Doctors and surgeons are some of the smartest people in the world. What they provide to society is invaluable and takes years, and even decades, of study and practice. This is why doctors and surgeons sometimes don’t value fields like marketing that lay outside their areas of expertise.

Today, many progressive surgeons and hospital directors are discovering the importance of marketing for their facilities. However, there are still many hospitals and clinics that offer international patient services, but that do not make the proper investments in professional marketing services. They tend to commit the same mistakes over and over, and may be losing patients as a result. Following is a sampling of some common medical marketing mistakes.

1. Incoherent websites

The structure and style of the website varies from page to page. For example, they may use a certain color scheme or font in one page and different one in another page. Or they might have 1,500 words for describing a procedure, and 300 for describing another one that is similar in complexity.

2. Contact information is difficult to find

I’m surprised at the number of websites where the contact information is hidden somewhere on the site or is written in very small print. In a few, the address doesn’t make it clear what city (or the country!) the hospital is located in. This not only makes it difficult for the patient to contact them, but most importantly, it gives the impression that the facility is only serving local people. How many hospital websites forget to post their area or country code? The internet is a global tool. Those who are involved with international patient care must think on a more global basis.

3. The information is too technical

A hospital’s website and their literature has to be authoritative. It has to show that it masters all the procedures that they offer. However, it should not go to the extreme of being so technical that an average patient finds him or herself feeling that he or she needs to study or Google some terms just to understand what you’re talking about.

4. The site includes too much multimedia

Having too many videos or music files on your side makes your hospital’s site slow to load. Moreover, it makes your site look like a big ad, instead of the portal of information and communication that it’s supposed to be.

5. Your message doesn´t satisfy the psychological needs of the foreign traveler

There are many unspoken questions and standards a potential medical tourist may need addressed before they will consider your institution for their care. You must understand their needs in order to address them.

Obviously, successful medical tourism marketing is about getting things right the first time. That’s why many leading health care organizations partner with leading international healthcare marketing agencies like The Goodness Company, with the knowledge and experience in international medical marketing to deliver results.