The healthcare industry is constantly evolving, largely due to massive advancements in technology. More healthcare businesses are focused on encouraging wellness and patient-centredness, using technology to reduce medical errors, and coordinating care among healthcare providers.
To be sustainable, healthcare businesses must engage meaningfully with their audience. Healthcare marketing develops your relationship with potential patients and encourages new patients to come to you. Even if your current patients are loyal, their situations change, and you’ll have fewer over time. Making use of strategic healthcare marketing ensures you bring in new patients.
Read more to learn why marketing is important in healthcare and get some healthcare marketing tips to help you grow your business.
Why Healthcare Marketing is Important
Healthcare marketing is the process through which you connect with potential patients through strategic communications strategies. Strategic healthcare marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant content and healthcare resources to patients, wherever they are on the patient care continuum. The goal of marketing in healthcare is to meet customers at the right time with the right message or service.
The focus on patient-centredness is vital as many patients seek to take control over their healthcare journey and understand how their healthcare works. Healthcare marketing should focus on empowering your patients and providing them with useful information that engages them as they research.
Keep in mind that according to reports, around 88% of patients searching for information about health start with Internet searches, and 48% of patients take more than two weeks to research issues before booking an appointment.
The healthcare industry is competitive, and it can be challenging to differentiate yourself from other providers. Patients will turn to providers they like, know, and trust. You establish that foundation through effective healthcare marketing.
Strategic Healthcare Marketing Tips
Marketers at large healthcare providers follow some consistent marketing strategies to put their messaging front-and-center when patients and customers begin their healthcare research. While your local healthcare service may not have an entire marketing department, there are some easy tips to put you on par with larger competitors.
Build a patient-centred website
A patient-centered website focuses on your patients and their needs. It explains what services you provide, where you are located, who your service providers are, and what type of patients you help.
Your site should answer your patients’ most commonly asked questions and show examples of how you help people in similar circumstances. Your administration team can likely help you understand and document what the most common questions are. Building out a site with FAQs provides a way for your customers to find answers without contacting your office, which can also reduce call times and office overload.
Your site should include a patient portal, where patients can easily book appoints and get important information.
Finally, use search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure patients can easily find you when they search online for specific healthcare services near them.
Build your Google My Business listing & encourage reviews
Healthcare marketing involves appealing to a local client base, mainly because clients won’t travel farther than necessary for healthcare. Google My Business gives you a free listing to manage your online presence.
Choose as specific healthcare category for your business and include your name, location, and what you do in the first sentence of your description. Update your office hours and always be sure to update your contact information if you move offices or change numbers.
Once your Google Business profile is setup, find ways for your satisfied patients to provide reviews of your care and services. Business that include customer reviews will be prioritized when customers search for relevant services, so consider providing patients with incentives and prompts to provide a review after every visit.
Share great content
The best way to attract and engage patients is to provide useful, relevant, and timely content. Answer your patients’ questions and give them information that helps them in their healthcare journey.
Your healthcare content could be information on changing medical technology, tips on managing certain conditions, or sharing resources that will help them. Take the time to make sure your content is clear, well-written, understandable, and valuable.
See how your local competitors are building content and try to improve the experience on your own site to outperform them in search engines.
Benefits of Healthcare Marketing
The practice of marketing is understanding what your customers need and want and delivering it to them at the moments they are making their healthcare decision. Learning about your customer needs and targeting your services around those needs will not only increase your target market, it will also refine the services you provide to improve the customer experience.
Grow your patient base
You may have loyal patients, but the number of patients will drop as their circumstances change over time. Sustainable healthcare practices have a steady stream of new clients to ensure they always have enough patients to remain profitable. Consistent, effective healthcare marketing helps you attract new patients by introducing them to your services and success stories.
Increase referrals
Word-of-mouth and referrals are a great way to bring in new patients. Having an established brand through digital content makes it easy for other physicians to refer patients to you—and helps your patients refer their friends and family. The more people who are aware of you and what you do—and who find your content relevant and informative—the easier it is to get trusted referrals.
Promote your knowledge and services
A solid healthcare marketing strategy allows you to establish your thought leadership by giving you a forum to write about healthcare issues within your speciality. This thought leadership makes you a trusted advisor, which increases the likelihood that new patients will choose you over a competitor.
Scale your reach
It used to be that patients had to talk to you directly to get information. Seeing patients every time they have a question takes up your time. By marketing your healthcare business, you can answer people’s questions without it taking up additional time. This also establishes your expertise in a specific field and allows you to connect with potential clients.
Elevate Your Healthcare Marketing
Having a strategic healthcare marketing plan connects you with patients, brings value to their journey, and encourages them to come to you when they have healthcare issues. That, in turn, ensures you have a steady stream of new clients, which allows your business to be sustainable.
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This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or an opinion on any issue. It should not be regarded as comprehensive or a substitute for professional advice.