Digital marketing has become one of the most important sources for promoting dental practices. It is a key factor in how you can promote your dental services online to potential patients, and it involves using some or all of the digital media platforms available today to make your brand recognizable to the target audience.
Dental marketing through online platforms includes SEO (search engine optimization), content marketing, social media marketing, influencer marketing, Google ads, display advertising, and email marketing.
If you are new to Digital Marketing, you must know some basic things about HIPAA before getting started on this subject. HIPAA compliance means protecting patients’ health information by ensuring that their private data remains secure while being used or transmitted electronically by employees or third-party services.
It is undoubtedly very important to keep your patient’s health information secure, but you should also make sure that the marketing technique doesn’t land you in any legal trouble. While some marketing techniques are considered HIPAA compliant, others can violate federal law and expose you to penalties, including civil lawsuits or breach of contract claims.
Here are the Top HIPAA compliant Dental Marketing tips for 2022, which you need to consider before getting started on this subject.
Emphasize building trust with patients
Patient data is sensitive, but one cannot avoid digital marketing completely because then how will they know about your dental practice? The idea is not to use their private data without their consent but to use it in a way that will help them know more about your practice, services, operations, etc.
Use necessary encryption for transferring data
You should always protect patients’ data by encrypting it during transfer between systems or people. HIPAA requires you to implement some security standards when sending sensitive information electronically. So always make sure that the cloud service provider is HIPAA compliant before you sign up on any platform for digital marketing.
Be transparent with patients
Patients are concerned about their health and wellness, which they share with their dentist, so they expect their doctor to be transparent while using their private data for marketing purposes. If your dental practice is not open with how it uses the patient data, it will not attract new patients. You should make sure that your patients know what you do with their data and how you use it to better the dental practice.
Get written consent from patients before sending marketing messages
Before getting started on digital marketing for promoting your dental services, ensure that you get written permission or consent from your patients to send them commercial communication related to your dental practice. HIPAA also requires written authorization before using someone’s private information for any advertising purpose.
Send direct marketing messages only when necessary You can send commercial, promotional communications to promote your dental services in limited circumstances, including in case of a medical emergency or if the patient has given prior consent. In most cases, you need to make sure that communication is necessary. So before sending out any promotional emails or text messages, make sure that you have a very compelling reason for doing so.
Don’t use Spamming Technique
Don’t ever use the spamming technique for marketing purposes. When it comes to digital marketing, including email and text message-based direct marketing, HIPAA requires you to maintain a very high standard of security and privacy – one that doesn’t involve spamming your patient’s contact information. You should never send unsolicited commercial communication because you have their contact details in your records. Such emails are against the law as they violate anti-spam laws and HIPAA regulations.
Conclusion
Digital Marketing is a great way of promoting your dental business online, and it’s not just restricted to the dental industry. But you need to make sure that your patients’ data is properly secured and they know how you market their private records for promoting your business. So if you are planning to get started on this marketing technique, make sure that you follow these HIPAA compliant Dental Marketing tips.