In the healthcare industry, every employee works with an individual goal to provide selfless service to the patients.
The “customers” here are patients who are in dire need of medical assistance for various health-related issues.
Therefore the marketing strategies of a hospital can be slightly different from others. You don’t want to market like a fast-food chain brand using an insane amount of Instagram & collaborating with top-notch influencers.
That would make your organization look like a business center!
According to statistics, 94% of healthcare patients use online reviews to evaluate providers
Therefore, in this overtly competitive market, marketing & self- promotion digitally has become a necessity.
Also, Google says that 47% of Internet users search for information about doctors or other health professionals.
Here are some of the basics you need to consider as marketing strategies for your healthcare center.
Analyzing your marketing needs
As we always say that research is the foremost necessity of any marketing strategy & it takes a lot of time. In the U.S. alone, healthcare advertising spending is expected to increase by 5% in both 2020 and 2021.
This is because of the rise in disease, healthcare needs or maybe because people are now much more aware of the health condition than before.
Your research should be able to provide:
- The “need”
- Your target patients, as in income group, gender, etc.
In the healthcare industry, one can create demand for a service just by analyzing the market’s needs and increasing its awareness.
Positioning your brand in the market
Today, promoting your brand isn’t enough.
Studies say that consumers researching physical therapists, nursing homes, and optometrists are the most likely to use search engines. With major hospitals, 60% of the consumers are likely to get admitted to hospitals that have a good brand position.
To position your brand in front of the public eye the hospital brand enters, with educating the public through their marketing activities in branding and promotions, that such prevalence requires intervention and that ‘we’ are here with its solution.
Understanding public value
Here the patients need to engage with your brand.
Look, 81% of consumers are unsatisfied with their healthcare experience.
Doing consumer research to make them understand your uniqueness of the brand.
Take reviews very seriously. 84% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations. So word-of-mouth can be a trusting tool for you for the promotion of your organization.
For instance, your hospital can come up with special health checkups once a while for women’s breast cancer or PCOD.
Use social media wisely
The whole world is on social media.
But for a healthcare facility, random social media posts & videos can create a negative impression among potential patients.
Of course with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter you can create brand awareness but the subject is the main focus.
Start with a campaign based on social issues, creating awareness pages, patients reviews. You need to keep it real as much as possible.
With hospitals, you cannot afford to make a “fantasy” world with your social media marketing strategies.
According to studies, it only takes 1-6 online reviews for potential patients to form an opinion about your practice.
Creating a responsive website
One of the first things millennials generally do is to search about a hospital online & visit their website.
So just by building a website with loads & loads of information isn’t enough.
Focus on giving patients useful health information to take better care of themselves and their families. Publish weekly blogs; a good idea is to talk about various preventive measures.
Apart from that, online assistance 24*7, query redressal, feedbacks, testimonials, consultant’s information, their availability, should be able to make your website responsive & efficient.
For instance, you can also try to integrate online appointment systems.
Focus on internal marketing as well
Your organization is only as good as your employees.
And people working in this tireless job day & night are also representing your brand to the public. Internal marketing comes into play with the integration of these values through campaigns to align all employees to represent your brand value.
Focus on your HR to make sure that all the employees have a good time working at your hospital.
Email marketing
Emails are effective when you are trying to have a personal connection with your patients.
Maintaining a subscriber email & are helpful information with your patients. Wishing birthdays, creating a reminder for their appointments, relevant newsletters are some of the ways to maintain a personal bond with your patients.
Keep a realistic expectation
The nature of strategic plans is to achieve quantifiable goals. For each service line or marketing campaign, include performance indicators that can be monitored and managed from baseline to conclusion.
Your goals should be firm but strategies should be flexible.
The digital market is quite unpredictable. So keep your strategies in such a way that can be adaptable to the situation.
For hospitals, the strategies are often complex & dynamic. It is always better to have a concrete understanding of the market.
For hospitals, it is best to hire a professional digital marketing agency that can handle all the whimsy nature of the market.
Want some assistance? Contact Skyram Technologies for a concrete marketing plan suited for your business needs.
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