The private healthcare industry is an extremely competitive marketplace. This business is sensitive, both in nature and in marketing. Mistakes can cost lives, bad advice can cost huge losses, and poor marketing can cause bankruptcy.
A healthcare company?s purpose is to attract and treat its patients. Patients are often feeling confused, angry, scared, and vulnerable. Therefore, a health company must always try to create rapport by putting itself in the patient?s shoes. And not in every patient?s shoes, but only in the ones that represent the ideal target personas for the company.
Nevertheless, in this industry, your target audience is quite broad regardless of how many specializations and services you offer. And since there are so many people who consult websites before making healthcare decisions, it?s key for you to understand where and how to reach those people.
In today?s post, we?ll explore several aspects that you need to know to skyrocket the results of your digital marketing campaigns as a healthcare company. Tips, tricks, strategies ? you bet!
Build a Simple & Useful Website
In the healthcare industry, a brand?s website represents the first impression or the welcome gate to your organization. When a person?s looking for medical help online, your website?s quality and relevancy will influence whether that prospective patient will choose you or your biggest competitor.
You’ll need to focus on UX (user experience) and simplistic design. Patients need to easily navigate through the pages and find exactly what they?re looking for (services, contact information, hour, location, medical information, etc).
Your site should be a very short bridge between the patient (or a patient?s relative or friend) and the services you offer. Keep it simple, give your patients all the necessary buttons (more info, prices, contact here) or you?ll lose them before they get to you.
Create and Sustain a Valuable Blog
If you want to take your healthcare organization to the next level, you?ll need to get familiar with content marketing. Content is king, especially in the health sector, an industry that is constantly looking for fresh advice, solutions, and help.
One of the best ways to improve your brand?s awareness and reputation over time is to develop an informational blog on your site. Here are the benefits and applications of a healthcare blog:
- Improves your site?s SEO, bring more clients, improve your brand?s awareness through organic exposure
- Improves your credibility, authority, and reputation as a healthcare organization
- Improves people?s lives, as great information can often save or improve the condition of the patients.
The most common types of content in the healthcare industry are industry news, educational topics (how-to?s / what is / how to protect yourself from), inspirational stories from other patients, resources list, and product recommendations.
Develop an Email Marketing Campaign
In the healthcare industry, intrusive marketing is not the right way to go. Advertisers and marketers who almost force prospective patients to come and test their services are risking their resources big time, mainly because patients don?t respond very well to pressure and force.
Instead of forcing them, develop a genuine relationship with them. What do patients want from you? It?s simple: valuable information that has practical value.
If you start an email marketing campaign ? a monthly, weekly, or daily ? educational newsletter, your patients won?t have to search for the right information because they?ll receive it in their inbox.
Here?s the key:
You can?t send the same emails to everyone because each patient has different problems. For that reason, you should study email segmentation and slowly apply it to your email campaign. Basically, you?ll need to create an automated system that shares various information to different people, all based on their problems and needs.
Hard, but totally worth it!
Publish Inspirational, Motivational, and Educational Videos
Another great way to improve your digital marketing performance in the healthcare industry is to shorten the bridge between you and your patients even more.
People are emotional and social beings. Video is extremely popular at the moment. What can you draw from these statements? Here?s what I?m pointing to:
You should publish educational videos in which one or more healthcare professionals are carefully presenting information and educating the audience.
Live videos on social media channels are great opportunities to reach a wide audience and make yourself known. Live videos will also improve your authority as you?ll be a healthcare brand that doesn?t shy away from interacting with its patients on a personal and direct level.
Make SEO Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy
SEO is crucial if you want to stand out from the crowd. There are two SEO aspects you need to focus on: local pack and organic search. The first mentioned is the 4-5 Google business listings that appear in front of the organic results. These are critical for every healthcare business who works locally.
Google My Business page holds the information you must edit and optimize in order to rank well in the SERPs. Here?s what you should look after:
- Business categories ? be very specific.
- Phone number
- Business description ? specific and relevant
- Hours of operation
- Address
- Reviews
Concerning the organic rankings, here are some tips that should improve your SEO game:
- Optimize your site for SEO (ON-Page optimization) but focus on Off-Site SEO too. That means you shouldn?t be just improving your webpage but you should be focusing on building organic and natural backlinks.
- Write amazing, long-form content that is directly addressed to your patients, helping them solve their problems and biggest needs.
- Do proper keyword research ? the more relevant keywords you use the better you?ll do in time.
Develop a Strong Social Media Presence
Neglecting social channels would be foolishness, no matter what type of health business you run. Patients are spending time on social media channels too, so there?s no excuse for you not to get in the game.
Developing a solid healthcare social media strategy is the first step. You?ll need to decide the goals of your campaign (brand awareness, clients, reputation, etc.), define the ways you?ll reach them (influencer marketing, paid ads, roundup posts, etc.), and then you?ll need to take real action. Here?s an amazing social media guide that fits the healthcare industry perfectly.
Takeaways
One thing is certain: everything changes and nothing good lasts forever. That means you should constantly stay up to speed with the latest market trends and technology breakthroughs and adapt as the marketplace shifts its direction.
Nowadays, the private healthcare industry is one of the most challenging yet most rewarding market environment. Learn how to do better marketing and you?ll get to treat more people and expand your brand?s reach in no time!