Healthcare marketing that attracts the right patients
Why is healthcare Marketing essential?
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Patients in the healthcare industry have drastically changed the way healthcare professionals need to market their services. Today's consumers expect a healthcare experience that is as innovative and digitally advanced as any other industry.
Hospitals, medical practices, and healthcare organizations need to stay ahead in order to keep up with both competitors and patient needs. This means investing in the best technologies and resources for your healthcare marketing strategies, making your healthcare enterprise top-of-mind for patients and keeping them engaged and interested.
What is healthcare marketing?
Healthcare marketing is a process of strategic reach and communication designed to attract new healthcare consumers, guide them through their healthcare journey, and keep them engaged with the healthcare system, service, or product.
The best healthcare marketing plans integrate multi-channel, highly targeted, and specific online efforts to drive growth and engagement. All focused on market-specific key performance indicators and return on investment.
To get you started, here are our always up-to-date 7 strategies to include in any well-planned healthcare marketing plan.
1. Use consistent branding for healthcare
You can be sure that your expertise sets you apart from other healthcare providers or businesses. But let's be honest: for a healthcare consumer, one white coat looks just like another, and consumers, as we know, are not willing to buy a product or service from someone they do not know and trust.
When you build a strong and recognizable brand through healthcare marketing and promote its awareness, you go a long way toward reducing your total cost per acquisition and increasing your ROI.
First, you need to determine what your brand is about. In other words, what is unique about your healthcare business? Is it the way you treat healthcare consumers? Your beautifully decorated practice or the accessibility for people with disabilities?
There is at least one thing that makes your medical team unique, and that is what helps consumers remember the name of your healthcare organization. Visualizing the unique points that distinguish you is a great way to build trust in your healthcare enterprise, especially since you are asking consumers to trust you with their health.
It may take some time to determine what works best for your brand. But ultimately, a solid healthcare marketing strategy with consistent branding and marketing materials will come together and represent your brand in the best possible light.
2. Build a mobile-friendly healthcare website
A responsive website automatically adjusts to the size of a screen, so the experience is the same whether the site is accessed from a computer, tablet, phone, or any other mobile device.
It is the standard in website design today, but more than that, it is something that search engines like Google look for when crawling a medical website to determine how and where you will rank.
Google cares about the user experience. Since September 2020, Google has committed to a mobile-first index of all websites, including healthcare websites. This means that responsive sites are ranked higher than non-responsive sites. However, even if your site is responsive, it is important to confirm that your content and images are loading correctly (and quickly) on all types of mobile devices.
3. Optimize for organic search results for potential healthcare consumers (SEO)
Search engine optimization is a powerful tool to get your medical practices to the top of search engines. However, it is much more complex than most people realize.
You can't just use the term 'orthopedic surgeon' 100 times on your website and hope to rank number 1 on Google among all the doctors, therapists, and surgeons providing healthcare in your area.
SEO involves using the right optimal phrases and keywords so that Google can understand your healthcare organization's websites. By focusing on organic SEO tactics, you can rank for the correct, relevant, and healthcare-related search terms (e.g., medical conditions, treatment by any type of healthcare professional). However, you also need to use these terms naturally in your content, as Google prioritizes readability.
This is just the beginning of best practices for healthcare SEO marketing, which also include:
- Developing landing pages full of high-quality information and optimized with your keywords.
- Having internal links that reference relevant pages on your website.
- Obtaining external backlinks from reputable health sites.
- Managing your site index or sitemap (making it easy for search engines to read and rank).
- Claiming your healthcare website on Google Business Profile and completing your business listing with complete, accurate information.
- Filling out every available section for each location
- Including photos and videos
- Optimizing local listings and reviews
- Posting frequently asked questions in the Q&A section
- Optimizing your site with local SEO tactics (increasing your chances of appearing in the Google Local Pack).
- Submitting your website to Google.
4. Marketing automation will become more prominent
In general, the healthcare industry lags far behind other industries when it comes to marketing automation, missing out on opportunities for patient engagement and becoming proactive partners in healthcare. Nowadays, many digital marketing and communication processes can be automated. Marketing software allows processes such as follow-up emails, digital ads, and social media posts to be programmed in advance, saving valuable time and effort.
The simplest automation you can use is sending automated emails with appointment reminders or health protocols. In the coming year, we will see more advanced use in healthcare. Email marketing will be used more to nurture potential patients, reminding them of additional service lines and providing valuable content, as well as reminding patients with an additional insurance package not to forget their 'unused treatments' and to make use of them if needed.
5. Online patient reviews will be more important than ever
Whether you like it or not, patients will leave online reviews of your healthcare enterprise. And whether you like it or not, it is in your best interest to encourage patients to leave these reviews.
Online reviews are already heavily prioritized by search engines like Google. It is often the first thing people look for when searching for a new healthcare provider, and if they can't find reviews, they may simply look elsewhere. Even worse, they may only find a negative review of your brand.
Studies show that people trust online reviews almost as much as a recommendation from a friend. And while you can't eliminate every negative review that exists, you can offset them with multiple positive reviews.
6. Use PPC and display ads for healthcare marketing
Paid search ads appear first in search results.
Search engine optimization is an organic marketing strategy used to gain greater online visibility for a healthcare institution.
But even if your site ranks organically at number one through Fysiotherapie Marketing, for a search term like 'physiotherapy in Dubai,' there are still 3 or 4 paid ads above your organic web page that people will see first.
PPC (pay-per-click) or paid search ads are laser-targeted to appear first on the search engine results page (SERP) for a range of search terms. You can manage your budget with paid search and decide how much you want to spend to keep your site at the top of the SERPs. Your return on investment is clear and defined with both PPC and display ads appearing in the sidebar or on top of other websites.
7. Test website speed
Healthcare marketers studying user behavior (future healthcare consumers) have shown that consumers are less willing to tolerate slow loading times than ever before. It only takes 5 seconds to lose a potential consumer.
Furthermore, poor site speed can prevent your medical or healthcare website from appearing in search engine results. You can test your site's speed using Google's PageSpeed Insights. If the loading times are slow, contact our website development team to see what options are available to speed it up. I also recommend checking the site speeds of your direct and indirect competitors to see how your site is performing.
Do you want to brainstorm with a professional? Let us know if you are interested.
