In a healthcare setting, effective marketing lies in establishing a personalized relationship with the consumer. The consumer, better known as a patient, relies on this relationship to guide them through their healthcare journey. This relationship is established via tactical outreach and marketing strategies that perfectly blend offline and online marketing techniques.
However, the healthcare industry is volatile and constantly changing, presenting a marketing challenge. On the plus side, the patients are now more willing to be educated and engaged than ever. It shortens the gap between the consumer and the industry.
However, with the rise in self-awareness and the need to self-educate comes the risk of the spread of misinformation. So, the healthcare industry becomes responsible for ensuring effective marketing that educates existing and new patients with verified information.
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Healthcare Marketing
Healthcare marketing is a tool employed to bridge the information gap between healthcare providers and patients, allowing them easy and reliable access to healthcare resources and communication means by using websites, social media platforms, search engine optimization, email, and more.
The marketing strategy mostly employed in the healthcare sector is customer-centric, or in this case, patient-centric. It relies on understanding the patient’s identity and needs and establishing a relationship.
However, this can prove to be quite a challenge. The healthcare industry is not just changing but also constantly expanding. It means rapidly growing competition. As the local competition expands, hospital systems also come into play, making it even harder to stand out. It is where Strategic Marketing in Healthcare will help you stand out by increasing your visibility on local marketing platforms.
Additionally, marketing can help your organization branch out and reach potential patients and, if used correctly, can help give you the thought leadership position.
Now that we have a good understanding of how healthcare marketing works and its importance let us look through the most effective healthcare marketing strategies.
1. Build a website
A healthcare institute’s website is one of the most trusted sources of information for patients and can hence prove to be the most vital healthcare marketing asset if used properly.
Create a simple website design with a focus on a friendly user experience. The website should be self-explanatory, effectively conveying who you are and what you do, and provide patients with clear details and valuable information while being accessible 24/7/365.
2. Google Business Profile and local SEO
As a marketing strategist, you aim to ensure that your local community knows your offered services. This narrows down your targeted region by a lot. About 80 percent of patients will go on google to search for healthcare services near them before booking an appointment. You need your service to show up on that google search. Patients will always prefer visiting a healthcare giver in close vicinity.
But how do you win at local SEO searches? Utilize and optimize your google business profile. A google business profile includes your business hours, location, offered services, contact information, telehealth services, and whatever else you may want to include. A winning google business profile will stand out, be resourceful, and have great reviews while painting a welcoming picture.
Your google business profile can draw in old and new patients by allowing them easy appointment methods and assistance wherever required.
3. Invest in Patient Reviews
Now that you have your google business profile up and running and have also made a presence in the local SEO, it is time to tackle the consumerism side of healthcare. Like all online purchases and services, customers or patients will decide on a service based on their reviews. Patients research before choosing, and reputation is critical in healthcare services. The stakes are high, so the scrutiny is even higher.
Invest in helpful reviews. 92.4 percent of the consumer segment consults online reviews before deciding on a service. You can start by asking your current patients for reviews. If that option does not work for you, look for methods to gain positive feedback on your services.
4. Utilizing Resources to Boost SEO
We now have a running website, a google business profile, and a patient segment with immense potential. Now is the time for the optimization of your available resources. Learn how to use keywords and content to rank up on searches effectively.
Your website must have well-structured content with sufficient content on your specialties offered. The content on offered specialties should include a detailed what, who, why, and how, as well as common FAQs. For SEO, content is a top priority.
Understand how SEO works and its dos and don’ts. These include but are not limited to:
- Your focus keyword must stand out. Keep it at the front of the title tags.
- Ensure that URLs are short. Keywords can also be included in these URLs.
Additionally, you can implement multiple features and unconventional strategies to stand out. In addition to that, be sure always to maintain brand consistency. Amongst these features are:
- Online booking and telemedicine. In the post covid world, these two services are necessary while doing business. Include your telemedicine contact details and timings on all your platforms.
- Physician listing. Physician listings will affect local SEO. Most individuals will search for nearby healthcare facilities by using different physician listings. Be sure that the physician listings you add are correlated and have the same information and contact listings.
- Keep a close eye on your analytics and optimize, improve, and change things on your marketing platforms based on the feedback received.
- Use locked brand templates to ensure brand consistency.
- Have well-organized and managed contact lists and content trackers.
- For your social media accounts, use a multiplatform dashboard to access all social media accounts collectively. It will save time and help ensure and maintain the same content on all platforms. It will also be cost-effective for platforms that provide bulk pricing for multiple accounts.
Conclusion
Healthcare is an ever-growing industry with rapid changes seen all the time. Effective healthcare marketing must be regularly reevaluated to retain regular patients. We hope these marketing trends and strategies provided valuable insights and pacified all your queries. Having a solid healthcare marketing strategy will drastically change your patient engagement.
