Digital marketing for healthcare providers like Doctors, Dentists, PhysioTherapists, Chiropractors and others with the opportunity to showcase their service to the digital world, beyond the towns an cities where they operate.
Considering innovations during the recent Covid-19 pandemic and advances in Augmented and Virtual Reality which may soon allow you to see and serve patients very effectively beyind the restrictions of physical presence, its clear why digital marketing for healthcare providers are becoming ever more important.
Digital marketing gives healthcare professionals the opportunity to show off their skills to potential clients, expand their professional networks, and enhance their professional reputations.
It is impossible to overestimate the value of digital marketing in the provision of healthcare services. If you haven’t started using this strategy yet, now might be a good time to start. For us as a digital marketing agency, Digital marketing for healthcare practitioners has become one of the in demand services during the recent pandemic and we see this trend continuing.
This article explains the advantages of using digital marketing to promote healthcare services, as well as the best approaches to take.
Should you or your team be more interested in understanding how to manage your own digital marketing, you may find some of our digital marketing short courses useful. These are delivered by the same team who implement campaigns for our clients, so you benefit from our experience. All course are accredited by GEBS
Why Digital Marketing for Health Providers?
Clinics can benefit from a variety of digital marketing strategies. Let’s take a closer look at why this is the case:
- Prospective patients spend a lot of time on the internet, so meet customers or patients where they are.
Everyone, including potential clients, are now immersed in the digital age. Even so, statistics show that the majority of successful healthcare transactions began on the internet. A bigger portion of the South African population uses the internet to research health-related topics.
2. There has been an increase in the use of smartphones and other mobile devices.
A growing number of people, including millennials, are now relying on their mobile devices to get information. Everything from the latest football score to the newest supplement on the market is available. Digital healthcare marketing may see a resurgence if it takes advantage of this up-and-coming trend.
3. Everything can be analysed using digital metrics.
If you want to run a successful campaign in the long run, you need to use digital metrics that can track any information, trend, or event.
Everything is tracked by digital metrics.
4. Email marketing saves time and money.
Email marketing is a powerful tool for hospitals when it comes to communicating with their patients.
5. Targeting specific subgroups of the population
Hospitals can use digital marketing to target specific geographic areas, suburbs, and healthcare territories, making it easier for them to reach out to their target audience..
6. Reputation is important to the majority of potential patients.
Professionalism, reputation, and dependability can all be displayed through the use of digital tools in the healthcare industry.
Patients research a company’s reputation before making a purchase decision.
6. Educated audiences are the norm in the paid healthcare environment.
It has been found that over 75% of people who search for information on health-related issues are college educated.
50 percent of them use the internet to learn more about a specific doctor.
Digital marketing for healthcare providers changes often
A growing number of people are using digital marketing in the healthcare industry to find the right hospital or doctor.
Marketing in hospitals has never been easier or more flexible than it is today, thanks to digital tactics.
Digital marketing for healthcare providers has a number of advantages.
To attract new patients, digital marketing can be both profitable and cost-effective for the healthcare industry.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important benefits.
CPA (Cost-Per-Inquiry) (CPA)
If you’re trying to cut costs, consider using digital marketing to find new customers. In a survey by a vein practise in the United States, medical centres spend more than $314 and $348 per patient, respectively, on print and television advertising. Considering what they’ll spend on a digital marketing campaign, this is a significant sum of money! (over 50 percent slash in ad spend)
The use of specific geographic data to guide advertising
A variety of demographic information, such as age, gender, and geographic location, can be incorporated into digital marketing campaigns for healthcare facilities. Patients will have an easier time connecting with providers because of this, and providers will be able to provide a more tailored service.
Making decisions based on information rather than intuition
With traditional marketing, it can be difficult to find a patient’s information, but with digital marketing, it’s a piece of cake. It’s also easier to make a well-informed choice with the help of digital marketing.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
An estimated one-in-twenty Google searches pertain to health and wellness, including information on disease symptoms and dietary recommendations.
I’ve got good news for you. Your chances of being found on the first page of Google can be improved through the use of digital marketing and search engine optimisation. We discuss our services as SEO agency for healthcare providers more specifically in another post.
Increased use of patient referrals
Several professional tools and software are at your disposal with digital marketing to help you scale your campaign and generate high-quality leads for your healthcare service.
Strategies And Best Practices For Healthcare Digital Marketing
People are increasingly turning to the internet to find a specialist they can consult at their convenience via digital marketing.
More than 75% of those polled by McKinsey said they prefer online consultations with their specialists.
After that, let’s go over some of the most effective tactics and techniques.
Best practises and strategies for healthcare marketing on the internet
Use a Local SEO strategy
There is a strong relationship between search engine optimisation and user experience. A well-executed local SEO strategy can help a healthcare business grow.
Some of the features that make a website stand out are responsive design, fast loading times, mobile and voice search optimisation, simple navigation, and high-quality content.
When it comes to online visibility, search engine optimisation (SEO) is a key component. Your website’s visibility and user experience can be improved as well as your brand’s visibility by working with an SEO agency.
Take a look at these stats about the importance of SEO for healthcare providers.
Google, Bing, and other top search engines are used by 77% of people who search online for health issues.
Calls to medical centres are more likely to be answered by people looking for a therapist, optometrist, or nursing home.
More than 70% of people who search for health-related information on the internet do not go past the first page.
Nearly half of all internet users want to learn more about a doctor or a medical facility.
Pay-per-click marketing is an example.
Search engines, social media, and other platforms use PPC advertising services where you only pay when a lead clicks on your ad. Google AdWords, for instance, permits the creation of both text and image ads. This type of advertisement appears at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).
Ads that appear on your screen in the form of images are known as image ads. Those ads’ algorithm is based on what you’ve previously searched for.
As a result of PPC advertising, a healthcare service website’s visibility and traffic increase. Your PPC ads can be tracked to see which ones are working and which ones aren’t.
PPC advertising has a critical role to play in the healthcare industry, as evidenced by these statistics.
In 2022, the healthcare industry is expected to spend $38 billion on advertising.
Pay-per-click advertising cost over $10 billion to over 7 million healthcare facilities.
Every $1.60 spent on Google advertising by healthcare providers results in a $3 return on investment.
marketing on the internet via social media
To reach a wider audience, including potential patients, the healthcare industry turns to social media.
Hospitals and healthcare practitioners can use social media marketing to target specific demographics, such as age, sex, location, and more.
You can use social media marketing to promote your healthcare service, but you can also use it to educate people about certain health issues, offer advice on mental and physical health, and much more?
According to the data below, social media is a significant part of the healthcare industry.
90% of healthcare facilities in the United States have a Facebook page, 50% of them have Twitter accounts, 99.14% have Yelp profiles, and 99.41% have Foursquare profiles.
Social media users are enamoured with health-related advice posted by experts.
Eighty-three percent of Americans who use social media have done so in search of health-related information, while 37 million South Africans now use social media to communicate, do research and engage with brands.
Of those who used social media to find health information, 91% claimed it had aided them in making better choices.
marketing through the use of content
Content Marketing for Healthcare Providers
Content marketing, like many other industries, has proven to be a powerful tool for healthcare professionals to connect with their patients.
Your patients will benefit from your knowledge and experience if you use content marketing to communicate it to them.
To give an example, a dietician can share diet tips, nutritional advice, fitness tips, as well as a slew of other information.
To accomplish this, we aim to provide useful information. Do not use your content to promote a product or service. Everything else will fall into place if you focus on providing value. Also, stay away from using a lot of medical jargon. It detracts from the quality of your content.
Content that uses fewer medical terms is more likely to be understood by a broader audience.
According to the following data, content marketing is essential in the healthcare industry.
With a return on investment (ROI) three times greater than that of traditional outbound marketing, healthcare content marketing is also 62% less expensive.
Over the course of a year, healthcare video marketers generate 66% more targeted leads.
83% of healthcare organisations use content marketing to promote their services.
58% of health marketers maintain a regularly-updated blog.
Marketing via mobile devices
Everyone, young and old, has a smartphone. It is important to note that mobile marketing in the healthcare sector aims to reach people who use internet-connected devices like smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices.
Popular mobile marketing methods include SMS, in-game mobile marketing (such as mobile image ads and mobile search ads), mobile image advertising (such as mobile banner ads), and mobile search advertising (such as mobile search ads).
As a result of mobile marketing, you can not only reach a larger audience but also spread health-related information and improve your brand’s reputation.
Here are some hard facts about the healthcare industry’s response to mobile marketing.
44 percent of people who search for hospitals on a mobile device end up making an appointment.
Mobile devices account for 47.6% of all healthcare email opens.
There are 19 percent of mobile users who have health and fitness apps installed on their devices..
The ongoing importance of email marketing
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to maintain a healthy, near-direct relationship with your patients.
Personalise your emails based on demographics such as age, interest, location, health condition, and more. Keep your emails human-friendly, with enticing subject lines and calls to action.
It is possible to generate more leads and patients for your hospital by implementing an effective email marketing strategy.
Email marketing can have a significant impact on the healthcare industry, as evidenced by the following stats.
When it comes to generating new business, email outperforms Twitter and Facebook by a factor of 40.
The return on investment for email marketing is $44.25 for every $1 spent on it, according to 89% of digital health marketers
Healthcare marketing is the new norm for a successful professional health service, there’s no denying that.
Digital marketing’s importance in the healthcare industry cannot be overemphasised.
In order to grow your healthcare service, you must have an online presence.
When it comes to a successful digital marketing strategy, patient experience and brand reputation will always play a major role.
