6 Low-Lift Medical Practice Marketing Strategies to Invest In

For most healthcare teams, the real challenge of marketing your medical practice isn’t ambition — it’s bandwidth. You’ve got patients to care for, schedules to manage, and about a dozen other priorities ahead of your next social post.

That’s why low-lift marketing strategies can be so effective for medical practices. These tactics are designed to increase patient numbers without requiring hours each week to execute.

In this guide, we’ll break down the easiest, most effective medical marketing strategies your team can start using right away in just a few hours a month.

1. Claim and Optimize Google Business Profiles for Your Practice and Providers

Estimated time: 2–3 hours per profile (then an hour or so each year to update)

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is often the first thing patients see when searching for care, so it needs to be accurate, complete, and up-to-date.

Unclaimed or outdated listings can confuse patients, hurt your search visibility, and even direct calls to the wrong number.

By claiming your profiles, you can make sure all of your details are accurate, including business hours, phone numbers, services, and photos. By optimizing your GBP,  it’s easier for patients to find you, leave reviews, and book consultations and treatment with your providers.

Need help optimizing your GBP listings? Start with:

• Accurate NAP (Name, Address, Phone) details
• Clear categories like “Primary Care Physician” or “Pediatric Dentist”
• Professional photos and bios for provider profiles
• Links to your website or scheduling portal

However, don’t just stop at your practice’s main listing. If your providers are searchable by name (and they likely are), each doctor should have their own claimed and optimized GBP, too.

2. Set Up Listings on All Other Important Directories

Estimated time: 3–5 hours total (one-time setup with quarterly check-ins)

Google Business Profile is just one of many business directories on the web. Patients also search on platforms like Yelp, Healthgrades, WebMD, Bing, and Apple Maps. Your practice (and providers) should show up everywhere someone might look. The more complete and consistent your presence is across directories, the more credible and discoverable you’ll be.

When getting yourself on directories, start with the big ones first. This includes:

• Yelp, Facebook, Bing Places, and Apple Business Connect
• Healthcare-specific directories like Healthgrades, Vitals, WebMD, and Zocdoc
• Local directories or chamber of commerce listings in your area

For each directory, fill in as much information as you can. Also, ensure that your NAP information is exactly the same across each directory. Even small differences can make a difference. For instance, if your name includes an apostrophe, it should be there consistently across every instance.

Setting up listings manually can be a headache, especially across multiple locations for several different providers. Tools like Chatmeter make it easy to claim, monitor, and update listings in one place, saving you hours of admin work every quarter.

3. Automate Review Requests With HIPAA-Compliant Tools

Estimated time: 1–2 hours to set up

Patient reviews are one of the best tools in your arsenal for getting the word out about your practice — many people rely on online research when choosing between providers. In fact, one study found that 84% of patients check reviews online when looking for a doctor.

So, it’s beneficial to have a lot of new, positive reviews coming in for your doctors and your practice.

Luckily, getting more reviews often comes down to simply asking — something that can be set up automatically with the right tools.

Here are a couple of ideas to get started:

• Send review requests via SMS after a visit.
• Email patients after a follow-up.
• Leave review request reminders in your office waiting room.

When asking people to leave a review, remember to:

• Include clear instructions and links that take patients directly to your preferred platforms.
• Make sure any system you use is HIPAA-compliant and doesn’t expose personal health information.
• Monitor which channels work best for getting you more high-quality reviews and adjust your approach over time.

Automating these processes helps you collect more reviews faster and removes the burden from your front desk team. Platforms like Chatmeter offer healthcare-specific marketing tools, like HIPAA-compliant review generation via text, email, QR codes, and surveys, so you can build credibility at scale without risking compliance.

4. Respond to Every Patient Review (Even the Bad Ones)

Estimated time: 10–15 minutes per week

Once you have patient reviews coming in, your next order of business is to respond to them. Your team should be replying to every review on every platform — whether they’re positive, negative, or somewhere in the middle.

Responding shows patients (and search engines) that your practice is engaged, professional, and committed to a positive patient experience. Even a short, thoughtful reply can build trust and encourage others to book with confidence.

To make review response easier and less time-consuming:

• Create a few go-to templates for common scenarios like thank-yous, complaints, and appointment issues.
• Schedule time once a week to check and respond across all platforms.
• Keep replies professional and generic, and avoid referencing any personal health details.
• Use a tool that helps you draft responses, flag compliance risks, and manage everything in one place.

To simplify this further, Chatmeter offers an AI-powered review response generator, a HIPAA-safe compliance checker, and a centralized dashboard. With these tools, you can respond quickly and easily without worrying about PHI.

Learn more about how to draft effective review responses in our guides to responding to positive reviews and negative reviews.

5. Build an FAQ or “Patient Resource” Page

Estimated time: 2–3 hours to build, minutes to update

Your front desk team probably answers hundreds of questions a day, and most of them are likely similar. With a simple FAQ or Patient Resource page on your website, you can answer those questions upfront, save your team time, and create a valuable marketing resource.

FAQ pages are a resource that gets picked up by AI-driven tools and answer engines. Here’s how it works:

Let’s say a patient types “dermatologists near me that take Blue Cross” into Google, ChatGPT, or asks the same question out loud using voice search. If your FAQ page includes a clear, direct answer like “Yes, we accept Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance,” AI-powered answer engines can pull that answer directly into their results or display it as a featured snippet. From there, the patient may see a link to your website, click through, and land on your booking page, all without ever needing to call your office or dig through multiple pages.

The best part is that creating an effective resource page is a one-time project that requires minimal upkeep. Start with 8–10 of your most frequently asked questions, like:

• “Do you accept [X insurance]?”
• “Where should I park?”
• “What should I bring to my first appointment?”
• “How do I cancel or reschedule?”

Write short, clear answers, and update them whenever something changes.

6. Build SEO-Optimized Local Pages

Estimated time: 1–2 hours per location (or less with automation)

When someone searches for care, like “dermatologist in [city]” or “walk-in clinic near me,” Google tries to match them with providers in that exact area. But if your website only has one general “Locations” page, you’re probably missing out on some of that traffic.

Local pages are individual web pages that live on your website, each focused on a single location in your practice.

Each local page should include:

• Your practice’s name, street address, and phone number
• Office hours, directions, and parking info
• The services available at that specific location
• Providers who work there, with short bios
• Patient reviews or testimonials
• A map and a clear call-to-action like “Book an Appointment”

Once these pages are live, they require very little maintenance, but they make a huge difference in how often your practice shows up in local search results. Tools like Chatmeter can create and manage these pages automatically, so you don’t need a web developer to get started.

Market Smarter (Not Harder) With Chatmeter

Low-lift marketing works best when it doesn’t fall through the cracks. Even the most effective tactics can lose impact over time if the information isn’t accurate or consistent. That’s why regular check-ins are just as important as initial setup.

As you build momentum, take time each quarter to make sure:

• Your business hours are correct (especially around holidays or seasonal changes)
• All listings and local pages reflect your current services and providers
• Online reviews are monitored and responded to
• Links to your appointment portal, website, and forms work properly
• Your FAQs or patient resources are still relevant and up-to-date

If that sounds like a lot to track, it doesn’t have to be. Chatmeter helps healthcare teams manage all of this from one dashboard — automating review responses, syncing listings, flagging outdated info, and even building fully optimized local pages at scale.

Whether you’re running marketing for one practice or a dozen, Chatmeter gives you the visibility and control to keep everything accurate, consistent, and successful.

Want to see how Chatmeter can help your medical practice? Contact us today for a live demo of our tools to make the most of your marketing budget.

FAQs About Medical Practice Marketing

What’s the best free way to attract new patients?

The best free way to attract new patients is to claim, verify, and optimize your Google Business Profile. It costs nothing and helps your practice show up in local search results when people are actively looking for care.

Can I ask patients to leave reviews?

In most cases, yes — but it depends on the platform. Google and Healthgrades generally allow review requests as long as you don’t offer incentives or selectively ask only satisfied patients. Yelp, on the other hand, has strict policies against soliciting reviews and may penalize your listing if it detects it.

To stay compliant and ethical:

• Use HIPAA-compliant tools that send neutral, post-visit messages.
• Avoid wording that implies a request for positive feedback.
• Never offer discounts or gifts in exchange for reviews.
• Check each platform’s policies before sending requests.

How much time should I spend on marketing each week?

For most practices, 1–2 hours a week is enough to maintain your online presence and keep things running smoothly, especially if you’ve already automated key tasks like review requests and listing updates. The biggest lift is upfront; after that, it’s mostly small check-ins and quick responses.