Healthcare Marketing Tips
If we’re convinced of anything, it would be that healthcare marketing is constantly changing. Who could have predicted the COVID-19 epidemic or 3D element printing in space? Both happened, when organ printing became TBD, contagious things changed significantly.
The good news is that most Americans view the post-epidemic health sector very positively. This is another point: health consumers are more square in the driving seat than ever before. Some call this trend “consumption of health”, which is an updated option for health consumers to seek health solutions and urgent care Placentia on their terms.
10 Healthcare marketing tips
1. The Consumerization of Healthcare
We mentioned in our introduction that more and more health consumers are looking for solutions based on their conditions. Why wait in line to get the COVID-19 test, for example, if I can do it at home? When I send a direct message through the patient portal, why bother calling my doctor with a question? According to PwC’s research, 77% of physicians report that “new, unconventional care sites” lead to acceptable patient outcomes.
How to adapt to healthcare consumption
As mentioned, you will want to follow new technologies that can help those who enjoy patient portals or on-demand telehealth. Consider how your digital marketing efforts can add value to the patient experience.
2. TeleHealth as part of the permanent mix?
Since the jury is not yet in telehealth, we have added the question mark for a reason. At the height of the epidemic (in the United States, at least), telehealth was widely used for obvious reasons. Some of us have been discussing the future of telehealth for a long time. Although national telehealth usage is declining, many consumers are accepting telehealth and choosing providers that offer that facility.
Although demand has declined, it has not gone away. The majority of Americans in the Sykes 2021 TeleHealth Survey have enjoyed telehealth, and they want even more. 88% want to continue using telehealth services for urgent consultations. Research and markets report that the global telehealth market is growing at 21.4% CAGR and is expected to reach USD 167B by 2025.
Healthcare respects consumer convenience and allows TeleHealth to provide quality care in their homes.
3. Social Proof is Serious Digital Currency
There was a time to ask the doctor’s recommendations to a family member or friend. But as more and more people go online to find what they need, the social resource is changing oral recommendations. Instead of asking Mom or Uncle Joe, consumers are looking for digital reviews, testimonials, and signals that your brand and your suppliers can trust.
How Healthcare Marketers Use Social Resource
Like TeleHealth, we tend to focus on the importance of social resources – we have known the value of social resources for many years. The key is how leading healthcare vendors expand, innovate and use their community resources. When case studies and evidence are essential, ask yourself how you can take your social evidence further.
4. Patients need help throughout the funnel
2021 “We need a bunch of top-of-funnel blog posts and ebooks”. To move forward, it is not enough to be at the bottom of the funnel or just focus on capturing an existing need.
Healthcare organizations need to develop a more holistic strategy to build awareness across the funnel.
Why? Because healthcare trips are not always straightforward. Think of someone willing to deal with an ongoing problem, but no one knows who you are or what your specific healthcare needs are. Most importantly, think about where they are engaging you online. It could be a Google search or when scrolling on social media. They can go directly to your website.
The important thing is that you will need an in-depth list of marketing products mapped to the entire funnel from initial concept to “ready to buy”. Educating and informing prospective patients — revealing to them something they have not yet considered about their health care decision — whenever and wherever the opportunity arises.
5. Customization will be the gold standard
Thinking back to our recent post about personalization, How to Use Marketing Personalization While Protecting Patient Privacy, one stat sticks out: according to a Salesforce report, 92 percent of marketers believe their customers and prospects expect personalized experiences (up from 85 percent in 2020).
Two Tips to Customize Healthcare Marketing
Launch and upgrade your patient portals and/or mobile applications. Creating an email list based on protected personal health information is one thing. Once a person logs into a portal or mobile app, your options will expand considerably.
Within those interfaces, you can display conditional or therapeutic content or suggest specific services or appointments. You can provide patient information and direct access to physicians. This should be part of the reason why more patients are using patient portals than ever before.
Let patients choose their journey. You do not need personal health information to customize content trips to the liking of specific patients. For example, if you know that one of your web pages receives organic search traffic for the keyword “breast augmentation in San Diego”, you can design it to suit that particular journey.
6. Ignore the Internet and digital user experience (UX) at your own risk
One of the most common mistakes made by healthcare companies is to create entirely informative or photo websites. You can see that even the big names in healthcare stand behind generic websites. Healthcare companies now understand that this is a significant mistake, As a testament to the customer presence, we request that their websites be redone.
Google understands that too, which is proof of their latest page experience update.
By 2022, healthcare companies no longer need to believe that their website is the digital face of their company. Instead, they should promise to restore their bases through the lens of the patient’s need.
Like the North Star of your patients’ needs, you will have a clear idea of how to design and implement your website:
- Site structure and navigation
- Messaging, content, and design
- Ease of use across devices
- Editorial calendar for marketing content
- 24/7 engagement tools (chatbots, text, email support, and so on)
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Accessibility
7. There are gains through Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
The information in # 6 (Web Design and UX) is directly linked to the CRO. As healthcare is more interested in digital, they will want to invest more in CRO. This digital marketing ethic allows healthcare companies to get the most out of marketing investment and endeavors. It also helps them customize the UX to meet patients’ needs.
Overview and Benefits of the Healthcare CRO
What you do not know is that even a small change in your conversion rate can translate into more (or less) millions in revenue. The CRO is this: Tinkering with various aspects of the marketing funnel to improve conversion rates (more scientifically, we can add).
8. SEO, But Evolved
In line with the broader consumption of healthcare, healthcare consumers are shifting SEO. During COVID-19 epidemics, even digital novices had to take medical care into their own hands, often using technology. They had to be prepared for self-discovery due to a lack of facilities.
Simply put: they turned to Google to find providers, solutions, answers, and updates. They asked Sree the answer. Searched nearby providers on Google Map. They were forced to change and modify search engine algorithms. So, where does that leave health vendors?
Where healthcare marketers can do a lot
There is no magic bullet: to prepare for the future of healthcare SEO; Your strategy should be comprehensive. In our view, it would be wise for you to pay special attention to:
- Official, high-value content
- Fast, user-friendly web pages
- Semantic and Conversational Search Best Practices
- Company-based keyword strategies
9. Marketing Tech Will Be Better Than Ever
Of course, technology supports and implements all the trends listed here. Despite budget cuts related to COVID-19, companies are still increasing spending on marketing technology. This trend is somewhat affected by the influx of private equity investment in healthcare, which we first saw.
What Healthcare Marketers Can Do
When offered, most health marketing teams are at least open to trying out new technologies. The question is, where and how should that cost be driven? No Magic Bullet: To prepare for the future of healthcare SEO, your strategy must be comprehensive. In our view, it would be wise for you to pay special attention to:
Patient Access: This umbrella includes telehealth, patient portal, chatbots — any technology that enhances patient care, information, and access to the people they need.
Call Tracking: Dynamic call tracking solutions to help marketers find the source of a call for a keyword, campaign, landing page, direct mail piece, email, etc. These solutions can provide you with instant feedback within digital marketing campaigns to make real-time changes.
Marketing Attribute: Marketing attribute is a hot topic in healthcare. New attribute tools, such as Ruler Analytics, Funnel, and Branch, can track every channel that has impacted a patient’s journey from awareness to action.
10. New Data Restrictions Make it More Difficult to Reach Patients
You are already familiar with the HIPAA privacy rule that protects private health information (PHI). As a marketer, you may or may not have fought against Public Data Protection Regulatory (GDPR) compliance. Moving forward, all health marketers must abide by these rules to avoid any problems.
Beyond these major data restrictions, there is something to be said for changes in privacy and digital targeting. Browser cookies are a thing of the past. With the release of iOS 14, Apple has made major changes in user privacy and data usage. That means your ability to reach patients has changed.
How to Ensure Customer Privacy is Protected
In many ways, massive changes in user privacy rules and procedures are still being felt in the health sector. Regardless, data collaboration should be approached with caution and cyber security risks should be part of any discussion involving technical integration.
- Understand the rules and regulations
- Conduct a full audit to expose the risks
- Invest in cyber security and data platforms
- Develop a robust data privacy onboarding plan
FAQs
What is a healthcare marketing plan?
The Healthcare Marketing Plan is a comprehensive strategic document that aims to facilitate specific health business objectives, work and goals over a period of time (usually a fiscal year).
What are the future trends of marketing?
Digital marketing has become an integral part of modern consumerism. Providing more realistic content, improving chats and voice search, making more use of social media marketing and creating an impressive user experience are key trends to know.
What is healthcare marketing and what is its role in today's healthcare industry?
Healthcare marketing is a process of strategic reach and communication designed to attract health consumers, guide them through their health journey and engage them in the healthcare system.
