According to studies, 72% of internet users search for information related to health issues or medical procedures, 40% search for physicians, and 40% search for information about clinics. The healthcare industry is going through a massive shift to convey its value and build trust effectively. When it comes to spreading messages about the products and services they offer, healthcare companies lag behind for reasons like – inappropriate targeting, non-personalised communication, lack of strategy, etc. The only way to improve patient perception and stay afloat is by investing in digital marketing in healthcare.
In this post, we’ve compiled the best digital marketing strategies for healthcare to raise awareness and bring in leads.
What Is Healthcare Digital Marketing?
Healthcare digital marketing is the process of promoting healthcare services to a specific segment of the audience. It involves finding customers through digital channels like search engine marketing, social media marketing, paid advertising, email marketing and more. It improves the course of communication between the patient and the healthcare centre. From hospitals to clinics, retail pharmacies, diagnostic centres and ambulance services – one can rely on digital marketing in healthcare to promote their brand.
Why You Should Invest in Healthcare Digital Marketing?
- Reach wider audience
Digital marketing in healthcare enables practicians to target the right audience by a specific age, condition, gender, demographic, and even location. You can use highly targeted keywords to reach a wider audience looking for specific healthcare centres or treatments in their locality. Optimising the targeting conditions in real-time can cost-effectively reach the audience.
- Strengthen patient relationships
By leveraging digital marketing in healthcare, you can engage and connect with your patients directly. Nearly 70% of calls from patients are driven by online search, which means consumers expect seamless access, convenience, and functionality. For instance, Click-To-Call (CTC) lets the visitor make calls by clicking a phone number on the website/landing page rather than dialing the phone number.
- Reduce cost per acquisition
With digital marketing for healthcare, you can acquire new clients at a very cost-effective price. You can reduce the total spend on your healthcare marketing by investing in digital channels like – Facebook, Google Ads, Display Advertising, etc. You can target the right kind of audience with the help of paid marketing, which means your advertising budget is not wasted on unqualified or low-score leads. According to a survey, healthcare centres in the US spend nearly $314 per patient on TV and print ads. You can also access several healthcare marketing tools that scale your campaign and drive high-quality leads.
- Improve patient retention
Digital marketing in healthcare makes it easier for patients to find and connect with your healthcare centre and improves their experience in the long run. You can directly address their needs by posting informative and engaging posts on your website. Besides, digital marketing solicits your patient’s feedback through polls, surveys, feedback forms, and more. By cultivating an innovative digital marketing strategy for healthcare, your patients will be able to feel your lasting presence – which matters a lot in patient retention.
Top 10 Digital Marketing Strategies in Healthcare
1. Design a Responsive Website
The journey of healthcare prospects begins with a responsive website. Establishing an active web presence adds fuel to the growth of your healthcare centre by building an easy-to-navigate website. When it comes to search engine ranking, user-friendliness is of utmost priority. If your users have trouble viewing the website on mobile or tablets, they will likely move to the following listing on SERPs.
A responsive website adapts to the screen size of the device being used. The content will resize based on the device for easy readability and navigation. A responsive website would make the content, forms, buttons, and links appear much cleaner. Also, you can modify a responsive website in simple steps.
2. Develop an SEO Strategy to Drive Organic Traffic
Did you know – one out of 20 searches on Google are related to healthcare, medical conditions, treatments, and wellness tips? With nearly 70% of health-related searches clicking on the results on the first page, you have higher chances of boosting your brand awareness by bringing your website on top of SERPs and driving organic traffic and referrals to your website.
With the right SEO strategy for healthcare, you can also improve your patient’s user experience. Here are some considerations to improve your website’s SEO –
- On-page SEO – Focus on the on-page SEO of your website by using the right keywords, as they play a significant role in driving the right traffic to your website. Some of the high search volume keywords in healthcare are – hospitals near me, doctors near me, walk-in clinics, medical clinics near me, and more. By infusing relevant keywords on – title tag, meta tag, meta description, alt tag, image tag, and body – your website can be crawled and indexed by Google.
- Off-Page SEO – Build high-quality backlinks to your website so that search engines consider your website as valuable information on the topic relevant to the site linking to it. Backlinks give you credibility and help drive referral traffic from high DA websites. It provides an incredible opportunity to improve relationships with your audience by standing out as an authority voice.
- Technical SEO – You must ensure your healthcare website meets the requirements of modern search engines to improve organic rankings. Some crucial technical SEO elements include crawling indexing, rendering, page speed, architecture, navigation, mobile responsiveness, and sitemap.
- Local SEO – According to sources, 57% of patients consider local search results for doctor appointment bookings. Local SEO is the key to driving more patients to your healthcare centre by improving the visibility of your website on local search results. This means you need to rank for the local audience to drive traffic to your clinic. For example, if you are a Sydney-based dental practitioner, you should appear on top of SERPs for keywords like – best dentist in Sydney, top dentists in Sydney, dentist near me, and so on.
3. Create a Fine-Tuned Content Strategy
Content marketing in healthcare helps you showcase your domain expertise and share knowledge. You can easily connect with your patients by sharing your expertise and knowledge in a specific niche.
You can curate content that addresses the queries of your audience and communicate your message via long-form content that includes forums, discussions, ebooks, educational games, trend analysis, eNewsletters, and podcasts. nd
For example, if you are a dietician – you can write blogs related to the topics like fitness regimens, health goals, wellness, and obesity that provide solutions for your readers. Make sure your content provides value to your patients rather than self-promotional. You can make it more relatable to the readers by using layman’s terms and avoiding medical jargon.
One thing to note, Google is extra critical of any health-related topics, given the potential of spreading misinformation. Known as ‘Your Money, Your Life’ (YMYL), which means Google treats any content about health and financial topics with extra importance. This means you need to ensure any of the content that you produce is backed up with the right research and ideally published by someone with the relevant industry experience i.e. doctor, or psychologist.
4. Invest in Paid Marketing
Paid marketing, also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, is meant to drive paid traffic to your website. When you invest in PPC ads, your website or landing page is on top of organic search results. You will be charged whenever someone clicks on your advertisement.
Google Adwords offers different types of ads, such as search ads, text ads, display ads, etc. The display ads are usually displayed while browsing various websites targeted based on your past search results. Conversely, text or search ads appear on the top of organic search results in SERPs.
PPC advertising is an excellent way for healthcare centres to drive potential leads instantly. You can bid for competitive keywords and measure the performance of ads on each platform. You can optimise the keywords based on the analytics reports for better search results.
5. Bring Prospects Back to Your Website With Email Marketing
Email marketing in healthcare is another cost-effective way to stay in touch with your prospects. By sending updates on emails, you can provide a personalised experience, establish relationships, and stay on top of your patient’s minds. You can acquire new customers and engage existing ones with email marketing. You can turn your prospects into active supporters of your healthcare organisation.
Before implementing an email marketing strategy, you must segment the audience based on their demographics, interest, gender, and location. Then, send personalised emails with appealing subject lines, a call-to-action (CTA), and user-friendly signup forms.
6. Engage Your Patients With Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing allows healthcare practitioners, doctors, and clinics to target their audience on social media platforms using demographics like gender, age, location, health condition, and more. According to a report by PWC, 41% of patients say that social media engagement plays a vital role in the choice of doctor, medical facility, and hospital.
Channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Pinterest allow healthcare practitioners to connect with customers outside their appointments. Creating and posting regular content across social media pages keeps you in the mind of your audience, and they are more likely to turn to you when in need.
You can also create hashtag campaigns to create hope, warmth, and a spirit of kindness. For example, Rochester Regional Health promoted the hashtag #RRHSpreadJoy during the Covid-19 outbreak to uplift everyone’s mental well-being. As a part of their hashtag campaign on social media platforms, they collected images and videos of people to support those impacted by the pandemic.
7. Target Audience With Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is considered multi-channel marketing that has changed the way people interact with any brand. With 44% of patients scheduling an appointment from their smartphones, mobile marketing is a cost-effective way to reach those looking for healthcare services from their smartphones, tablets, and notebooks.
There is a rise in in-app marketing, mobile-based ads, text messages, and image ads. Healthcare practitioners can leverage this mobile marketing idea to target local audiences and encourage users to avail of their services quickly.
You can develop useful apps that provide interesting content and answers to questions that people want on their phones.
8. Employ Video Marketing
Video marketing in healthcare is an effective strategy to capture the target audience’s attention. According to studies, 94% of companies that use videos for marketing their services impact their audience. In healthcare, videos can create information guides, how-tos, scenes of the healthcare environment, patient stories, testimonies, and more.
Videos are incredibly credible formats to engage and enjoy. Some of the ways to leverage the power of video marketing in healthcare include –
- Create a youtube channel with different types of content like – testimonials, success stories, diagnostic procedures, etc., that help you build trust and awareness.
- Use videos on website landing pages that discuss your services, facilities, support, etc.
- Turn your informative guides, blog posts, and ebooks into videos to boost your SEO efforts.
- Embed videos in your email marketing campaigns to increase your click-through-rates
9. Try Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is growing into a massive trend for brands looking to increase the validation of their products and services. Influencers are those who have built up a community of audience based on their brand. Healthcare centres can work with relevant influencers to spread awareness and reach.
Many influencers have niche audiences that have specific conditions or are close to someone experiencing a disease or diagnosis. By collaborating with these influencers, you can educate potential patients, share new content ideas in front of a huge target audience and raise awareness.
10. Track Down the Digital Metrics and Diversify Your Strategy
Digital marketing in healthcare is a great way to boost your business but, without knowing how it is performing, you may not be able to yield desired results. To measure the ROI of your marketing efforts, you need to keep track of critical metrics such as website traffic, qualified leads, conversions, engagement, and click-through rates.
Google Analytics is an online tool that helps you keep track of these key metrics. Then, based on how your audience is interacting with your website, you can take measures to optimise the campaigns. You can track everything from competitor analysis to keyword research, social media analytics, and referral rate.
There are also programs that help you track your brand reputation, what people think about your brand, your brand mentions and more.
Healthcare Marketing Case Study Examples
Anne Arundel Medical Centre
The best case study example of digital marketing in healthcare is the contest organised by Anne Arundel Medical Center. The patients were asked to share their selfies with a moustache on Facebook. The objective of this social media campaign was to drive awareness of men’s health. The healthcare centre involved men, women, and children in this campaign to attract attention and get more likes, shares, and comments for their brand.
Dr Howard Luk’s
The YouTube Channel of Dr Howard Luk, a New York-based orthopaedic surgeon, answers the commonly asked questions and provides value to the patients. One of the videos, “why does my should snap or pop? Received more than 60,000 views and thousands of subscribers. Using video marketing in healthcare, the doctor reached a massive audience while promoting his practice.
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic leveraged the power of content marketing by featuring success stories from the clinic’s staff, patients, and their families. The blog became a central community platform for those interested in healthcare. As a result, the health centre could seal its reputation as a trusted resource in patient care and health-related information.
FAQs
- What Are the New Ways of Digital Marketing in the Healthcare Sector?
Some of the new ways of digital marketing in the healthcare sector are – Linkedin advertising, location-based advertising, cross-channel marketing, personalised ads, and TikTok advertising.
- How Do Hospitals Do Digital Marketing?
By partnering with a professional digital marketing healthcare agency, hospitals can target specific audiences based on location and boost their brand visibility.
- What Is the Purpose of Healthcare Marketing?
The main objective of healthcare marketing is to boost user experience, generate more traffic to your website, improve awareness and build trust.
About Growth Ganik
Growth Ganik is a rapidly evolving digital marketing agency in Sydney, Australia, specialising in SEO, content marketing, marketing strategy, and lead generation.
We work with clients from leading brands and industries such as B2B SaaS, nonprofits, and more to develop profitable digital marketing solutions that are data-driven to support all kinds of business goals from widening user bases, gaining more traction for online engagement, to increasing conversion and helping businesses scale up.
For creative tailor-made digital solutions and sustainable growth insights, get in touch with us!
