Mine your website for patient data with Google Analytics

Patient data can point you in future marketing directions

Thanks to Google Analytics, what your website visitors are doing, and your patient data, is no longer a mystery. You can track key visitor metrics and make strategic decisions about your marketing with access to the right data.

By setting up a Google Analytics account, you now have an easy way to look deeper into patient data.

Know your metrics

There’s a lot of different metrics in Google Analytics, so it’s important to decide what is important to you and your practice before you get started with any changes.

Each of these metrics can tell you different things about your website visitors and provide you with different data that may be helpful:

• Audience Demographics: See how users of your site differ by age, gender, location and more.
• Google Tag Manager: Find out how many visitors click specific links on your site.
• Funnel Analysis: This tells you how well your website entices visitors towards a specific action. For instance, signing up for more information from your clinic.
• User Flow Reporting: When visitors navigate around on your website, they may follow specific patterns. This lets you know how people are using your site and where they go when they arrive.

Depending on your goals for your website, these metrics may have different benefits and meanings.

Using analytics data

Start using your patient data as you collect it to make updates to your site and find out more about your visitors. As the metrics evolve, you’ll likely develop a more complete picture of what you’ll need to do next with your marketing and online presence.

Analytics can tell you some very interesting things about your audience. Consider how your data enables you to answer these questions:

1. Basic demographics: Who is visiting your website? Are your online visitors similar to your patients? What are the differences?
2. Distance: How far away are the people who visit your website? Are you getting attention outside your region?
3. Interests: What are visitors interested in? Which links are clicked? Are some topics and pages more popular than others?
4. Call-to-action: Does your site have a clear enough CTA that motivates patients and gets results?
5. User experience: Do visitors seem to get lost on your site and leave, or is your website providing a clear and high-quality experience for visitors?

Patient data can provide answers to a variety of different types of questions you may already have about your website and how it performs. You may have other questions as well. Write them down and do a bit of additional research to find out if Google Analytics can provide answers.

Marketing segmentation

Before you start targeting new audiences with your website, think about who you want to reach and see if you’re already successful at it. If your website draws different groups of visitors and you want to keep reaching these people, try to find out what you’re doing right. This could mean looking for ways each audience is drawn to your site.

Consider creating different strategies for each group. For instance, maybe you need a strategy for people who are likely your patients and a different one for visitors who are outside your local area and only visit your site for health advice.

Thanks to the right knowledge of patient data and the right plan, you can take your clinic marketing further with Google Analytics.

Sources:

Martin, E. “Making Google Analytics Work for Your Healthcare Organization.” Healthgrades. Published: March 2019. Accessed: May 2019. Retrieved from: https://partners.healthgrades.com/systems/blog/making-google-analytics-work-for-your-healthcare-organization

Simple Information. “Understanding Your Patients with Google Analytics.” Simple Information. Accessed: May 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.simpleinformation.com/article/how-google-analytics-helps-hospitals-healthcare