways to grow your business. The execution of successful marketing for behavioral health is within your grasp. A strategy that increases revenue and helps keep your census full is an ongoing effort, but a completely achievable one.
The need for effective addiction and mental health facilities is growing rapidly in the United States, and with our help, your facilities can be best positioned to come out ahead of your competitors. Don’t lose your position or sacrifice your success, simply because you do not have the time to handle all your digital marketing needs internally, few centers do these days!
Keep reading for a complete breakdown of addiction treatment marketing tactics from the pros at Ads Up Marketing and how to make sure your own efforts are as effective as possible!
Drug Rehab Marketing Is Becoming More Competitive
Almost every business is relying more on digital marketing these days. This includes rehab centers. In fact, the treatment of drug addiction will be a $45 billion industry by the end of 2023. With the number of people suffering from substance abuse on the rise, the need for drug rehab centers that are competent and well-represented is also increasing.
Yes, even with the rising number of people suffering from addiction, many rehab centers are finding it hard to remain competitive. The Affordable Care Act has resulted in increased funding for drug rehab clinics, helping more people get the help they need. However, the reforms could take up to five years to fully take effect.
For drug rehab centers, marketing campaigns are important to help build brand awareness and attract new patients. A strong SEO campaign can help the center earn a high position for organic search terms. Adding blog posts and videos to your website can help you generate more traffic.
Video marketing is another powerful tool for a drug rehab center, as many people are more likely to watch videos than read text. If you can afford it, invest in a high-quality video. The ROI from this type of marketing is also higher than other formats.
No matter your approach or preferred platform, Ads Up Marketing can help you achieve the results you want, with the budget you need to meet.
Developing Your Digital Strategy
Developing your addiction treatment marketing strategy means forging a connection with people who are looking for help. One in 10 Americans is affected by a substance use disorder. This is an opportunity for your facility to establish itself as a trusted resource. It also means forging a connection with people on a deeper emotional level.
Your addiction treatment marketing strategy should also focus on reputation management. This means working to dispel the stigma associated with addiction. Providing informational pages, for instance, will establish your center as an expert in the field.
You can also use YouTube to market your addiction treatment center. This is a very popular platform, and many people spend a lot of time there. You can use it to answer questions about addiction and recovery, as well as answer questions about the services you offer.
Another way to promote your addiction treatment center is by using an email list. These lists can be built in person or on your website. You can send an email to each person on your list, making it personalized. First, let’s investigate various paid ads in the form of PPC campaigns.
Paid Advertising for Addiction Treatment Centers
Using paid advertising for your treatment centers could be an effective part of your drug and alcohol treatment marketing and SEO strategy. Most of your addiction marketing will be in the digital marketing space, which includes the options below – which generally drive the best results.
Google AdWords and PPC Advertising
In 2017, Google made a move to dramatically reduce the number of paid search ads on addiction treatment marketing. They essentially barred rehabs from using AdWords and banned several referral sources from advertising on the site. Despite these bans, some rehabs continued to advertise on the site.
As a result, the number of ads dropped by 96%. While some rehab centers sharpened their drug rehab marketing strategies on other channels, others simply neglected the care side of the equation and focused their marketing efforts on the money side.
To get the most out of your Google AdWords campaign, you’ll need to know what to look for when evaluating ad performance.
Online Marketing for Rehabs and The Role of Google Ads
Google Ads for addiction treatment marketing is a great way to get your message in front of people who are searching for rehab centers. However, it’s not without challenges. A professional drug rehab marketing agency can help you understand the impact of your ads.
One of the first things you’ll need to do is understand your “buyer’s persona.” Ads are judged on how relevant they are to the user’s search terms – in other words, how efficient they are at solving a searcher’s problem. Ads are also evaluated on their Quality Score.
This score is determined by how many people are completing a form or submitting a request. If your ad is not converting, you should pause it and focus on keywords that convert.
Another important factor to consider is the ad copy. The ad copy must speak to the needs of the target audience. Ad copy will help convince potential customers to click on your ad and visit your site, improving the number of leads to your treatment center. You can use ad copy to perform A/B testing, which will improve your conversion rate optimization and cost per acquisition.
Google Search and Driving Organic Results to Your Rehab
You can also use Google search campaigns to build your email list. Email lists are one of the most important channels for treatment centers. You can use a call-tracking platform to integrate with your Google Analytics account to learn more about tracking the conversions that matter to you. You can then retarget your list, ensuring that you stay on top of your leads.
If you’re considering a new online marketing campaign, using the idea above and leveraging the power of a digital marketing agency for addiction treatment is your best bet. You’ll have to spend a little time researching the best marketing options to suit your business.
Then, you’ll need to create ads and develop landing pages that convert. A good agency can help you do this and more.
LegitScript and Getting Your Rehab Center Accredited
Finally, you’ll want to build a reputation for your addiction treatment facility across all of your advertising channels. You may also want to consider a process called LegitScript. This certification process can help you certify that your facility is transparent and complies with local laws. It costs a fee to participate, but you’ll benefit from having a better reputation on the web and off.
Similarly, seeking national accreditation from the Joint Commission or the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF for short) can be a difference-maker in building trust between your facility and potential new clients.
Facebook and Social Media for Addiction Treatment Centers
Paid social media advertising for drug rehab can end up being one of the best ways to market to specific demographics.
Using Paid Social Media Advertising for Drug Rehab can be a smart way to attract potential patients. It can also help your brand become an authority in the industry, and the targeting is laser-focused. There are many social media platforms to choose from, and some are better suited to your business than others.
A good social media marketing plan should include several platforms. One of the most popular is Facebook, which can be used to target prospective patients and followers. Facebook allows for custom ads, so you can target specific demographics, locations, or relationship statuses.
Ads on Facebook can also be a valuable resource for addiction treatment centers. Many Facebook users are familiar with the issue of substance abuse treatment and are, therefore, more likely to become clients. Facebook ads are also a good way to retarget your users and build a reputation for your treatment center. This allows you to future-proof your business.
Twitter (now X) is still another good place to connect with thought leaders in your industry. Its private message section allows you to interact with prospective patients and followers. You can also use this platform to share blog posts about addiction treatment and related topics. You can also set up a group page to create a sense of privacy for your followers.
Other Social Channels for Rehab Marketing Efforts
Instagram is another great platform for reaching prospective patients. This social media site is also a great place to share photos, videos, and direct messages. It also provides social media analytics. You can find out how many people clicked on your posts and where they came from. This can be a good way to learn where you should be spending your marketing budget next.
TikTok is another social media site that is a great way to create short videos. This platform is also a great way to engage your followers by creating short videos about addiction treatment. It is also a good way to connect with appointment booking services. It can also be used to create videos that are optimized for each aspect of your addiction treatment facility.
If you plan to do some Paid Social Media Advertising for your rehab, make sure to get LegitScript approved. You may have to pay for these ads down the road, but you can start now by getting the most out of your social media marketing efforts. The social media world is changing, and you can take advantage of the latest trends and technologies to grow your business.
A qualified social media marketing agency specializing in addiction treatment facilities, such as ours, can also help you get the most out of your efforts.
This includes understanding the most popular platforms to use. By using the right strategy, you can drive targeted traffic, get the most out of your advertising, and increase your chances of landing new clients.
SEO Strategy and Your Digital Marketing Gameplan
The best SEO marketing strategy for drug rehab centers is a combination of the best keywords, a well-designed website, and a clever link-building strategy. The quickest way to accomplish this is by creating high-quality pages and blog articles with valuable information.
This approach will allow you to rank higher on local search engine results pages and increase your organic traffic.
Search Engine Optimization and Reaching Page 1
Getting on page one of Google with a drug rehab marketing strategy that is based on search engine optimization is a good way to attract new clients and connect with a broader audience.
While getting ranked on Google for your rehab facility’s website is a great goal, getting on page one organically is a challenge that most treatment center owners face, whether they are just getting started running a rehab, or have been doing so for decades.
Drug Rehab Marketing: Content is Still the Reigning King
The most effective alcohol and drug rehab SEO strategy involves creating and distributing quality content that satisfies a specific question or need. This includes a well-designed website that is easy to navigate. It also includes strategic use of keywords to get your website ranked high on search engine results pages.
The ideal drug rehab marketing tactics will center around the most important element of a website, which is the content. Whether you’re a small standalone facility or a large corporation, you’ll need to take the time to make sure your website contains all of the information visitors will need.
Using your keywords strategically throughout your content will make your drug rehab marketing pay dividends. But whenever you’re leveraging search engine optimization, the most important thing to remember is quality.
Keyword Research and Competitor Analysis
You need to research high-traffic keywords with lots of user intent. Find the ones with the lowest amount of competition and focus on these keywords in your substance abuse treatment article marketing – or blog. All good recovery centers have a blog presence, which is where most addiction treatment website traffic from SEO originates.
The internet is awash in misinformation. Google wants to provide helpful content so searchers have the best experience possible – they don’t want spam. Instead, they’ll show you the most helpful articles on the subject. In the drug rehab marketing space, you’ll need to do the same. If you don’t do your homework, you could be missing out on a large number of potential clients.
It can be challenging to do this all on your own, or even with a small marketing team in your corner. Reaching out to our experts in addiction treatment consulting services can help ease this burden and provide peace of mind.
Link Building and Your Treatment Center Website
There’s also the portion of SEO known as link-building, which is an important component of the algorithm used by Google to determine which websites are most relevant to a given search query.
Links to your rehab site from other sites show Google that you’re an authority in the industry, and readers value your opinion and content. It also often helps your site raise its search engine rankings, in other words, appear higher up on the page and with a better chance at drawing clicks from those searching for your keywords.
If you’re not experienced with drug treatment marketing and SEO for substance abuse and drug rehab centers – it’s not a good idea to attempt a link-building strategy. On the same token, don’t pay a company on Fiverr for 10,000 backlinks for $20. These are all spammed backlinks – and in the end, harm your website.
Google My Business and Commercial Directories
Getting listed in internet drug rehab directories is a great way to make your facility more visible in your local community. It can also help your facility get more referral traffic to your website. These sites allow you to update your business information for free.
They also include a filtering system, which helps users narrow their search to the rehab center closest to them. They also feature advanced suggestion capabilities.
GMB and Achieving Local Search Dominance
Using internet directories to market your drug rehab center is not the only way to do so. Several other tactics are also effective, including social media, local SEO, and citations. These citations can include websites, business directories, and apps, such as Google My Business and Bing Maps.
They can also include Facebook business pages and Yelp listings. However, to get the most benefits from citations, you need to make sure that you provide consistent NAP (name, address, and phone number) information on all your citations.
You can get listed on a variety of different websites, from general health directories to local drug rehab directory sites. Choosing a directory that is industry-specific will ensure you get the best exposure. These directories are generally seen as trustworthy and reliable sources of facilities. Moreover, you can typically get tons of leads from these directories.
Getting listed on online drug rehab directories is not a substitute for good SEO or social media marketing. The best strategies are those that involve a combination of both. But, it is important to understand that a directory listing can significantly increase your visibility on search engines.
However, you should be aware that some of the directories on the market are scams. Some of them are designed to trick clients into paying for treatment. This is why you should always do your own research before putting your facility’s information online.
Maintaining Accurate Information: NAP Consistency and More
If you are interested in getting listed on internet drug rehab directories, make sure that EVERYTHING you list is accurate. Several of the larger directories have automated listings, which may transfer incorrect information.
You also want to be sure that you have the correct phone number, address, and website for your business. You should also consider getting listed in other professional organizations just to further validate your credentials.
Another important aspect of a good marketing plan for your drug rehab center is to get reviews from clients. This will not only help reduce the stigma associated with addiction, it will also help improve your local SEO rankings.
Reviews can be obtained in several different ways, including online reviews and asking for reviews after the program has finished. You can also include the review link in automated emails at key points during the client journey.
Video Marketing to Increase Web Presence
Using video marketing to advertise your drug rehab center can be an effective and affordable way to reach your target audience. Videos are hugely popular, and they also have a higher ROI than other formats.
They can be an effective way to attract new clients, and they can also improve the quality of your website’s content. You can leverage the power of many free video platforms and make this a very powerful part of your strategy.
A YouTube Channel for Your Facility
YouTube is the largest video platform online and the second biggest search engine behind Google. The cool part about YouTube is it’s entirely free – and you can use it just like you would Google to garner targeted search results. Because of the way YouTube’s algorithms work, you’re targeting users with very high intent. YouTube is an excellent platform to target potential clients who may be in the middle of your rehab marketing funnel and in the consideration portion of the funnel.
When you’re creating a video, make sure to use the keywords that are likely to lead people to your website. You may also want to include information about the people who can benefit from your addiction services. The better your content is, the more likely your website is to show up in search engine results, which means more incoming traffic.
TikTok: An Emerging Market for Facility Owners
TikTok is a fairly new video platform that allows you to post short videos of about 60-90 seconds each. The search function of TikTok works completely differently than YouTube and Google so SEO isn’t a factor at all. However, targeting trending hashtags is the most effective way to get your content in front of the right eye on TikTok.
Because of its relatively new presence online compared to other marketing tactics, many advertisers and marketers are still trying to figure out the best way to leverage this platform.
However, after some studying, it seems that TikTok is great for top-of-the-funnel clients in the awareness phase. Because of the short videos, they’re not getting a lot of in-depth information. But you can use it to make a powerful first impression or target trending topics in the addiction space, which TikTok seems to have a fairly large audience for.
The best way would be to sign up for a TikTok creator account, make a short, powerful video with relevant content, and drop a link to your YouTube channel, where you can get customers to content that’s more informative and influence their decisions in a more powerful way.
Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels is emerging as a powerful force in the video marketing sector. On a powerful platform already, Instagram is primarily for the beauty, diet, and fashion niche. However, because of the age demographic, there’s a segment of the addiction treatment space that frequents both Instagram and TikTok.
In addition, Instagram is an efficient platform for hosting high-quality photos of your facility and driving traffic to your website or YouTube channel. Instagram Reels seems to be most effective when used in a similar manner to TikTok.
Email Marketing and Maximizing Your Efforts
Creating an effective email marketing campaign can be a time-consuming task. But there are ways to improve your ROI, and some of them are simple enough to do yourself. By examining your campaign’s metrics, you can determine which tactics bring you the best results and which should be scrapped for good.
Identifying your target audience is the first step to creating a successful email campaign. Picking the right keywords can help you drive more traffic to your site based on your SEO strategy – just make sure you have a form on the page you’re driving traffic to capture emails.
Building your email list can be done in a variety of different ways – and almost on every marketing platform in existence. Ads Up Marketing has experts with decades of experience in email marketing and lead generation and can help you craft a campaign that resonates with your readers.
Generating Leads with the Right Calls to Action
Using social media to your advantage is a smart move. By implementing a targeted social media campaign, you can tap into a broader network of potential clients. This is especially true if you have a large clientele. And with Facebook’s new advertising tools, you can advertise to people with specific demographics at a fraction of the cost of traditional media. Facebook has a specific option solely for building your email list.
Writing an email that’s not too ‘spammy’ will get you a better response rate. While you’re at it, you may want to consider the HIPAA rules that apply to healthcare email marketing. You need to test different email copies to see what clients respond to.
The best way to measure which marketing tactics work is to monitor your data and perform periodic A/B tests. This isn’t just a good way to find out which methods work; it can also help you identify which ones you should drop the cash on. For example, if you’re not getting the results you expected from your Facebook ads, you may want to try ad targeting.
The most effective marketing campaign will incorporate an array of tactics. By combining a combination of content and social media strategies, you can boost the reach of your messages while keeping your audience informed and engaged.
KPIs and Data Driven Results
Monitoring the right KPIs – in other words, the most important metrics of your campaign, you’ll be able to use data to your advantage and make adjustments to your marketing efforts.
Regardless of your strategy, the most important part is measuring, testing, and retargeting. Even the metrics that seem insignificant can have a powerful effect on your campaign.
If you’re not well versed in testing and measuring data and the technical aspects of marketing, it’s best if you contract an experienced agency to assist you in deploying and monitoring your campaigns. Otherwise, you stand to waste unnecessary money in an industry where every dollar counts.
A Full Spectrum of Addiction Treatment Marketing Services
Beyond traditional services such as PPC and SEO for treatment center promotions, we also offer a range of other options at Ads Up, here are some highlights to consider:
- Alumni program creation and support
- CARF accreditation support
- Content Creation
- Google Ads
- Reputation Management
- Virtual IOP setup and technical support
- Website Design
Effectively Market Your Facility with Our Help
So, what are the key takeaways from our deep dive into all the ways you can generate leads and keep a full census at your rehab facilities? From designing a good SEO strategy that is part of your overall digital strategy, to best practices for online advertising, there are some fundamentals every facility owner should know.
In taking on paid ads and Google Business Profile optimization, there are other issues to consider. No matter what size your treatment program, you can benefit from professional insight and reach your target audience in more effective ways.
Reach out for a thorough audit today and let the team of experts at Ads Up Marketing help your treatment programs reach their goals (and surpass them) this coming quarter!