More than 72% patients in the US alone seek healthcare providers online, relying more on those with positive reviews bearing 4 stars or more. It’s evident that the healthcare industry cannot underscore the significance of digital marketing.
Digital marketing for healthcare is quite a trending subject these days. More people now depend on online resources for getting healthcare information, guidance and appointments for doctor-visits.
Whether you run a clinic, specialized practice or manage a hospital, digital marketing allows you to connect better with your audience. The better you connect, the quicker you win their trust. Ultimately, this trust translates as a surge of growth for your practice.
But what is digital marketing for healthcare? Why does it matter? And what key strategies are important?
Continue reading to find answers to all these questions.
Digital Marketing for Healthcare- What It Is & Why It Matters
Digital marketing has been quite a buzzword for the past decade. What’s even more interesting is that its importance is only increasing with time. You can read more about what it does, and how it helps businesses here.
Coming back to the matter at hand, digital marketing for healthcare is about using the former to grow the latter.
The right digital marketing strategies and efforts can give your healthcare practice a much-need growth push.
The Importance of Digital Marketing for Healthcare Businesses
Myriads of patients seek trustworthy and credible doctors and healthcare services. Prior to opting one, many of them choose to look these up online. The odds of your next patient trying to find you online are quite high.
If your clinic, lab or hospital doesn’t have an online presence, you are losing your audience. Inversely, if your digital presence is strong, you will be visible to your patients exactly where they seek you.
In addition, digital marketing practices such as local SEO and PPC ads bring in targeted reach—you engage with your ideal audience. Naturally, targeted audience results in serious leads that have high chances of converting into paying clients.
Apart from increasing your market penetration, digital marketing also builds and enhances your authority and credibility. Measures such as publishing patient reviews along with educational and helpful blogs build trust within your target market.
Over time, you build your position as an industry expert. What happens to them? People obviously like them better. So expect your audience to lean more on your advice and practice too.
That too very cost-effectively. How so? Because digital marketing efforts cost way less than traditional marketing practices.
Whether yours is a lab, clinic, hospital, or medical consultancy practice, digital marketing is now mandatory for you.
What Digital Marketing Services are Essential for Healthcare?
While every digital marketing tactic is crucial, there are some that hold more weightage for healthcare practices.
Local SEO Practices
Most of your patients would be local. Your visibility is critical in the local searches. This is where local SEO comes in useful.
Ensure that the digital marketing agency you work with is skilled at local SEO for healthcare. Also, have them optimize your healthcare website to appear better in searches such as ‘best doctor in (your locality)’ or ‘gynaecologist near me.’
Plus, your blog should have quality content that addresses relevant patient concerns, and provides valuable information.
Content Marketing
Content marketing, a powerful digital marketing approach, focuses on creating relevant and meaningful content consistently to capture and hook a defined audience.
For your healthcare website, ensure you have a variety of value-packed content such as guides, blogs and videos. Share as many patient success case studies as possible to emotionally target your audience.
The more value you add, the more your audience and search engines including Google will trust you.
PPC Advertising
With the healthcare industry experiencing saturation every year, you should start investing in PPC advertising in case you aren’t already doing so.
Wondering what it is? This quick guide on PPC advertising and campaigns will answer all your queries.
Whether you do it alone, or have a digital marketing agency run your PPC ads, make sure to target high-intent keywords. And don’t forget to use geotargeting so you effectively reach local patients.
Online Reputation Management
Your online reputation speaks volume about your authenticity and expertise. A single negative review can throw things off balance for you.
Encourage your satisfied and happy patients to leave reviews (read: positive) on Yelp, Google and your social media channels too.
In case of a negative review, respond instantly with a solution. Also ensure to keep your tone empathetic.
Social Media Marketing
You may not realize, but a sizable portion of your audience rests a lot on social media channels. You cannot deny how people are hooked to LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms.
Why not leverage them? Social media marketing helps you build your presence on these channels. You broadcast and share your offerings and tips. In addition, you also make it easy for existing and potential patients to engage with you.
Along with increasing engagement and directing traffic to your website, social media marketing also strengthens your online reputation.
How To Grow Your Healthcare Practice with Digital Marketing
By now, you would be more aware of what digital marketing for healthcare can do for your website and practice.
So what is it that you should do next?
Find a Reliable Healthcare Digital Marketing Agency
If you are operating solo and don’t have a team yet, you can execute the basic digital marketing activities yourself, but even that requires expertise and team.
In case your practice is properly set up, it is all the more crucial to have a digital marketing expert to guide you.
To maximize your growth, hiring a digital marketing agency is certainly a wise approach.
- Look for an agency that specializes in digital marketing for healthcare.
- Choose one with at least 3 years of experience in the field, and with a proven track record.
- Also, look for an agency that offers customized services according to your unique goals, USP (unique selling proposition) and budget. If you are tight on budget, you’d need an agency that can guide you about the most suitable practices for your practice.
Once you do come across an expert you feel connected to, don’t hesitate in closing the deal.
Take Action- Scale Your Practice with Digital Marketing for Healthcare
Digital marketing does have the potential to generate magical results for your healthcare practice. Yes, you do need to be a little patient in the start. It does take time for the water to get warm, bubble and then boil. The same applies to digital marketing.
Having said that, if you work with a seasoned digital marketing agency consistently, there is no doubt that your leads and sales will surge soon.
