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Email security is paramount for businesses of all sizes as it is an essential part of small businesses operations. With the increasing sophistication of email based cyber attacks such as phishing attacks (pretending to be somebody else) and email spoofing (sending emails from other people’s addresses), it’s essential to ensure your organization’s email communication is secure and trusted. One critical tool in achieving this is DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance). This article will explain what DMARC is, its importance, how it works, and the impending deadline set by major email service providers like Google and Yahoo for its implementation.

What is DMARC?

DMARC is an email-validation system designed to protect your company’s email domain from being used for cybercrimes such as email spoofing, and phishing scams. It builds on two existing mechanisms, SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), to authenticate the sender’s identity and ensure the email’s integrity. By implementing DMARC, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of their email domains being exploited for malicious purposes and also it increase its reputation and prevent them from being detected as spam.

Why is DMARC Important?

Here are a few reasons why it’s a must-have for your business:

• Enhances Email Integrity and Trust: By verifying that the emails sent from your domain are authentic, DMARC fosters trust in your email communications, critical for maintaining your business’s reputation.
• Prevents Email Fraud: DMARC helps in preventing bad actors from using your email domain to conduct phishing attacks or spread malware, thus protecting your customers and partners.
• Improves Email Deliverability: Emails validated by DMARC are less likely to be marked as spam, ensuring your important communications reach their intended recipients.
• Google and Yahoo will start requiring it: Starting June 2024, Google and Yahoo will take DMARC into account to validate the authenticity of emails. Domains that do not implement it will have their emails being detected as spam.

How Does DMARC Work?

DMARC works by allowing domain owners to publish policies in their DNS records that define their email authentication practices and how receiving email servers should handle emails that don’t pass the authentication checks. When an email is received, the email server checks the DMARC policy of the sender’s domain to determine the authenticity of the email. If the email fails the DMARC check, the receiving server can either reject the email, mark it as spam, or report it to the sender based on the specified policy.

The Urgency: Google and Yahoo’s Deadline

Recently, major email service providers like Google and Yahoo have announced deadlines for implementing DMARC policies to combat email fraud and enhance security by June 2024. This move underscores the urgency for businesses to adopt DMARC to ensure their emails continue to be delivered effectively. Failure to comply with these requirements may lead to your emails being rejected or marked as spam, significantly impacting your business communications.

Why Your Business Should Act Now

With the deadline approaching, it’s crucial for small and mid-sized business owners to understand and implement DMARC policies promptly. Not only will this safeguard your email communication, but it will also preserve your company’s reputation and ensure compliance with industry standards.

How We Can Help

Understanding and implementing DMARC can be complex, but you don’t have to navigate it alone. Phidev specializes in helping businesses secure their email communications with DMARC. We can assist you in setting up the necessary policies, ensuring your emails are authenticated, and optimizing your email deliverability. While the importance of DMARC implementation is clear, we believe in empowering our clients through education and support, rather than pushing services. Let us help you enhance your email security and maintain the trust of your customers and partners.

Conclusion

In conclusion, DMARC is an essential tool for any business looking to secure its email communications in the digital era. With the looming deadline from Google and Yahoo, it’s more important than ever to ensure your business is prepared. Our team is ready to assist you in implementing DMARC, protecting your email domain, and ensuring your messages reach their destination. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you navigate the complexities of email authentication and deliverability.

The increase of digital communication technologies has lowered the barriers between and companies. Customers are increasingly turning to the Internet to form opinions about products and services about companies as well as their reputation. According to a survey by BrightLocal, almost 97% of consumers research companies before buying their products. Healthcare services are not an exception. Patients do research screening different medical practices before choosing a healthcare professional. Hence, a strong brand online reputation is a key to differentiating and winning the battle against competitors!

Currently, online reputation is one of the most important intangible assets of any organization. It does exist for a company in any industry, regardless of whether it is working on it or not. However, suppose the formation of an online reputation is not controlled and left to chance. In that case, it can develop spontaneously, and there is no guarantee whether it will be positive or not.

Today, the problem of online reputation management is experiencing a real “boom.” A company’s reputation as a whole has a much more significant effect than individual reviews published about your healthcare practice on Google. This is why it’s essential to be proactive and take deft steps to manage your online reputation effectively. It will set you apart from your competitors and allow you to attract and retain patients, increase their loyalty, and create an expert image of your medical practice.

Below we prepared some tips for you that can help you to improve your online reputation management.

Develop a Long-Term Online Reputation Management Strategy

The first and most important tip for successful Online Reputation Management (ORM) is to invest in a comprehensive digital reputation management strategy. A good strategy will benefit you, highlighting you as a medical expert and presenting a positive online image to patients, potential investors, and employees. With the right ORM strategy, you will create a strong visible online presence fostering the growth of your healthcare clinic and expanding your professional network.

Online Audit Brand Name

As part of a successful ORM, it’s necessary to audit your brand name on the Internet regularly. You need to have a good understanding of your brand’s online image: how is your brand positioned, what do your patients and competitors say about you, what information appears when you ‘google’ your company name? You need to find and analyze all the relevant information about your brand that can impact your reputation. Gather all the data and transform it into valuable insights to improve your ORM strategy.

Ensure the company’s presence on Social Media Platforms

At a minimum, you must have your healthcare practice pages on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.  Though it’s not enough to just create pages on different Social Media Platforms, you need to continuously work on it, share interesting content, and engage with your target audience. That will enhance your credibility, increase user engagement rate, and attract new patients.

Set up brand alerts

To consistently monitor your brand on the Internet, it is advantageous to set up Google Alerts and Social Mention. These tools are free. You just need to enter your company’s name, product, or service for which you want to receive alerts. After that, you will be notified each time somebody mentions your brand, product, or service in any online discussion. Being proactive will protect your reputation and enhance your popularity in the eyes of customers.

Do not ignore or delete negative reviews

Never delete or ignore ignoring negative comments or reviews about your healthcare practice. It can significantly damage your whole reputation, which will be so hard to recover. Instead, you should admit your mistakes and take steps to resolve the issue. Remember, negative feedback is also feedback. It helps you to grow, improve customer services, and build stronger relationships with your patients.

For instance, if you or your company’s employees commit a mistake, fail, or do something wrong, and a patient leaves a negative comment about it on the Internet, you should take responsibility for it and sincerely apologize. When you sincerely apologize, it helps to resolve the situation, allowing you to reconcile the parties.

Be attentive and listen to your audience

When responding to complaints or negative reviews on the Internet, seriously think about the fact that there may be some truth in them and that you might need to improve your healthcare practice, especially if you continuously encounter negative comments on the same topic. Remember the aphorism that “the buyer is always right”? Don’t be stubborn – be creative and find a way to improve your services and please the patient without getting into conflict with them.

Encourage your patients to share positive comments and reviews

To have a strong online reputation, you need to promote positive content about your brand on Social Media. Online Reputation Management is also the game of numbers: the more positive reviews there are, the higher your ranking is and the stronger your reputation. Hence, incentivize your employees and patients to share their feedback and leave comments in the online discussion. Remember to always engage with your patients offline, providing them with medical products and services and, most importantly, on the Internet earning their trust and respect.

Conclusion

Working on an online reputation brings many tangible benefits to your healthcare practice. It helps create a positive impression of you as a reliable supplier of medical goods or services, attract new patients, build long-lasting, trusting relationships with them, and finally increase revenue. Therefore, there is no doubt that you need to dedicate time to manage your online reputation!

You can manually search for reviews and mentions of your brand or company on various websites and social networks, often requiring a lot of time and effort. Or you can hire a digital marketing agency that will professionally manage your online reputation creating a positive image for your healthcare practice and tackling any reputation issues that arise on the Internet.

One way or another, you must have control over the online reputation of your medical practice. Always be aware of what patients are saying about you on the Internet, be creative and proactive, and take steps to maintain a positive online reputation.

At Phidev we offer effective digital marketing solutions tailored to the needs of your organization. Feel free to contact us and we’ll answer all the questions that you have.

You are trying to grow your medical practice, and you have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to develop your social media presence. But where to start? What content should you post? How can you engage with the audience? If you have these questions, this article will be useful for you. Here are some tips for your social media marketing plan.

1. Engage with your patients and followers

Social Media Engagement is very important for your business. It helps to strengthen relationships with your patients, build their loyalty, as well as increase your sales. Keep in mind that it’s very important to track all the comments, reviews, and questions that your followers leave on your Social Media. Unanswered questions and negative reviews may damage your reputation and significantly decrease your customer base. So, make sure that you constantly communicate with your patients, answer their questions, reply to comments and share relevant content.

2. Share health news and your professional knowledge

One of the best ways to engage with your patients on Social Media is by sharing health news. You need to be a source of useful and reliable information. Remember, almost everything starts online now. So, use social media pages to share posts that can help your patients to find an answer to complex questions about health care and/or preventive medicine.

For instance, one of the hottest topics in 2020 is Covid-19. So be the initiative and share your knowledge and professional opinion about it. That will increase your credibility, improve your image in the eyes of customers, and drive engagement and lead generation.

3. Raise patients’ awareness about your events

Engage with your followers and attract new ones by raising their awareness about the events that you organize. For instance, now during the pandemic, you can run online contests, competitions, and/or quizzes with gifts to encourage people to actively interact on your medical practice’s Social Media page raising your popularity among patients. Though, it’s important to balance promotional content with educational information. That will significantly increase customer value.

4. Highlight your brand, your accomplishments, and everything you do

Health is a serious topic, but that doesn’t mean your brand should have a dark image. Create a positive image of your brand in the eyes of your patients and followers.

For instance, it is beneficial to talk about your mission, corporate values, and initiatives that you have. Tell your patients about the activities that you are involved in. It can be volunteering, helping elderly people, fundraising money for the sick people – participation in any of these activities will show that you are not just a health professional, but an active community participant that strives to care about other people.

Remember, you need to have a differentiator that highlights your brand and makes you stand apart from the competition.

5. Embrace user-generated content

If you have patients who publish content about your medical practice on their social networks, you can contact them and ask for permission to re-share their content on your Social Media Page. User-generated content is a powerful marketing tool to increase brand awareness of your medical practice and at the same time show appreciation to your patients.

As you can see, social media is a great platform for raising awareness and trust in your brand. And if you know how to use this tool effectively, you can build a strong brand reputation! Focus on creating value for your customers, share with them useful health tips, try to solve their problems, communicate with them, and answer their questions.

If you want your Social Media Marketing campaign to be held at a high-quality level, then trust the Phidev Digital Marketing Agency. We are here to help you grow and have a strong presence on Social Media.

The development of digital culture sets fundamentally new models of consumer behavior in all existing industries, and the healthcare industry is not an exception. The marketing of healthcare professionals is rapidly moving to digital, which becomes a key channel for promotion and communications with patients and other clients.

Besides, Covid-19 has dramatically changed our way of life, work, and business. Therefore, as a reputable healthcare professional, you can’t just continue conducting your medical practice as before. We live in a period of the pandemic, and everything you’ve ever done before is now perceived differently by patients, they search for everything online and they expect to be able to get medical services virtually. In this regard, there is a strong need for healthcare professionals to have a winning digital marketing strategy that can add value and differentiate them from others.

Here are our top 10 digital marketing strategies to help you succeed:

1. Set up a professional website for your doctor’s practice and make sure your information is consistent.

To succeed in the digital world, it is important to have a modern, user-friendly, and informative professional site for your medical practice. Nowadays, patients select healthcare professionals based on their digital outlook, and visiting your website creates the first impression of your practice among potential clients.

Therefore, it is very important that your website is completed and has accurate information about hours of operation, address contact info, type of accepted insurance, and any other relevant information. This will help clients find everything they need on your site, increasing customer satisfaction and, as a result, improving the efficiency of your staff.

Furthermore, make sure that you have updated and unified listings in all online medical directories. The more online directories you have, the stronger your online presence and outreach, which gives you a competitive advantage over rivals.

2. Optimize your website for search engines.

You need to ensure that your website is not only professionally presented but also contains SEO-optimized content. SEO involves many aspects, such as the keywords used on your page, the links placed, or simply structuring your medical site so that search engines can classify and understand it. All of these aspects are necessary to have a high ranking of your website in Google and other search engines, generate visitor traffic, and increase your brand awareness.

3. Make Sure that your site is optimized for users.

The user interface (or UX) of your website is an indicator of the availability of information that Internet users (your potential patients) are looking for. Therefore, your website should be complete and filled with relevant content to enhance the interaction between you and the patient. For instance, it’s advantageous to add a personal patient profile to the website, where patients can book an appointment, update their personal information, view test results, etc.

4. Make sure that the site is optimized for mobile devices

Nowadays, more than two-thirds of all online sessions are conducted using mobile devices. This is a clear indication of the ever-growing importance of properly optimizing your website, interface, clinic information, and blog content for mobile devices so that the user experience is positive.

5. Increase your presence on Social Media Channels.

One of the most effective ways of interacting with existing and potential patients is Social Media Marketing. In today’s world, it’s essential to have a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. That way, you can promote your brand, improve your reputation, increase the credibility of your medical practice among clients, and attract today’s tech-savvy patients. Always keep your social media consistent and updated with relevant content so your customers can constantly engage with you.

6. E-mail and SMS marketing

Another powerful digital marketing instrument is email marketing. It’s one of the best tools for communicating with your patients and keeping them informed about your practice and relevant news. Keep in mind that you must plan email marketing campaigns and tailor their content to the needs and interests of each of the target markets. That way, the message that the patients receive is personalized and keeps them engaged with you.

7. Running Pay-Per-Click Ads

Pay-per-click ads allow you to display online advertisements only to the intended audience – Internet users that are searching for the keywords that you are targeting. This allows you to filter and skip a general untargeted audience, presenting your medical practice only to interested customers.

8. Generate patients reviews

Patients’ reviews are one of the most important SEO factors that affect your Google ranking and impact your credibility as a doctor among existing and potential patients. Since nowadays patients choose a doctor based on reviews, do not hesitate to ask your clients to provide them for you. The more positive reviews you have, the better your SEO will be and the higher your chances of attracting more customers.

9. Create video content

Video content with the doctors is the most interactive way of communication, advertisement, and brand promotion, with the highest media outreach and engagement rates. Creating video content will not only promote your practice and attract more clients but also make your patients know you better and develop trust among them.

10. Marketing Analytics

Tracking tools are highly recommended to monitor the performance of your website and digital marketing efforts. For instance, Google Analytics can provide you with data about your target market, # of visitors, traffic, conversion rate, time on page, buyer’s journey, engagement rate, etc. That information will provide you with the entire marketing picture helping you to better plan your digital marketing campaigns and understand what is your ROI.

Developing strong digital marketing strategies for doctors will ensure your long-term success. It embraces the evolving digital format, opens up new ways to improve the effectiveness of medical marketing, and improves the quality of patient care services. Consider hiring an expert digital marketing agency that will create a winning strategy and generate a return on your investment.