The digital revolution has made this an age where important information regarding healthcare is always just a click away. Customers have limitless choices which have made them very selective of their choices, making it difficult for companies to convert leads into sales. It is therefore important that organizations formulate effective digital marketing strategies to make them more discoverable and visible to online customers. This is true for business in a wide range of industries, including healthcare.
Therefore, the patient’s first contact and impression of the healthcare provider will be through the organization’s website or social medial platform. This makes online resources a vital customer engagement and retention tool for healthcare businesses. This article discusses five digital marketing strategies to ensure success in the healthcare industry.
1. Optimize Website for Searches (SEO)
The first thing most people will do when they have a health concern is to research them online. Therefore, healthcare facilities must conduct thorough search engine optimization (SEO) to increase the likelihood of patients landing on their websites for information.
Marketers in the healthcare industry can increase their visibility by creating optimized content for search engines to rank. These include patient testimonials, blog posts, informative videos and images tagged with relevant keywords to target specific users. For instance, if a patient’s symptom research lands them on your blog post discussing the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of arthritis, you will have the opportunity to convince them to book an appointment with you. A key consideration when optimizing for search engines is mobile devices. More than 50% of users carry out research online through their mobile devices, making it important to use a design that allows easy mobile navigation.
2. Create Highly Targeted Campaigns
Health is an intimate industry where a personal sense of trust plays an important role. The patients need to feel that their needs are understood before they take the initiative of making an appointment. Since the reason for seeking medical attention vary from individual to individual, the marketing team should take their time to understand the needs of their target group. A readily available tool from which to draw priceless insights on customers is the Customer Relationship Manager tool. This data can be analyzed for important customer insights that could lead to more targeted digital marketing campaigns
3. Make use of Analytics
Applying the same old ineffective marketing strategies over and over is how not to approach digital marketing. A major advantage of marketing online is the ability to store and track progress and to make adjustments as per the outcomes. Constant analysis should be made to the digital marketing campaign based on marketing analytics to ensure the best outcomes.
There is an ocean of readily available data including brand awareness data, social engagement data, blog traffic, conversion metrics and click-through rates among many more. Healthcare businesses should, however, ensure that their tracking, collection, and use of personal data is in line with existing data privacy regulations and HIPAA policies.
4. Engage Patients via Social Media
Social media has been a great tool for the improvement of facilitating the engagement of patients, support physicians and other experts. One effective social media marketing strategy is participating in online networking, community discussions and promoting general information on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
By building an emotive and trustworthy social media profile, you will be able to attract customers seeking medical advice on online discussion boards. Healthcare organizations could also make use of paid social media advertising to increase their reach. These paid campaigns should be designed based on historical data and research to ensure they reach the target group and get their attention.
5. Keep your Email Strategy Updated
Despite what some may believe, email marketing is still very much alive. If correctly executed, email marketing is a low-cost and immediate way to communicate with many targeted customers. Since most users open their emails via mobile devices, these should also be made mobile-responsive for the best outcome.
Content with a focus on education is most likely to bring positive outcomes in the healthcare industry. A facility’s client list provides a great starting point for email marketing. Follow-up emails on patients will not only improve their health outcomes but also help in their retention. When marketing through email, however, you should be careful not to intrude or spam your customers or give them inaccurate information about their conditions.
Final Thoughts
The digital revolution has contributed greatly to the growth of the healthcare industry. The application of digital marketing strategies such as SEO optimization, marketing analytics, targeted campaigns, social media and email marketing can be used to increase customer engagement, and subsequently win their loyalty.
Author Bio:
This article was written by Conor O’Flynn of O’Flynn Medical. Conor has worked as a sales and marketing manager in the healthcare industry for over two decades and knows the importance of embracing digital marketing for success.
