10 Innovative Healthcare Marketing Ideas
The Healthcare industry is making numerous advances every day, which is excellent news in testing times like now when the world is trying to get over the havoc wrecked by the pandemic.
However, there needs to be more information available to the common people about the advancements in healthcare. The reason is that healthcare companies and providers should market their findings better. One possible reason for that is the lack of awareness on how to market healthcare practices, advancements, and innovations.
One might wonder if healthcare marketing differs from regular marketing, and the answer is Yes! The reason for that is simple, healthcare as an industry has a lot of norms, restrictions, and guidelines to follow. This means the marketing techniques need to consider HIPPA and other complaints that must be followed while marketing their service offerings.
Why is Healthcare Marketing Important?
A recent study found that healthcare spending globally in the year 2022 would be over $10 trillion. All this stems from the fact that there is a growing population of senior citizens, numerous chronic diseases, increased access to better healthcare services for all, and most of all, a lot of investment is going into the advancement of healthcare technologies.
With numerous healthcare organisations cropping up and no single place in the world-dominating healthcare tourism, healthcare marketing is now more critical than ever. Investing in healthcare marketing campaigns not just increases the possibility of getting quality leads but also increases the patient retention rate and, thereby, the hospital’s revenue.
The needs of the patients are constantly changing, meaning a person who visits a hospital today for a headache might not be looking for a specialist again. The next time they need healthcare service, it could be for a different problem. When hospitals invest in marketing their service offerings, they reach out to their existing patients with their extended and new service offerings.
Apart from that, they can also tap into a whole new customer base by exploring newer marketing avenues. Investing in healthcare marketing also ensures that the patients get credible information from reliable sources and form strong associations with the brand providing them.
The Ultimate Checklist for Healthcare Marketing
So, what are the innovative ways to reach out to healthcare customers? Is there a checklist for healthcare marketing? Read on to find out!
1. Embrace SEO Best Practices
Your hospital’s website is the first touch point for your customer. This means they interact and engage with your business before entering the hospital. So, your patients must find you easily on the internet. You must expect them to avoid going to the third page of Google to find your website.
So, ensure your page is well-optimised with all the relevant keywords and has organic quality content on the various service offerings, specialties, etc. You can also use the data from your Google Analytics to do a patient journey mapping on your website to identify and address any bottlenecks they might face on the site. This step would significantly reduce your bounce rate and further boost your SEO.
2. Invest In Paid Ads
Paid ads are one of the best ways to create visibility as they push your profile/information above the others. Be it your social media handles or your web page, paid ads always help in increasing traffic.
It will help increase the visibility of your brand. Sometimes it is better to target paid ads at your relevant target audience; this helps significantly in increasing conversion.
3. Create Videos That Engage Users
According to a Cisco report, over 82 percent of internet traffic comes from videos. This means that the audience worldwide is looking for entertainment and solutions in the video. So, make sure your brand messages are available in that format too. You can create educative videos about various healthcare concerns, personalise your messaging for the target audience, engage them in Q&A, and make the videos as interactive as possible.
Most healthcare providers do not venture into video marketing. This is probably because they need to figure out how to create a video without a massive budget regarding production materials and resources. However, it is easier than you think.
All you need to do is shoot a series of videos with your healthcare professionals on various topics and upload them to the web-based video editing tool, where you can make a video online and apply some smart edits to your videos. Also, this tool comes with pre-built video templates and some excellent features that let you seamlessly repurpose your videos for various platforms. You can use the same videos on your YouTube, website, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts to reach out to more patients without additional effort.
4. Tap Into The Power of Messaging Apps
Digitisation plays a pivotal role in our day-to-day activities. Thus, staying relevant and connected to the target audience is extremely important. Staying connected can be done by increasing the touchpoints.
You can use messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, etc. This is where AI assistants, appointment bookings, report delivery, and follow-ups can be automated.
5. Email Marketing Has The Best ROI
Email marketing never goes out of style. A recent study found that marketers see a $36 ROI for every $1 they spend on email marketing. Thus, healthcare marketers need to tap into this avenue of promoting their service offerings too.
With almost every adult digitally connected and possessing a smartphone, you can personalise your message to the patients, offer special coupon codes for consultations, discount codes for lab tests, and premium membership offers through email marketing.
6. Use Instagram To Engage Users
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 1.3 billion users worldwide. With Live, Reels, and static posts being the numerous options that brands can experiment with, healthcare marketers have a lot of scopes to reach out to newer audiences while engaging their current patients.
For instance, Instagram lives is a great place to engage people by promoting two-way communication and encouraging the audience to ask questions. You can have regular chat sessions with experts where your viewers can have their doubts answered Live. Besides that, your static posts could be a place to run contests, quizzes, and so on! Throw in a few goodies and watch your viewership and follower count increase steadily.
7. Reviews and Testimonials Help Build Trust
People often need help deciding about buying a product mainly because they need help finding the information they can trust. This can be eliminated by increasing online reviews for your product. To make it credible and believable, subject matter experts can also be asked to give their thoughts.
8. Open House To Engage The Community
Corporations are now aimed at increasing transparency between them and the consumers. Healthcare providers now aspire to narrow the gap between them and their consumers. This can be done by organising open house sessions in companies as a part of their employee wellness program.
This will be a space where brand representatives can connect with the consumers and explain in detail the benefit their brand offers over the others. This will help in increasing the brand visibility and help in increasing the trust of the brand.
9. Do Not Forget The Importance of Doctor Referrals
In the healthcare industry, the best ambassadors are the doctors. Healthcare brands must have a healthy relationship with doctors. Events like organising a meet and greet, getting involved with the physicians, and maintaining a healthy relationship with them.
When doctors with great reputations are associated with a hospital, it boosts the hospital’s image, and more patients are likely to join the network. Besides that, you can also use this relationship to boost your service offerings and specialisations.
10. Do Not Underestimate Traditional Marketing
Some things never go out of fashion. Traditional marketing techniques like handing out pamphlets, putting up a stall, and giving samples to people will always help the brands to reach their audience, who are at the grassroots.
Conclusion
In healthcare, a customer (patient) pays money to gain access to the healthcare provider’s time through tests, scans, diagnoses, etc. This differs from how they engage with other industries, products, and services.
For instance, when you spend money on a product like a mobile phone, you can take home a phone. Whereas, in the case of healthcare, your money is spent on the expertise and time of the healthcare provider. Keep the above-mentioned ideas in mind in order to market your healthcare offerings seamlessly.